Dry run to wet a line —Trout fishing slow, interest heating up on sunny Kenai River

By Jenny Neyman

Photo by Jenny Neyman, Redoubt Reporter. Allen Hoversten, of Kenyon, Minn., fishes for rainbow trout at the headwaters of the Kenai River on Saturday. Fishing was slow, but Hoversten said it was still good to reel in the sunshine and scenery of Cooper Landing.

Redoubt Reporter

While there wasn’t much in the way of fish to be caught on the upper Kenai River on Saturday, the fishermen who were out nevertheless had plenty of other benefits to reel in — April sunshine reflecting between bluebird skies above and the glacier-blue water below; scenery of the increasingly snowless Kenai Mountains rimming Cooper Landing, Kenai Lake and the headwaters of the Kenai River; fresh air after being cooped up inside for much of the winter; and freedom of not having to be at work.

If nothing else, the day served as a good dry run at wetting a line, working the kinks out of fishing gear retrieved from storage, seal-testing boats and waders, and warming up casting arms.

“We thought we’d sneak away while it wasn’t busy and catch a little water time,” said Eric Hoversten, of Anchorage, who was out fishing with his dad, Allen Hoversten, of Kenyon, Minn.

Work and other constraints don’t ordinarily leave Eric much time for fishing, he said, so a visit from his parents and a road trip to Soldotna for his daughter’s ice skating event served as a good excuse to pull off the Sterling Highway at the rest area and boat launch maintained by Alaska State Parks at the Kenai Lake bridge.

“It’s gorgeous out today. Absolutely beautiful,” Eric said. “It’s better than a day in the office.”

The Hoverstens had been on the water about two hours Saturday, starting at the edge of the ice sheet still covering much of Kenai Lake and working their way under the bridge and down the Kenai River. No hookups, no nibbles and no sign of the handful of other bank anglers nor the three drift boats putting in and floating away doing any better. The most promising sign was a flash of a rainbow trout rolling up by the bridge.

“It wasn’t interested in what I had,” Eric said of the bullet-nose grub on his line.

“I find most of the time it’s fishing,” as opposed to catching, said Allen, invoking the mantra of patient anglers the world over who see value in just being out on the water, even if they’re striking out in the process.

“Minnesota’s pretty flat compared to this, so just being able to come out here and enjoy the scenery is a spectacular change,” he said.

Shoring up lake dreams — Life leads Culver family to, away from Longmere Lake homestead

Editor’s note: This is the third of a three-part story about Don Culver, the first settler on Longmere Lake. Part one examined the route taken by Culver to establish a presence on the lake. Part two focused on an important friendship begun at the lake and on Culver’s attempt to create a new home. This week’s final installment looks at his first years on Longmere with his growing family. To read parts one and two, visit our website, http://www.redoubtreporter.wordpress.com.

By Clark Fair

Photos courtesy of Don Culver. Don Culver stands at the public-access launch on Longmere Lake in 2000, which once was a portion of the homestead property he claimed in 1947.

Redoubt Reporter

In 2011, the drive from the eastern edge of Cooper Landing to Longmere Lake is somewhat less than 45 miles on a firm bed of two-lane, lined blacktop. Despite the reduced-speed areas through Cooper Landing and Sterling, it is not uncommon for a driver to make this journey in an hour or less.

Consequently, it may be difficult for modern drivers to comprehend how it managed to take 21-year-old Don Culver five days to drive that distance in the spring of 1948.

“I went down as soon as the road was clear,” Culver said. “I had bought a (military) surplus truck and barged it across from Anchorage over to the little town of Hope and then down the old forest road from there to Henton’s Lodge. I could get as far as Cooper’s Landing on the forest road, and that’s where the new road was to start. It was just a Cat trail then, but I had a 4-by-4 weapons carrier and all my gear for the year, a couple, three drums of fuel, and things like that.”

And thus loaded down in breakup conditions, the truck sank easily in the soft, exposed soil.

“I required two or three assists from Road Commission tractors that were working in the neighborhood to get me out of mud holes, or (had to do it) myself by digging and then corduroying through and around swamps and things,” he said. “I would go and get stuck and have to dig out, and cut wood to fill the holes and make a little corduroy patch to get on to the next place with the four-wheel drive. It did not have a winch, but it was a pretty good rig to drive around.”

Hunting rules change to boost moose — Board of Game tweaks Kenai Peninsula regs

By Steve Meyer, for the Redoubt Reporter

The Alaska Board of Game has met and made decisions that will affect hunting on the Kenai Peninsula for at least the next two seasons.

For local moose hunters who are used to going out and shooting (be it archery or firearms hunting) the easy-picking spike/fork bulls, this has come to an end, at least for the time being.

With the bull/cow ratio at 9/100 (late fall/winter aerial surveys), sustaining the present population isn’t possible, much less increasing it as so many would like to see happen. So a fairly significant change was implemented — the limit for moose in Units 7 and 15 will be “one bull with an antler spread of 50 (inches) or greater or four brow tines.” Bulls with four brow tines on the Kenai are hard to come by, as are bulls supporting legitimate 50-inch antler spreads. It’s not impossible, but this certainly changes the face of moose hunting on the peninsula for at least the next two years.

