That Time I Scanned Some Slides from the Thrift Store and Unearthed Historic Photos of the Kilcher Family

Siblings Bennet and Kathy Smith stand in front of Portage Glacier in this undated photo.
Siblings Bennet and Kathy Smith stand in front of Portage Glacier in this photo dated May 1985. Photograph from the Kilcher Homestead Trust Archives.

In the summer of 2023 I was cruising the aisles of the local Salvation Army thrift store in Homer, Alaska and came across some old slide projector carousels and a Crown Royal bag sitting on the shelf. I peaked in the purple bag and pulled out a couple dozen old slides with pictures of family, mountains, glaciers, and other Alaska stuff.

“Pretty neat,” I thought to myself, “maybe I’ll scan these and see what’s on them.”

I paid $1 for the bag and tossed it in my truck. Little did I known the histories and memories it contained.

Old Timey Photos from Homer’s Old Timey Winter Parade

Photos from the 2024 Winter Carnival Parade in Homer, Alaska. Photos by Clay Duda,
Welcome to the two-tone world of the 70th Anniversary Winter Carnival Parade in Homer, Alaska. Photo by Clay Duda.

I was walking back to my car with the wife and kiddo at the end of the parade when some guy in a mini van pulled up next to us.

“What’s going no here? What is all this?” he asked, gesturing to the swarms of people and barricaded streets.

“It’s a parade!” I said. “Actually the 70th Annual Winter Parade,” I added, like I knew what I was talking about.

“Huh,” the guy said. “What’s it for?”

I had never thought about that before… “I don’t really know. They do it about this time every year — probably because it’s winter time and everybody is looking for something to do.”

My First Time Snowboarding at Alyeska Resort and How I Almost Got Careened by a Backflipping Skier

Taking the Glacier Bowl Express to the top of Mount Alyeska. Photo by Clay Duda.
Taking the Glacier Bowl Express to the top of Mount Alyeska.

On my first trip ever to Alyeska Resort it was dumping snow the night we pulled into town. And when I say dumping, I mean DUMPING snow. Big fat flakes fell in sheets as we sat inside Girdwood Brewing and amped ourselves up about our the next day on the mountain.

I was a little nervous, I’ll admit. It was my first time at Alyeska — a mountain known for being “steep and deep” — and also my first time EVER snowboarding at a real ski resort. I was still leaning to snowboard, and the steepest hills I had seen thus far were the mostly kid-friendly slopes at the Homer Rope Tow. Even then, I was shying away from the toughest runs, which are smaller than Alyeska’s bunny hills.

When we woke up the next morning, there was nearly 3 feet of fresh snow at the top of Mount Alyeska. You could hear avalanche bombs exploding in the distance as the sun made a slow ascent above the peaks, and we were stoked.

Tips and Mistakes Spearfishing Whitefish on the Chatanika River near Fairbanks

Spearfishing whitefish on the Chatanika River, September 2023. Photo by Clay Duda.
Spearfishing whitefish on the Chatanika River near Fairbanks, Alaska, September 2023. Photo by Clay Duda.

I didn’t even know what a freshwater “whitefish” was when I applied for a permit to spearfish them. I’ve lived in Alaska for 7 years now and never drawn a tag. I’ve put in for moose and mountain goat and Kodiak elk and a bunch of other things with no luck. So I figured my chances of getting a whitefish tag was slim to none.

Then, in August, I got an email back from the Alaska Department of Fish and Game awarding my first ever Alaska draw tag: to spearfish whitefish in the Chatanika River near Fairbanks. Me and my friend Dan were the only 2 people on the Kenai Peninsula to earn a tag.

Pew Pew Portraits with the Boys from Pig Problem, Inc.

Hog hunting guides with Pig Problem, Inc. in Americus, Georgia.
Handgun drills in Homer, Alaska with the Pig Problem, Inc. guides from Americus, Georgia.

It is September in Alaska, which means the fishing season is finally slowing down for us fishing guides in Homer. It also means that we have more time to hang out and goof off with friends since we’re not offshore fishing seven days a week.

A few days ago I caught up with some of the guides from Pig Problem, Inc. and went out for a little target practice. Most of these guys do thermal night hunts for hogs out of Americus, Georgia during the winter months and work on fishing boats in Alaska during the summer.

Ring leader Maximus Maximum was training up a new recruit and refreshing skills with handgun drills to put down charging boars or cardboard hitmen or something like that. I really just tagged along to take photos and smell gunpowder.