Homer

Spent the past week in the town of Homer on the southwestern tip of the Kenai peninsula - another place that claims to be the "prettiest town in Alaska". To be sure it does sit in a dramatic setting, located at the edge of Kachemak Bay and across from the glaciers of the Harding Ice Field, but... well, maybe we're a little jaded at this point of the trip but by now we've seen a lot of pretty little Alaska towns and Homer is just the latest in a series - not the pick of the bunch.

It styles itself as the Halibut Fishing Capital of America...or the world...or the galaxy...or something like that, and it's reason for being here seems to be its proximity to some of the most fruitful fishing grounds in the State. Back when I was a fisherman in my younger years I'd be happy to land a halibut the size of a dinner plate. Here they're the size of garage doors - really huge. Same with the King Salmon that work their way up the bay every year. So, most of the activity seems to be centered around charter fishing - from half day trips to excursions of several days.



We booked a self-catering house up on the hill above the town with a nice view of Homer Spit...a 7 mile stretch of sand and gravel dumped here during the last ice age by retreating glaciers, and which today sticks out like a thumb into Kachemak Bay beyond.




Another view from our house of one of the glaciers spilling out from the Harding Ice Field across the bay.




The view down the Spit...everything built up on stilts as a safeguard against the occasional high surf (or Tsunami I guess). Some of the fishing boats featured in the series "Deadliest Catch" are home ported here during the off-season.




Lots of watering holes for the guys working the fishing boats.

Our big excursion of the week was a day trip across the bay to the little town of Seldovia - from the Russian word for herring - another one of those remote villages that can only be accessed by air or water...no roads leading in or out.




The boat trip doubled as a wildlife cruise thru a local Marine Sanctuary. Lots of birds on several of the islets, and several interesting rock formations like this one at the tip of one of them. Apparently, there are a number of private homesteads that pre-date the establishment of the sanctuary and so were grandfathered in when it was established. Saw several remote fishing cabins, plus a few that enterprising owners have fixed up and now offer as vacation rentals for hardy Alaskan types who include remoteness and inaccessibility in their vacation plans - these places can only be accessed by boat or, as is the case most often, by sea kayak.



About halfway thru the trip to Seldovia we passed thru a pod of about 6 Humpback Whales, all of whom were feeding in preparation for their November migration to the warm waters of Hawaii & Mexico to calve. This one stayed within several yards of the boat, diving down and then swooping up thru a school of herring. They scoop up hundreds of gallons of water, then strain it thru the baleen in their mouths to separate the fish from the water. You can see that this one has just filled his gullet and is preparing to eject the water.




Also saw several sea otters - including this mother with a pup on her tummy who looked up and posed for a photo as we passed by. These little guys are what lured Russian traders to Alaska in the first place about 220 years ago, working their way from the Aleutians thru Kodiak (their original Capital) and finally to Sitka. The ramrod of their operations was a man named Baranov (the guy the island that Sitka sits on is named for), who cut a pretty wide swath thru these parts a couple of hundred years ago. He's also the guy who made the initial contact with King Kamehameha in Hawaii. Luckily for everyone involved his influence either waned or the Russian government failed to follow up on his inroads, else the Hawaiian Islands likely would have been gobbled up by the Czar.


The picturesque town of Seldovia sits up inside a small inlet, sheltered from the rougher waters of Cook Inlet. It too relies mostly on its fishing fleet for its livelihood. We were there for about three hours - which turned out to be plenty long enough to see all of the sights the township had to offer.





A pretty little place. The Salmon were running here too, although I didn't inquire which type they were. It was a bit later in the run apparently - saw a number of carcasses and bones along the shore being picked over by the ravens. Fortunately the current carries most of the dead ones out to sea after they finish spawning and die, otherwise the smell would no doubt be pretty bad about this time of year.




Rita in Central Park.




Another one of the old Russian Orthodox churches. This one was originally built on the beach in 1820 and was later relocated up the hill where it stands today.

A bit later in the week the skies cleared enough for us to try one of the local hikes - this one tracing a portion of the old wagon road that once connected the Port of Homer with the interior of the Kenai Peninsula...where the gold fields were. It was still muddy from the recent rains, and parts of it were overgrown with tall grass and fireweed, but luckily we thought to wear our waterproof pants and boots and so managed to make it to the top of the bluff in a relatively dry state. It was called the "Homestead Trail", so named for the old cabin that you pass by about half way along.




