A Little Piece of Russia

We meandered down Main St on our way to Safeway this morning for eggs and bagels and had breakfast in their cafe. We really wish the sun would stay out. Today we decided to drive to Anchor Point. We took the Sterling Highway to Old Sterling Highway and drove along the road winding through marsh and ponds. This is the furthest west point of the highway system in North America. Houses and rough cabins dotted the way. A bridge took us across the Anchor River and we arrived in the tiny community. The town received its name after Captain Cook’s ships Resolution and Discovery lost a kedge anchor to the tremendous currents of the area back in 1787.

We decided to take North Fork Drive and followed this through woods until we saw Novalesk Dr. We turned left and came to the small Russian Village of Old Believers, known as Nikolaevsk. The village is made up of 297 descendents of the Old Believers who emigrated from Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917. The village road is dotted with modest homes and large gardens. They keep the Russian Orthodox traditions here. The women and girls still wear ankle length skirts and head scarves, Russian is the 1st language, and the church dictates that males do not shave. Town was very small and centered around the simple Blue & White Russian Church with a gold dome.

Retracing our steps back to the Old Sterling Highway the road turned to dirt and we drove up and over hills with lush green valley views. The brush looks like grass from a distance but its not. The brush here can be 6 feet tall. Very thick weeds, blooming wild flowers, and thick bushes make this an extremely dense area. The road connected up to the Sterling Highway again, which we followed home.

Lots of Rvs are heading out of Homer now but the campground is still full. Its very windy and only 53 degrees.

This was a great day.

Photos: Spit Main Street Shops (2), Looking up Main Street from camp, Campground (2), Novalesk Church

Unique 4th of July

Sunny and it seems like its warmer. Mike and Mary arrived about 10am and we walked down to the ferry office, got our ticket and walked across the main strip to a little coffee shop. With our coffee’s in hand we sat at a little hand painted table on the boardwalk and enjoyed the sun. Soon we meandered down the pier to our brightly painted boat called the Rainbow Connection with an all female crew. The 1 ½ hour ride over to Seldovia was fairly rough. The clouds were back but it was still a nice trip. We could see Sea Otters laying on their backs appear and disappear bobbing in the waves about 100 yards away. The mountains were majestic as we sailed.

This tiny community 15 miles southwest of Homer Spit offers 300 friendly locals, a slow pace, and natural beauty which makes it Alaska’s best kept secret. The laid-back peaceful atmosphere disappears as thousands arrive for 4th of July celebrations. However on the back streets you can still experience the feeling of being in one of the last unspoiled areas of the world. No traffic signs, no road rage, and no big stores. Now we get to experienced this wonderful hidden treasure.

Soon we rounded the point and came into Seldovia Bay with intersting rock formations and people tent camping along the beach. Arriving in Seldovia’s harbor we climbed the ramp and found ourselves in the middle of the festivities. Tables and booths were set up in the town park along the waterfront. Tons of food, craft tables and yellow duckies to buy for the race later today. We bought yellow ducks and put them in the buckets to be released later in the afternoon.

Next we strolled along the historic boardwalk, dating back to 1931, which runs along Seldovia Slough. The houses are weather worn wood shingles and reminds us a lot of Maine. Many have quaint gardens which made the walk really nice. We found some unique items along the way like a birdhouse mailbox with a doorknob and a pair of yellow rope shoes we dubbed "Blanche's shoes ". (Ken's sister Blanche loves shoes). The boardwalk brought us back into town through back streets.

Now it was time for Reindeer Sausage sandwiches. We sat under a tent top eating and watching people. There was a local folk band playing, but not many were paying any attention. Too bad they were pretty good.

Roaming down main street we stopped at the library. They were having a sale and Ken picked up 2 books for $2. Now it was time to watch the games, Tug-O-War visitors against locals (locals won), Egg toss, then the Slimy Fish toss. Finally the Survival Suit relay which was really funny. It was a lot of fun. Next was the Canoe Jousting. We walked through downtown which is really cute. The clouds have come in, its windy, as we parked ourselves on the rocks along the harbor. We watched crazy people climb into canoes, paddle out into the cold gray water and use the paddles to push, shove, and pull each other until one or all fell in! We watched several heats, but got so cold watching we headed for the Linwood Bar for Irish Coffees. Mike had to tell the bartender how to make them.

