Kachemack Bay to Seward
Hi Everyone!
This is the third installment of Ed and Kenneth's trip to Alaska and back.
At the end of the last letter, we were headed to a cabin across Kachemak Bay from Homer. The cabin was a very nice, almost new one room building with 3 double beds, a large table with benches, a wood-burning stove and a gas lantern. It was situated on a scenic inlet called Halibut Cove. As tour guides and museums will constantly point out, all of the inlets and bays along the Alaskan coast are actually fjords carved by glaciers, some quite recently. The bays are often over 1000 feet deep with steep mountains or cliffs coming right out of the water. Many of the mountains are still covered with patches of snow (not to mention the occasional glacier) and the vegetation is green, green, GREEN. This is sort of scenery that we had near our cabin. The setting was idylic and the only sounds to be heard as night fell were the howling of the coyotes and Ed and Kenneth debating some inane philosophical topic in loud voices. During the 2 days we were there, Ed sat on a bluff overlooking the bay watching the wildlife to give his injured heel time to get better. (He had agravated an old injury while on our strenuous hike in Denali.) This wasn't as bad as it might sound due to the many bald eagles, sea otters and porpoises in the bay. He was even treated to a seaplane landing. Kenneth took a couple of day hikes, one to a scenic back country lake and the other to the cove to the south of the cabin. There was a large amount of bear scat on both trails, but no bears were encountered. On the second hike Kenneth met a couple riding bike boats. These are strange contraptions with two pontoons supporting a single chair in the center. A rod with the screw and dagger-board is lowered into the water after you get away from shore and you peddle and operate arm levers to power it. The entire chair leans from side to side to steer. It really moves quickly, but is obviously not so great in high winds, as the chair sits up fairly high.
The night after leaving the cabin, we spent at the campground in Homer. The next morning we took the scenic drive to Seward, which is situated on the southeastern shore of the Kenai peninsula. The weather worsened steadily, so that when we reached Seward it was lightly raining and somewhat cold. The next day we spent at the local historical museum and at the Alaska SeaLife Center. This is a 50 million dollar research facility and visitor center built in large part with Exxon oil spill money. They have a great exhibit on the oil spill (as you might imagine) as well as tanks containing sealions, harbor seals and puffins. We spent several hours there and found it well worth the time, especially in the rain.
The next day we boarded a large tour boat and headed out to Fox Island about an hour's ride from Seward down Resurrection Bay (another fjord, of course). There we met Ray, who was to be our sea kayaking guide for the next 3 days. We were the only two people who showed up for the 3 day guided trip. We had reserved this trip back in Fairbanks. We had an all you can eat meal of fresh salmon at the lodge, which is the only development on the island. We then loaded up our two man kayak, Ray loaded up his single, and off we paddled. We paddled an hour or so to another cove on the island and set up our camp on the beach. We had brought our tent, but Ray supplied all the food and a much needed canopy for cooking and eating under. (It rained during almost every meal we ate at camp.) That afternoon, the rain abated for a while and we paddled for 4 hours all the way around Fox Island The scenery was breathtaking. We found ourselves getting along very well with Ray. He had a good sense of humor and lots of patience. We discovered that Ray liked to get away from civilization in his kayak. He told us that he has spent 3 months paddling the entire southeast coast of Alaska. During this time he only went to a town for supplies twice! He went for a 12 day trip around Prince William Sound a few days after our tour. This is a guy who really likes to get away from it all! That night we had an excellent meal of pasta and vegetables. In fact, every meal we had on the tour was great. The next morning, we got up and had breakfast in the rain. When we got ready to leave, though, the rain stopped and the sky started to clear. We headed across the bay to a craggy mountainous spit of land called Resurrection Point. We paddled to within a few feet of several seabird rookeries with puffins, meurres and cormorants. We sat quietly about 100 feet away from about 15 sea lions bellowing and fighting with each other on a rock. We sat huddled in a tiny spot of beach wolfing down lunch with a rising tide threatening to wash us away if we stayed too long. This was really the only problem. We couldn't get out of the boats because the bay is so steep that there are literally almost no places to beach a kayak. This made for very sore rear ends.
