Advertisement
Published: June 12th 2011
HOMER After work on Thursday, Jhene and I packed up the car with our camping gear and bikes and headed down to Homer. Anchorage was beautiful and sunny and would be all weekend. The forecast for Homer: Rain. We headed towards the dark clouds to the south.
A 4-hour drive down and the Paper Towel Incident A few miles after Beluga point we had to swerve into the other lane to dodge a large object in our lane. A Costco size package of paper towels? I looked over to the passenger seat. “Let’s get ‘em!” I said. Jhene’s eyes widened with excitement as we pulled into the nearest pull out an made a Uy. We grabbed the suckers and shoved on the bikes in the back. As we closed the doors an Aerostar van with the same idea also pulled off to where the paper towels once were. Five pairs of eyes stared at us in disappointment. We just knocked $22.50 off our next trip to Costco. Score. The rest of the drive was calm. In the last hour of our trip we counted 14 moose mingling on the side of the road, one was
just a newby.
Camping on the Spit
The sun was setting and by the time we arrived at the spit, it was 12:30am and the dusk had settled below the horizon and with it any lingering warmth from the day. We set up my not so freestanding tent on the sand, tying it down with large boulders from a nearby rock pit. After our sleeping quarters were set up for the night, we took over a nearby fire pit abandoned by fellow campers. We revived the dwindling coals and huddled around the fire, sitting on the sandy beach. About 200 feet ahead of us was the Kachemak Bay encased by mountains on all sides. There was still a small hum of light on the horizon at 1:00am. We busted our Jiffy Pop and sat listening to the shallow waves hit the shore and the squawk of the occasional gull that missed the bedtime memo.
The night was still and quiet. It was Thursday so the usual crowd of rowdy, all-nighters there to party it up with booze and bonfires were still anticipating their weekend. I have definitely been the organizer of such adventures, however it
Our Morning View
View of the Kachemak Bay from the Homer Spit. was a nice change to experience the stillness of soberly camping on the Spit.
In the early morning rain dowsed our tent. We just went back to sleep hoping we could sleep it off like a bad hangover. It worked! Though we still woke up to a grey melancholy sky, across the bay the whiteness of the snow on the mountains brightened the morning.
Boating around Gull Island and Peterson Bay A coworker of mine called me in the morning to offer us a trade: Help him get his sailboat boat out of the water for a trip around Gull Island. It was an offer we could not pass up. Knowing we had planned to bike 30 miles in Homer (where it has rained every time I’ve visited), I brought two sets of rain gear. We were well prepared. The sky was still a heavy overcast, but the wind was mellow and the waves were calm. We crossed the bay, passing only a few boats, along with several sea otters. The draw and pull of the waves were relaxing.
As we approached Gull Island, commotion filled the air. Thousands of wings flapped in a
Our Fearless Guide
Scott Waterman getting ready to take us out to explore thick mass around the cluster of rocks. An offbeat chorus squawked aimlessly, not only in mid flight but also from perches settled on every inch of the rock faces before us. The sound and motion stirred in the overpowering pungency of processed fish made it quite clear how the name came about. Though mainly overtaken by the gulls, about 25% of the birds were Common Murre, which are sometimes referred to as the penguins of the arctic (but even not related). We also saw a hand full of Pelagic Cormorants and two puffins. We crossed over into the bay past the oyster farms where a lone sea otter gave us the show of her life. She spun around in the water, put her flappers together, fell a sleep momentarily, woke up and did it all over again. On our way back we even saw a gull chasing down an eagle over the bay.
We told stories of travel and adventures and had a bit of an adventure of our own as the waves lifted out of nowhere and pulled the boat awry and swinging the sail loose. It was a close call. The wind poured drops onto our rain
Otter
This little guy gave us a show! gear and we were back to the harbor before we knew it. We brought in the boat and walked her up to the trailer, when I pulled up the motor we found that there was no longer a rudder. It had not broken off, as all the other pieces were still there, however, it was still not attached. We had somehow made it to the dock, and mysteriously it seemed to have just plopped of with no valid reason. Other than the loss of the rudder, it was a beautiful trip.
Tour De Bev: Homer Style We continued our trip with a little thing we like to call Tour de Bev. This 20-mile bike ride around Homer brought us to a number of local sweet spots. We started off with a trip to the
Two Sisters Coffee Shop for some coffee. This local bakery always has amazing treasures for the taste buds. After we headed to the Ring of Fire Meadery where we tasted 12 different kinds of mead made with local goodies like rhubarb, fireweed, blackberries and birch. We then took the hilly route over to the
Bear Creek Winery and tried over 10
Salty Dawn Saloon
Yes. We were there. different wines there, complete with crackers, home-smoked Salmon and cream cheese. On our way back down the hillside we stopped at
Alice’s Champagne Palace. Though there were chandeliers over there counter, this dive bar was no palace and their specialty was not Champagne. With one option on the list (which I was relieved to find it was not Cook’s) we were served our sparkling beverage in wine glasses. The next venture took us out to the Homer Spit. One of my favorite little places called the
Salty Dawg Saloon. This retired old cabin has a dungeony feeling when you first walk in. The room is dark, the windows are small, and the tables and bar stools full. As your eyes adjust you begin to notice that ever square inch of the walls and supporting beams are graffitied in signed one dollar bills, bills from other countries, hats, and even a scattering of random bras and other under garments.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.267s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 29; qc: 113; dbt: 0.1507s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.4mb