The original Homestead along the Homestead Trail



Heading up the trail. Found a nice little bench at the top of this pass, with a terrific view overlooking Homer and Kachemak Bay, where we had lunch before starting back down. Saw some Moose tracks but no animals.

Although we've enjoyed our time here I must admit that we're ready to move on to our next stop...the town of Seward on the other side of the Kenai peninsula. We'll be there for 3 nights, and then will be returning to Anchorage where we'll ship the car back down to the Port of Tacoma.

The Kenai Peninsula

Monday the 19th was a long day - up early to catch a 0440 shuttle from the hotel to the airport and a 0600 flight back up to Anchorage. Picked up the car and drove south to the Kenai Peninsula where we'll be for the next few weeks. Our first stop was the little village of Hope (population 100). Founded in the 1880's after the discovery of gold in the area, it actually boomed to around 5,000 resident miners by 1896 when it was formally established as a town. The boys were casting around for a name and finally agreed to name their town after the first person who walked off the next ship. Turned out that person was Percy Hope, lately arrived from the lower 48 to try his luck in the gold fields. Never found any gold, and the rest of his career has faded from history, but he does still have a town named for him in Alaska.



The Russian Orthodox church in Ninilchik - an especially pretty place on the drive from Hope to Homer.

There were several nice hikes around Hope, including the Resurrection Pass trail that once connected Hope to the gold fields of the interior, but the weather didn't cooperate well enough to really tackle any of them. We wandered in to the local museum which was a treasure trove of information about the town and its history. It was also a veritable junk box of old artifacts from Hope's gold rush glory days, presided over by an ancient, cranky old sourdough who must have been about 90 and looked like he might have walked off the boat with Percy. It was vastly entertaining to have him walk us around the little place, explaining the arcane history of every (and I do mean every) small artifact, while his false teeth kept clacking as he fought to keep them from falling out of his mouth. It was like having an irascible old great uncle show you around his dusty attic.

Our host was an interesting guy too. He mines the same claim he's been working for over 30 years and apparently still makes a decent living at it. Showed me an extensive collection of old arrowheads that he's collected over the course of his lifetime both in Oregon and in Alaska. He had some amazing pieces too, including the only Clovis Points I've ever seen outside of a museum.





Kenai must be the land of the Fireweed...there were fields upon fields of it as we drove towards Homer. This one was just across the road from the Orthodox church in Ninilchik.

This area was originally settled from the sea by Russian explorers in the 1850's...still looking for sea otters. They also recorded the first gold discovery here in 1852, not far from Resurrection Creek where the big local strike occurred in 1889.

Our hosts recommended a local Wildlife Conservation park not far from Hope, so one sunny day we opted to drive up and spend the day there. It's one of those places where they collect and care for orphaned animals, usually releasing them back into the wild once they're grown but sometimes not if they were brought in too young to have learned survival skills from their parents. Took a few photos as we walked around for Grand Daughter Makenna. here they are:




Musk Ox from the Russian Steppes, brought here years ago and now virtually native to some parts of northern Alaska and the Yukon.




One of two orphaned Grizzly cubs that have been here for a couple of years. Not sure if they can be released, having by this time become pretty acclimatized to humans.




These are Rock Bison, slightly smaller than their cousins from the Plains.



These Moose calves were orphaned when their mother was killed in a collision with a car on the Seward highway earlier this Spring. The big bull isn't related but seemed to hover around them protectively.




He was a big boy...but we've seen one even closer than this!




A Sitka Deer fawn. Never saw any of the resident herd while we were on Baranov Island...had to come here to see one.

After a few days in Hope we motored on towards Homer - another candidate for the title of "Prettiest Town in Alaska".

Sitka

What a pretty little place this is. It has a population of about 9,000 but the town is so spread out along the roads that go north and south along the water that it doesn't feel at all congested...rather like a really pleasant suburb that just keeps going and going, and with dramatic views of Sitka Sound and the Gulf of Alaska around every turn in the road. The way the mountains plunge down almost directly into the sea make it seem very "Hawaiian"...although about 30 degrees colder.



Looking thru the downtown area and past the onion domes of St. Michael's towards Mt. Edgecombe - a dormant volcano that hovers just beyond the city. The entire spine of Baranov Island is along one of the Pacific fault lines, so the mountains here are dramatic and there are even a few hot springs here and there up and down the coast.

