In short, we are settling into our life in Homer. Ahhhh!!
As we’ve slid into the settled stage of our Alaska
experience we have continued to explore this gigantic state…with a little help
from our friends. If you haven’t already
noticed, fishing plays a huge role in the life of Alaskans that live on the
Kenai Peninsula. I am NO angler with my
fishing experience limited to a handful of days of fishing at a stocked,
man-made lake in PA. Being here among
true fisherman I’m beginning to develop a new appreciation for the dedication,
patience, science, and art behind the numerous kinds of fishing. Here in Homer the main attraction is halibut
with cod, rockfish, salmon, rays, and dogfish also being caught in the
bay. If you go slightly north to one of
the many lakes or rivers that traverse the peninsula you run into opportunities
for major salmon runs, dolly varden, rainbow trout, and graylings, to name just
a few. Being in a fisherman’s paradise
we have the chance to try our hand at all kinds of fishing, which is a unique
first experience for both Charlie and I!
Our friends Melissa and Brady have a sweet, large boat
docked in Homer and they were nice enough to invite us out for a day of halibut
fishing. Everyone was determined to
catch giant bottom feeders, but unfortunately the conditions didn’t cooperate
with fog and large waves leading to nauseated discomfort for some. We were able
to move to calmer water, but the fish weren’t biting and so we called it a day. Oh well…you can’t win ‘em all!
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| Can't say we weren't trying! |
The following weekend we had the pleasure of spending the
whole day with Clayt and Laura since Laura’s mom was visiting and offered to
babysit for the day. We decided to spend
the morning and afternoon floating down the Kenai River on a cataraft. What is a cataraft you ask? It is a beautiful thing really. It consists of two heavy duty inflatable
tubes and a frame that allows people to comfortably sit, row, fish, and carry
gear while floating in water (rivers, streams, lakes, ponds, etc). And of course, Clayt and Laura just happen to
own a cataraft! This allowed for
relaxation, trolling, and a stop at the Russian River intersection where an
early season sockeye salmon run was in action.
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| Blue skies + Beautiful water + Good friends = A great day |
As we approached the intersection with the Russian River we were
shocked with the number of people wading in the river attempting to catch salmon. This gave me and Charlie an introduction to what
people here call combat fishing. Combat
fishing is a phenomenon that occurs on the easily accessible stretches of river
when thousands to millions of salmon are swimming upstream to spawn. When the salmon are swimming, the people will
come. This leads to overly crowded stretches of river.
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| Salmon Anyone? |
We threw some elbows (just kidding) and found a spot to wade,
learned how to fish for salmon, and put our waders to the test as we
stood in the cold Alaskan river. Luckily
Charlie loves fishing because his waders sprung a leak leading to numb knees and feet!
Despite the number of people in the river it didn’t look
like many were catching anything. So when we came up empty handed we weren't too surprised. It was a nice opportunity to practice the technique. If locals aren’t catching, we
certainly aren’t! Also, this early run is small compared to the
Kenai River run in mid to late July. To
put it in perspective, the 2013 early Russian River run cumulative fish count
was 32,813. The average mid to late July
Kenai River fish count is 959,214 sockeye salmon. That’s a lot of fish!
Timing is definitely important with fishing, as are the
conditions. Unfortunately the stars have
not yet aligned for us, but do not fear…we are putting in the time and hoping
to score big one of these times!
Our outings have not been limited to fishing. We’ve also done some hiking and made our way
across Kachemak Bay for an evening picnic on Sunshine Point. Sunshine Point is across the bay from Homer,
a small area of land and shoreline that is privately owned and surrounded by
state park. Turns out that land belongs
to our boss’s husband’s family! And they
were nice enough to take us and our housemate/co-worker Darcy there for a picnic
on the beach. We continue to be awed by
how inviting and giving people can be.
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| Sallie and Captain Dan |
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| Perfect evening. The bay was like a sheet of glass. |
Don't stop reading yet! I’ve saved the best
for last...
The weekend before the 4th of July we decided it
was time for another big hike. Clayt was
free to join us and so we all decided on the Harding Icefield Trail, which is within Kenai Fjords National Park. The beauty of this trail is that it parallels a glacier and provides views of the enormous Harding
Icefield with snow, ice, and glaciers as far as the eye can see. Fun fact: the first people to cross the glacier were men from Homer, AK who are also responsible for naming it Exit Glacier.
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| 8.2 miles round trip (add about 1 extra mile if your name starts with a C) |
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| Good advice. |
We've decided that this was one of the best hikes we’ve done (second only to Mount St. Helen’s). The variety of terrain (packed dirt, large rocks, loose rock, to snow), vegetation, wildlife, and of course the glacial viewing take your mind off the amount of work you are putting forth. We had the company of song birds throughout the hike and encountered large rustling movements in nearby trees that turned out to be a black bear. Eek! Luckily the bear was quite focused on eating the thick, leafy vegetation and didn't bother with the sweaty hikers.
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| Exit Glacier...see it while it is still around! |
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| Shelter near the end of the trail. Safety from weather and wildlife. |
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| Like I said...snow, ice and glaciers as far as the eye can see! |
The vista was impressive, but the boys weren’t quite
satisfied. Seeing the glacier wasn’t enough. They wanted to experience it up close and personal. I wasn't so sure about that AND I have already had the opportunity to hike on a glacier (guided, of
course!) in New Zealand, so I didn’t feel the need to follow the daring duo. Thus, I stayed back and photographed their
crazy hike onto Exit Glacier…
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| There they go... |
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| Little men on a huge glacier! |
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| They just kept going and people started talking... "Those guys are crazy!" |
They returned safely and both felt pretty cool. The End.
The end of one adventure means it's time to plan for the next. However, a lot has already happened since the above hike due to my delay in blogging! I just can't keep up! Due to this, I must say a belated happy 4th to all and a special happy 4th/birthday to my Pop and Ellie :-)
The 4th is now behind us, but we enjoyed a patriotic day at the Elks and Homer parade with our housemate Darcy. This was followed by another Ephrata reunion with Nikki and Bryan Strohl who are visiting the Spilters.
Now it is time to bid farewell until our next blog as we anxiously await the arrival of our first guests, Emily and Dave Brown.
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