Kenai Peninsula- Near Death but Love It!

(FYI... to enlarge the pictures, double click on the pictures. The ones with the animals in it, you might have to enlarge to see the animals.)

We just got back from our trip to the Kenai Peninsula. It is absolutely beautiful there! The road there is a two lane highway around Turnagain Arm. The drive alone was worth the trip. Walter's parents were here and we drove them half way down the Arm to Girdwood and Alyeska. There is a beautiful resort at Alyeska. Walter's parents were suppose to stay there, but they got bumped because of an overbooked tour group. There is a tram up the mountain at the resort. We didn't go up. We are planning to do a day trip- Walter wants to paraglide (?) off the mountain. We stopped at Beluga Point. Didn't see any Beluga Whales. We did see Dall Sheep. They were so cute! We dropped the Alexanders off at the airport and headed south to the peninsula. The road, as I said, winds around Turnagain Arm. The Arm has glacier streams that flow into it. Because of that there is a great deal of silt and mud in the water. When the tide goes out (yes, there are tides) the mud flats become exposed and fish get caught in the shallow waters. Guess who sits there and waits for that to happen? That's right- the Bald Eagle. We saw so many baldys sitting there waiting in the mud for the fish. It was great! On we went.....

We had reservations in Soldotna. The road to Soldotna is only two lanes most of the time, so you can imagine how traffic can back up really easily. We took a right north of Moose Pass and headed to Soldotna. When you first come on to the peninsula, you are driving in mountains. The road winds along the Russian and Kenai Rivers. These rivers are known for their salmon fishing. The locals call it "combat fishing." When you get up to a pull off, there are cars everywhere and you look into the water and there are fly fishermen standing almost shoulder to shoulder fishing in the river. All the talk was that on Monday (last Monday) the "reds" would be released along the Russian River. The road winded down out of the mountains and we drove along the flat lands the rivers had created. We passed many signs that warned of high animal crossings. There was even a radio station devoted to letting people know where the animals were crossing at! Of course we saw none. We got to the Soldotna Inn and went for dinner. Most of this area was settled during the gold rushes. Before that the Russians settled the coast line and there were some natives, but not very many. Soldotna is the largest city on the peninsula. It is 140 miles from Anchorage. The people of Anchorage call the town "Slow- dotna." It is the Nahunta of Alaska!!! But, it had the only Dairy Queen in the state- so we were happy. (Turns out a Dairy Queen opened up in Anchorage while we were gone- so now the state has 2!) The hotel was nice except there was no air conditioning. No place has AC. While it isn't too hot, if your room is facing the west, you get sunlight shining in your room until well after 11:00PM.

We got up the next day and headed out to Homer. Walter and I realize that we need to get earlier starts to the day. We left by noon! We are rapidly realizing how fat and lazy we really are! The drive to Homer takes you along on a road along the water. Off in the distance you can see three active volcanoes. If I remember correctly, two are non explosive and one is explosive. To the left of the road is grasslands with some trees and to the right are cliffs that drop into the ocean. We passed Clam Gulch and Ninilchik. We came up a hill and right in the middle of the road was a female moose and her 2 babies. I froze and didn't get a pictures. They were so cute! We got to Homer. Homer is a town on the southwestern tip of the peninsula. Part of the town is on what they call "The Spit." It is a pile of narrow sand that sticks into the Kachemak Bay. The spit is where the glacier stopped and silt built up. Homer is the halibut capital of the world. Lots of fishing boats! Very windy on the spit. Walter wanted to go on a plane ride- so we did. We got a 2:00PM flight on Smokey Bear Air. This airline offers site seeing tours, but also is a taxi to towns located across the bay that have no roads going into them. These towns are Seldovia, Port Graham, Halibut Cove. Our pilot's name was Tina. She seemed a little young to know how to fly a plane. We walked out to the plane and the first thought was that we weren't going to fit in the plane. There was Walter and me, another tourist, and Bill. Bill was headed to Seldovia. The plane ride was great. We flew for about an hour. We took Bill across the bay. Seldovia is a small fishing town. We went back up and flew over the Harding Icefield. Glaciers everywhere! We got to see how a glacier forms. The whole bay area was covered by a glacier during the Ice Age. The mountains that the glaciers are in were covered by a glacier. That is why the mountains have rounded tops. We saw some mountain goats on the side of the mountain. The plane ride was great!!! Two days later the flight to Seldovia crashed and four people are in critical condition. The plane crashed on the beach of an island in the bay. Luckily there was a kayak tour near by. They were the first there until the water taxi from Homer showed up. See, I knew the plane couldn't handle us. After the plane ride, we went to have drinks at the famous Salty Dawg. We searched for Latitude 59 Restaurant. We found it. It looked like it hadn't been open for awhile. We were tired and drove back to Soldotna. We stopped along the way at the Russian Orthodox church in Ninilchik. We stopped by Deep Creek to see the bald eagles looking for their dinner. The next day a forest fire started there by a man sharpening his shovel (no lie! The radio stations are having a field day with that!). The fire has engulfed a couple of houses and no end in site until we get rain. Of course once we got to Soldotna and had dinner- we swung through the DQ. We saw Mark Wilkes there. A buff young man sat down in front of us. His pants were either too low or his shirt didn't hang down far enough. We saw major crackage!!!! I, of course, have no class and started laughing hysterically!! I got Walter laughing too. Mark Jr got up to get his order. Sat back down and there the crack was again. We had to leave before we caused a scene.

