Anchorage, Crow Creek Mine, Seward, and the Kenai Peninsula to Homer

(posted from the Homer, AK Safeway)
(This post covers August 5-9, 2008)

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Saturday, 9 August-

We woke to light-overcast-and-50 weather and the sound of loons calling this morning. Labashi had been up early and had seen five loons in the lake near our campsite.
After we broke camp we continued driving the dirt Skilac Lake Loop Road, stopping at each of the viewpoints and driving through each camping area. The views are incredible. Jagged, snow-capped mountains in the middle-distance in all directions, pretty little wilderness lakes and mixed forest closer to us. The Refuge was originally set aside as a national moose refuge but we’ve only seen a few of them—a young bull yesterday and a youngish cow with calf today, all right along the road.
We rejoined the hard road at Sterling and drove on to the town of Kenai. There we found the Beluga Overlook. The Overlook sits high above Cook Inlet and according to the signs, we would be able to see three volcanoes in the distance on a clear day. But not this morning. We also visited a Russian Orthodox church just down the street from the Overlook. An attendant gave us a quick overview of this area. Kenai was originally a native settlement and when our attendant was a little girl it had only 300 people. But the discovery of oil brought rapid growth in the Seventies. Also, two chemical plants and several fish canneries opened. Today the chemical plants only have skeleton crews and the canneries are struggling. There is much concern for the salmon and the ever-more-stringent limits which have to be placed on the salmon fishery. Tourism is big business but spiraling gas prices have hurt that too.
After Kenai we drove out interestingly-named Kalifornsky Beach Road and were stuck in a construction zone for a half-hour before we could get by and rejoin the Sterling Highway. We could see glimpses of Cook Inlet beyond the vegetation lining Kalifornsky Beach Road but once back on the Sterling, the sun came out, the road started climbing and descending and we were offered views of the Inlet and the mountains beyond. At Ninilchik, we visited yet another Russian Orthodox church, this one on a bluff overlooking the Inlet and the little village below.
We drove down to the village and the waterfront, idling slowly along as we took in the magnificent scenery.
A few miles later we visited the Norman Lowell Gallery back a narrow dirt road. Mr. Lowell has been painting since the Forties and has built a very professional gallery worthy of any art-loving city. He has hundreds of paintings on display and has collected beautiful artwork (mostly three-dimensional works) to accompany them.
As we browsed into the second room, still trying to take in the incredible variety of his body of work and his collection, an older gentleman approached and welcomed us. It was the artist. We delighted in having the chance to make small-talk with him. Later, in the sales shop we had another exchange with him about our favorite of his paintings- ‘Russian Influence’.
We continued south to Homer and as we neared we stopped at an overlook above the city. This is undoubtedly the best viewpoint. For 180-degrees we see snow-capped mountains off in the distance. To the right and far below, Kachemak Bay meets Cook Inlet. Ships on it are little toys and it reflects the sky and clouds, making unprecedented shades of blue and green. Off to the left and in the distance is Homer Spit, a long, narrow arm of land curving away from us. Lasbashi almost wore out the word ‘Wow!’ in one visit here. We tried to capture it in photos but I’m sure with little success—you just can’t capture the sense of scale in a photo.
We drove into Homer and visited each of the city-owned campgrounds, knowing they may be full since today is the start of the Silver Salmon Derby, a fishing contest. We picked out a couple of possibilities and then kept going.
We visited the Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor’s Center where we saw a film about research in the Aleutians and toured the well-designed exhibits. I particularly liked a computer-driven one where you saw a map of Alaska and could select research briefs on different offshore islands. The view then zoomed in on the island selected, showing an aerial view, then showed footage of researchers working on and explaining their projects. If I had seen footage like this when I was in junior high, I would have wanted to be a wildlife specialist—what a cool job!
The museum closed at 1800 and kicked us out. We drove out of Homer to the east and decided to try the Homestead Restaurant which apparently has a good reputation. Today is my birthday so the birthday boy had prime rib and Labashi had freshly-caught silver salmon.
Afterwards we drove to the end of the hard road, marveling at the glaciers atop the mountains across the Bay, then turned back to our campground in the hills above Homer.

