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Published: June 16th 2016
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To be honest, I was glad to leave Homer. To be fair, we had some pretty foul weather for the four days we were there and we may have had a better time if it hadn’t been so cold, damp, windy, and rainy every day. Located between Cooks Inlet and the Katchemak Bay, Homer has a very typical coastal weather pattern and even the locals admit that the weather is not all that great, especially out on the Spit. It is a beautiful place, surrounded by snowcapped peaks and wherever you look the views are stupendous. Four days was just two too many. One of the things we really wanted to do in Homer was visit the Kilcher Homestead and that was worth the trip. Ten miles out of town on East End Road you make a right on Kilcher Road, follow the dirt driveway for about 1.5 miles and you will reach the original Yule Kilcher Homestead. We were met by Connie, one of Yule’s granddaughters and we were also fortunate enough to have Kelly Kilcher (wife of Atz’s son Shane) with us for the tour. Connie spent an hour describing what it was like to live on the homestead,
to visit her grandfather, the history of Yule’s travels to Alaska and his many talents (too much to bore you with here). She told of how things have changed over the years living in Homer and how they plan to use the Kilcher property to teach others about the homesteading and the rural lifestyle. As you can imagine the “back-story” of the Kilcher family is as fascinating as the TV series, and much more interesting. We were allowed to wander around the property and encouraged to go wherever we wanted, except to Otto and Charlotte’s house, which is about 100 yards away. They are in Europe on vacation anyway. Michelle cornered Kelly and the two of them talked and talked. We learned a lot about the extended family (yes, Otto and Jane are both a little wacky) how Atz Lee is doing since his accidental fall (he hurts most of the time but doesn’t complain), what it’s like to live in a televised world (not so bad) and that Eve and Evian are just as wonderful as they come across on the show. When we were done we visited town, some of the shops and the Pratt Museum. We also
asked around town for the location of the Time Bandit Souvenir store (the Hilstrands are originally from Homer) only to find out that it closed last year and went exclusively online. The good news was, we found out that the Time Bandit was in the harbor getting rigged for Salmon transporting so we hustled right down there just in time as they were leaving on the high tide the next day. We got some good pictures, met two of the crabbing crew and got to actually see a boat from the Deadliest Catch program up close which was very cool. It was smaller than either of us thought and I cannot imagine being on that boat in 30-40 foot seas. While it looks solid enough you can tell it’s a real working boat, in need of some paint. The two crew guys were great, talking about the series and what it’s like to be a crabber. They both admit that when the weather is bad it’s just as scary as it looks on TV and there is a lot of down time between setting and retrieving the pots that you don’t see, but when it comes time to pick up
the pots you do it, regardless of the weather. So those are the Homer highlights. From there we have moved up the coast to the Klondike Campground on the Kenai River in Soldotna. Here again it’s all about the salmon. Unfortunately, the Kenai is currently catch and release only for Kings and the Sockeyes (Reds as they are known locally) have not yet started their run though it’s expected any day. The Kasilof River is still open for Kings and I tried my hand at that again only to come away frustrated. There are not a lot of Kings remaining from the first run and the second run is still weeks away so we are here kind of stuck between salmon runs which means we are going lake hopping for some trout and grayling before we cruise down to Seward. Yesterday we took a long ride through the Kenai National Wildlife Preserve mainly to see Skilak Lake. We had both read the book “The Winds of Skilak” before our trip which was well written by a homesteading wife from Caribou Island and we were intrigued by her description of the lake and surrounding area. It is certainly as remote and
picturesque as she described, maybe more so. I guess the only thing missing from the wildlife preserve was wildlife. We have seen more moose and bears in the RV parks then we saw in the wildlife preserve.
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Karen
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A book of your travels
Ubuildabook.com Your descriptions are so well written and the photos are stupendous. Have you thought of turning your blogs into a book? Christmas shopping would be half done! Those folks up there are rugged, are Yukon Men on your itinerary? Lol.