Features > From Anchorage to the End of the Road

From Anchorage to the End of the Road- Part 2 of 2
by Chris Bilder, Generals Staff Writer

The first hour back on the road was fairly uneventful. A lot of following traffic laws, and searching for the elusive moose that we’ve all heard so much about. The ride became a little more interesting, and definitely humorous, when Flint decided to give Hartly, Wolffy and I a little treat. As we were driving on the two-lane Highway 1 to our lunch destination of Soldotna, Flint gave us the pleasure of listening to some Thai pop music. He, of course, would have to translate. The song started off like a pop song would start off in American music, but as soon as the words hit we all had a feeling of what was in store for us. The singer sounded almost cartoonish, but even with the language barrier it was obvious it wasn’t on purpose. That’s when Flint began to translate. Apparently the song was about love, and the man didn’t know whether or not the woman was serious about him. He didn’t know if she was smoke or fog. If she’s smoke then there’s something deeper than her outward appearance. On the other hand, if she’s fog she will be gone shortly. In the end we made Flint turn off the song. His feeble attempt to bring a little culture to the Dodge Charger with four hockey players was denied.

We came alongside the Kenai River shortly after the song had changed. The 82 miles of flowing water is the most popular sport fishing destination in Alaska. Although the river doesn’t have the numbers of some other fisheries in Alaska, it does boast the world record king salmon. The giant fish rang in at a healthy 97 lb, which is almost as large as some of the players we’d see at camp in a few days. Along with king salmon, silver salmon, red salmon and pink salmon the Kenai is also home to bears and the allusive moose. This was our second trip to Alaska, and all we had heard is that moose are everywhere. However, we had yet to see one. But, that was about to change.

We were about ready to pull into Soldotna for some food at Buckets. This wasn’t the first time we’d eaten at Buckets, as we had stopped there a year earlier on our way to Homer. When we were about ten miles away from Soldotna I decided to give my little brother Matt, who was visiting former Generals defenseman Ben Tikka, who was staying just down the road from Buckets in Soldotna. I got Matt on the phone, and invited the both of them to join us for some lunch before we head on down the road. They both agreed to meet us, but informed me that they wouldn’t be eating because they’ve just had a smorgasbord of food at the Tikka’s. As soon as I hung up the phone I heard an excited Flint yelping in the front seat. “Moose! Moose! Moose!” We had all wanted to see a real live moose, and began looking frantically around for the giant creature.

Then, all of a sudden, we looked at the one place we didn’t really expect it to be. There it was; just standing next to the road by a telephone pole. Against our better judgment, we pulled off the road right next to the moose. It backed off quickly, but only a few feet. It was obvious the moose was used to being around people; however few there were in Soldotna. We sat there for a minute or two, all the while snapping pictures with our cameras and cell phones. After the excitement had died down for the moment, and after the high-fives had been doled out, we decided it was time to make our way down to Buckets.

Buckets is a typical sports-bar/hamburger joint, that had multiple layers of sports memorabilia on the inside. It does have amazing food that does have the ability to give you an instant heart attack. When we walked in the place was absolutely packet, which was all twenty or so seats. We gave our name to the host/waiter, and took a look around at some of the things on the wall. We took a quick look around, and stumbled onto a piece of Eugene Generals memorabilia. An autographed poster of Matt Vasilie, who is from Soldotna, had been hung on the wall in a fairly prominent place at the entrance. The placement of that poster really put things into perspective. The kids that come to the Generals don’t just appear out of thin air. Every player on the team has a hometown, and most of them are kind of like heroes for the people who surrounded them when they were growing up. The sentimental moment passed, and we sat down to have lunch with my brother and Tikka.

Wolffy, Flint, Hartly and I ordered some great artery clogging food, and we all talked to Tikka and Matt about what they had been up to since they’d been up in Alaska. They talked about their wilderness hikes looking for bears, hanging out at cabins and visiting former Generals players like Garrett Bossert and Carrick Cristiano. We finished eating, said our goodbyes, and decided to get back out on the road.

The three hours to Homer was fairly low key, as we listened to the music in our rental car. The entire time we were trying to obey all traffic laws, and quietly look for moose and other wildlife.

We arrived at the End of the Road, and literally I mean end of the road, at about 10:30 PM. We were staying at Land’s End, which is on the Homer Spit. It’s at the very end of the spit, actually, and there we had run out of road in the town that is known as the End of the Road. It was fitting, is what I’m trying to say. Of course it was still light outside, and had barely shown signs of becoming dusk. We headed into see Jeanne Adams, who had “hooked us up” at the hotel. She was working at the bar, and as we had our hello hugs she offered us a drink. Justin Adams was also there as well as Josh Pitta. About that time Kevin Kern walked in with Justin Kern, Tyler MacMillan, Ryan Schank and Erik Kroll. We all said our hellos and talked about going fishing the next morning. Then Randy MacMillan’s brother in law Jerry came in, and we said our hellos and talked about going fishing the next morning. We felt things were getting a little repetitive so we finished our drinks and headed up to our rooms.

