Aguluwak Lodge, Alaska

For the past two and a half years I've been working with a customer, GCI based in Anchorage Alaska. GCI is the company that provides cable, phone and Internet service in Alaska. GCI also owns a world class fishing/outdoor lodge in the Alaskan bush...

A couple weeks back I had the very rare and lucky opportunity to go to the Lodge. It was truly an amazing experience. The land and wildlife are amazing, the lodge is extremely comfortable and relaxing, the folks running the lodge truly know how to help you relax.

We flew into the lodge first thing saturday morning meeting at a small airport in Anchorage. Aguluwak is not accesible by car so you have to fly a propeller plane and land on a lake by the lodge. The plane is called "The Otter". It's a classic, solid propeller plane made in the 50s.

The trip was filled with a ton of activities including fishing, sight seeing of nature including bears, rifle shooting etc. I caught my first Red Salmon which is supposedly quite rare becuase they aren't biting. The rule is that if you catch them in the mouth (as opposed to dragging the hook on the body) you get to keep the fish. Since they aren't biting it is very rare to do this. I guess I had beginner's luck becuase I caught one in my first half hour! They folks running the lodge said it was so rare that even one of the lead fisherman on the lodge had only caught them in the mouth a few times! They helped me pack the fish up and I got to bring it home ;) Needless to say it was the only one I caught that weekend!

It was such a release to be in a place with no cars, no TV and lots of outdoor activity. I didn't miss the hustle and bustle one bit!

This trip really gave me a lot of vacation ideas. Due to lack of knowledge, I never really thought I'd choose an Alaska vacation over other things like Beach, Europe etc. This trip definitely changed me in this regard. I could definitely see myself planning another trip to an Alaskan lodge some day. It really is true that you can't rule something out until you understand what it's about!

Here are some photos:

Target Practice.

Bears! Unfortunately this was not my SLR camera! Great photo or not, I'll never forget this! The Salmon are trying to swim upstream to mate and they get to this small waterfall. The weak ones try to leap out of the water to the upper part of the stream. While they are jumping out the Bears actually sit there and catch them in mid air. I have video of this that I'll post on the video album when I get a chance.

Stay tuned for the video!