Ho hum, you’ve seen one Volcano that blew it’s top creating a perfect crater, subsequently filled with melted snow to become a pristine lake, you’ve seen’m all.
The video running on the 1/2 hour at the visitor center says that just 7700 years (in geological terms, yesterday) ago, Crater Lake was Mount Mazama. In fact, the indiginous indians, claim to have handed-down eyewitness accounts of the fateful event.
Scientists estimate that what took millions of years to create, caved in over the course of 2-3 hours. Well, we spent our 2-3 hours there, and it was amazing… crystal clear, blue sky, no wind (water was mirror like), mid 60’s… perfect hiking weather. Some locals assured us that we were seeing it “at its best”.
All that said, the State Park that we chose to camp in based on proximity to the lake probably equaled the lake in my mind. It was perfect. Large, treed campsites. Full hookups. Lush grass. Bike trails. Deer. Firepit. Mixed forests with falling leaves. A lake. Amazing stars at night. I could go on and on, but within 5 seconds of being setup in camp, I felt the last little bit if stress leave my body. It was perfect. (except for no tv or wifi, but you can’t have it all!).
Check out these pics! The kids are getting back into taking pictures, since Kane bought himself a camera, and Kat dusted off her DS (that she bought from Kane). Kane had a blast taking pics of the lake, and his camera has a built-in “paranorma” (he pronounced it… really “Panorama”) mode which was perfect for the lake.
We drove up to the visitors center (got in free because we have an annual NP pass), got he lay of the land, drove up to “rim village” to park. At the lunch we packed on the stone wall overlooking the lake. Then we did the the “Garfield Peak Trail” to the top for the exercise, the feeling of accomplishment, and the views. What a day!
After 3.5 months, our hiking shoes are good and broken in!
Kids bikes have to come off the jeep immediately after we are setup (and sometimes before).
This was our yard for a few days… Joseph Stewart State Park… wow!
Our campsite. It was aided by sparseness of the late season, and the face that the loop behind us was closed
Interesting how this sign is totally different from the other NP signs we’ve seen.
Kim and I “almost” had a fight about this sign. We didn’t stop on the way in, and we thought we were going to have to argue about turning around on the way home if we missed it. Turned out moot because we didn’t miss it! Everybody’s a winner.
Kim took this with her iPhone. I thought it was interesting how more saturated the colors were by default. Nice blue water.
Kids with Wizard Island (sunken volcano tip) to the left.
A lot of these are “Just cool” pics of Crater Lake… no story here.
I was laying on the wall, relaxing, while Kim was taking the lunch trash back to the jeep. I notice a couple struggling to take a “Selfie”. I offered (and took) a shot for them, and they returned the favor. Why not, we’re due for a new banner photo for the blog!
Garfield Peak Trail Hike – 3.4 miles round trip, and 1000 ft elevation gain
Junior Ranger in the making
Our lunch spot
Wizard Island
Kim’s learning again!
We spent a lot of time looking at the lake. It was amazing how walking a few feet would completely change the view.
Lots of snow around, and some steep areas down to the lake.
Kids + Snow = Snowballs = TROUBLE
LLao rock. Natives say the crater was created basically by the underworld god (Llao) and the aboveworld god (Skell), having a fireball battle. Llao was mad that an indian princess would not marry him, Skell was sticking up for the indians. This rock formation is called Llao rock for the underworld god.
1/2 of this trail is on the “wrong side” of the peak (no view of the lake). Cool views down into the valley though.
Kanes on the prowl for a photo op.
The Valley south of the lake.
Various views of Wizard Island coming…
Hiking through the snow this time. Parts were slippery.
Parts were muddy too!
Rest break… and some messing with the fish eye (super wide) lens.
Liked the flare.
Kane always wanted to take the lead and shortcuts straight up where possible.
Getting up there!
We got the peak!
Working on her Junior Ranger program. We needed to turn them in at 5:00. Pic taking at 3:45… gotta hustle.
Some nice views up there.
Little outcropping is called “Phantom Ship”, it’s actually as tall as a 6 story building. Kind of messes with your sense of scale?!