The next day we headed to Moose Pass and points southward. This was Monday. We had to drive past the Russian River. (Remember, that is the day people could start fishing for reds) There was a line to get into the public parking area along the road. Hundreds of fishermen in the water right there. Crazy! We got to Moose Pass- our home for the next two nights. Moose Pass is on the east side of the Harding Icefield. It sets in a valley. The town got its name because one time a sled dog team carrying mail was stopped by a moose. The town is very small!!! We checked in and headed to Seward. We had a 3:00PM reservation on the boat. The road winds through a valley. Seward is a cute little town. There is a marine center there. We didn't go, but have heard it is nice. We got on the boat with Kenai Fjiord Tours. We were going on a 6 hour cruise out into Resurrection Bay. The boat was a catamaran, brand new and was great! Walter and I took up six seats so no one would sit beside us. I was ready to see some animals!!!!! I would highly recommend this tour!!! We had a wonderful time. The boat was full, but with the layout we didn't feel crowded. There were windows everywhere so when the captain did slow down you could see what was in the water. You could go outside, but it was windy and cold! The cruise included dinner. Plus, you could buy snacks and drinks. The entire area we traveled (120 miles) was highly fortified during World War II. The captain said that the small islands had bunkers and small forts. We saw a whole bunch of animals! Humpback Whales and their babies (5 at least), puffins (the cutest bird ever! they eat so much that they can't fly out of the water!), stellar sea lions (they were very loud), black bear (only 1, he was very curious about the boat), harbor seals (1 family, dad was asleep and the baby waved at us), sea otters and their babies........I was in heaven! We went right up to a glacier and got to hear it!! The noise is indescribable. It calved several times while we were there. I have a video of it, I will have to figure out how to get it linked. We headed back to Moose Pass for the night.