We were able to go ashore up the coast in a little cove where a friend of Ray's was building his house. It was a gorgeous location, and we had hot chocolate and enjoyed the view until our butts were reluctantly ready for the paddle back to our campsite on Sunny Cove. We circled Fox Island for the second time and got into camp in time for a delicious meal of stir-fried veggies, prepared once again by chef-and-adventurer Ray. The next day we awoke to rain and howling wind, but as usual it abated after breakfast so we could paddle back to the lodge in time for yet another salmon bake and our tour boat ride back to Seward. On the tour boat we visited some of the area we had kayaked, and found that although we got a little closer to the wildlife while in the kayaks, the captian of the tour boat was able to maneuver us almost as close.
The next day we took a full day cruise out to a tidewater glacier in Northwestern Fjord. Now, there are three types of glaciers. Tidewater glaciers flow out of the mountains all the way into the sea, where they calve into icebergs. Another type of glacier is the Piedmont, which flows down a valley but doesn't reach the sea. And finally there's the cirque glacier, which forms in a bowl-like depression in a mountain. On the trip we have now seen all three types, but this was the first tidewater glacier either of us had ever seen. On the way out we were treated to the sight of a humpback whale feeding on the rich plankton near the shore. We got the classic tail fluke wave as he dove deep and went on his way. We also saw many puffins and other seabirds, sea otters, and bald eagles as well. As we approached the glacier we slowed down, threading our way through a sea of small icebergs, some bumping gingerly against the hull. We thought surely the captain would stop soon, but instead he continued to pick his way around the ice, with a few seals watching us from the icebergs they were lounging on. When we got to within a few thousand yards of the glacier the captian cut the engines. We all watched as the massive river of ice creaked and groaned. We saw several small icefalls, and one that lasted for a couple minutes. None of us wanted to leave, but after about twenty minutes the engines started and we slowly made our way out of the iceberg field and back toward Seward. On the return trip we saw a large colony of sea lions on their "haul outs", basking in the sun. We noticed that the boat was heading away from the planned route, and we were told a killer whale, or Orca, had been sighted nearby. Sure enough, in a few minutes we spotted a pod of killer whales. We saw their dorsal fins and the ocassional black/white body. By the time we returned to Seward we agreed we had definitely gotten our money's worth out of the cruise.
This is the third installment of Ed and Kenneth's trip to Alaska and back.
At the end of the last letter, we were headed to a cabin across Kachemak Bay from Homer. The cabin was a very nice, almost new one room building with 3 double beds, a large table with benches, a wood-burning stove and a gas lantern. It was situated on a scenic inlet called Halibut Cove. As tour guides and museums will constantly point out, all of the inlets and bays along the Alaskan coast are actually fjords carved by glaciers, some quite recently. The bays are often over 1000 feet deep with steep mountains or cliffs coming right out of the water. Many of the mountains are still covered with patches of snow (not to mention the occasional glacier) and the vegetation is green, green, GREEN. This is sort of scenery that we had near our cabin. The setting was idylic and the only sounds to be heard as night fell were the howling of the coyotes and Ed and Kenneth debating some inane philosophical topic in loud voices. During the 2 days we were there, Ed sat on a bluff overlooking the bay watching the wildlife to give his injured heel time to get better. (He had agravated an old injury while on our strenuous hike in Denali.) This wasn't as bad as it might sound due to the many bald eagles, sea otters and porpoises in the bay. He was even treated to a seaplane landing. Kenneth took a couple of day hikes, one to a scenic back country lake and the other to the cove to the south of the cabin. There was a large amount of bear scat on both trails, but no bears were encountered. On the second hike Kenneth met a couple riding bike boats. These are strange contraptions with two pontoons supporting a single chair in the center. A rod with the screw and dagger-board is lowered into the water after you get away from shore and you peddle and operate arm levers to power it. The entire chair leans from side to side to steer. It really moves quickly, but is obviously not so great in high winds, as the chair sits up fairly high.
The night after leaving the cabin, we spent at the campground in Homer. The next morning we took the scenic drive to Seward, which is situated on the southeastern shore of the Kenai peninsula. The weather worsened steadily, so that when we reached Seward it was lightly raining and somewhat cold. The next day we spent at the local historical museum and at the Alaska SeaLife Center. This is a 50 million dollar research facility and visitor center built in large part with Exxon oil spill money. They have a great exhibit on the oil spill (as you might imagine) as well as tanks containing sealions, harbor seals and puffins. We spent several hours there and found it well worth the time, especially in the rain.
