Beach Walking

Was around 25F during a walk on the beach the other day.  Barefoot tracks to the water!  Spring is here .. a little snow today but things are warming up.  Getting the planes ready for another summer of bears and some kayaking in Alaska.  Lots going on ...

Long Shadows

The evening sun is casting its shadows over the mountains across the bay. At 9pm the shadows are long, by 10 pm the colors will start to melt across the mountain peaks as they meet with the dark blue of the evening sky. By midnight the sky will be black and the snowy mountain peaks across the bay will be outlined in the darkness. 
Tonight the Geophysical Institute is forecasting an aurora display that could be visible across most of Alaska. Homer is nestled into the hills on the North side of Kachemak Bay, and a view of the aurora to the North will be to be hard to see.

Now just past 9:30 and only the taller peaks are seeing the sun. 
The town is starting to show signs of summer with the small tents and campers showing up on the spit.  I am patiently waiting for some of my favorite stops to open, Coal Point Coffee and the Boardwalk Bakery come to mind.  Many afternoons I found myself on a cookie run to the Boardwalk and have never been disappointed.  And the Coal Point Coffee shop is just a nice place to have a cup of coffee before the planes come in after the bear trips and my work begins for the evening.

 Its officially Sunset here tonight at 9:44pm.  Beluga Lake is still locked up except for the edge along the roadway.  Officially a seaplane base along side the Homer Airport, Beluga Lake is home to Steller Air, a small air charter company that specializes in great float plane trips. I've gone with them to some of the the glaciers, and a bear trip to Brooks Falls.

Almost 11pm and the lights on the spit are reflecting off the bay. Just a bit over 15 hours of sunlight now in late April.  Homer is gaining daylight at a rate of about 5 minutes day. 
Got an email from a fellow blogger today, asking me if I have been with the witness protection program .. yeah I've kind of fell of the radar here for awhile.  My winter in Minnesota was a hard to take this year.  I normally look forward to a season of skiing and snow.  The snow never happened.  My only outings were a cross country skiing weekend in Northern Wisconsin on the Rock Lake Trails near Cable, and an afternoon on the Birke trails where an odd fall left me with a hamstring injury.  three weeks later I tried a down hill ski adventure at Welsh Village where I had one of the hardest falls I can remember.  My shoulder is still on the mend from that one.  My weekend on the Rock Lake Trails were great as they always are, but if I could have avoided some injuries this winter, things might have been different.
11:30pm .. walked outside to check on the northern sky.  Nothing yet.  Can still see the sunlight outlining the horizon.
12:10am .. Ah well, I guess it just isnt gonna happen here.  G'night.   

April in Homer

April in Homer and lots of snow still up on the hill. Winter breakup here is hard on the gravel roads, well mud roads now.  The Jeep is pretty much covered bumper to bumper in mud.  In town the snow is still hanging around in the shady areas and parking lots where the snow plows left the piles.  Beluga Lake is still froze over solid, so the float planes are still tucked away in hangers or up on the beach, many pilots will take the floats off and put the wheels on for the winter months.
I like this peaceful time here in Homer, before the cruise ships start coming in, and making a left turn coming out of the Safeway parking lot becomes next to impossible.  But Summer will come, and I am looking forward to it.

I've plenty to do getting the planes ready for another season of bear viewing, but with the fantastic weather we've had all week, its been hard to stay on task.  The bike I picked up on Craigslist has been a blast .. those big fat tires roll over just about anything!  An afternoon riding around the beach at low tide left me pretty much wore out, but only two times did I have to get off and push through a pile of rocks, or up a steep area with loose sand.  I found the thing will motor right along in about a foot of water.  I need to experiment a bit with dropping the air pressure down in the tires, and the loose sand may be a little easier.  At any rate, the bike is a good work out, and a lot of fun.

Here is an image of Yukon Island across the bay, I'm looking forward to getting out in the kayak and do some more exploring this year.  Tom Pogson with the Alaska Kayak School has some great programs every year.  I think one is coming up soon in May .. this summer I need to take advantage of the opportunities with these folks. 

Oh .. and my comment on making a left turn out of the Safeway parking lot.  Last November when I was sitting in traffic on a six lane freeway in Minneapolis, and hadn't moved for 10 or 15 minutes, I sent my friend Dee a text (sitting in traffic ..not driving) and I made her a promise that I would never ever again complain about traffic in Homer.  She thought it was pretty funny.