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Friday, 8 August-

Today was our departure day from Seward but first we drove south to Lowell Point for the view. We then shopped for essentials at the Safeway and visited the sani-dump before heading north.
Just a few miles out of Seward is the ‘Exit Glacier’ unit of Kenai Fjords National Park. The Exit Glacier is a glacier outfall from the Harding Icefield in the mountains above. We walked a half-mile to the first view of the glacier above the braided river, a massive, almost ominous presence. Another trail took us another half-mile above and to it’s edge where we could see the blue of the calving ice. As we climbed the trail we had to take off our jackets but then the trail led us out near the glacier and we felt the cold air flowing heavily down along it, just as we had two summers ago on the Columbia Icefield in the Canadian Rockies. The valley all around us was absolutely pristine and stunning and we stared and tried to capture a sense of it with our cameras.
After the Exit Glacier we headed just a few miles north to Lost Lake Trailhead. I had read about Lost Lake Trail in a copy of ‘Trail Runner’ magazine distributed by the Seward Visitor’s Center; it’s one of the top trails in Alaska.
The trail immediately climbed steeply but we took our time. We were in old-growth woods and everything around us had massive proportions. As the steep trail leveled off we saw a beautiful side trail leading off to the right and took it, thinking it was leading off to the next valley over but after a while it started a series of switchbacks and circled us around to our parking lot and there we noticed rain clouds starting to gather.
We drove north in on-again-off-again rain and turned toward Homer at the Sterling/Seward intersection. Shortly after making that turn we saw a sign at a turnout about salmon-viewing. There we saw a dozen-or-so big sockeye salmon cruising the clear water for insects. Their bodies looked like they were on fire, they were so red. We talked for a bit with a young ranger-woman who gave us the following tip on how to remember the various species of salmon.
Look at your hand to remind you of the salmon. The little finger is the pinky and has a humped shape, reminding you of ‘pink’ or ‘humpback’ salmon. The ring finger could have a silver ring on it and reminds you of silver salmon (also called coho). The middle finger is the longest one and reminds you of Chinook (the longest salmon-word) or King salmon. The index finger could be used to poke at or take a ‘sock’ at your eye, reminding you of the sockeye salmon. And poking your eye would make it red, the color of the sockeye salmon.
We had intended to go on to Homer today but we also wanted to drive into the Kenai Wilderness Refuge and we saw there are some free campsites in the Refuge. After spending two days among the crowds at Seward, we were ready for some solitude. We drove eight miles out the Refuge road to Lower Ohmer Lake, where we found a nice little tent campground of just four sites on the lake and had it to ourselves.
Lower Ohmer Lake is a loon nesting site and we saw a solitary one out in the middle of the lake, repeatedly diving for his supper. Later, we heard his wonderful trill, but only twice.
We spent the evening reading and blogging and occasionally scanning the lake and mountains.

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Thursday, 7 August-

We heard the fishing ‘fleet’ going out early this morning and I noticed the RVs on either side of us had turned around early this morning, apparently to lower the noise level. But I didn’t think it that bad. We slept soundly until eight.
Though Seward has been having a very bad summer of rain and cloud, we had a great, sunny morning today.
We rode the bikes to the Sea-Life Museum and locked the bikes up, intending to walk to the Seward Historical Museum, then come back for the Sea-Life Museum. The Historical Museum was very good--- well-organized and very thorough. One of the highlights for me was seeing a photo of ‘The Land of the Soviets’, a very strange-looking airplane that landed in Seward in the late 20’s. This airplane was part of a campaign to demonstrate that flights were now possible between Moscow and New York (in the Twenties!!)
After several hours at the Historical Museum we had coffee and bagels at the Resurrection Coffee House, a nice little coffee house/art gallery in a former church. We walked to the Sea-Life Museum but were put off by the high price--- $20 each. We elected to pass it up since seeing the real thing is so much better than any museum representation. And we were rewarded during our ride back to the van by seeing a sea otter close to shore. It was diving around a rock and then floating on its back while opening and eating shellfish.
That afternoon both of us felt a bit slow. I’m guessing we’re a bit travel-weary and need a lazy-day, i.e., one where we don’t need to plan or research anything. We returned to the van and did just that.
Late in the day I rode into town to look for a movie but didn’t come up with anything—we had seen everything worth watching!—but it gave me about a four-mile exercise ride.
After supper I again wanted some exercise so rode around the bay to the Sea-Life Center and then out a dirt road along the Bay before circling back through town, stopping for a half-hour to listen to a live singer at the bistro. On these bike rides around campgrounds I enjoy looking at all the camping and boat rigs, always on the lookout for new ideas or to see actual examples of rigs I’ve only seen previously in magazine ads. I saw three Alaskan-brand telescoping truck campers but none of the owners were there for me to strike up a conversation and perhaps even get a look inside. The boats are very rugged looking. Most are heavy aluminum and have cabins or full canvas tops, attesting to the sometimes-blustery conditions here. And it’s nothing to see a small boat of perhaps 16 or 18 feet rigged with double 90-horsepower engines plus a 20-horse kicker. They like their power up here.
We finished up the evening catching up on our blogs and reading.