Not a bad place for a school lesson?
Could not help getting these of the kids working on their Junior Ranger books in this place.
Kat, working hard.
Zoomed in on the Phantom Ship.
Snapped a few wide-angle shots of the lake on the way back.
If I’d have known catching crabs was so much fun, I’ve have done it years ago.
After we got evicted early from Beverly Beach, we headed south down the coast to Coos Bay. With the Cards making a deep postseason run, and having licked the cable tv setup issue in Portland, I lobbied for a “commercial” campground (non State Park, and thus Cable TV). Kim shut me down. 🙁
Fortunately for me, once we found the State Park, and toured the available spots, there really weren’t any (only one spot long enough for us and it was all the way upfront by the registration). So, Kim (finally) took pity on me and agreed to go to “Oceanside RV Park”, where cable TV was offered. Yay!.
The first afternoon there, I hung out at the RV (some alone time), and Kim took the kids over the beach. Kane came back and announced that “it was the best beach I’ve ever been to!”. I guess the tidepooling was terrific.
The first full day, there Kim had planned to go crabbing (catching crabs). After she talked to a few folks and scoped it out, and she relayed that “it’s been slow”, I pushed pretty hard to skip it and go do a hike or something. I just couldn’t imagine getting a license, renting gear, fumbling our way through learning the technique, spending 3/4 hours, and not getting anything. For the record, though, my heels were not dug in deeply! We compromised and we went crabbing.
The bait shop near the marina was closed, the owner left a note on the door saying “I had to take my kid to the doctor, be back at 12:30”. We need to be crabbing at lowtide… 11:00. I pushed back again, and failed again. Kim ran over to the little place on the dock, and got the scoop. We could rent all the gear there, but we would have to buy a license elsewhere (the Oregon license bureau). We headed over to the bureau. Kim and I had a bit of a mexican standoff. I was trying to get her to go in and get the license (and hence be responsible for doing the crabbing), and she wanted me to do it. We compromised and I went in to get the license.
The ladies at the license bureau were really friendly and helpful (mostly). I got my license, and they took 10 minutes to fill me in on where to go, the regulations, how to id Dungeness, Red Rocks, Male/Femail etc. How to measure them (they gave me a measuring tool). Everything was good, until I asked them to root for the Cardinals that night. One of them was “born in Orange County”, and seemed a little miffed by the request. The license was good 3 days and cost $11.50.
Off to the pier to rent gear. We got the “Crabbing Special”… one “crab ring” (collapsible basket with rope), two “bait bags” (plastic mesh bag for holding bait, two baits (one salmon head, one tuna head), a bucket and a measuring stick. We had borrowed a crab ring (smaller one) from our campground office, so this gave us (in theory), two complete setups. The extra bait and bait bag were 4 bucks, so we were in for $14.
The gals at the license bureau told me not to fish at the dock where the bait shop was… it’s over fished. They told me to go to the other side of the bridge (across the town of Charleston), and find the “T” shaped pier. The super nice guy at the bait shop told me how to get there. So we went there.
When we got there and walked out onto the pier, there were actually 4 docks branching off of the pier. There were boats parked along the outermost docks, and the inner docks were void of boats. It looked like there were people crabbing on each, though not many. We decided to pick the inner dock and avoid the boats altogether. It was a great choice. On this doc, there was one guy with a little girl crabbing. As we walked down, we shouted to him… “do you mind if we join you?”. He said “sure” so we set up just down from them.
Nolan and Cherokee were not first time crabbers, in fact, Nolan grew up in the area, and seemingly has tons of free time. He’s crabbed everywhere in Charleston, and “this spot is the best”. Sounds too good to be true, but great! We had a great time, picking Nolan’s brain, learning the finer points of technique (especially for how to throw out the ring… like a frisbee, then give it a “jerk” after it sinks to make sure it sinks rightside-up), and also how to hold the crabs without getting clawed.