I had thought about renting a car so we could see more of the island, but we made some inquiries and found out that there was a local bus system that pretty much did the same thing, so...rather than shelling out big bucks for a car we spent $6 for a couple of all-day bus passes and rode around most of the day seeing the sights. Most of the time we were the only ones on the bus so it was like taking a private tour. Rode it up north of town to the site of "Old Sitka" - the place where the Russian-American Company first established Redoubt St. Michael as their trading center back in 1799...much to the irritation of the local Tlinget Indians who in 1802 finally decided they'd had enough of the interlopers, attacked the fort and killed all but a few of the 250 Russian and Aleut settlers who were there.

There was a nice interpretive walk around the point where the redoubt once stood, and some explanatory signboards to tell the story of what had happened there. The little bay at the outflow of a small river close by the site was alive with jumping and jostling Pink Salmon - all migrating back up the stream to spawn. We walked around to a bridge and a viewing platform and were just amazed at the numbers of fish swarming in the shallows below us. I swear you could have walked across the little river on the backs of the Pinks. No sign of bears feeding on the harvest, but was told that they were around - usually in the early AM before the people show up.



Did one nice hike thru a section of rain forest just across from the site of the old fort.



The pink salmon were everywhere. All of the dark splotches in the water are fish - and it's like this for hundreds of yards in both directions.




A closer look at a couple of the fish laying and fertilizing their eggs in the shallows. Pink Salmon are also called "humpbacks" locally. If you look closely you can see why. Am told they're not as good eating as the Chinooks (Kings), Reds (Sockeyes) or Silvers (Cohos), but that if you eat them the same day they're caught they're really pretty good.



One of the markers commemorating the battle of Sitka, with the Russian Orthodox cross marking the spot where it all happened. The Orthodox cross differs from the Catholic in that they include a top and bottom crosspiece. The top crosspiece is the one where the Romans placed the INRI sign. The foot crosspiece has two explanations: one is that it's tilted to reflect the fates of the two thieves crucified with Christ - the one to his right saved because he repented at the end and the other condemned because he didn't. The other explanation is that, according to Orthodox doctrine, Christ in his agony physically twisted the foot-piece out of the horizontal. We've seen this symbol a lot in the old cemeteries in Alaska - the Russian Orthodox faith is still widely practiced here, especially among the first-nations people...a lasting legacy of the Russian presence.

There were actually two Battles of Sitka. The first one in 1802 was a Tlinget victory. The second one in 1804, when the Russians returned in force, didn't go so well for the native tribe. After winning the initial skirmishes they were forced to withdraw from their fort after a prolonged bombardment by the Russian warship Neva and her heavy cannon.. A proud and determined people, they marched out, up, and over the mountains behind present day Sitka rather than submit to Russian authority. To cover the nighttime withdrawal they killed all of their dogs and all of their babies so that no barking or crying would betray their movement. They then stayed away for over 10 years, and only returned to the area grudgingly. For years no Tlingets were allowed inside the Russian town of New Archangel. The Russians built a wall with several watchtowers (and cannon) to keep an eye on their neighbors in the Tlinget village right next door. A replica of one of the old watchtowers still marks the boundary between the Russian town and the Tlinget village.



The leader of the Tlingets in their fight with the Russians was a chief named Katlian...a member of the Raven clan (the other is the Eagle clan). This is the headpiece he wore in battle back in 1804. As a side note: the hotel we stayed in was owned and operated by the local Tlinget tribe...and was located on Katlian Avenue in Sitka.

The Russian-American company, operating under a charter from the Czar, centered their operations in the New World from here. They were pretty ambitious too, establishing one trading center in northern California...near San Francisco, and another on the island of Kauai in Hawaii. In fact it looked for a while like it would be the Russians, not the Brits or the Americans, who would win the colonial battle for supremacy in the Hawaiian Islands. Guess that for a few years at least they were pretty tight with Kamehameha I.

Part of their charter included a requirement that they support the establishment and maintenance of the Orthodox church in the region. It was their shipwrights who built St. Michael's Cathedral in Sitka, as well as the building below which is the Russian Bishop's house - the oldest structure in the town dating from 1842.




The house is now maintained by the National Park Service, which purchased it around 1980. It was built by Norwegian shipwrights working under contract to the Russian-American Company, and apparently their craftsmanship was so good that the building is as structurally sound today as it was when it was built 170 years ago.

There were lots of period artifacts that came with the house when it was sold - furniture and household items mostly - all of it purchased with Sea Otter pelts. There were 140 year old crates of tea in the pantry, purchased years ago from American Clipper ships returning from China.