Now that we’re warmed up we tried to find a place to eat. They were all closed as pretty much everyone has gone home. There was a sandwich shop across from the pier so we had some barely warm soup…eh.

Finally our boat arrived and we sailed back to Homer. The trip back was much calmer. We got into Homer Harbor just before the rain started. We said goodbye and promised to let each other know where we were going next.

Hopefully we could connect up again.

It was a fun 4th of July. They don’t do fireworks here on the 4th because it never gets dark enough!

Photos: Coffee with Mary & Mike, Rainbow Connection, Seldovia Coastline, Seldovia Harbor, Seldovia Waterfront, Welcome to Seldovia, Historic Boardwalk, Jorgenson Park, Unique Mailbox & view, Himalayan Poppy, Blanche's Rope Shoes, Houses on Slough, Otter Carving, Grocery & Jail, Survival Suit Relay

East End Road & Beyond

Went to bed last night at 8:15pm and got up this morning at 10am. Guess we caught up! We decided to do a scenic drive today even though it was cloudy, but the sun is trying to break through. On the way through Homer we found the Sourdough Express for brunch. Great bakery and we had Ham & Cheese Pinwheels. They were really good but a little pricey.

After breakfast we drove the 22 mile East End Rd which runs along a bluff east of Homer. Paved for the first 19 miles it provides breathtaking views of Katchemak Bay. To bad the clouds are too low to see much. As we drove the variations of Alaskan homes kept us interested. They range from old wood cabins, broken trailers with plywood walls around them and modern ranch style homes. There are definitely no zoning laws here. As the road turns to dirt we amble through forested areas, farmland dotted with cattle and ends at the edge of a high brush-covered cliff. Of course the road doesn’t really end! A very poor quality road became steep and twisty as it descends 1,000 feet over the bluff to the beach below. We followed a single track along the beach with Kachemak Bay on our left and grazing cattle and horses on our right. The side of the road is covered with beautiful purple Lupine. We crossed a rickety little wooden bridge and came to a driveway that lead to a ranch house. What a gorgeous spot out here on the bay surrounded by mountains and wilderness. We retraced our steps and headed back to camp.

Bikers participating in the Hoka Hey Bike Race started to arrive on the 'spit' today. They began in Key West, Florida and the race ends July 4 on the ‘spit‘. This is a huge motorcycle race. Most of them will arrive tomorrow.

Our friends Mary & Mike have arrived in Homer and are staying at Bay Crest RV Park. We’ll meet them for a BBQ at their site tonight. We picked up fresh corn and chocolate cake and drove up the Sterling Highway. The sun came out as we pulled into their campground. They have a beautiful spot on a high bluff overlooking Cook Inlet. For the first time we can really see the gorgeous mountains across the inlet. The water is a sapphire blue. We had cocktails and Mike cooked a great pork roast on the grill. It was a great visit and we left about 9:30pm.

Back at camp there is quite a crowd of people, tenters, motorcyclists, Rvs, trailers, and even an old “flower child” van! This is the party hotspot. About 10:30pm cheers started on the beach as a young guy decided to go for a swim…its 49 degrees! However, I think he was well insulated. We sat outside with the neighbors and enjoyed their campfire.

Tomorrow we are going to take a side trip with Mike and Mary. We may stay in Homer an extra day if the weather stays nice so we can take another scenic drive and visit the winery.

There’s a great mix of people here and has been a great experience.

Photos: Going beyond the end of East End Rd, Driving East End Beach Rd, Lupine along the beach road, Climbing back up the bluff, Views across Kachmark Bay, View from Mike & Mary's RV site, Across Cook Inlet from rv park, View of Homer Spit and Kenai Mountains

Halibut Fishing Capital of the World

What a night! People started arriving about 11PM. The folks on our right were really loud. Their parking spot was right outside our bedroom window and after an hour of yelling, loud music and slamming of car doors we had to ask them to quiet down. We have to be up at 5:30am and its well after midnight now. It did feel like everyone was standing in our bedroom! About 3am we slept and we soon crawled out of bed at 5:30am. The sun was shining! We got coffee and donuts at the little grocery and headed for dock EE.