Antlers from harvested bulls will require sealing within 10 days of taking the animal. This will be revisited in 2013, the next time the Board of Game meets on proposals for the peninsula.

Of further significance is the approval of predator control plans for Unit 15A, the northern portion of the western Kenai Peninsula, and Unit 15C, the southern portion of the western Kenai Peninsula. One of the measures that will be implemented is aerial wolf harvest. On the surface this sounds promising, in terms of controlling the wolf population that has been a significant factor in moose mortality.

Portions of these Units within the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge will not be included. What this means is very few wolves will be taken in 15A via aerial control measures. Unit 15C looks a little more promising. Moose move down from higher country during the winter and this puts them out of the refuge, hence the wolves will follow and there should be some opportunity for aerial harvest. With that implementation, as with other areas sharing the same predator-control measures, nonresidents will not be allowed to hunt moose in Units 15A and 15C.

Hatching enthusiasm for learning

By Joseph Robertia

Photo by Joseph Robertia, Redoubt Reporter. Two incubators are used to keep goose eggs at the proper temperature and humidity level in Diane McBee’s class at Kalifornsky Beach Elementary School.

Redoubt Reporter

With voracious curiosities and a whole new world of knowledge to explore, kindergartners aren’t known for their patience. That’s why teachers, like Kalifornsky Beach Elementary School instructor Diane McBee, sometimes need an extra dose of it.

McBee has had no trouble getting students interested in an ongoing lesson that is looking to answer the age-old question of which came first — the chicken or the egg. She just needs to be prepared for the ongoing questions.

“MzBee, how many more days?” one child asked.

“MzBee, how many will be boys and how many will be girls?” another queried.

“How many more days is it again?” still another asked, even though the question had just been answered.

McBee was taking all the questions as a sign the class project she had picked was a good one.

In addition to the typical science curriculum, kindergarteners at Kalifornsky Beach Elementary School are literally studying the age-old question of which came first — the chicken or the egg.

Art Seen: Strong strokes — KPC showcases developing talents

By Zirrus VanDevere, for the Redoubt Reporter

“Good Things Come in Threes,” by Patty Youngren, is part of a student show on display this month at Kenai Peninsula College’s Kenai River Campus.

There’s plenty to find interesting at the student exhibition currently on view at the Gary L. Freeburg Gallery at Kenai Peninsula College’s Kenai River Campus. The photography and pastel work are profuse and generally excellent, and the scant examples of nonwatercolor painting and printmaking on fiber are notable, as well.

“Good Things Come in Threes,” an acrylic painting by Patty Youngren, is a lot of fun, with colorfully bold and dynamic painting defining something as mundane as three cans of paint. The heavy strokes pulling downward in the background make the harmless cans seem ominous and slightly unsettling. I respond well to any amount of conceptualism in art, and this one seems to be moving in that direction. Void of much of a sense of conceptualism, but interesting to look at, nonetheless, are Sherril Miller’s “Spawned” and Juanita Hillhouse’s “Kinetic Frog.” They are each examples of a polychromatic screen print.

Plugged In: Science of success: Parents should model learning

By Joe Kashi, for the Redoubt Reporter

E = mc2.

We’ve all seen this apparently simple equation, but how many of us know what it really means?

Because this is a technology column of sorts, I suppose that it’s arguably relevant, as a lead into this week’s column, to make a plea for improving our basic science and technology literacy.

Both computing and photography are technologically based. Improving your own general technical understanding is key to improving your business efficiency and your photographic technique. I’m not referring here to changing your cell phone ringtone or setting your camera to full auto mode.

Our culture prides itself on its perception of being technologically advanced compared to others. Our economy critically depends upon being in the forefront of scientific and technological advances.

Although American scientific and technological supremacy was obvious as recently as 1990, the new reality, by all measures and surveys, is that the basic scientific and technological knowledge of most Americans now trails the average among nearly all industrialized countries.

While 47 percent of Chinese university graduates take math, science or engineering degrees, only 16 percent of American students do so. At the same time, the April 18 issue of The New York Times reported that, although 20 percent of all American students now graduate with a degree in business, an astounding 45 percent of those graduates are forced to live with their parents a year later. They have no job.

So, here’s my suggestion. Brush up on your own basic science and technology. Then, help your kids improve their own knowledge and attitudes about math, science and technology so that they, and the U.S., remain competitive. Remember, parents can be the most effective teachers of all.

I’ve found two easy-to-read, yet comprehensive, books that give a good nonmathematical understanding of basic science. The first is by Bill Bryson and entitled “A Short History of Nearly Everything.” The second, “The Canon — A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science,” is by Natalie Angier, a prominent science writer. Both books are understandable, fun and, best of all, accurate.

By the way, E=mc2 was first understood by Albert Einstein in 1905 as part of his theory of Special Relativity. It tells us that mass and energy are equivalent and that a tremendous amount of energy is produced when even a very tiny amount of mass is converted into energy.

It’s the equation that explains why the sun can shine for billions of years. It’s also the equation that resulted in the atomic bomb.