The drive down to the bottom of the peninsula today was beautiful and looks so much like home it was kind of like déjà vu for much of today. The Kenai River (the one that we were camped beside last night in Cooper Landing) is the most beautiful colour of green and the road followed it for the first hour....gorgeous! Today is the first day of fishing season (salmon I think) and so the fishermen were coming in from far and wide to try their luck. In fact the campground that we stayed in last night is fully booked starting tonight - we got in and out of there in the nick of time! As we were driving along the river we could occasionally catch a glimpse of the fishermen all standing hip deep in the water. There were some spots where we could see at least 20 people in a cluster!
We also noticed a fair bit of Russian influence in this region. For example one of the rivers is called the Kasilof River and many of the little towns have Russian names too. One of those little towns, Nikolaevsk (pop 312), lives a very traditional lifestyle, the people wear traditional clothes, have Russian as their first language, and where the men do not shave as dictated by the Church. We didn’t go right into this tiny hamlet as it is off the main road and not really geared up for tourism but signs of Russian influence in the region are obvious.
Today we also got lucky on the animal front as we spied a massive mama moose and her two (yes....two) babies. Those babies couldn’t have been very old at all...they were still so tiny! The three of them were right at the edge of the road so we got to have a really good look at them and they at us. They were all pretty shy tho and so mom had them turned around and away from the highway before I could even get my camera out!
Next stop was the end of the road.....When we rolled onto the spit in Homer we could have been in Steveston! It is a very quaint area with loads of tourists. RV’s and cars and busses and even a cruise ship were packed onto (or pulled up to) the spit. The buildings were all brightly painted in different colours and the whole place had a very festive air about it.
We worked up an appetite for some fantastic seafood while wandering through the many crowded little shops and then were lucky enough to get Jill as our server at Captain Pattie’s. Jill has been a resident here for the past 2 1/2 years having moved from Los Angeles. What a change that must have been! But she followed her heart (or at least her husbands heart) and so here she is now living a happy albeit much simpler life in Homer. We had to chuckle as when Jill first came to our table in Captain Pattie’s she asked, “where are you from?” We replied that we were from British Columbia. Immediately Jill came back with, “I’m sorry for our president!” This is not the first time we’ve had that comment when we told someone where we are from....Matt (worked for the Denali Air company and the guy we got our ticket from) said exactly the same thing in exactly the same under his breath kind of way. It must be so hard for people living in the US, regardless of their politics, watching the way Trump is representing them on the world stage. But enough about that....back to the adventure at hand.....
After our massive meals of a wide array of seafood we drove back up off the spit and into the downtown business district of Homer. It too is small but there appears to be enough variety to satisfy the residents need. Initially we’d planned to find a spot to camp in town but in truth we didn’t need to hook up anywhere and the parking lots didn’t look all that inviting right on the side of busy roads so we decided to begin the journey north a little earlier than planned and look for a spot along the way.
We were only about ten miles up the road when we noticed something round and hairy on the side of the highway ahead of us. As we got a little closer we could see that it was waddling up the road in our same direction. Once we were close enough to be able to confirm it’s identity we’re happy to report that we’ve both now seen our first ever porcupine! And then just a minute or so later there were the same three moose we’d seen earlier in the day. This time the mamma and her two babies were on the other side of the highway and about 20 feet away down in a ditch whereas earlier they’d been right on the shoulder - a very dangerous spot! Once we were finished with oohing and aahing about our good luck with animals we refocused on the task at hand. It didn’t take long to find the perfect spot so here we are next to the Anchor river where we are the only vehicle. This little river (not much bigger than a large creek) is located in Anchor Point aptly given its name because Captain Cook actually lost an anchor when he was here all those years ago. I’m not sure how they know that or if someone found it but...that’s the story anyway.
We’re really happy to be here as this is where we’ll be able to access the western most point of land that can be accessed by a car in all of North America. So....that will be on our agenda after breakfast tomorrow. :-)
Till then.....
L & L
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