Today we’ll be on the Arctic Endeavor, and we are going Halibut fishing. We met our other 10 fish mates and then the 2 young Chinese ladies arrived. When the captain asked to check everyone’s fishing licenses they said “oh, do we need a license?”..Eh.. So we all waited for them to go up to the dock shop and get licenses. Finally we left the dock and rode 2 hours out into Cook Inlet just off Ninilchik. The sky is cloudy now and the water is like gray suddenly there was a tug on the line. I caught one and it was good size so we kept it. Ken caught one soon after. We fished all morning and I had 3 Halibut that I released and Ken had 2. We were hoping for bigger fish. There is a limit of 2 Halibut per person so we didn’t want to limit out too fast.

“Fish On” called one of the small Chinese women and we could see she had something big! It took quite a while to bring the catch to the boat - it was a huge Sing Ray! The crew helped her bring it on board, they used it for bait.

Back to fishing and by noon most of us had caught fish. Along side the boat a large orange octopus appeared and Mike, our deck mate, brought it on board. Eventually it became bate too.

We took a break for lunch and then it seemed the fish took a break to. No hits. Between the Dramamine, lack of sleep, and all the exercise I couldn’t stay awake. I curled up on the bench inside and took a nap. Ken woke me after a while and said the fish were hitting again. I was bating a hook when Mike yelled ‘ take this’! I grabbed the rod and could see a good size Halibut below me. I brought it in and both of us were done for the day.

Finally everyone had their limit. Mike fillet them all for us on the way back to the harbor. When we got back we took the fillets to the processing store. They will flash freeze it and send it home. We kept some to put in our freezer. We had 24.5 lbs of Halibut!

Leaving the processing store we walked over to the Salty Dawg Saloon to celebrate. It was pretty crowded. We had our Bloody Cesar and went back to camp. We’re both exhausted! We flopped into our chairs and sat out for a while but its really cold. The place is packed with families, groups of bikers, and college kids. Dinner was white corn and salad - yum.

This was a great day and we really enjoyed catching the Halibut. I think we’ve discovered that we prefer river fishing to deep sea fishing.

Photos: Homer small boat harbor, Leaving the harbor early morning, Octopus, Huge Skate, View of mountains while fishing, Our Halibut catch (2), The Salty Dawg Saloon.

End Of The Road

Cloudy morning as we drove to Charlottes Café for breakfast and then to Safeway to replenish the pantry. Now we’re ready to move on. We said good-bye to Mike and Mary and took off down the Kenai Spur Road. Soon we turned right onto Bridge Access Road and then right onto Kalifornsky Beach Road heading south. The volcanoes are hiding in the clouds again. The beach road will take us to the Sterling Highway and the landscape is lush woods and marsh with lots of ‘moose danger zone’ signs. Mt Redoubt appears in front of us but we can only see the bottom half.

We rolled through Clam Gulch and passed spruce meadows covered in clumps of purple and white Lupine. It seemed like no time before we were at the top of Homer Hill overlooking Kachemark Bay. Pulling into a turnout we got our first view of a narrow, wiggly strip of land jutting into the waters of the bay known as Homer Spit. The Sterling Highway finally gets to where it’s going… Homer. The highway sweeps down a hill along the bay, skirting the older part of Homer and runs onto the Homer Spit where it ends abruptly at the water.

Our surroundings are magical. Kachemak Bay runs on both sides with the snow covered Kenai Mountains as a backdrop. The ocean crashes onto the rocks of the 5-mile long Homer Spit. The road is lined with old boat yards, little wooden sea shops, homes and spruce trees turned upside-down in the sand. Locals bury the trees with their knarled roots upward for eagles to land on. The Salty Dawg Saloon, a well known landmark, is on our left sitting on the edge of the bay. It reminds us of Cape Code with sand dunes and lot of sea grass.

Just before reaching the end of the ‘spit’ we found our campground on the right sitting on a small piece of beach. We were lucky and got upgraded from an inside spot to a bay view and it’s perfect. After setting up we put out our chairs and settled in. The park itself is not pretty but we wanted to be where the action is this weekend. It sits on a strip of beach and the sites are very narrow with logs set out to identify where one site borders the next. This is 4th of July weekend and we were lucky to get a site.

