Gulls @ O’Brien Creek

When we stopped at the NPS [National Park Service] Station in Chitina, Ranger Vicky made several suggestions for things to do in the area. One of them was driving the O’Brien Creek Road all the way to the end ... a popular spot for salmon fishing.

At the Copper River Bridge, we only saw indigenous people fishing — perhaps because the area is Athabascan Athna lands (I’ll have to take a photo of the map I saw at the wayside to verify.) That wasn’t the case at O’Brien Creek, where the clear water rushes to wed with the silty Copper River.

By the time we got to the creek, very few anglers were fishing. By the looks of it, most had caught their limit and were busy cleaning their catch ... the gulls impatiently trolling for the scraps and carcasses that were being thrown back into the river once the salmon were filleted.

As the gulls fought over the scraps of salmon, we ate our PB&J sandwiches in the car. Would love to have crossed the footbridge as Vicky had suggested to eat out on the sandbar, but the winds were too gusty ... too much silt being blown about. And we kept getting sprinkles of “liquid sunshine.” Besides, the gulls might have decided that our sandwiches were easy pickings.Leggi altro