Along the Esker

We had a fine ride in Mount Vernon, cycling past many ponds and lakes and over some challenging hills in Chesterville. At one point, we overtook a family of four out cycling - always a cause for rejoicing, to see families out cycling together. Beats the heck out of spending "quality time" at the Mall.



Leaving the hills behind for a time, we had a great run along the Chesterville Esker - a nice flat ridge of glacial deposits running between many pristine little ponds - one of the more striking cycling venues in Central Maine. Too soon, we had to leave it, too, behind, as we traversed the rolling terrain back to the start at Mount Vernon. Perhaps we can schedule a return in the Fall.

Halfway there on salmon

Alaska's commercial salmon catch now exceeds 103 million fish.



We'll need 100 million more to hit the state's preseason forecast of 203 million.



Here are a few news nuggets, culled from the Department of Fish and Game's latest weekly summary:



• Southeast power trollers have caught just under 392,000 coho since July 1. The average price is $1.33 per pound, but the fish are said to be relatively small at an average of 5.3 pounds.



• Southeast purse seiners have bagged 28.1 million pink salmon so far, nearly all from northern districts. At an average weight of 3.7 pounds, and an average price of 41 cents a pound, the pinks are worth about $1.50 each. Effort thus far is 262 boats, just above the recent 10-year average of 259 boats.



• The Upper Cook Inlet sockeye catch has topped 5 million fish, one of the best tallies in decades to this point in the season. Fishing is beginning to wind down.



• The Kodiak pink salmon harvest remains well below projection at 3.9 million fish.



• Norton Sound and Kotzebue each have produced more than 100,000 chum salmon thus far.