Time to check the place out. First stop was the small boat harbor to find out where our tour leaves from in the morning. We watched some folks fillet their catch, some nice Halibut and Black Bass. There were a pair of eagles sitting on top of the light post in the parking lot squawking away. I think they wanted the fish.

We drove back down the strip and stopped for lunch at the Fresh Catch Café. I had a Rockfish sandwich and a cup of Razor Clam Chowder. It was good, but not many clams in the chowder.

Back at camp the light keeps changing - sun, clouds, showers - it’s cool and breezy. There will be a lot more people arriving soon as they are full for the weekend. We sat outside for a while. There’s just enough space to put our chairs next to the coach without encroaching on the next site. The clouds are rising a little so we went for a walk up the ‘spit’. Walking along the shoreline we stopped at the Seafarer’s Memorial which remembers those lost at sea.

After our walk we just relaxed and went to bed. We're really looking forward to staying here.

Photos: View of spit from Homer Hill, Kenai Mountain across Cook Inlet, Our campsite, Homer Spit Main St shops, Seafarers Memorial

Ring of Fire

Woke up to sun! Ken did laundry and I washed the floor and blogged. It was cool and windy on the bluff but with the screen door open inside was cozy with a great view across the Inlet. I kept checking the mountains across the Inlet, but unfortunately they are still hard to see.

The mountains are part of what is known as the ‘Ring of Fire’. Within the north-south spine of the Chigmit Mountains are five active peaks. Mount Spurr, 11,070 ft, last erupted in 1992, Mount Redoubt is part of this chain, and directly across from the campground is Mount Iliamna, 10,016 ft surrounded by glaciers. Mount Augustine and Mount Douglas complete this eruptive chain. We do hope we’ll have a clear day so we can see them.

Ken & our neighbor Mike decided to go to Centennial Park fishing, This gave us each a day to ourselves. I did some reading and finally finished the first book in the Twilight Saga. It was good and I could visualize the area because we traveled through Forks, Washington on our way to Alaska. Having a day like this was good for both of us.

After the guys got back we had cocktails outside.

Our new kayaks arrived and we packed them into the jeep. We still have quite a bit of room! We stored the extra inflatable seats and oars under the bed.

After dinner we watched TV and got ready to leave tomorrow.

It was a good day.

Photos: Mt Redoubt Volcano across Cook Inlet, View across the inlet from camp.

Special Moose Moments...

Went back to Veronica’s for pastry and coffee this morning. Much better. Today we’ll head north up the Kenai Spur Highway to Nikiski. This is a rural town mainly supported by gas and petroleum companies like Conoco and Tesoro. We passed huge refineries and then found ourselves back in the forest again. The road follows along the Cook Inlet. Unfortunately the clouds are covering Mt. Spurr Volcano which should be directly in front of us. Nikiski is a popular recreational area.

One of the state’s most beautiful state park is located at the end of the Spur Highway. Just before entering the Captain Cook State Recreation Area we saw a mother moose with twins. The babies are a chestnut brown with big ears and eyes. They are really funny to watch. Their legs are so long they wobble as they try to follow mom through the marsh and tall grasses.

Further up, the road changes from pavement to gravel and then ends on a bluff overlooking Cook Inlet. We drove up on top of the bluff but the sand was pretty thick so we didn’t venture any further. It was low tide and not much to look at. We couldn’t get pictures because the cloud cover and the water are all the same color…gray!

Back in the car we headed south and saw another moose and baby. It was still early so we retraced our steps and continued south to the town of Kasilof. Kasilof has no stoplights, traffic jams, or factories. People are proud of their small town life. They grow their own potatoes, catch their own salmon, and respect the land they live on. We wanted to check out the area to see if we wanted to camp here. The focus here is really salmon fishing. There were very few people around which told us the fish aren’t running right now.

