One the way to and in Seward

July 28-31   Day 50-53

As we left Homer, in the rain, we stopped at the Homer Overlook on the edge of town.  The Spit can be seen protruding out into the water between the green hillside in the foreground towards the rain covered, snow capped mountains in the background. 

We stopped for the night ~40 miles from Homer because it was raining and we did not want to miss the scenery along the Sterling Highway.  Our plan worked well because the next morning it had stopped raining and the sky cleared.  On the way back up the Sterling Highway, the Cook Inlet was to the northwest (our left), and the Chigmit Mountains in the Aleutian Range was on the other side of the inlet.  Mt. Iliamna (pronounce Ill-e-AHM-na) was displayed nicely.

We decided to stop at the Russian River Access where you can stay for 24 hours.  It was a well groomed area that is managed by the Alaska Department of Fish & Game (ADF&G).  The Russian River is famously popular for its fishing because it is at the confluence of the Russian and Kenai Rivers with the Russian to the right and the Kenai to the left in the picture below.  A simple rope tethered ferry takes passengers across to the other side where they can walk on further up the Russian River.  If you look at the far bank you can see many people fishing.

This is on downstream a little ways from the ferry just to show that if you do not catch any fish, the scenery is wonderful.

Or if you go upstream from the ferry on the Kenai River, the view is equally awesome.

We drove on down the road ~5 miles where the Kenai River pools in a real wide area to form Kenai Lake.  This picture is on the north side of the road,

and this is on the south side.

Continuing on for another ~10 miles, we stopped at Turn Lake, a destination of death for the salmon returning to spawn.   

We continued on towards Seward, then stopped about eight miles later to hike a strenuous four mile trail to Carter Lake, then on to Crescent Lake.  This is along the shore line of Carter Lake, looking across the lake.

After stopping briefly we continued on to Crescent Lake.

When we completed that hike, we stopped ~4 miles later at Lily Pad Lake.  In the foreground you see lily pads, then some type of water grass all the way over to the tree line.  This is really a pretty setting.

Shortly before Seward, we turned off the main road to hike ~2 miles to Exit Glacier.  Glaciers are prettier from a distance.

Then, we selected our parking spot for the night; staring at Exit Glacier.

We drove on in to Seward this morning and found a camping spot at one of the municipal campgrounds.  The campsite is right on the water facing Resurrection Bay.

OBSERVATIONS (and other unscientific data):

• We have noticed that all over Alaska at the state recreation areas, they have this life jacket loaner system to help protect kids around the water.  I figured people would steal them, but so far, all the life jackets have been on the hooks.  Many places also have a storage bin with extra life jackets in it. See picture below.

•  They get real serious about fishing here.  I walked in to a True Value hardware store with a large inventory of fishing gear.  This is my hand and I can palm a basketball.  The shank diameter of this one was about 1/4".

On down to Homer, AK

July 25-27   Day 47-49

We stopped at the Kenai library to "Skype" with the grandkids.  It's safe to say that nearly public building we have visited in Alaska has some sort of taxidermied wildlife inside.  The libraries are no exception.  We went on down the road to Soldotna, a few miles from Kenai, to watch the fishermen along the fast moving Kenai River.  Their fishing technique was much different from the dip netting.  Here, they would cast their bated line out to the 12 o'clock position, let it drift to the 4 o'clock position, then quickly jerk it out of the water and repeat the process.  The process worked because we saw them catching 24"-30" red salmon, sockeyes.  As we were walking around, we came across the town bakery.  If you ever come to Soldotna, be sure to stop at "The Moose is Loose Bakery".  We purchased an apple fritter, cinnamon roll with raisins, and a pecan roll.  I don't think I can pick a favorite, and the portions were to my liking.

 

 We have to go back through Soldotna when we return from Homer.  HMMM??!!

As we continued on south through Kasilof and Clam Gultch, we stopped for the night at Ninilchik (pronounced ni-NILL-chick), a sleepy little village of 842 people to which is referred as the third largest city in Alaska on Memorial weekend when thousands of Alaskans arrive for the fishing.  They claim that 50lb. king salmon are frequently caught here.
There is a Russian Orthodox church here that dates back to when Russia owned Alaska, and there are still several people with Russian family names.

