Goodbye to the Kenai

Thursday, June 11, 2009 – Day 42

We left Homer this morning under mostly cloudy skies.  Temperature was about 14C but there always seems to be a good breeze off the ocean.  I found the tides to be very fascinating.  They can range as much as 20 feet in some places, and on some rocky headland areas you really have to be aware of your escape route and when the tide will be rising. Janet and I went down to the beach on the falling tide to dip our hands in the water.  Apparently Homer is the farthest place west that you can drive (or reach by vehicle) in North America.  Also if you followed the same line of longitude straight south you would eventually land up in Hawaii. (Or so I was told.)

 

On our way along the Seward Highway we saw 4 moose, unfortunately we weren’t fast enough to get good shots so we will have another “Spot the Moose” feature.

The southern portion of the highway follows the coastline through numerous fishing towns and villages.  We were reading in the Homer Tribune that one charter operator said that his pre-booked reservations were down 66% from the same time last year.  He also predicted a 50% drop in in sales for all businesses. He is blaming the economy.  With all the cars and RV’s on the road, now, I’m wondering what it would be like in a good year, with 50% more traffic.  One thing that has worked to our benefit though is that we have not had a problem getting a campsite anywhere we’ve been.  Who knows when our luck will run out.

We stopped in the town of Kenai along the coast right across from Mount Redoubt, but it was too cloudy to see across the bay. Kenai is the largest town in the Kenai Peninsula.  They have a nice museum in their visitor’s centre and are currently featuring a number of their local artists. Some very creative people up here. One of the most intriguing pieces that we saw was a rendition of the Alaskan State Flag.  Visualize a navy blue background with the big dipper constellation on it pointing to the north star.  Now visualize a 3’ X 6’ piece of aluminum plate metal, painted navy blue and shot with a 30/30 rifle in the same big dipper pattern.  (Not sure of the artists commentary, but that is something that you see a lot of – highway signs with bullet holes in them – actually it is rare not to have a bullet hole in it except perhaps in the cities. )

We passed a couple of salmon streams along the route and they were lined up with fishermen about every 10 feet apart and they were competing against the rafting companies taking tourists on raft rides down the canyons.  The only thing that they don’t have on the rivers yet is someone trying to sell a genuine, made in China, antler horn souvenir of Alaska.  But I suppose someone will figure that one out soon enough.

We are staying in a limited service campground tonight in Portage, Alaska tonight with the intent of going through the Anton Anderson tunnel to the port town of Whittier tomorrow.  We went as far as the Portage Glacier but unfortunately the Interpretive Center was closed when we arrived.  This glacier is receding very quickly and calving off large chunks of ice on a regular basis.