There are varying schools of thought on how often to pull up the rings. We’d heard that the big ones come and go (they don’t hang out on the ring for long periods), so we decided on 10 minutes. We used Kims iphone as our timer, and we were all “Giddy” when we heard the “dog barking” alarm go off on Kim’s phone. Every time we pulled up the rings, we had crabs in the basket! It was soooo fun! Usually, we had 5-10 crabs, some mix of Dungeness and Red Rock, varying sizes. We started out keeping all of the Red Rocks (they are not indigenous to the area, and you can keep any size/sex), and “keeper” dungeoness (5 and 3/4 inches wide across the shell).
We’d pull up the ring, measure any large Dungeness, and throw our loot into a cooler of ice. Later on, we threw the smaller Red Rocks back, and kept our 2 keeper Dungeness, and “larger” Red Rocks.
I apologized to Kim as I was totally wrong about the crabbing. It was fun as heck, and something I’ll remember forever.
Toward the end of the crabbing, Kane (who was careless at times with handling the crabs), had a large Red Rock crab latch onto his pinky! He was screaming, I was trying to put my gloves on, and Kim was shouting at me “help him!”. I was able to get it off after probably 20 seconds, but those suckers are STRONG! It was a good lesson.
One the way home, we stopped at the seafood store and bought some fresh Tuna for a fish fry. We wanted to try to replicate the “Bowpickers” fish-n-chips from Astoria. Then we stopped by the campground office and borrowed their huge stock pot.
That night, boiled the crabs outside over our coleman gas grill, and beer-battered and fried the tuna inside on the stove. All the while watching the Cards game. Ultimately, the crab was too difficult to harvest to be awesome(we understood why “most people don’t bother with Red Rocks”). I don’t eat crab anyway because of a suspected allergy and migraine headaches. The tuna and potatoes were “very good” (not competition for Bowpickers yet). But what a day!
The best ability is availability. See the yellow paper on the door? Closed!
Next best bait shop on the pier. Really nice guys there!
Getting ready… we look happy, but we have no idea what we are doing
Hey, we got a few… small, no keepers, but still felt good
Our bar was really low at first… keeping “any” Red Rock crabs (regardless of sex or size)
Thanks to Nolan, we knew to “tug” the rope after we threw out the crab ring. This ensures the ring drops rightside-up. (it it lands unside-down, it won’t hold the crabs when you pull it up)
Bringing one in… always exciting!
Taking stock. We didn’t care what we got, it was such a beautiful day.
Not bad technique, hand on each claw…
Is it time to bring them up yet?? 10 minues seemed an eternity for Kane.
Nice Haul. We had lots of “near-miss” Dungeoness (1/4 inch too small to keep)
Another slight miss! Good thing we are honest!
Decent technique, but a little hard with small 10 yr old hands…
Kane started bringing them in too!
We’d let the little guys scamper back into the water on their own, it was neat to see
These guys are REALLY strong. There were a few times where I had to just throw them back in vs damage them by wrenching them off the ring (or rope as in this case). Nolan stands at the ready to help. Don’t let the tats fool you, he’s Morman.
We learned eventually the “dump” technique for getting crabs back in the water
Not a great shot, but give you a feel for our view on this day… pretty sweet
Nice one
We got a keeper, folks!
Yeah! These fish-cleaning gloves came in handy (again)
Sittin’ on the dock of the bay
Time to rearrange the cooler and make sure their good and cold. We also let some smaller Red Rocks go
Kat’s new friend Cherokee was happy to play Uno between harvests.
Fresh “claw marks”. Lesson learned.
They could totally do this on their own at this point.
This watched pot almost never boiled. I had to go inside to fry up the tuna (and watch the Cards game)
Happiness is catching your own dinner
Typical time-killing move at the campsite… Biking!
Guarantee, he’s still worried, even though the crab is dead
Time to be boiled, crabbies
One crab stew, coming up!
Love seeing the kids this happy
Starting to float…
Nice bowl of crabmeat
Some of the crabs, cooked and ready to be “shucked”
Beer-battered tuna, yum!
