Month: July 2017

Sunday we drove north from Homer trying to decide where we would stop for the night. We decided our destination would be in the area of Soldotna and the town of Kenai. Just before arriving in Soldotna we made a stop at a woodworking shop beside the highway. It is known as “Three Guys, No Wood”. They make turned bowls, plates, vases, etc. The product they have is beautiful and they also offer woodturning classes. We considered Paul having a 1/2 day class, but he decided that since he doesn’t have a lathe at home to practice what he is shown, it wasn’t the right time for it. Guess it’s an excuse to come back to Alaska again!!

We arrived at the campground we had picked – and got to a REAL campsite. Not a parking lot, nice treed lot and lots of space between sites. It also had a picnic table and fireplace, something we haven’t had for over a week.

We got the trailer unhooked, had a bite of lunch and then headed out for a walk down to the river. At the river, people were lined up at the shore fishing. The river was running fast, and everyone had on chest waders. Really good to see that the kids all had on lifejackets, whether they were fishing or just playing at the water’s edge. Alaska has this program where at public water accesses, they have kids’ lifejackets hanging for people to borrow.

This fishing is different from what they do in the saltwater. It is done with a single hook and you just keep throwing the line in and out, hoping to actually pass the hook through the fish’s mouth because they aren’t hungry anymore so won’t take bait well. There were a few being caught but certainly not in the numbers that we saw in the ocean at Seward.

We headed back to the trailer, put some supper on the barbeque and enjoyed a nice campfire.

Monday we headed out for a drive up through Soldotna and Kenai to Captain Cook State Park. It was a dull day, and we wondered if we might see rain. On our return, we saw another new type of fishing for us – dip-netting. It can only be done by those who actually live in Alaska. They have a huge net (up to 5 or 6 feet in diameter) that they stand on the shore and hold vertically waiting for the fish to get caught as they swim along. It was a real family affair we discovered as the sand beach was full of people who had set up camp everywhere.

Afterwards, we took the opportunity to get the oil changed in the truck which will last us until we get home. We may stick around at this campsite for the next couple of days – there is supposed to be rain moving in for a few days and since the site is so nice, we may wait it out.

After that, it’s Anchorage and north!

 

Our time in Homer was dull with light rain and low clouds most of the time. We found a camping site out on the “spit”. Most camping in Homer is either expensive, privately owned campgrounds that are basically in a gravel parking lot with hydro and water or city-owned in a gravel parking lot with no services except central water and dump station. Although we arrived in early afternoon after a stop in Soldotna for groceries and a visit to the “Moose is Loose” bakery, any chance of a waterfront site was long gone. We backed into a site and set up, drove back into Homer to check out one other city-owned site, and came back to where we had set up the trailer. The campground in town had very small back-in campsites and most wouldn’t accommodate our trailer. There were also a few sites along the beach, but they were for tents only.

There are lots of little shops out on the Spit. You walk along from section to section on a boardwalk and everything from trinket shops to restaurants to charters are set up. The wharf is right in that area so there is lots of activity around. We walked out along the beach (the tide was in so we couldn’t walk out very far) and then came back along the boardwalk and took a peek into some of the shops. We stopped to talk with one company taking flights over across the bay to one of the two national parks to do bear viewing – some of them land of the beach and then you walk into the meadow with your pilot/guide and sit as a group to watch the grizzly (brown) bears as they come grazing through on the sedge grasses. Although tempting, the $700 a person for between 5 and 7 hours of a trip was a bit much we decided.

Friday was mostly drizzling, so we took the opportunity to head in and do our laundry and get caught up around the trailer. When we got back to the trailer just before supper time, we decided to check out the little theatre that was doing “Chicago” this month. It was their second last night and they were sold out but had told me the night before that there would likely be last minute tickets available as people would likely turn some back in. Sure enough, I got first in line and we were able to spend the evening watching a very well done, amateur production of the musical. Looking at the building from the outside, it was hard to believe they could have any room for a stage, much less a 12 person orchestra (very professional too).

Saturday the rain lifted for a bit; it was market day in Homer so we stopped in and checked out the stalls. We picked up another bunch of rhubarb but unfortunately both my fridge and freezer are quite full and we didn’t have room for much at all. There were a lot of fresh veggies for sale – a lot of people advertising pestiside-free. Many people have some type of greenhouse in order to extend their growing season. In the afternoon, we took a drive high overlooking the bay. The fog had lifted as we drove out and we saw some neat landscapes.

On our way back however, the fog had started to roll back in and you could actually see the line where it was advancing. Our campsite was a bit foggy out on the spit.

There is a salt-water fish pond right beside where we are camping. It is busy most of the time. It is stocked with salmon – right now king salmon that are averaging 20-40 pounds and soon they will stock it with silver salmon. We’ve seen some of the catches people have had – there is a fish-cleaning area right beside so we see people coming back from a day on the boat with halibut and also those fishing in the pond beside that have salmon. Joyce is tempted, but it means another licence and then also adding in a “king salmon stamp” so for just a day, it ends up costing $40. If our freezer wasn’t full, Joyce would be seriously considering it.

We’ve decided tomorrow we will leave Homer and head back up the Kenai in search of some streams with large pools of salmon spawning. We’re also tired of camping in a parking lot and are going to look for a “real campground” for a couple of days before heading back through Anchorage.