The formal reception room on the second floor of the Bishop's house. The samovar came from Russia. The tea service was purchased from the British Hudsons Bay Company located at Fort Vancouver on the Columbia...our present home in Washington State. Small world, eh?

Sitka is supposed to be the most beautiful town in Alaska, and it would be hard to argue with that claim given its gorgeous setting. Problem for us is that every town we visit seems to be prettier than the last, and we haven't even been to Homer or Kodiak yet. Suffice to say that just about every city and town that we've visited in this beautiful state has been memorable, and that we've enjoyed them all.

Hard to believe that our trip is already winding down - seems as though we just got here.

Flying back to Anchorage today, then driving down to the Kenai peninsula...first stop the little town of Hope.

Talkeetna and Sitka

On the way to Anchorage from Denali we stopped off in the little town of Talkeetna, which supposedly was the inspiration for the fictional town of Cicily in the TV series Northern Exposure a few years ago.


It was another pretty little Alaskan town and was a great enroute stop to stretch our legs for a bit and have lunch before heading down the road to spend the night at Elmendorf. Was popular with the cruise ship folks, too, as evidenced by a half dozen tour buses that filled up the town with people on their way to spending a canned day or two in the National Park up the road. What a way to travel!




This really is "Outback Alaska". Started by gold rushers barely 100 years ago, the town now includes the usual assortment of Alaskan "characters"...trappers, miners and subsistence hunters and fishermen, combined with those making a living off the tourists who flock here every summer. It's also command central for climbers wanting to ascend Mt. McKinley every May & June, and is the starting point for several of the "Around Denali" flight seeing experiences. A lot going on here for such a small place.




Beautiful downtown Talkeetna.

Sitka

Arrived here late Monday evening after an uneventful flight from Anchorage by way of Juneau. The town sits in a very dramatic setting - on the water with the mountains just behind it. It's advertised as being the prettiest of all the small Alaskan towns but so far we're reserving judgement...been a bit rainy so far. Supposed to clear up later today, so the plan is to buy a couple of day passes on the local buses and ride all 14 miles of paved road in the vicinity of the town.



St. Michael's Russian Orthodox Cathedral - one of the remnants of the Russian settlement here.



A look inside St. Michael's.




The sky cleared for a few hours yesterday evening, so we got a glimpse of just how pretty the area really is.







One of several Victorian era homes in the "downtown" area.



Rita in Totem Park.


Lots of Alaskan history in this area. Totem Park in the National Park tells the story from the Tlinket (pronounced Klinkit) perspective of their running 5 year battle with the Russian occupiers from 1799-1804. The Tlinkets actually wiped out the first Russian settlement in 1802 at a site about 6 miles north of here...or "Old Sitka" as it's known. Knowing that the Russians would be returning the Tlinkets relocated to a more defensible site here in the present township. Didn't do them much good. The Russians did return in 1804 with a large number of ships, including one warship, and after a 5 day battle proceeded to blast the local tribe into submission. There then followed many years of an uneasy peace after the Russians took occupancy of the site, fortified it, and established their trading operations here. Sea Otter pelts were the economic attraction, and over the course of the next 20 years the Russians nearly hunted them to extinction.

After losing the Crimean War to the Brits in the mid 19th century, the Czar determined that his American holdings were undefendable, so to thwart British designs on the region he opted to sell Alaska to the Americans in what was famously referred to for years as "Seward's Folly" but which in time has come to be recognized as one of the great land deals in history.

Leaving Denali

The tops of the Fireweed stalks are blooming, which means that summer in this area has pretty much run it's course. Alaskan lore also says that this means that the first snow is 6 weeks away. Time for us to move along.

To say that we've both thoroughly enjoyed our stay here would be an understatement - it's been great, and being here for two weeks has allowed us to enjoy the park and surrounding area at a leisurely and relaxed pace. We even got lucky with better weather the past few days with which to enjoy everything.

Here are some photos from our last week in one of the prettiest areas we've ever seen:





This is our next door neighbor "Bronte". He's been the lead dog for one of the top contenders in the Iditarod for several years. I always thought these guys were big and muscular like your typical husky, but apparently they're bred more for stamina than for brute strength. In the great race they cover about 100 miles per day for 10-12 days in some truly harsh conditions. Am told that the dogs like it best at -10 deg. They're welcome to it. This guy is something of a celebrity - he was named "Top Dog" in one of the recent races and was featured in a Discovery Channel episode about the race a few years ago. Tried to get his autograph but he wasn't very cooperative.




