Day 5 Russian River

                                                 Wednesday 8/27/14

Sockeye Salmon headed upstream

The drive to Cooper Landing on the Sterling Highway

                                  
 Still raining. What to do, where to go? The locals that we met in Hope  said we should head down to  Cooper Landing to fish.  It's about an hour south of Hope and puts us farther away  from  Wasilla which is where we need to end up on Saturday (Day 8 ) to return the camper van but seems like a good idea.  Cooper Landing is a CDP (census designated place) in the Kenai Peninsula Borough with a year round population of  289.  Cooper Landing is a group of stores, outfitters, and lodging establishments that run along the Kenai River west of Kenai Lake, with beautiful  turquoise waters . ..and is a premier, world class, salmon fishing area as well as Rainbow Trout and Dolly Varden area  as they follow returning salmon, first feeding on the salmon roe that float downstream, and then on pieces of salmon as they fall apart after spawning. Not one, but two great rivers to fish… the Kenai and Russian Rivers. The Historic Resurrection Trail from Hope to Seward passes through it. They are serious about protecting the fishery here. Rainbow Trout is mostly catch and release and boardwalks and walkways are in use in Cooper Landing to protect riverbanks and waterfronts. There is a Princess Wilderness Lodge that is part of the Princess Cruise Line and caters to the cruise/ land package tours. Very beautiful scenery and high end place. (Cheapest room for 2 is in the $250 range) We opted for (at the advise given in the local  coffee shop) to check out the Russian River Campground. Was $11 to go in for the day and $18 for a campsite. They said we could go in and check things out, and if we decided to stay, pick out a site, come back and pay...I knew we would at least stay and fish, so we payed the $11day rate and went in...didn't take us long to decide we would spend the night, picked out a nice campsite, and went back to register, they credited us back the $11 dollars we had already paid. We passed the truck camper from Fort Collins also checking out the park! The campsites were more what we were used to in the Adirondacks, some privacy, and was not parking lot camping! Each of the sites had a fire pit as well as a bear proof food locker. And the rain finally let up!
 
 We did not see any bears but they usually do hang around this type of area...there were fish everywhere ..as far as you could see. The bear can just scoop them out of the water. Their reputation in this area  proceeded them.  We saw people fishing with rifles slung over their shoulders!

This is an area that you would see combat fishing but being towards the end of the season and mid week we did not have that.  This fly fisherman  walked by us as he fished his way down stream.

                           We paid $4.40 a gallon for gas!! The highest on the whole trip.   
                                                                  

(Mom and Dad's entry for this day say "Raining hard".they were on the Kenai Peninsula and headed for Homer. A few days later, on their return from Homer, they camped at a Park just down the road )