 

 

You will notice on the steeple of the church and the crosses in the cemetery, there are three bars on the cross with the lowest one always on an angle.  You can Google '3 bar Russian Orthodox cross' for the history.
It rained all the way down here so hopefully when we are in Homer, it will have let up a bit.
(July 26)  Upon arriving in Homer, the rain did let up and gave us the opportunity to relax a bit.

After all, vacationing can be stressful!  :-)

It is clearly obvious that the Alaskans and the tourists come to Homer to fish.  Since we were here on the weekend, it was even busier.  There are many fishing charters that run from Homer, particularly for halibut.

But there were still a lot of people fishing for salmon.  We rode our bikes ~8mi (RT) to the end of the Homer Spit.  The view of the boat harbor was very picturesque with the mountains in the background,

as well as the open bay.

There was one place out on the Spit they call the fishing hole, where lots of fisher men, women, and children fish.  The fish are very active as you can see in the video,

especially during incoming and receding tides.
I found a fresh fish market and bought a fresh caught, fresh cleaned, fresh filleted sockeye salmon for dinner last night.  Grilled over a bed of charcoal, it was great!

OBSERVATION or rather interesting information from the wildlife people:
Prior to arriving at Homer, different times we saw a grizzly sow and cub(s).  We found out from the department of wildlife that a grizzly sow may have more than one cub depending on her health.  If she has more than one cub, each cub has a different father.  So when one of her eggs is fertilized, it is stored until she is done mating, then all eggs develop at the same time and she gives birth all at the same time.

In Kenai on the Kenai Peninsula

July 23-24 - Day 45-46

We continued our journey on down towards the Kenai Peninsula.  The drive down through the mountains along the Turnagain Mud Flats was pleasantly scenic even with low clouds.

The Kenai Peninsula is a favorite destination for locals and tourists alike due to its fishing resources.

This time of year when the salmon are running, the Alaskan residents can fish for about three weeks using a dip net.  A dip net is about four feet in diameter and has a long handle.  The person holding it will wade into the water until they are between waist and chest deep.  They let the rim of the net frame rest on the river bottom and wait for the salmon to swim into it on their journey back upstream to spawn.  When the fisherperson gets one in his/her net, they drag the net up on the shore then club the fish in the head to kill it before cleaning it.  Here is a picture of a guy holding a net.

The fishing is quite crowded and does not look like any fun to me.  When it is real busy, the people are standing real close to each other.

Today, is quite overcast, so we are looking at some interesting things in the town of Kenai.  On our drive down, we saw a young bull moose standing right on the edge of the road eating, then when we got into the town, we saw a moose cow grazing on landscaping of a shopping center.

OBSERVATIONS (and other unscientific data)
Some of the readers of this blog asked about what brand of car was popular, just cars, not SUV's etc.  Well, driving south from Fairbanks, it was pretty obvious.  My unscientific random sampling showed that out of 100% in my sampling group, the cars were:

• 40% were various models of Ford
• 30% were various models of Subaru
• 20% were various models of Kia
• 10% were a mix of all others

I'm sure the popularity of the dealer has a lot to do with that.

In Anchorage

July 21-22  Day 43-44

We parked the rv at Earthquake Park which is not too far from the international airport and rode our bikes 6 miles, round trip, into downtown Anchorage.  This time, there was not feeling that we would be mugged on the way. :-)  We went to Ship Creek in downtown Anchorage to watch many people fish for salmon, and many of them were pulling out 10lb. silver salmon; I was not one of them.  The city has hanging baskets of flowers all over the place, and the long hours of sunlight along with the rain, make conditions right for very prolific flowers.

We rode back along Knik Arm which was very picturesque from the bike trail.

The next day, we went to another park and rode our bikes the opposite direction 13 miles, RT.  This was along the Turnagain Arm and the Turnagain Mud Flats.  Upon returning from our bike ride, we ate lunch and decided to hike up to Flattop Mountain, which is shaped just like it sounds, and is in the Chugach (pronounced CHEW-gatch) State Park.  This was only a 3 mile hike, RT, but there was a 1300' change in elevation.  The last 1/4 mile going up, we put our hiking poles away because we needed our hands free to help pull us up the rocks.  The reward was worth the effort.

