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Back in civilization (sadly...)

Swissy

Livin' the retired life!
Joined
Mar 26, 2005
Messages
4,610
OK... time to start my usual posting of trips I do here in AK... sorry, but I just gotta! And yes, it is cigar related. Took of with 2 brother-in-laws (Wife's brother and sister's hubby) for a 4 day shrimping adventure in Prince William Sound, AK. Had a Forest Service cabin rented for the time, and it's shrimp season!! Time to put the Baroo in the water.

BUT... we'll start with the cigar first. Also on this trip, happened to fall my 20th anniversary of my hire date on the fire dept. In the Fire Service, 20 years is a big milestone. So... to celebrate this event, and the general trip I brought this bad boy
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nice 80's Dom Perignon gifted to me by a generous BOTL a few years ago

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proof of the burning.... the Baroo anchored in the bay behind me

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almost gone, as is my Midnight Sun XXX black IPA

So... on to the adventure. Took the Baroo to the Goose Bay Forest Service cabin, unloaded, and started dropping shrimp pots.
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unloading the Baroo

So... while we were letting the pots soak and fill with shrimp (we hope) we occupied our time with some sightseeing and fishing for rockfish. One one of these fishing trips, we had a super cool thing happen. A bald eagle was fishing right next to us!! It is AMAZING to watch them swoop down, target their meal and grab it with minimal splash. Better yet,it was a miracle but my very photo savvy bro-in-law (wife's brother) got photos! And, even more cool crap - I got it on HD video!!! Got some editing to do on the entire trip, but I'll post that someday soon.
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so we go to one of our pots to check, and it's right along a super steep cliff (shrimp like STEEP, rocky places to live). As we're pulling the pots up we kept hearing this noise... "bang bang bang SPLASH... bang bang bang SPLASH" over and over. We didn't know what the hell it was until someone looked up a long way and saw these guys
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they were knocking rocks off as they were moving around. And folks - that's damn near a 90 degree steep cliff. we sat and watch them for about a half hour... AMAZING to see them move across with no effort.

So one of the days was a really low tide - like a minus 3 foot or so. Guess the tide went out more than we planned!
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you can see the cabin in the background- and yes, that's about 4feet of snow still on the ground. We said screw it and sat at the cabin and drank our breakfast

The reason for the trip
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And if there was ever any question as to why we'd go after shrimp...
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that's my wife's brother who is 6'5" and has really long arms, to get and idea of the size of that yummy morsel.


Overall a great trip other than my depthfinder died, and setting shrimp pots is depth dependent. So, we didn't do as good as I would have liked. But as a day NOT at work, the entire trip rocked! We ate like Kings, drank even worse, and had a great time. And... I have another cabin this Thursday lined up, then my brother is coming down for a 4 day weekend to go out!

And that cigar... :love: WOWEE that was good. My first, and only, Davidoff Dom. But I might have to start looking for a couple more it was that good - a new singe spot on my mustache as a result

(these are the scaled down images - slightly larger in my gallery)

See if this works:
Had a slow day at work so here's the video I threw together
 
I am in awe. Simply beautiful! We had an eagle fishing near us one year in Canada, the sound that thing made when it came down to catch a fish was simply amazing. Congrats on your 20yr mark. :thumbs:
 
Very nice! Thanks for sharing. It sounds like you had a great time, and I hope that you are fully rejuvinated.

I used to live near an Eagle Santcuary. and it they were all over the place. Easy to see how they wound up symbolic of the USA.

Another experience was while at Saint Leo Abbey, many years ago. I was sitting outside near the chapel, the brothers were Chanting, and the Eagles were all very active. Serendipity in spades. Nature has a way of lifting our head to the clouds while planting our feet firmly on the ground.
 
Awesome, thanks for sharing. I need to start taking some man trips. My long weekends usually consist of going to Home depot with the wife. :(
 
Awesome! Thanks for sharing Jim. I'm amazed at the beauty.

Glad you're feeling better (looks like your back isn't bothering you as much).
 
Jim you keep posting pictures like that and I'll have to make the trip to AK!
 
Awesome! Thanks for sharing Jim. I'm amazed at the beauty.

Glad you're feeling better (looks like your back isn't bothering you as much).

Yeah, back is doing good. I save myself at work and let the young guys do all the hard work, so I can go play that much harder on my days off :laugh:

Jim you keep posting pictures like that and I'll have to make the trip to AK!

You know you're welcome anytime! I got a few cigars left to enjoy with some BOTL...
And I tell you what Anthony... these pics are nothing! My wife's brother should be a pro photographer - I have TONS more from him. It was hard to pick which ones to post here!



And edited the original post to add in a new video. Day was slow at work so I took a few minutes and threw together a few clips into a 13min vide. Watch it on Youtube, not in the window here. It should have a full 1080p option really soon to watch,
 
Those pics are amazing, Jim.

I'm with a couple of the other guys....I gotta get up there
 
That looks like a good time!! I need to get back to Alaska someday and spend some time other then just a cruise.
 
Awesome pictures. Maybe I'll get to see something like that this year. I'm cruising from Kodiak to Seward this summer. The eagles in unalaska prefer to dumpster dive than fish, at least form what I heard and saw.
 
Congrats on the 20 in the fire service Jim, ya know once you make Captain and you have someone else drive the fire truck, it kind of follows the same pattern on a boat.
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When you said "bang,bang,bang,splash" and the picture showed those mountain sheep, I thought "No friggin' WAY, you saw them fall in the water?"
But then, episodes of Animal Planet came to mind and common sense got the better of me. Although, that'd be cool to see.
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Wow, that's just amazing! I totally need to get back to Alaska because I miss scenes and times just like that...preferably minus the mosquitos.
 
Okay, that was just made ENTIRELY of awesome and win! Fantastic!

Thanks for sharing it with us all! :thumbs:

~Boar
 
What a great trip, Jim!

Congrats on the milestone and thanks for posting the pics.
 
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