The park uses dog sled teams to patrol the back country during the winter months when all the roads are closed, and the staff keeps a kennel for the care and training of the dogs. They do a dog sled demonstration for the tourists several times a day during the summer months and we stopped by to watch it one day. Rita enjoyed meeting and petting the animals, and the sled demo they did was really well done.


On Thursday the weather was sunny so we did a day trip down to the Denali State Park about 80 miles south of here. There were several great hiking trails, including one around Byers Lake that we took advantage of to get some exercise and just enjoy being out and about on the pretty day.



Thought we had stumbled upon some sort of historical gold rush era cabin, but turns out that this structure only dated from the 1950's.




Rita had a great time crossing this rickety old suspension bridge, which was slanted about 20 deg. just to increase the fun factor involved.




There were some great looks at Mt. McKinley/Denali from the other side of the lake. Had this view off our right shoulder for about an hour as we traversed the opposite shore.




As I mentioned earlier, the chances of seeing the mountain out in the summer are about 30%, but the odds of being able to see all of it (ie from top to bottom on a clear day) are more like 3%, so we were quite fortunate to be able to enjoy these views all day long.




Crossed a small bridge at the other end of the lake at the outflow, and were a little surprised to see several sockeye salmon spawning in the gravel bed just below us. Was hard to miss them - they had turned the bright red color that they acquire at the very end of their long journey home...only a few hours before they lay their eggs and then die.



It was such a pretty day that on the way back from the State Park we decided to drive out a little farther on the Denali Highway again just to enjoy the spectacular scenery. We were driving extra slow on the return leg in hopes of seeing some critters and were rewarded with this glimpse of a Moose cow feeding on the willow bushes in the forest. Didn't appear to have any calves with her - am told that the grizzlies take a fierce toll on the young ones every spring.


Friday came up sunny too, so we sprang for another shuttle bus trip to Eielson.




These are the Denali shuttles...just old school buses. Not too many creature comforts but the drivers keep a running commentary all the way. That, plus all of the stops for animal sightings make it an enjoyable drive thru the park.



We noticed a difference in the color of the tundra just from our first trip on Monday. Guess in a few weeks all of this low lying brush will be bright red. We stopped for lunch near here and noticed that we were sitting in a field of bog blueberries. All we had to do for dessert was reach out and harvest a handful.




Lots of arctic ground squirrels near the Savage River area. I think the ones further into the park have all become food for the bears, wolves and foxes by this time of year.




At one of the rest stops enroute to Eielson they had a display of horns and antlers that you could play with. We were impressed at how heavy they were, especially the caribou antlers - explains why they hold their heads at that erect angle. Both the Moose and the Caribou must have extremely strong necks to be able to haul these things around for months on end. These are the horns from a Dall sheep...hollow but still quite heavy.




Saw this grey fox just scoping things out along the road. Was watching him thru the binoculars and he didn't appear to have any red in him at all, although the photo does give him a reddish tone.


After arriving at Eielson we starting walking back down the road and further in to the park. Not too many shuttles go this far so it was even quieter than the main road coming in. Thought we might see some more critters as a result but never saw any - thought maybe they were resting in the relative heat of the day. Started to cloud up and cool off later in the afternoon, but when we started it was still sunny and fairly warm. The good news is that there weren't too many mosquitoes in the back country. Not sure whether it was just a better time of year or what, but we were able to stretch out on the tundra and enjoy a picnic lunch in peace.

Had planned to hike out about 4 miles and return, but the highway mile markers were missing and we wound up going further than we planned. After hiking a few of the miles back towards Eielson we decided to exercise the "hikers option" and waved down one of the returning buses, which picked us up and drove us all the way back to the Wilderness Center at the entrance.



Saw another half dozen grizzlies today. This one was only about 20 feet off the road chowing down on berries. Seemed completely oblivious to the 4 tour buses that stopped literally right next to him to get their photos. Stayed close too...didn't really wander too far away the whole time we were there. Not sure why the grizzlies in this area tend towards this blonde color - must be genetic, although could also be a function of their diet which is 80% plants and berries...not nearly as much fish and meat in their diet as is the case with their coastal relatives.

We leave here tomorrow morning and drive down to Anchorage where we'll spend the night at Elmendorf AFB, then fly down to Sitka for 4 nights. Been looking forward to that. Sitka was the capitol of Russian America for about 120 years, back when it was known as New Archangel. Didn't change the name to Sitka until the Americans moved in after the sale in 1867.

Finishing up with a short video that Rita took of the panoramic view across Byers Lake during our hike in Denali State Park.