Here is the trail from the bottom looking up

OBSERVATIONS (and other unscientific data)

• Anchorage is a city of ~300k people, but the number of homeless and panhandlers seems to be a high percentage.  At one intersection there would be 8-12 people begging.
• Bonnie and I both noticed that there are a lot of women who look 'hard', a very high percentage of them.  They will have children with them, but even though they are mothers, they don't look like moms.  I mean they look like motorcycle gals that had a child or four, then went right back to their motorcycle life.  Then to make them look even more 'hard', they have a plethora of tattoos. 

From Denali NP toward Anchorage

July 18 - 20  Days 40-42

Leaving Denali ~10:00am, we drove down the Parks Highway toward Anchorage.  On the drive down, we drove through some small villages where I would ask myself, "what do these people do?, where do they work?"  We came into one village that hosts an annual fireweed festival about the third weekend in July when the fireweed is blooming.  It is a beautiful, fuchsia colored, wild flower that blooms from the bottom up. 

Once the blooms reach the top, it starts to go to seed.  When it goes to seed, the locals claim there are only six more weeks until winter.

It rained off and on until we stopped in Wasilla for the evening.  Wasilla is an interesting place; home of Sarah Palin and the fastest growing city in Alaska.  I must say, from what I've seen so far, if I had to move to Alaska, Wasilla would be my choice, judging from stores and demographics.  Although I do find it interesting that this small city of ~10k people has seven drive through expresso stands, many of which are open 24 hours.  Wasilla is the headquarters of the Iditarod Dog Sled race.  We went there because it seemed interesting and to give me the opportunity to see if this is something in which I would like to participate.  I am not interested!  But, we did get to hold some of the puppies.

The cost of groceries are more in line with what we are accustomed down in Wasilla.

As we got into Anchorage, we camped at a municipal campground then took our bikes and biked into downtown  Anchorage.  The campground office told us where to catch the bike trail, which we did with no problem, but what they did not tell us is the bike path took us through the seediest part of the city, past the shelter for the homeless, drunks, and drug users.  When we got past that, I told Bonnie we would find another way back to the campground.  Downtown Anchorage was not too bad when you could look out across the bay and see mountains.

 We did find a different route back and the length of the ride was 19 miles.



OBSERVATIONS (and other unscientific data):

• on the drive down from Denali, there were no mailboxes along the main highway, but where there were gravel side roads, all the mailboxes were lined up at the end of the road for the residents so the mail carrier does not have to drive down the side roads.
• we also noticed when driving down the main highway, there would be these fancy signs that read "Welcome to what ever" town.  But the sign was posted  several miles, 5-10, out before you actually get there.  Then when you do get there, it has 1 gas station, a post office, a campground, and maybe as small grocery store.  The larger villages will also have a visitor center which often would be the size of a bedroom in your house.

Inside Denali NP

July 13-17 Days 35-39

It is pretty windy here in Denali and the park claims there are an average of 105 days per year that they have hurricane force winds somewhere in the park.  This is very believable, because we rode our bikes ~8 miles today, part of which was downhill.  The unusual part was that we had to pedal going downhill because the wind was so strong.  We also went to the sled dog kennels.  The 24 Alaskan Sled dogs we saw belong to Denali NP and are used to haul supplies to the ranger cabins in remote areas of the park.  These are not racing dogs that are used in the Iditarod Race.  These are larger, stronger dogs used for pulling heavy loads; about 80-100 pounds of freight per dog.

They keep them in shape by training them in the summer with a summer sled.

Even the sled dogs have log cabins for their houses.  Not only here in Denali, but at other sled dog kennels.

We have attended the ranger talks in the evening to gain a better understanding of the park and its inhabitants.  Nearly every talk starts with reminding the visitors how to act if you encounter a bear, moose, or wolf.  It is interesting to note that most visitors are injured by moose not bear.  As a matter of fact, yesterday an rv started to back into a campsite where he did not see that a moose calf had already laid down.  To his surprise, the moose cow attacked the rv by charging it.