Time to relax and watch the Cards game
The next day, we debated a few options, and ultimately decided on “sand sledding”. The Sand Dunes recreation area (40 miles of sand dunes) was just 1/2 hour north of us. Kim had read a lot about Dune Buggies, Sand Boarding (like snow boarding), and Sand Sledding. We decided that best value in experiencing the dunes would be to rent or buy a sled.
We found a rental place after some searching, and in a moment of clarity opted to rent one sled for “all day” (20 bucks). I figured, we long pole in the tent would be energy to climb the hill, and I wasn’t sure Kat (nor I) would be up for more than 1 run. The sleds are kind of like wake boards (just a wood board with two handles and a fiberglass bottom layer). The guy who rented it to us, gave us a map/directions to a good place, and said “be generous with the wax”. Put it on, and slide the sled on the sand to make it slick.
We drove out (another 10 miles north) to the park, and it was amazing. There were woods, with a short path to a 5 acre lake, and one entire side of the lake was adjacent to a massive sand hill (150 yards long, and > 45% slope down). On the way over, I explained the ground rules of the sled… nobody climbs the hill without the sled. You wanna sled, you get it up the hill yourself, and don’t leave anyone stranded at the top of the hill without the sled. So of course, when we got there, we all immediately climbed to the top of the hill, and I carried the sled. Oh well, it was a good idea.
When we got to the top of the hill, we were treated to a real view of the sand dunes. Sand hills as far as the eye can see, ending at what looked like the ocean. It was amazing and worth the effort by itself.
The backside of the “big hill to the lake” offered some more modest runs, and we decided to cut our teeth there vs the big one. Kane went first. I waxed the board with the “wax for hot weather”.. evidently 70 is hot here. Kane had a nice run down to the bottom of the slope and fell off. He came back, and it was Kat’s turn. She seems to be a natural (and light), so she went about twice as far down the “less steep” part of the hill. Not to be outdone, on Kane’s next run, he started pushing him self down the less steep area with his hands, and managed to go “over the cliff” at the bottom. He went to an area that I could not see, and had not seen. All I heard was a scream, and he disappeared. I waited about 10 seconds, called to Kane, and didn’t get a reply, so I put my camera down and “ran”. He was OK, and had just shot down into a ditch (it was steep, but not that long). Climbing back up was rough! The sand in some areas is very “slippery”. Take a 2 foot step up the hill, and make 6 inches of progress?
After a few more practice runs, we went to the other side (lake side). Kane had a hard time getting going, and I wasn’t sure if it was all the footprints, or lack of wax. (I was not yet convinced the wax was helping much). So I used the regular wax, and put a full coat on. Kane “flew” down the hill. He got to within 30 feet of the lake and had to “ditch”. He flipped 2/3 times (thankfully the board didn’t hit him), and the board slid (by itself) all the way into the lake!
Kane was OK (lost his sunglasses and face covered in sand), and Kat got the board. Kat brought the board up to the top (what a trooper), and announced that she didn’t want her turn. I gave it a go, and had a similar experience to Kane, though I didn’t ditch at 30 feet out, I wiped at 50 feet out. In hindsight a bad idea because my camera bag ended up getting a bunch of sand in it and my camera had sand on it. Thankfully, I don’t think Kim was videoing, otherwise, my pride might have been damaged more than the camera.
It was a great day. It was also the day our dear friend Stephanie got remarried, and as a result, we were getting texts from friends at the wedding. Kim was feeling really low about not being there, and I was spending a lot of time thinking about my buddy Jeff (Steph’s first husband who died). Jeff would have been our biggest fan on this journey, no doubt proud of us. Jeff also would have shredded that sand boarding hill(probably while yodeling and wearing a sombrero).
We arrived at the suggested sand sledding place. The hill was a bit ominous across the lake
For 20 bucks, you can rent these babies for a day
Almost like a wooden wakeboard?
Climbing the hill. There is a “trail” through trees which is easier and convenient from the parking lot
Treated to quite a view of the dunes from the top!
Never seen anything like this, except maybe a movie where somebody is lost in the desert
Looking back at the lake from the hill. We decided to sled the back side first for some practice
Ready to go!
