Exploring Around Town

Raw, cold, and rainy this morning. Had breakfast and decided to visit Wal-Mart for haircuts. Now that we’ve been carrying our inflatable pontoon boat around with us we’ve decided it really isn’t working for us. We decided to send it home. Naturally we had to replace it. We ordered 2 inflatable kayaks from Sea Eagle. They will pack smaller and we can use them in more places. They’ll ship them to our campground here and we’ll have them in a couple of days.

After all our errands were done we drove down the Bridge Access Road past the Kenai River Flats to do some wildlife viewing. This is a great stop for birders and a key migration area for Siberian snow geese. We walked the boardwalk across the flats hoping to see Caribou. Unfortunately we learned they are here in the late fall as part of their migration.

There wasn’t anything to see today as the tide was out so we continued on to Kalifornsky Beach Road. This road runs along Cook Inlet but it’s too fogged in. On a clear day Mount Redoubt Volcano would be right in front of us. Mount Redoubt is snow covered and stands 10,198 feet above sea level. After nearly 20 years of silence, Redoubt erupted in 2009 sending ash plumes 30,000 to 60,000 feet high. Driving south we check out Kenai Landing. According to our brochure this is a 1920’s era Salmon cannery with gallery’s, shops, and restaurants. We were hoping to see the fishermen unload the days catch. Unfortunately the landing looks like its been closed for a while. It was deserted!

We drove back and continued into the town of Soldotna. World War II veterans were among the very first homesteaders here. The area opened for homesteading in 1947 and veterans were granted a 90-day preference over non-veterans in choosing and filing for land. Getting to the area was difficult; some flew or took a barge to Kenai, then walked the 11 miles to Soldotna. Others took a train to Moose Pass and sloshed 70 miles through mud. In 1949, Soldotna obtained its first post office and the town was settled.

Soldotna is a pretty busy place, full of stores, outfitters, and tour offices. However, the Visitor Center is “Where its at”. The Kenai River is one of Alaska’s great treasures and runs right through town and past the center. The watershed covers 2200 square miles. They’ve built a 250 ft Classic Fish walk. The iron walk can be accessed by a set of stairs. Because the river does not have a gentle sloping bank the walk meanders along the shoreline to protect the vegetation. There are steps that go right down into the water where you can wade and benches where you can sit and watch the swift river and wildlife. There were a few people fishing today even though the weather is so miserable.

We decided not to fish today but the access is really good. Back at camp a caravan of 45 motor homes had arrived. They are the same ones that were in the campground in Fairbanks with us. We made pork tenderloin, potato and corn on the cob for dinner. We spent the evening trying to decide which tour we want to take while we’re here. We found one that would have us fishing with the bears. We need to learn more about it, but it looks great.

It was still a good day.