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Wednesday, 6 August-

We drove down to the Crow Creek Mine entrance and paid our $5 for the night. We asked about the music and learned two guys were practicing for an upcoming gig for a small blueberry festival to be held in a week or so.
On the trail yesterday evening we had met a hiker from Seattle who had walked down from the Aleyeska Resort a couple of miles away and he said it was very nice. This morning we drove back out of the Chugach and turned left when we hit the hard road, toward the resort. We walked through the big hotel and pronounced it very tastefully done. As our hiker-guy had said—‘understated elegance’. I enjoyed a mocha on the veranda as we marveled at the ski-lift going straight up the mountain to the ski-bowl on the other side. Nice!
We drove south to the Kenai Peninsula and saw why it’s so highly recommended for touring — mountains, mountains, and mountains! It’s mid-August and the mountains still have a lot of snow up high. And ‘high’ isn’t very high. Anchorage is at sea level and we did little climbing until we were level with the lowest snow-fields.
We heard there’s a big silver-salmon tournament at Seward this weekend so we thought we’d hit Seward now and then move on to Homer (rather than vice-versa). But then we learned there’s also a tournament in Homer at the same time. But we chose Seward anyway.
We picked up a hitch-hiking young couple about ten miles above the Homer turnoff. We’ve had some great experiences with interesting hitchers but this young guy and his girlfriend won’t be going on that list. Labashi is great at asking leading questions but these guys weren’t responding and it seemed we already knew more about Alaska than these natives-Alaskans do. We were glad could drop them off at the turnoff.
With the tournament coming up in a few days I wanted to get a campsite early on so we could walk or bike to town. Seward is kind of unique in that the waterfront is almost all campsites. That’s because the 1964 tsunami wiped out the lower part of the town! All the docks and the Standard Oil terminal were destroyed by a tsunami after the 1964 earthquake. The streets are numbered from first street down the hill toward Resurrection Bay and the tsunami waters came up as high as Third Street.
A paved walking and bicycling trail follows the curve of the bay and there are six or seven campgrounds inside the arc of that trail. There’s a separate tenting-only campground but most of the waterfront is taken up by lots painted on the stone parking lot. One section is for ‘RV- Utility’ lots (meaning they have electricity, water, and sewer connections) for $30 a night or ‘RV- dry camping’, which is just lots about the size of two car-parking spaces for $15 a night. We were lucky and found a nice dry-camping spot in a prime area.
The views around Seward are absolutely stunning. The blue waters of Resurrection Bay are to the east of us, the historic downtown to the west of us and the docks and large marina to the north of us. And on all sides are the steep-sided mountains, all of them green down low, a treeline about mid-way up, and crags and patches of snow on the higher elevations. We can see glaciers in multiple directions.
Though Seward has been having a rainy summer, we had sunny-and-60 with a light wind. Rather than drive around we parked Mocha Joe and got out the bikes. I had been thinking I should have left the folding bikes at home so I’d have had more space for the extra spare tire and the shotgun but Seward has completely erased that thought. I would have kicked myself to be here and NOT have the bikes.
Seward is an interesting town. It clearly has its problems in that there are many shuttered shops and businesses for sale. Fishing charters are big business. A full-day fishing tour runs almost $300 per person. And we talked with a Pennsylvania couple who had done a fishing charter and they had spent another $300 shipping the filets home (to their daughter).
Tours of the Kenai Fjords National Park are also big business. They run $100 for a tour of the bay to $300 for a water-tour well into the backcountry of the National Park. That’s too much for our budget but we’re still very glad to be in Seward.
After touring the historic portion of Seward, we rode to the marina and docks. There we watched the fishing guides filet fish at the fish-cleaning station. Labashi loved seeing the filleting process and seeing the different fish.
We had had an early and light supper so later in the evening we had a bowl of tasty smoked-salmon chowder in the fishing-docks area.