It started raining in late afternoon and lasted all night and most of the next day. We were determined not to let the rain interfere with our visit so we donned our rain suits and hiked on some trails to see how the rain impacted the rivers and streams.  Even though it was raining, the scenery was still stunning. 

On Wednesday, July 16^th, we moved from Riley Creek Campground just inside the park, to Savage River Campground about 13 miles in.  After we selected our campsite, we hiked to the river, which again, did not leave us disappointed.  

On our way back, we saw a porcupine that took refuge in a black spruce tree when he saw us.

The day started out cloudy, overcast, gloomy, and little bit rainy.  But when the rain stopped ~9:30, I suggested to Bonnie that we go the Savage River Alpine Trail across the road from the campground and hike for a few miles.  The trail started in the black spruce tree forest, which are somewhat uninteresting, but then emerged above them, giving us a wonder view of the valley.

Even with the clouds, the view was so much more than any camera could possibly capture.  There was a natural rock garden with wild flowers that just seemed like it was part of a botanical garden.

We kept going until we reached the summit in the alpine area where we had lunch

with lots of rodents, artic ground squirrels, who wanted to be our friends.

When we descended on the other end of the trail, 4 miles later, we decided to take the Savage River Loop Trail, a 2 mile loop that went along the river towards a canyon

then back the other side.  Shortly after we started this loop, we saw a couple of large caribou.  It is difficult for them to hide because their antlers are so big.

When we reach the end of the loop, we flagged down a bus to take us back to the campground.

OBSERVATIONS (and other unscientific data):
 From what we have seen in Alaska so far, it appears that most residents lead a "minimalist" lifestyle.  There is nothing about their houses, cars, trucks, ATV's, boats, or snowmobiles that suggests they are living well above their means, unlike so many in the lower 48.  Now I'm sure a lot of that is dictated by the high cost of goods up here.  None the less, they do not seem to be extravagant with their homes, etc.  There is certain to be some of that up here, but when I compare it to the lower 48, it is totally different.  Very refreshing!  A few things that are clearly obvious is they use local materials for building; no brick up here.  But something else that stands out is there are few well groomed lawns and lots of junk scattered around their property.

Arriving at Denali NP

July 10 - 12    Days 32 - 34

We finished up at Tatlanika Trading Company cleaning up the RV, doing laundry, and I helped the owner install a new router for wifi access at his business.  This was a neat place with all the amenities needed for the traveler.  It is worth noting that everyone seems to decorate with moose antlers.

The owner, like many others up here, has his own plane.  Right behind our RV is a grass landing strip he has on his property for his own use.

When we arrived at Denali NP, for some reason I was expecting quite a grand entrance, but the sign was not as magnanimous as I was expecting.

Once we checked in and claimed our campsite, we rode our bikes to a couple of popular places such as the Visitor Center and the Wilderness Access Center, the place where you catch the bus to go back into the park; all 6 million acres.  The farthest you can venture into the park is 92 miles in, but we choose the 66 mile route and made reservations for the next day. You cannot take your personal vehicle, but you can bicycle or hike all you want.  We did not want to hike or bike for 92 miles, one way.

The next day we caught the 6:30am bus.  The speed limit is 25mph for the buses, so 66 miles takes a while.  I was not able to get a picture of everything because we were not allowed off the bus for photo ops.  However, we did see 7 grizzly adults, one grizzly cub, five caribou, snowshoe hare, porcupine, and arctic squirrels.

But the big siting was seeing the top of Mt. McKinley.  According to the park, only 30% of the visitors get to see the top of Mt. McKinley.  We are part of the 30% Club.

This alone was worth the bus trip.

OBSERVATIONS (and other unscientific data):
There seems to be a common thread amongst Alaskans.  It seems that true Alaskans:

• decorate with moose antlers
• own at least two ATV (all terrain vehicles) so at least one of them is in working order
• have an ATV trail alongside the highway
• own at least four snowmobiles
• own at least one four wheel drive vehicle
• have a way to haul your ATV's
• have a mosquito repellant coil smoldering at their entry door
• wear short sleeves when the tourists wear at least three layers
• do not even notice mosquitoes 

It was interesting to witness, while our banks advertise home loans and car loans, the banks up here advertise ATV loans.