Helicopter Ride and Fishing Trip, October 18th, 2009

Sunday morning I woke up early. Since Josh wasn't going to work, I decided to go for a hike by myself, so I could carry my photo equipment.

  I hiked uphill from the ranch, towards Okmok. I photographed the sunrise from on top of a Army dugout. I hiked about 3 miles looking for a waterfall I was told was around there, but I didn't find it. So I hiked back to the ranch. 

  It was already noon by the time I got back. It was a nice day, and everyone had decided to go on a fishing trip. We would fly the helicopters to a small river with good fishing holes, on another part of the island. A river where the salmon like to spawn. 

  The helicopter flight was amazing. We could see more of the aftermath of the volcano, it looks like the surface of the moon. Very black and full of crevices. The volcanic ash is not like ash from a fire. It's like a coarse, black, granular sand. It's all over the place, even at Ft. Glenn.

  We flew between mountains, saw coves, inlets, and beaches from the air. 

  When we were at the place where we were to fish we could actually see the fish in the water as we flew over. 

  We saw a few small herds of reindeer, drinking and feeding near the river.

  Then Lonnie took us sightseeing. The valley, and that part of the island are so very beautiful. My photos hardly do justice to the beauty of the place. Streams, waterfalls, mountains, and lots of hot springs. There were hot springs coming out of the ground all over the place. We could see some of them actually boiling out of the ground. 

  After looking around, Lonnie set us down on the nearby beach, so we could beach comb, while he went back to the ranch to pick up more people.

  Josh, Art, Brodie, and myself, explored a nice little beach for an hour, until they came back. Brodie really wanted to play in the water, so I finally let him play in some small tide pools, and he ended up getting the bottom of his pants pretty wet. I wanted to take lots of pictures of the place, but I didn't manage to get too many, as I had to watch Brodie very closely.

  The helicopter came and picked us up after awhile, and took us back to the fishing hole. They had already caught a few nice salmon. You could see the fish swimming in the clear water. 

  Josh fished for awhile and caught a trout. I struggled to keep Brodie out of the river. We found a shallow spot, and threw stones in, which he thought was fun. 

  After several hours we had a pretty good haul of fish. We loaded up, and flew back. 

  Brodie was quite cold by this point, so I had put my camera away to cuddle him, and help keep him warm on the flight back. And of course because my camera was put away, we saw more amazing things that I can only tell you about. 

  The sun came out as we were flying back, so the landscape was very pretty. I could see more of the ocean on this flight. And then Lonnie took us over to see  Okmok.

  What an amazing sight. It took my breath away. From the ranch we only see the rim of Okmok. The caldera is 6 miles wide, and inside the rim, it's a massive, deep crater. Inside the crater there are several volcanic cones, as well as lakes, rivers, and waterfalls. I don't know that it's right that something so destructive can be so breathtaking but it was. I do hope to see it one more time, before we leave here.

  When we got back everyone cleaned, canned, and cooked fish until late into the night.