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Tuesday, 5 August-

This morning we did some re-stocking at the Safeway/Carr’s next to Sam’s. Carr’s was an Alaskan chain bought out by Safeway but by now most of them look like Safeway’s but for the Carr’s name on the building.
Our weather today was overcast but it’s not supposed to rain. According to our tourist brochures, Anchorage doesn’t get much rain—only about 16 inches per year while just a few hours south Seward gets over 100 inches per year.
We drove downtown to the Visitor’s Center and that turned into a problem. Anchorage does not provide parking at the Visitor’s Center and has the street meters set up for 12 minutes per quarter. I put in two quarters, thinking a half hour should be plenty. Service was slow at the center and you have to go to a second center (behind the small log-cabin one) to get brochures. And if you want to use a rest-room, you are directed to other public buildings in the area.
When we returned to the van, we had a ticket with a time stamp exactly 25 minutes after we left and I could still see the officer walking down the street; we were two minutes late. I walked back to the Visitor’s Center and gave back the brochures, telling the staff it seems odd the City of Anchorage has so little regard for tourists and I wouldn’t be needing any of their brochures.
While recovering from the shock of getting a ticket for trying to give Anchorage merchants our money, we drove out to Lake Hood and watched floatplanes take off and land. We had a low overcast but still plenty of action on the lake as we had lunch. We were amazed at the number of floatplanes and bush planes around the lake.
We then went to the Alaska Aviation Heritage Museum. We really, really liked the Canadian Bushplane Heritage Museum in Sault Sainte Marie (ON) last year and this one didn’t quite come up to that standard as far as aircraft on display. There you could climb inside several of the classic bushplanes (including the fabled Beaver) and walk around in the bay of a water-bomber. Here the displays were subtle and heavy on the reading. The more interesting planes were hanging from the ceiling and you couldn’t peek in. The museum’s mission, of course, is Alaska’s aviation history and much of that would be found in pictures and news articles anyway, so perhaps I’m not giving this one its due.
After the museum we drove to the library for a wireless connection. We checked email and I posted a blog update while Labashi was seeing what the web had to say about salmon filleting. She had been fascinated watching the woman filleting silver salmon in Sheep’s Creek near Talkeetna.
After the library we mailed our ticket payment ($20) and considered going to another museum downtown but the ticket had put a damper on our mood. At that point I didn’t want to spend any more money than absolutely necessary in the City of Anchorage and didn’t have a burning desire to see anything in the touring books anyway.
We drove south, along the Turnagain Arm of Cook Inlet. The water is very wide and shallow here and there’s a high tidal range. I understand sometimes you can see a tidal bore, i.e., a wave of incoming tide, reportedly as high as six feet. Years ago we had ridden a tidal bore (in a Zodiac) in the Bay of Fundy, Nova Scotia and that was quite a memorable ride.
Before leaving Anchorage we had been reading about possible campsites along the way and had chosen Crow Creek Mine because it was in the Chugach National Forest and had $5 campsites. The mine had been an operating gold mine and had taken some 40,000 ounces of gold in the past. It lay some four miles back a pot-holed dirt road but we wanted to see what the National Forest looked like back there anyway.
We picked out a camp site along the road to the mine and walked down to pay. But it was after six and they had a sign up asking for privacy after hours. We could hear music—someone was playing the bass fiddle and sometimes a fiddle would join in. We retreated toward the van and found a trail marked ‘Hand Tram’. A short way in the trail connected to the Iditarod Historic Trail, which we followed another mile to the hand tram. That turned out to be a hand-operated cable car. It was built much like a skiing cable-car. The ‘car’ was a metal basket big enough for two or three people (but with a 400 pound limit). It was suspended from a two-inch steel cable but motive power was a rope running through the middle of the car and connected to a weighting system on each end (to keep the rope tight).
The car is suspended over Crow Creek, perhaps 50 feet above the rushing water. After we boarded, the car drifted easily down toward the middle and I wondered how tough it might be to get up the other side. But it wasn’t bad. And the view down between our feet (through the steel mesh) was great!
Once across we walked another two-tenths of a mile to a pretty gorge with blue glacier water roaring through, then crossed the creek again and walked back to the van for the night. We spent another hour reading before falling into a heavy sleep.

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