Bike Ride

Great day for a bike ride .. last year I had my old Trek with the skinny tires, and I tried to do some riding on the beach.  Well, at any rate, the results were predictable.  I left the Trek with my son Dustin so he would have some transportation for the Summer.  Being 16 and without wheels is a tough thing indeed.  This gave me the opportunity to actually "need" to find a new bike, and a quick look on Craigslist found me a well used, but very well maintained Salsa Mukluk.  The deal was made and we will be doing some playing on the trails as well as the beaches. 

Much has happened since the last post on Liard Hot Springs .. in fact, I have had the opportunity to visit those very hot springs again last week .. more on that later.  Right now I need to get settled into another Summer in Alaska. 

Liard Hot Springs

A really great place to stop along the Alaska Highway, just south of the Yukon border is a spot along the Liard River called Liard Hot Springs.  The campground is well taken care of by the folks in British Columbia, and if camping isn't your style, there is a nice hotel across the highway.  I chose the camping for if nothing else, the $21 tag.  I asked about some firewood, they delivered a robust armload of nicely split oak to the campsite along with a handful if dry kindling.  A scrap of paper and a match and I had a nice fire, and with the good wood there was virtually no smoke to bother other campers.  Likewise, no one else in the campground had smoke billowing through the trees.  Maybe some campgrounds in the states could learn a bit from this!  Of course there are the few that couldn't build a fire no matter what they had .. the guy in the site next to me spent about 10 minutes banging around with an axe, I was surprised he didn't hurt himself .. then the next 20 minutes smoking the place up trying to get a fire going.  At least he gave up quickly and retired to his motor home with the family. 

 The real reason the stop here though is the hot springs. A short 15 minute walk from the campground, along a well done boardwalk, and the hot mineral water springs will ease tired muscles and make you relax for a great nights sleep. I had much of an afternoon there, and then after I made some dinner on my nice campfire, I headed back along the trail in the dark for another soak before heading to my tent and nice warm sleeping bag. I can't imagine driving by this place and not spending at least an afternoon there.

 A well done changing room, the bottom is small pea rock instead of the mud from years ago.  I was here in mid September, and even then, the nights were below freezing.  The fall colors were just beginning.

Where did the Summer go?

So its been since July 1st since I took the time to come here and write some things.  I hadn't forgotten about the blog, just staying busy here with the day to day stuff. Also with facebook I have another internet social place to keep track of.  Although I've had time to sit down and write, it just hasn't been and where I could bring the laptop along.  Now the time has come when I need to finish all my little projects I've started, and gather all the stuff I brought along with me last April, and think about the trip back to Minnesota.  Just a bit over 3,600 miles through some of the most beautiful country a person could ever see.  Also some of the toughest roads I've run across in a long time .. I hope the frost damaged road from the Alaska border to Destruction Bay in the Yukon Territory has seen some repairs, or at least been smoothed out over the summer.  That was a tough stretch!  And it wasn't much better in June when Dee and I did the marathon road trip to pick up Elena in Whitehorse after her car broke down on the highway. 

Well the only way I can keep track of what I've been up to here is go through the pictures I've taken since my last post in July .. so here's a few photos to catch up for July and August.  These are mostly the highlights.  Some of the day to day stuff is fun to talk about too, like flying out to do aircraft repairs on a beach and ending up spending the night there with the bears .. more on that one later ...

Just during a walk on the beach .. lots of eagles.  This is a young bald eagle, before the distinctive white head.

On a fishing trip to the Kenai we flew through some nice glaciers on the Harding Ice Fields. 

July flowers.

Some of the sights across Katchemak Bay.

Stephanie and Dee.  Steller Air flew us to Brooks Falls for a great bear trip.  The flights in Alaska are always good!

 

Well that gets us to mid August.  Some friends came up to visit around the end of August, we took a week and saw sights, went to see the bears in the Katmai National Park, and did 4 days kayaking Katchemak Bay.  I'll try and get some photos up from the trip soon.

Just fooling around

In the bay working on some different rolls this afternoon when a sea otter seemed curious and came right up to me to watch.  Usually they are gone at the first sound you make, this guy truly seemed curious.  He was doing the same as me .. just fooling around in the water.  I did a few rolls, and he would do the same.  This went on for about 20 minutes.  What a fun rolling partner!!  He stayed right with me about a paddle distance from the boat.