We have certainly made up for a week of watching it rain. We left Kenai on Monday and took as leisurely of a route as we could, given that Homer is only a two hour drive. Its actually such a fun way to do things, we explored several coastal areas not on a regular tourist destination, most of them so quiet it was quite clear that the salmon runs are somewhere else now! We had pretty low cloud cover, so we only got a hint of the incredible mountains across Cook Inlet. Then as the final time killer, we stopped for a hike. The Homesteader Trail from Rogers Loop Rood was a lovely 2.5 miler. A very popular trail, we came across a good half dozen or so folks also braving the rainy weather and muddy trail. Fireweed is the state flower, and it was beautiful to see so much of it in bloom, and so tall! And we capped it off by seeing a moose on the trail! He sure didn’t want to have anything to do with people, and scooted into the woods as soon as he spotted us, but we were pretty sure we were the only ones on the trail who did! It was nice to get some exercise before we dropped into Homer, and set up at the Heritage RV Park, right on the Homer spit.
Some of you may remember me talking about a book I read several years ago called “Dear Bob and Sue”. A true story, the authors are a couple from the Seattle area, and set a goal to visit every national park. Then they shared their experiences by email with their friends Bob and Sue. This book inspired my desire to visit the parks, and made me laugh out loud at the descriptions of marital bliss while traveling. I was captivated with his description of both Katmai and Lake Clark National Parks. Katmai, the home of the famous Brooks Falls Brown Bears, I had already booked my day trip for the 14th. It involved a float plane trip over, which Dale had no interest in, so I was on my own for that one. Lake Clark was a bigger challenge.
One of the newer parks, established in 1978, it is VAST. If you were a PBS watcher in the old days, you may remember a documentary called Alone in the Wilderness, about Dick Proenneke and the cabin he built and lived in for 30 years on the shores of Twin Lakes. You can visit the cabin, IF you can find a pilot who will fly you. For whatever reason, there are no regular tours to it, so getting there is not a low-budget affair. Now that I know, if we ever come back, that trip will be preplanned! When I finally gave up on that idea I had booked the other way to visit, which was a flight seeing tour for bears. AND THEN the tour was cancelled for bad weather. I was heartbroken, just sure I was going to have to miss another NP. Fortunately however, Dale was really hoping to see bears, and thinking we’d find them on the peninsula. A little sleuthing uncovered the hard truth, if they were that easy to see on the peninsula proper, then flight seeing tours would not be so popular! So, I was able to find us a boat tour over to the park to commune with bears. The weather had finally cooperated and we had a glorious couple days ahead of us! The mountain ranges were in full visibility for our boat ride over. And while our guide was very conservative about roaming the shore to get better proximity, we did get some good sightings of the bears, so in the end Dale DID get to see bears in the Kenai and I got to set foot in Lake Clark National Park…….and another stamp…..check!
The next day was my tour to Katmai and the day was absolutely beautiful. Mother Nature really played nice that day! Dale had a little scare with a sore tooth, and was more than happy to stay behind and visit a very lovely dentist who made time for him on short notice (he’s ok BTW – no major dental work required.) My plane ride started a short bike ride away from where we are staying, and it was me and a family of 7 on the plane. So I got to be co-pilot. Which was great as he and I chatted the entire way to the park. As it turned out, the entire plane could hear us over the headsets, so they felt they knew me pretty well when we landed. After I graduated from Bear School ( I have the pin to prove it!) I headed out on my own to find some bears. They did not disappoint! Saw my first within five minutes of walking, and it was so uncrowded, I had a good 45 minutes to and hour on the falls viewing platform to watch the few that were there. Mid August is later in the season so while there weren’t a dozen lined up, the ones I watched were entertaining enough. I sang softly to myself as I walked all over the area of the park around the visitor center and lodge where there is that chance you will come across one on the trail, but in the end, I always saw them a few yards away. It is pretty clear that the Katmai bears are very used to people, so as long as you don’t run up and try to take a selfie with one of them, they really aren’t threatened by you. I have had this trip in my brain for sooo long, truly a dream come true. The plane ride in and back was also entertaining, the views from above truly allow you to appreciate how big the wilderness is here in Alaska, and we had the chance to fly over Ten Thousand Smokes, an area of Katmai named due to the volcanic ash from the 1912 eruption in the area. Named not for residual smoke, but because when the wind blows the ash looks like things are still burning! One hundred years later, and only the finest bits of vegetation are visible. I could go on and on. Plus, from the air, the Homer Spit looks VERY vulnerable. Almost had to buy the disaster response instructions for Homer: “In case of Tsunami, Get off the Spit!”. Bottom line, this trip DID NOT DISAPPOINT!
You know Homer is known as the “Halibut Capital of the World”, so while we were here, we had to go fishing for Halibut! We were a little hesitant, because our storage is rather limited. And while Im quite sure several of you, dear readers, are shouting at your screen “send it to me!!”, well, we’ve learned the hard way that shipping frozen fish to hot locations is a bit problematic! Again, we seem to be camped in the perfect location, because the boat we met was docked a five minute bike ride from us. But an early call of 7am – with warnings of windy conditions, and I had prepared with a couple of doses of travel sickness meds. We had five fishermen on board, the captain and the deckhand, Chuck. An hour out of port, our hooks went down and within 15 minutes people were pulling up halibut! Of course I wasn’t first, but I got one in before Dale! Which is AMAZING! Amazing both because I caught one before Dale, but also because I CAUGHT one! Every time Dale, and our friend Les Cronk, has taken me out halibut fishing, I have never had one on a hook! I was sure I was cursed. The limit is 2 per person, one under and one over 28 inches. All five of us limited out! Dale caught a beautiful Ling Cod (by accident), and then we went trolling for Salmon. Apparently the primary type catching right now is King Salmon and you need a special tag for that, which neither Dale nor I had. Honestly, salmon wasn’t high on our list. So it worked out quite perfectly that that the other three fishermen caught salmon. In the end we needed to offer two of our fish to the other guests. Dale came right home and cut our catch up for our freezer. We have just enough room for what we brought back – two more and we would have made a lot of friends in the campground! We weren’t hit badly on the boat with the forecasted winds and waves ( we were lucky) but when we got back to the RV to rain and wind came in to say “hi!” Our bikes stayed outside, and we woke up this morning, they were washed cleaner than they’ve been since we left Arizona!
Today has been a day of chilling and chores. Dale rode into town to the Safeway, had to stock up on recipe items for Halibut based meals. And my morning was all about laundry day. I get such a kick out of talking with the locals, or simply eavesdropping on their conversations. Folks’ stories on how they came to be in Alaska are so fascinating, as are the “fun facts” they like to share. This morning for instance, while folding my clothes watching The Price is Right, I learned that Bob Barker is responsible for the personal hygiene items made available to prisoners, in honor of his son who was imprisoned at a time when they were not supplied those things. Who knew!?!
We made one last foray down the spit to visit the famous Salty Dawg Saloon. A dark little bar in a historic cabin that has been many things in its 100+ history, but has been a saloon since 1947. Every wall, post and ceiling is covered with dollar bills that have been pinned by visitors, keeping a tradition that started with the first bill designated to pay for a friends drink. Homer is beautiful and a great stop!
I really hit a trifecta here in Homer! Saw the bears in Katmai, planted my feet in Lake Clark NP, and caught my first ever Halibut! Tomorrow we head to the other side of the peninsula and visit Seward. I’m building a great list of things to do there too. So stay tuned, dear readers.
Until next time, your friend, Lady Wanderingwise
Weise's Wanderings 
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