Tonight Martha helped me get all the pictures on the computer. Yay! However, I want Terry to have a say in which ones are posted. And guess what---he is sick as a dog! Came down with a horrible sore throat and a fever. I started him on an antibiotic and tylenol. He has been asleep since about 8:00. Hopefully he'll wake up in the morning feeling much better.
Today we decided to ride down to Homer, Alaska. That is the southernmost city that one can ride down on the Alaska Highway system. In fact, the very end of the road has a sign that says "Land's End".
Before i forget, tho', let me tell you about breakfast. We ate at a place called The Moose is Loose. Everything they prepare is moose size. For you Tiftonites, the apple fritters would make Mi-Lady Bakery hang their heads in shame. That's all I'm gonna say on that one.
On the way out of town we stopped at a Wildlife Center to inquire about birding as we drove down towards Homer. As I've said before, Dave is a lifetime birder. We were told to walk down to the lake behind the center before leaving to look for some kind of bird. Once we entered those woods, we found out about Alaska mosquitos! Fortunately we had sprayed up, but I'm telling you those things are bigger than flies. They were swarming like crazy and covering our clothes.
We saw many bald eagles on the way to Homer. They are just magnificent birds. And so big. I could just feel the power emanating from them.
As we went further south, we began to see mountains to the right of us. Then I realized what we were seeing were volcanoes that were part of the Pacific Ring of Fire. We saw two: Mt. Redoubt and Mt. Iliamna. They were across Cook Inlet, which is a body of water that comes off of the Gulf of Alaska and reaches up towards Anchorage.
Those volcanoes were huge. And right beside each other. Now I know they really were miles apart, but from the distance all I had to do was turn my head side to side and there they were. Both volcanoes are active. Mt. Redoubt last exploded in 1989, with 23 exploding events. We could see on the mountain where it blew. Mt. Iliamna last exploded in 1876, but it still has frequent earthquakes, sometimes as high as 3. How cool is it to see 4 volcanoes so far on this trip!
As we traveled on down towards Homer, we passed through towns with names like Kasilof, Ninilchik, Nikolaevsk, and Clam Gulch. Each was no more than a few stores on the side of the road. Most of the time we just saw fir trees and hardwoods. Lots and lots of nothing with the occasional house. And no fancy houses were to be seen. But we did see lots and lots of RV's. I know these folks appreciate the income coming into their small communities, but I bet they also appreciate the quietness at the end of the tourist season.
Back to the guy at the Wildlife Center. He told us to stop at this fish hatchery in hopes of seeing some salmon swimming upstream. He explained to us that due to the late snow this year, spring was late coming, and this has caused the salmon to be later swimming upstream. In fact, fishing for king salmon began this week. Anyway, it was at this hatchery that we saw two new things. No, not salmon. We saw a salmon ladder. And we saw bear scat. So, if you've ever wondered about that question, the answer is YES.
We finally arrived at Homer. As we began going down into Homer and towards the spit, we saw a mist rising above the water. It was really neat how it just sorta hovered above the water and covered up part of the mountains across the bay.
We finally arrived at the spit. The Homer Spit is actually a peninsula that runs out from the town of Homer. The spit is 4.5 miles long and has the longest road in the entire world that leads out into the ocean waters. It is home to over 1500 pleasure and commercial boats at its summer peak. Today the spit was filled with tourists. It has many shops and restaurants. Terry and Dave found the doughnut shop and scarfed up warm doughnuts----after we had eaten more halibut again today!
We got to Land's End and parked and walked out to the bay. There were probably 10-15 people lined up around the edge that were throwing their lines out into the water. I talked to one local couple who said they were fishing for cod, halibut and flounder. They were fixing to leave and go to what they called the Children's Pond to fish for king salmon that would be soon coming into the pond at high tide. We followed their directions and made it to the pond, which is actually a small pond that fills up at high tide. Sure enough, just as we arrived the water was beginning to flow into the pond. And so were the salmon. We were a distance away, but through our binoculars, we were able to see the fish struggling to get into the pond. It was pretty interesting. Our little adventure didn't last long tho' as the water quickly filled the area and the fish were no longer having to struggle as much.
We returned to Soldotna via the Kalifornsky Beach Road. Some name, huh? It ran alongside the Cook Inlet, tho' much of the scenery was covered by trees. We stopped at another birding place and saw sandhill cranes, another eagle, and other birds.
Tomorrow we leave Soldotna, return to Anchorage and head up to Denali National Park. I'm still looking for bear.
Again today we were told of the really nice weather that we are having right now. We feel really blessed to be here to enjoy it.
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