We continued down North Cohoe Loop Road that winds along the Kasilof River. The Cohoe Loop Road is one of the side routes noted in our Milepost… so off we went. We stopped at several Crooked Creek access points and then found ourselves at the end of another road. This one ended on the beach at the mouth of the Kasilof River and Cook Inlet. The clouds are starting to lift but I still can’t get pictures. People were setting up tents and camping along the bluff. We decided this was a good place to have our picnic lunch.

Leaving the beach we turned left down South Cohoe Loop Road. Along the way there was this single track side road that went through some trees right up to the edge of the bluff. We had great views and were surrounded with beautiful wild flowers. We sat here for a while just enjoying our surroundings. (Yes, we even took a nap…)

Back at camp we relaxed outside. We have new neighbors from Rochester, NY (Mary & Mike). We exchanged travel stories over gin & tonics and had a fun time.

As the temperature started to drop we went in for dinner. I made our new roast beef sandwich (horseradish, swiss, caramelized onions, & tomato) and grilled them. Yum.

We watched TV for a while.

Photos: Our table on Veronica's porch, Mom & Babies, Twins, Lunch time, South Cohoe Loop Overlook

Town of Living Trees

It stopped raining but is still cloudy. We walked over to Veronica’s Coffeehouse in Old Town Kenai for breakfast. The building is historically known as the Oskolkof/Dolchok House. It was initially built in 1918 of hand hewn logs by farmer John Oskolkof. In 1945 it became the Dolchok home. It is one of the few remaining buildings in Kenai to illustrate the early community buildings. Veronicas is really a cute little building with lots of atmosphere…the quiche was awful. Should have had the pastries!

Veronica’s sits on the border of Old Town. We took a trip down memory lane and took the self-guided tour. Russian occupation of Kenai and the close town of Kasilof at the end of the 18th century led to the Battle of Kenai in 1797. The local Athabaskans defeated the Russians, and the Kenai River remained Athabaskan territory until the U.S. purchased Alaska in 1867. Our first stop was St Nicholai’s Chapel which was built in 1906. This is a memorial to Father Nicholai which sits on the site of the original church. He was honored for his distribution of the fist smallpox vaccine in the territory. Across the street was the Holy Assumption of the Virgin Mary Russian Orthodox Church which is a sight of beauty. It was built in 1791 and services are still held here every week.

After touring we walked back to the campground which sits on the edge of Old Town. Next we went to find the UPS office. Believe it or not we decided to mail the boat and its accessories home. After unloading all the stuff we have in the back of the Jeep onto the sidewalk of the strip mall Ken talked to the ladies in the UPS office. They found a box and the ladies and Ken maneuvered it out through the door to the sidewalk. We now have a crowd wondering “what are they doing”….. The ladies held the box while Ken shoved the boat in - success! (He even tried to sell it to some guy who was walking down the sidewalk…no deal.) After this comedy we returned to camp.

After lunch we went to check out Centennial Park. Kenai has several town parks. Most of them border the Kenai River and the locals told us there was good fishing access. We talked with a local man sitting on the shore in his lounge chair. He gave us some suggestions on types of bait to use and told us the best time to fish was ½ before or after the tide change. The tide was out so we moved on.

Leaving the park we headed into Soldotna to see the Town of Living Trees. The “town” sits on the side of the Sterling Highway and is a group of local artists who do some fantastic wood carvings. Some of them are huge! There was a carousel where all the animals were hand carved, statues, and a fish you can ride. Yep I had to try…I got on and then couldn’t get down…A man sitting on a bench helped by getting a ladder. Nothing like entertaining the locals! We had a lot of fun here.

The sun is out now and we sat outside and enjoyed our view. The couple parked next to us stopped by. They are from Laconia, New Hampshire. About 6:30 we headed back to another Oilers game. The game was great and the Oiler’s pitcher pitched a no hitter!

Back at camp I updated the log. The view is gorgeous now and the water is blue not gray. There are a bunch of fishing boats racing for the harbor. Its fun to watch them.

It was a good day.

Photos: Veronica's Coffeehouse, Inside Veronica's, St Nicholai Chapel, Assumption of the Virgin Mary Russian Orthodox Church, Carving- Mine, Mine, Mine, Carving - Ken and friend, Carving - Riding the fish, Carving- Carousel (2), Carving- Chair, Fishing boats in Cook Inlet.