The next day we boarded a large tour boat and headed out to Fox Island about an hour's ride from Seward down Resurrection Bay (another fjord, of course). There we met Ray, who was to be our sea kayaking guide for the next 3 days. We were the only two people who showed up for the 3 day guided trip. We had reserved this trip back in Fairbanks. We had an all you can eat meal of fresh salmon at the lodge, which is the only development on the island. We then loaded up our two man kayak, Ray loaded up his single, and off we paddled. We paddled an hour or so to another cove on the island and set up our camp on the beach. We had brought our tent, but Ray supplied all the food and a much needed canopy for cooking and eating under. (It rained during almost every meal we ate at camp.) That afternoon, the rain abated for a while and we paddled for 4 hours all the way around Fox Island The scenery was breathtaking. We found ourselves getting along very well with Ray. He had a good sense of humor and lots of patience. We discovered that Ray liked to get away from civilization in his kayak. He told us that he has spent 3 months paddling the entire southeast coast of Alaska. During this time he only went to a town for supplies twice! He went for a 12 day trip around Prince William Sound a few days after our tour. This is a guy who really likes to get away from it all! That night we had an excellent meal of pasta and vegetables. In fact, every meal we had on the tour was great. The next morning, we got up and had breakfast in the rain. When we got ready to leave, though, the rain stopped and the sky started to clear. We headed across the bay to a craggy mountainous spit of land called Resurrection Point. We paddled to within a few feet of several seabird rookeries with puffins, meurres and cormorants. We sat quietly about 100 feet away from about 15 sea lions bellowing and fighting with each other on a rock. We sat huddled in a tiny spot of beach wolfing down lunch with a rising tide threatening to wash us away if we stayed too long. This was really the only problem. We couldn't get out of the boats because the bay is so steep that there are literally almost no places to beach a kayak. This made for very sore rear ends.
We were able to go ashore up the coast in a little cove where a friend of Ray's was building his house. It was a gorgeous location, and we had hot chocolate and enjoyed the view until our butts were reluctantly ready for the paddle back to our campsite on Sunny Cove. We circled Fox Island for the second time and got into camp in time for a delicious meal of stir-fried veggies, prepared once again by chef-and-adventurer Ray. The next day we awoke to rain and howling wind, but as usual it abated after breakfast so we could paddle back to the lodge in time for yet another salmon bake and our tour boat ride back to Seward. On the tour boat we visited some of the area we had kayaked, and found that although we got a little closer to the wildlife while in the kayaks, the captian of the tour boat was able to maneuver us almost as close.
The next day we took a full day cruise out to a tidewater glacier in Northwestern Fjord. Now, there are three types of glaciers. Tidewater glaciers flow out of the mountains all the way into the sea, where they calve into icebergs. Another type of glacier is the Piedmont, which flows down a valley but doesn't reach the sea. And finally there's the cirque glacier, which forms in a bowl-like depression in a mountain. On the trip we have now seen all three types, but this was the first tidewater glacier either of us had ever seen. On the way out we were treated to the sight of a humpback whale feeding on the rich plankton near the shore. We got the classic tail fluke wave as he dove deep and went on his way. We also saw many puffins and other seabirds, sea otters, and bald eagles as well. As we approached the glacier we slowed down, threading our way through a sea of small icebergs, some bumping gingerly against the hull. We thought surely the captain would stop soon, but instead he continued to pick his way around the ice, with a few seals watching us from the icebergs they were lounging on. When we got to within a few thousand yards of the glacier the captian cut the engines. We all watched as the massive river of ice creaked and groaned. We saw several small icefalls, and one that lasted for a couple minutes. None of us wanted to leave, but after about twenty minutes the engines started and we slowly made our way out of the iceberg field and back toward Seward. On the return trip we saw a large colony of sea lions on their "haul outs", basking in the sun. We noticed that the boat was heading away from the planned route, and we were told a killer whale, or Orca, had been sighted nearby. Sure enough, in a few minutes we spotted a pod of killer whales. We saw their dorsal fins and the ocassional black/white body. By the time we returned to Seward we agreed we had definitely gotten our money's worth out of the cruise.
