Alaska-The State of Adventure!

Little boys grow up way too fast. One day he's running around the house playing "just one more game of tag-ball Dad" before asking for help buttoning up his feet pajamas and to be tucked into bed. The next thing you know, you're putting his bike in the attic and dropping him off at college. That's at least the way I remember it.

When our son Tyler was about half way through his junior year of high school I was hit with the realization that he'd soon be leaving home and beginning the first stage of manly independence. I figured the next few years would pass by in a blur and he'd be leaving school for the final time to begin a career and to marry the woman of his dreams. I decided the two of us needed one more adventure before he headed out on his own; something cool that might leave us both with lasting memories.
A friend had previously told me about a very nice fishing trip he'd taken in Southeast Alaska, so I contacted him to get the information. After talking with the owner of the guide service, Paul Johnson, I asked Tyler if he wanted to invite one of his friends. He did and we invited his good friend Matt and his Dad Eddie, who was also a friend of mine.
We planned out the details, set the dates and gave the trip several boxes on the calendar. I'm not a big planner but knew if we were going to make this trip actually happen we'd need to make it official with calendar's, deposits, and so on.
As the departure date drew closer, Eddie and I organized our gear, purchased a few additional items we thought we might need, and patiently waited for the last week of July while Tyler and young Matthew busied themselves with being 17.

The day finally arrived and our team of adventurers departed immediately after the wedding of our friends Mark and Christina. Several hours later we arrived at the Juneau Airport, exhausted from hauling all our gear around and from having gone through several random anal cavity searches at airport security (I'm confident these random searches were a direct result of the numerous firearms and bullets I'd brought along; I don't have much confidence in "bear spray" and can't imagine trusting my very life to a can of spray).
It was late on Saturday afternoon July 28, 2001 when we took this picture. I don't know exactly what was going through Tyler's mind or what the Frail boys were thinking as the unknown but agreeable airport visitor snapped this shot, but I remember thinking how much fun the next few days were going to be. I didn't know for sure what lay ahead but I had a strong feeling we were going to have a great time and see some cool stuff. As it turned out, over the next 5 days we saw and experienced what surely must be some of the truly wonderful sites and sounds available on planet earth, or at least in North America. It turned out to be a great time that I fondly remember as one of our very finest adventures to date!
I'll share some of the individual stories over the next several days, along with pictures of some of the things we experienced. I'll also include some stories about the Johnson Family--lead by one of Alaska's favorite son's, Paul Johnson.
Stay tuned; if you get bored between now and then I recommend watching re-runs of "Gold Rush" or the movie "Jeremiah Johnson"--he was a mountain man!