Leg 10 Homer/Kenai/Portage

 

Above is is a shot of Homer beach from our camp site, enough said. If you were to take your right hand and look at it palm up, the area between your thumb and fore finger would be the Cook inlet. The area beyond your hand would be the open sea and in the crotch between your thumb and fore finger would be Anchorage. On the left of your last fore finger knuckle would be Seward and on the right end of your finger would be Homer (well more or less).  So we drove from Seward up the finger and across to Kenai/Soldotna and then down to Homer.  Another beautiful drive (I think they all are) but this time along the sea coast.  Right out of Soldotna we were privileged to see another moose.

 

Joan was able to catch him looking up.

And if we zoom in on this fellow you can see that his antlers are just starting to grow and are heavily covered in velvet.

Along the way we get to see the mountain range known as the “Ring of Fire”.  Within the mountain range, part of the Alaskan Peninsula – Aleutian range are several volcanoes.  Mt. Redoubt erupted in Jan ‘66 and Dec ‘69.  Here are the gals capturing a nice shot of same.

Homer has its own spit that juts out into the bay and centers much of the activity of Homer.  On the spit are commercial fishing action centers, charter fishing (Homer being well known for great halibut fishing), restaurants, fish markets and camping. We opted to stay at the city park on the ocean side and found a wonderful camp spots. Here is our camp site.

 

Below is our view, not bad, eh?

Not only was the beach gorgeous and interesting – for instant we had spectacular tide movement, as much as a half mile – but it served as a flying field for my RC planes, a kite flying area, and a great area for the dogs to romp.

Kite flying.

 

 

Mike at the controls.

 

 

Happy hour with camp fire.

 

 

 

 

Shelle did baked potatoes in the camp fire.

 

 

 

 

Here is one happy camper, Happy hour, good meal, baked potatoes, and a view, what more could one ask for?

Night time view below.

From Homer it was back to Soldotna/Kenai.  We had chosen the Diamond M Ranch for our CG.  Turned out to be a big mistake. Water wasn’t working, even though we had paid for it in out price (we were promised a discount but were not able to get it – that was another thing, the folks that ran the place were not as ethical as we would like), camp site was marginal, Mike got stuck in their sand – took forever for them to get him out. Below is the sand they parked us in, Mike had to move because his site did not have power and below “sand” picture is the result.

We also got some bad fishing info from these folks.  Had a good time, enjoyed the scenery but finally some local pointed out we were in the wrong place. Here we are trying.

Eventually we found the correct spot and witnessed for our first time what they call “combat fishing”.  When the salmon are running the action is hot and everyone wants in so it is shoulder to shoulder, literally.  Folks line the river and sometimes, we were told, even get two deep. Actually it is not as bad as it sounds.  Folks get along very well, in fact it is common to get to know your neighbor, and everyone helps everyone.  One time Mike had left to take a break and I caught a nice salmon and was having trouble landing it so my neighbor helped me land it. The drill is that you are tossing a wet fly and a weight up stream, letting it drift down – which it does rapidly – pull it our of the water and toss it up again.  What is interesting the whole river kind of gets in sync – sort of like synchronized swimming – well sort of.  We were pretty intimidated at first but quickly got the gist of it and had fun.

This scene repeated all up and down the river – the Kenai River, famous for salmon fishing. While in Soldotna we picked up our silver salmon that we had left to be smoked – wow are they dynamite, wonderful good.

From Soldotna we headed for Portage, sort of on the way back towards Anchorage.  Before we left we had to have one more apple fritter from the “Moose is Loose” bakery in Soldotna – do not miss this treat if you are ever even close! In Portage we stayed at the Williwaw National Park, a great camp site.  We were also able to visit our friends Robert and Leslie and Stan and Connie – fellow Hitchhiker owners also exploring Alaska.

At the visitor center, right on a lake, we witnessed up close and personal a good sized ice berg.  Not only that but a few pieces had broken off and drifted towards shore and I was able to snag one.  Always wanted to have a cocktail with fresh, clear ice berg ice!

Unfortunately the picture does not do justice to the incredible clarity of the ice, what a great drink I had!

We visited the museum at the visitor center and Sally had to cuddle up to her buddy, Smokey.

From Portage we swept back through Anchorage to visit Jeff and Susan and stayed at Eagle River again, one of our favorite CGs (although we had a long list of favorites).

Next stop, Glennallen on the way to Valdez. The CG, Tolsona Wilderness, is west of town and really in the wilderness as their name suggests. It is about a mile and a half off the highway and is right on the Tolsona River which snakes through the CG.  Unfortunately the river was high and muddy due to so much rain and the run off (which also squelched the fishing we had hoped for). Yet still a gorgeous setting.  (We were able to fish for graylings on a near-by lake.:-))

 

More Fireweed, always pretty.

 

 Next to Valdez, a special place.