Today we decided to go whitewater rafting along the SixMile Creek. We got up early and tried to get to the place before 9:00AM. Since Walter and I don't plan ahead, we didn't have reservations. The rafting company was outside of Hope, a little town that sits along Turnagain Arm. We got their at 8:15 and woke the guy up. Turns out he wasn't running a 9:00AM trip! Opps!!!! He said for us to come back for the 2PM trip. We went to explore Hope. That took 5 min. Princess Cruise Lines has yet to settle Hope, so the town is still rustic. (As opposed to tourist rustic) We came across a moose female and her baby. Too cute! We went hiking on a trail known for bear sitings. We signed the trail book and saw that for the last couple of days everyone saw bear. Of course Walter and I didn't have any of our supplies with us. No water, bell, camera, binoculars. We had left them at the hotel because we didn't need any of them for rafting. We decided that we didn't want to be front page news, so we went and got bug spray and water. Off we went. Lots of bear scat (poop). The trail was beautiful. In a forest along the side of a mountain. We went in for about an hour and came back out. Since we couldn't talk (because we were out of breath), Walter got a stick and banged it along the trees to make noise. No bear sightings. By this time it was time for lunch and then the raft trip. When we signed up for the raft trip and signed all of our forms, the lady said something about a swim test. I was like, no problem... I can swim. Been swimming for years. I was talking a big game because I had done whitewater rafting before along the Chattooga. (awesome trip girls!) Walter had never been. I was telling him how to paddle and hold on. We had to wear these suits that looked like wet suit but bigger. On the outside of the suit, we had to wear an old pair of tennis shoes. Still, no problem. I can do this! Our guide, Rob, was all excited because the creek had been running high because of the snow melt. So high that next week they were predicting that they would have to close off the creek. We got to the drop out site. We put the rest of our suit on. I couldn't breath. Then add the helmet and life vest. I could barely walk! I started to get worried about the swim test. At this point, Walter is getting excited. As Rob was telling us what to do in certain events, we see another rafting group completing their test swim. The test swim consisted swimming across Class 1 rapids in full gear and then once you get 10-15 feet from the bank, get in the defensive position and float downriver, then swim into a little calm area to wait for the boat. I started to panic. This isn't a swim test. Its a "lets drown the people before we go." I jumped into the river and instantly I felt that I wouldn't make it. The water was so cold and rushing so fast. I had to swim in a 45 degree angle to get across the creek. I took in water with every breath. I thought, I am going to drown during the test swim. I suck!!!! I felt like the harder I swam, the slower I got. It didn't feel like I was making any progress. when I thought I was 10-15 feet from the river bank, I turned over, put my feet up and floated. I realized quickly that I was farther away from the bank then I needed to be. How can I fail the swim test? when I reached the place to swim to the calm area, I had yet to catch my breath and had difficulty getting into the calm water. I missed the turn off and had to have the rescue craft catch me and row me into the calm water. LOSER!!!!! How can I do whitewater rafting if I can't pass the swim test? I got into the calm water and couldn't feel the ground. I basically clawed my way on shore, having a hard time breathing the whole time! I couldn't stand up. Walter had to boost me up. I just knew that I was going to be told to go home. No one else had to have the rescue craft help! I started crying and was trying to tell Walter that I didn't want to do this. How could I survive falling out of the boat if I failed the swim test? He couldn't see me crying because of my glasses and didn't hear me because I had yet to catch my breath. They still let me in the boat, but I had to sit in the back. The rafting was great- Class 3-4. The water was so high we never ran into any rocks. sitting in the back is awesome! I just had to hold on and watch. Walter did so well on his swim test he sat in the front and paddled. Ladies, this was nothing like the Chattooga!!!! We went through two canyons. We pulled over. We had the option of going on to Class 4-5 rapids or stopping. I stopped, Walter went on. He said it was awesome! After we recovered, we went back to Moose Pass and had dinner/drinks. The hotel we stayed at was on a lake that had float planes. We could sit out on the deck, watching the planes land. Beautiful!

The next day (yesterday) we had to head back to Anchorage. Before we left we hiked up to Exit Glacier. you can hike right up to the glacier. The park office had a black board sign outside. This lists the animal sitings by date. It read "6/20- black bear near restrooms, 6/20 brown bear and cub, black bear half mile up trail." Opportunity to see bears! We started hiking. It has been so sunny that parts of the trail were flooded because of glacier melt. We took the .7 mile hike. There was a 7 mile hike up to the Harding Ice Field. The sign said strenuous hike. We didn't take it because if I failed the swim test, how can i hike 7 miles up hill? The hike to the glacier was awesome! when you get closer to the glacier there are no trees. The ground is a dark grey/black, fine rock. Almost dust like in parts. This is what the glacier has grounded down. Walter thought they call it glacier flour. Walter tried to get close enough to touch the glacier. The ropes stopped him. We had a wonderful drive home.

It has been hot in Anchorage- upper 70s. I am ready for it to cool off. No AC hurts! Bob can hardly stand it! Walter is back at work. I am back to being a dutiful housewife. I am going to try and go for a walk. Maybe see about signing up for swim classes. The only animal I have left to see is a brown bear. Will it happen? Aunt Terry, Uncle STan and Scott pass through next week. Can't wait to see them! Ian and John (the 7 Summits Challengers) are on their way to the top. June 19 they had flown up and made it to Base Camp II. If they summit by the 25th, they break the world record. Congrats to Beverly Brostek. She is the new media specialist at BHS. I am glad she got it because I would have felt bad leaving Dawn! I am also sad because this means an end of a friendship between Beverly and me. Good luck Beverly!!! Way to go! I can now focus on the job I really wanted- Stone's job at JMMS. Later! Young and Restless is on.......