Kat, headed down the hill
She just kept going, and going, and going!
Harder than it looks, coming back up
Kane, didn’t quite make it as far as his sister, ouch!
Yes, I’m at the bottom of the hill now, Kane dissappeared and I freaked out
He’s fine!
Ready for the Varsity hill
Weeeeee
Kim was solemn, wishing she was in STL at Steph and Brads wedding
The board served as a walking stick on the way back up… I used this technique myself
Kim took this one, and I really like it
Kim’s maiden (and only) voyage
Fastest run of the day, by far… thanks to a fresh coat of wax!
Lost his glasses, and coated his face with sand. Kim insisted on sunscreen, which is a great sand-glue
Some sand castle fun at the bottom of the hill
I was thinking of Jeff Wilcox all day
The excuse was needing to clean off the sand
Wax… the red was supposed for be for “hot” days. The white was better, we didn’t realize until Kane was flying.
Hard to tell, but I had probably 1/3 cup of sand in each boot.
Not surprising that in between the Northern Oregon Coast and the Southern Oregon Coast, we visited the Central Oregon Coast! We’re on a roll here with Oregon State Parks, they are super awesome (wooded) and motorhome friendly (large sites and elec/water hookups).
This was a quick visit (2 nights and 1 full day), mostly because we got kicked out of our campsite. (unbeknownst to us, our spot was reserved for the third night already), but we made the most of it.
The kids and I did lots of hiking and mushroom hunting around the campgrounds, and during our one full day there, we drove up and down the coast to catch some highlights.
Devil’s Punchbowl was a favorite.. we’re suckers for caved in geological features!
Kane found some new stuff here… “Pig’s Ear”, and “Lobster Mushroom”. Pretty Cool!
We ended up eating the lobster mushroom, it’s interesting because it actually grows on another host mushroom (usually a russella). It was OK, but a tad bit bitter (not as good as Bolete or Chanterelle). It does smell of shellfish!
Our campsite at Beverly Beach State Park.
Typical view from our campsite here… awesome.
Devil’s Punchbowl, caved in seacave. Fun to see big waves crash in and fill up the bowl!
LIttle park at Devil’s punchbowl area, kids loved climbing the trees here!
Kat wanted deperately to stay here for lunch, but we voted and moved on.
Depoe Bay! Famous for Whale watching, but we didn’t see any (too late in the season). Nice place for lunch though!
Kat gave me her sticker! And it’s true!
Kids and Kim learned a ton about Whales here… I snuck upstairs to follow the Cards game on my phone. One of the ranges was giving me the stink eye when I was downstairs with my phone out.
Awesome park in Newport. Best equipment ever… Kompan!
For a nice break from nature, we scooted over to Portland for a few days. My Nephew, Mike Arps Jr (my sister DeeDee’s son) and his wife Mika, recently moved to Portland and are expecting Iris (their first) any week now. They moved from the SF Bay area about a month earlier to escape the crime, commute, and cost of living. So far, they’re loving Portland (actually they live in Beaverton just West of Portland).
Anyway, it was great to socialize with family for the first time in 3+ months! Also, Mike is a gamer (as in German board games), and was also eager to “get it on!”.
We rolled in Friday afternoon, and camped in Beaverton about 10 minutes from their apartment. We met them for Thai food Friday night, which was great. Then they came over to visit us at the campground. After a short visit, and kids going to bed, Mika took the car home, and Mike, Kim, and I fired up the games. We hit it pretty hard until about 4:15 am, and slept in until about 9:30. The morning was rough, but the kids were great about not waking Mike on the pull-out sofa.
Didn’t take long to get reaquainted with cousins on Friday night
Took longer to get reaquainted with Agricola… it was a marithon!
We had planned to go downtown to visit the farmers market and “VooDoo Doughnut”. Since Mika had not yet recovered from the Thai food, the 5 of us parked the jeep at “park-n-ride”, and took the train downtown. The kids really enjoyed waiting for and riding the train (and it’s fast). Mike takes this train each day to work, so he knew the drill. We got off the train right near pioneer square and in the middle of the market.
