Do you love fishing? Have you heard of the Kenai River in Alaska? Kenai River fishing is an angler’s dream come true, truly the mother lode of salmon fishing. The river runs a spectacular 82 miles, from Kenai Lake in southern Alaska to the Pacific Ocean, at Cook’s Inlet.

Starting in May, continuing through mid-October, the Kenai Peninsula, just three hours south of Anchorage, offers a smorgasbord of fishing adventures you won’t soon forget.

Among the salmon varieties found are King, Sockeye, Silver and Red, with two runs each year. In addition to record-sized salmon, Kenai River fishing offers Steelhead, Rainbow trout and Dolly Varden.

If you love fishing, the Kenai River peninsula is heaven on earth. The largest salmon ever caught in the world was a 97-pound King Salmon, in 1985. Enthusiastic fishermen flock to the Kenai Peninsula, hoping to best this record. A typical catch is forty pounds! It doesn’t get much better than that.

Here’s a rundown of the Kenai River fishing season, to help you plan your vacation!

Around the middle of June, there’s one run of the Red Blueback salmon, followed by another in the middle of July. If you like smoked salmon, you’ll want to be fishing now, as the Red variety is the king of smoked salmon. Reds are also highly prized for the grill, as well as canning.

Also running in mid-June and mid-July are the King salmon. While other rivers in Alaska yield more fish, the King salmon of the Kenai river are known for their great size. A typical catch in the second run is 40-50 pounds. Don’t be surprised to net a King of a larger size!

Kenai River fishing offers two runs of Silver salmon, one in early August and another in late September. The larger catches are usually found in the September run.

If all of this isn’t enough to whet your appetite, the Kenai River yields trophy sized Dolly Varden and Rainbow trout.

Your vacation plans should include a visit to Cook’s Inlet for a deep-sea excursion of Kachemak and Resurrection Bays, where the giant bottom-dwelling halibut live. An Alaskan record-sized halibut of 466 pounds was caught in Kachemak Bay!

Drive just 30 miles from Kenai to Clam Gulch, a popular destination for clamming. Razor clams are abundant here. As the name implies, their shells are sharp, so be careful! Best digging times are when the tide is at minus two feet or lower. Check with the Department of Fish and Game for local limits.

As you might guess, accommodations are plentiful in the area along the Kenai River. You’ll find fully furnished cabins all along the river, with excellent guided fishing tours. Travelers come from all over the world to experience a Kenai River fishing vacation.

Be sure you book ahead! It’s an experience you won’t forget. Bon Appetit!

If you’re on a rock climbing road trip or just climbing in a new area, a climbing guide is going to be one of your best friends.  Printed climbing guides can be found for just about every rock climbing crag in the country, well-known or not.

  The route-by-route (or boulder by boulder, if you’re in a bouldering area) guides are usually collected in books which, in turn, generally organize themselves by geographical area.  Most guidebooks attach themselves to states or portions of states, like the Southern California Bouldering Guide. 

Depending on the size of the area and its popularity, you may be able to find guidebooks which deal with one specific location.  For example, Joshua Tree National Park has had a host of climbing guides written about it since the park has literally thousands of routes and boulder problems within its boundaries.

 Rock n’ Road is a guide which covers all 50 states, and though it gives general crag descriptions instead of detailed route guides it is still perhaps a road-trippers best weapon, since it lets him or her travel all over and, with the help of a good road atlas, find climbing from coast to coast.

Once you get to the crag though, an actual route guide will help you find the routes and problems that are fun, classic, and/or within your ability level.  If more than one guide is available for your destination, take a look at the different guides’ route descriptions.  How detailed are they?  How well do they correlate to the drawings of the crags or the photos of the routes? 

Are they easy to understand?  Do the guides have overview maps so you can find your way around once you get to the crag?  Do the guides even tell you how to get to the crag?  Though most climbing guides out there are pretty well written and will help you find the routes you want easily, a bad guide can easily ruin your day, since a bad guide means a day of hiking around, trying to figure out where you are and where you’re going, instead of a day on the rock.

