Soldotna, AK - Tractors on the Beach

When you drink coffee for breakfast and along the road while you're touring, this little building is a joy to see. But we were puzzled by the sign for 5-minute parking. Sure does add a bit of stress and pressure to the task at hand.

We had heard about how tractors are used to launch and retrieve fishing boats at the end of the day and we wanted to see how it was done. We headed on to Deep Creek, a beach south of Ninilchik to see it. Here are the tractors that will launch and retrieve fishing boats that go out each day. Behind them is the control office - like the control tower at an airport, where the radio operator sits and makes the operation work smoothly.

When boats are launched, a tractor pushes them out on their trailer, then pulls the trailer back up onto the beach, puts a number on it and then launches the next boat. (Those numbered boards are often used for cutting up fish. Imagine the stench in the ‘board’ room.) Ha, ha.

At the end of the day, when a boat nears shore, they radio the office, tell them their number and the tractor retrieves their trailer. pushes it out into the ocean and the driver of the boat launches it onto the trailer for the tractor to pull up the beach. Then the owner gets his truck, hitches up the trailer and heads home.

First the operator sends out a 2-man tractor to retrieve the trailer. This tractor then heads to the beach, turns around and pushes the trailer into the water.

Then the boat owner circles and heads towards their trailer.

They gun the motor to get near the tractor and then kill it to glide smoothly up their trailer.

Meanwhile the middle man adjusts the trailer and the hoist.

When he gets the boat onto the trailer, he hoists it into place.

And, then he rides it all the way up the beach to a free spot where the boat owner can retrieve his truck and hitch up his boat and trailer. Intricate operation and it’s done sometimes more than 200 times a day.

Why such an elaborate process? It can be done any time of day, low tide or high tide, it enables larger charter boats to launch and finally, the owners truck doesn’t have to drive in salt water which might rust his truck. Pretty neat.

It’s tough work though and the radio operator works much like an air-traffic controller - especially when there are 200 boats a day coming and going. Cool operation to watch but it’s time to head home.

Here’s Rocky’s Cafe where we used a bogo coupon for an ice cream. But to be fair to them, we also bought some other stuff from the attached grocery store. Then in back was a whole room selling Alaska clothing: boots, heavy jackets, lined waterproof pants, fur lined hats and gloves. In remoter areas, every business has to expand their offerings. We liked the decoration on the grocery store next to Rocky’s and the geodesic dome in back.

The shoulders are getting much larger around here. We think it’s to enable drivers to see any wildlife that might be moving towards the highway and protect them - and the occupants of the car or truck.