From there, we made the short walk to VooDoo Doughnuts. Quite a line (probably 300 feet?, and great for people watching. A few buskers, people in costumes, panhandlers etc. Surprisingly, the line went fast and it only took 40 minutes to get in.
Park-n-ride Mike takes this train every day to work, so he knew the drill.
Kids wanted to call Mika from the station (she was home feeling ill).
Pretty laid back crowd on the train that day.
Kane, excited to ride the train.
Trying to follow the Cards game (game 2 of the NDLS) on the train
We found the place, and a line.
Higher energy than apple store on iphone launch day.
More than willing to wait for donuts.
Sugar anticipation.
Across the street fro VooDoo.
I liked everything about this guy, except his hair. He played Bright Eyes, Shins, and Deathcab…. nice set list.
We finally got to the door!
Racks and racks frosted delisiousness
See the VooDoo doll in there?
Crazy menu, including the famous “cock-n-balls”
VooDoo closeup
OMG
Can almost taste it now.
Love the bumper stickers.
Bubble Gum.
Fruit Loops?
Custard filled… Portland Creme
A funny thing happened when we were waiting to get a cashier to order (we were next in line). There was a single guy (probably early 30’s) in front of us, we could tell he was placing a very specific order, but his voice was down so we couldn’t hear. The cashier was hustling to fill his “pink box”, and then he came back to the counter and “shouted”… “We’re all out of cock-n-balls, sorry, is there anything else I can get you instead?!?!?”. I just about lost it. I couldn’t help but think of a scene from the Woody Allen movie “Bananas”, where he’s buying a porno mag on the sly and stacks in in between Newsweek, Time, SI etc. The cashier gets to the smut, and hollers back to the back for a price check. “how much is XXXXXXX?!?!”. All the other patrons staring at Woody as hes sweating. (or the famous Swedish penis-pump scene in Austin Powers… “It’s not mine baby!”).
We grabbed a table outside, and ate a few doughnuts… they’re pretty darn good! Kat got approached by a bum for money and ran away.
We headed back toward the market, and got side-tracked at a candy store. I have to admit, I was busy watching updates on the Cards/Dodgers game 2 on my phone. About this time Wacha worked out of a bases-loaded, no-out jam (protecting a 1-0 lead), and I told Mike, that’s Game and Series… no way their coming back from that. Perhaps a bit premature, but it did work out eventually!
We went down to “food truck row” for lunch, where the Kids and Mike had burgers at “Brunch Box” (they were great), and Kim and I had Korean bbq tacos (also good). As were sitting there, we were approached by a beggar, and saw several others. Kim noted some young kids picking through the trash can and eating discarded scraps (or at least pretending). She gave them our left-over tacos (3 whole, untouched tacos), which they happily accepted. It did make us appreciate what we have for sure.
MIke in front of his office building
Food Truck Row! Looking for Indian!
Got our food, ready to dig in.
Korean Taco place for Kim and Scott
Korean Beef Tacos… yummy
Brunch Box Burgers for kids and Mike
Custom burger for Mike… Mayo and BBQ sauce on Texas Toast
We were all a bit tired, so we headed back to the train.
Near the train stop, there was a one-man-band playing. He noticed Kat watching, and mid-song, he asked her for her name (several times). She was mortified, ran away, and hid (behind and under) the information sign at the train stop. He invited her to help him play, which she declined, but she did eventually take a buck over for his bucket. It was cute.
One man band, tried to engage Kat.
Kat hiding behind the info sign.
Kat climbing out from under the sign, where she was hiding from the one-man-band.
Kat, scouting her next hiding place from the one-man-band. She eventually did give him a buck, but never did play with him.
That night, Mike and Mika came over for dinner, (followed by more games). Kim gave up at about 12:30, Mike and I at maybe 3:30 or so. Mike stayed over again.
The next day, we all went over to Mike and Mika’s apartment to watch football. Kim made Clam Chowder for dinner, and Mike and I vegged out on the sofa watching the Chiefs beat the Raiders, and then caught some other close games. It was great. No games Sunday night, as we were all pooped.