If you can’t find a printed guide for the crag you want, take a look in a local outdoor shop or, even better, in a local climbing shop or indoor rock gym.  Sometimes smaller local climbing areas have printed guides which can be found at area businesses for a few dollars which can’t be found anywhere else.

  Sometimes these guides are terrible, full of bad drawings and worse descriptions, but often they’ll be just what you’re looking for.

 

 

It is said that travel is food for the corporate soul. Seriously! In the stress-packed lives that we lead, it has become a norm for most executives to indulge in a fair bit of recreational travel. Gone are the days when travel was purely for business related purposes.

Nowadays, most busy executives use their leave or holidays to indulge in travel for relaxation. But the concept of travel itself is changing. No longer does it entail visiting the same old touristy places. The buzzword for our times is adventure travel. And the more adventurous, the better.

Adventure travel is not a new phenomenon. In fact, it has been around for quite some time now. When earlier travelers went off the beaten track and sought out places where the tourists would not follow them, adventure travel was born.

And ever since, as more and more people discovered that they could see and do a whole lot more than what the brochures offered, adventure travel has steadily grown to become the number one form of travel worldwide.

But what exactly is adventure travel? And how does one go about becoming an adventure traveler? To answer these questions, we must turn to an unlikely field – sports. Or extreme sports to be more precise.

When the challenge offered by regular sporting activities became too tame and mild for those who sought extra thrills, the field of extreme sports took shape. And when those select few who liked their sports as much as their travel got roped in, the field of adventure travel was born.

It is because adventure travel does just that. It provides travelers with the adrenaline rush that extreme sports brings while allowing them to see place and do things that they had never imagined possible. But like all good things, this too will not last long.

This is because ever since adventure travel proved to be an attractive travel option, scores and scores of people have become its fanatic followers. So much so that special adventure travel packages are being created to cater to the demand.

Most reputed travel agents, who earlier only offered conventional travel packages now also offer adventure travel escapades. And with the demand seemingly perpetual, even more players are getting onto the scene. So the next time you decide to go in for a travel adventure that will in all probability change your life, you might as well consider adventure travel.

Not only will it satiate your need for travel, it will also give you a healthy dose of adventure to make your trip more memorable!

Doesn’t it seem like everyone likes fun in the sun? Well I’m not like everyone else. I have no interest in some beach spot with 9 months of warm weather. You can have Los Angeles, San Diego, and miami beach florida. However, you’d better get your wallet ready. It’s about to take a serious smack-down.

Ah ha, you didn’t expect me to go there, did you? How can I not bring up real estate and cost of living? These are significant aspects of our daily lives, regardless of where we reside. And if you’re going to head to one of those most-desirable high-end locations, then you’d better prepare yourself. It’s not going to be cheap.

I’ve always thought that the beach was a summer spot. You know, one of those fun and touristy places you visit on your vacation time. I have never had the desire to actually purchase real estate in miami beach florida.

Not only would it cost a fortune; it would also be unsecured. Now you’re probably wondering what in the world I mean by that. Well it’s simple really. It seems like most beach residences are in peril. When will that next storm hit? Will it take your home or will you be spared with just 10 grand worth the damage?

That’s what I’m getting at. In my opinion a home in miami beach florida equals disaster. On the other hand, I’m sure many individuals and family would not concur on this. There’s no doubt that people flock to sunny spots such as Laguna Beach and miami beach florida ever single year.

They want that dream life with sandy beaches and warm sun year-round. Fortunately I don’t prefer the summer heat or else it may cost me a fortune.

Check out some of the current real estate in miami beach florida just by logging onto the web. You may have to absorb it for a moment once you see it. Those real estate costs can leave you in utter shock. Also, you should take the time to sort through all areas of beach real estate across the country.

Maybe miami beach florida is a little too high, and maybe it’s not exactly what you’re looking for. There are other coastal states to investigate. See which real estate is the most reasonable.

Who knows? You may find your dream spot for the right price.