About the time we had all of our things unpacked we got a knock at our door. It was Kevin Kern and Jerry. They thought it might be a good idea for us to check out the famous Salty Dog Saloon. The Salty Dog was just a few hundred yards away from Land’s End so we decided to give it a try. Wolffy, Kevin Kern, Hartly, Jerry and I made our way down to the Salty dog in the somewhat brisk night air. Dusk was almost upon us, but it was still fairly light outside. As we walked into the saloon we saw thousands of one dollar bills on the walls and sawdust on the floor. It was smaller than I had expected, but the Salty Dog had a homey feeling. I imagine it would be a place that I hang out often if it was in Eugene.

We sat down for a drink at a large wooden table with multiple carved in tag marks. The waitress came over to get our order, and Kevin Kern asked what all the dollar bills were for. She informed us that a long time ago a sailor came into the saloon in the middle of a huge storm. The sailor’s buddy had yet to come in from the ocean, and he asked the waitress for a pen. The sailor then took a dollar from his wallet, his buddy’s name on the dollar, and pinned it to the wall. He told the waitress to buy his buddy a drink with the dollar on the wall when he gets in from the sea. The sailor’s friend never came in, and it has been a tradition ever since to put the name of a friend or relative who has passed away on a dollar and post it to the wall.

The waitress brought us our drinks a short time later, met some new people and talked about stories. When the sun was coming up we decided to put up a dollar bill with all of our signatures for Bobby. It was emotional, since it was about a year since he had passed away, but we got through it and made our way out of the Salty Dog to purchase some tickets for the halibut derby.

We made our way onto the Venturess at about 6:30 AM, and got ready to go fishing. Jeannie Adams had set us up with Justin Adams and Josh Pitta’s boat, and Captain Travis had hooked us up with a free fishing trip. It was amazing. I don’t think there was a time when somebody didn’t have a fish on. We all caught our limits shortly, and made our way back to Homer. We ate, and wore, some PB&J’s, but it was the best day of fishing I have ever had.

We all decided to take a little nap when we got back to the hotel, and we did. A couple of hours later we headed on up to Jeannie and Gaff Adams’s house for a huge dinner. We had amazing halibut, which we caught that day, and watched one of the weirdest movies of all time. For some reason all of the players love FUBAR, but I couldn’t quite get why. It did have one great quote, however, and I still use “Turn down the suck” to this day.

After Hartly, Flint, Wolffy and I got back to Nelchina Point the next day we decided to take a trip down to the airport to see something Wolffy had discovered on one of his morning walks. He wouldn’t tell us what it was, but he guaranteed we’d like it. We had driven past the airport and almost down to the water when Wolffy brought the car to a stop. He jumped out, and instructed us to do the same. Without saying a word Wolffy walked up a little embankment and stopped. Flint, Hartly and I all stopped and realized we were looking right down one of the runways. A couple of minutes later a 747 pulled onto the runway, and pointed right at us. I was starting to get a little nervous, considering that we were a mere 200 yards away from the end of the runway. We all heard the plane revving up, and it started moving toward us. It was a little nerve-racking, but the lifted off the ground and soared right above our heads. I felt like I was in Wayne’s World. The noise was deafening, but worth every second. We stayed around for a few more minutes, and a few more planes, then decided to hit the road.

On our way back from the airport we ran across another moose. This time it was basically in downtown Anchorage. I couldn’t believe it. It was just slowly meandering through the front yard of a middle school; stopping every minute or so to eat leaves off of the trees. Flint was driving this time, and he decided it would be a good idea to get a little closer. The moose had now made its way down a little street, and Flint pulled in right behind it. Obviously seeing us, and wanting to follow the traffic laws, the moose moved over to the sidewalk. Flint pulled up right beside it while Wolffy, Hartly and I were snapping pictures with our cell phones. Felling a little left out, Flint decided to unroll his window. All I could think of was the massive moose deciding he didn’t like people from Thailand, and putting his antlers through the side of our rental car. The moose didn’t flinch. He had to be used to the attention. He slowly walked away and Flint, deciding he had pushed his luck enough, rolled the window up and headed back to the apartments.

The next day was camp, so we decided to hit the sack early and mentally prepare ourselves for a couple of days of nothing but hockey. We rolled into camp with great expectations, and the Alaskans didn’t disappoint. We picked up a lot of quality players, and eventually signed Kyle Mills, Jon Strahle, Ben Wilks and Brendan Elkins. It was another successful camp, and another successful trip to the great state of Alaska.

Hartly and Wolffy caught planes the next day, and Flint headed on up to Fairbanks to hang out with Nick Maynes. I, on the other hand, stayed in Anchorage for one more day. Kevin Kern, being the hospitable person that he is, had me over for dinner, and showed me the Anchorage Zoo and Flattop. It was the second of two trips to Alaska that I will never forget, and I can’t wait to get back next year.