Monday, Mike had to work, and we planned to go for a hike. The kids got into building Legos in the morning, and we decided to have “lego day”. We just hung out and built motorized legos (Kane made a house with a retractable roof, and Kat and I made a car). It was nice to just stay home and be creative with the kids.
Kat building
Kane cooking scrambled eggs
Eating his own eggs
Excited for brothers Eggs and lego day
More cars!
Kane working on his house with retractible roof
Team effort!
Kane, still cooking, making grilled cheese for lunch
Watching game 3, which ended badly!
Monday night, Mike and Mika came over and we had pizza. Then we played one more game of Agricola. Mike won this one handily. Kim had won the previous 2 (with me usually in 2nd).
Books Kim got Mika (Iris)
Kat playing with Poo… he loved it!
Mike and MIka’s apartment.. third floor, nice!
Monday night group photo… we’ll miss hanging with you!
Tuesday, we took the RV to be serviced (oil change, generator tune-up), and messed around in the jeep (visited the “end of the oregon trail museum”, did short hike, went to Target (a big deal), and went out to lunch at Red Robin (a big deal)).
Once we got the RV and hooked up to the jeep, Kim and I had a pretty interesting 5 minute conversation behind the RV about where to go next. We had decided earlier in the day to head East through Idaho and head for the Grand Canyon. Kane was really upset and wanted to go back to the Oregon coast. At the end of the discussion, we headed back to the coast. It’s such an amazing blessing to be able to have the flexibility to have those conversations about what the future holds. It’s so liberating!
After an epic visit to Astoria/Fort Stevens State Park, I wasn’t sure what more the coast of Oregon could offer. Tillamook/Cape Lookout did not disappoint!
Driving into Tillamook, I had strong tugs on the old heart-strings for multiple reasons. One, the last time Kim and I were in this area, we were with our dear friends Jeff Wilcox and Stephanie Russell. Jeff has since died of Brain Cancer, and we still miss him dearly. Two, the place has a similar feel to Vermont, where we’ve had several great trips over the last few years.
Tillamook County is on an alluvial plain, where no less than 5 rivers converge. It’s an interesting flat area in the midst of an otherwise hilly (mountainous?) region. It’s also a hotbed of dairy farming (much like Vermont). and it’s been alluring to talented cheese makers for almost two centuries.
Cape Lookout is a beautiful State Park just South of Tillamook, on a point jutting out into the Pacific. (interesting that Merriwether Lewis refused to call it the Pacific because he claimed it was never peaceful). Oregon State parks are sweet! I guess at this point I’m a sucker for Douglas Fir trees (and the mushrooms that grow under them!).
Here is a gallery of the highlights of our time in this area….. hiking cape lookout (6 miles total), exploring Oceanside beach (tide pooling, jade and agate hunting), and touring the Tillamook Cheese Factory.
Online mushroom research to confirm Kanes find. The big one was “chicken of the woods”, but too many maggots, so we pitched it. 🙁
The Douglas Fir forests here along the coast are perfect for mushroom hunting. Kane found these Chanterelles in the campground. So proud of the fact that another camper was excited about Kane’s find, and he gave her a mushroom (without prompting from Kim).
The most incredible sauteed mushrooms ever. Chanerelles. 3 TBS olive oil, 3 TBS Butter, 3 cloves garlic sliced. Tiny bit of salt right at the end. WOW
Typical of the non-muddy (first 1/2) of this hike…. so nice!
First vista off of the Cape Lookout trail hike. Reminded me of Waikiki beach from the volcano.
This tree didn’t scare me, but the cliff to the right sure did. (you can’t really appreciate it from this pic, 30 foot drop)
Stumbled upon a couple of these guys on this hike. Alaska had lulled us into a false sense of “no snakes”, mostly because they don’t have any there. (nor poisonous spiders or ticks).
Happy Hiker, properly layered.
Looking for good ones for Daddy to smash later.
Very representative of this area, it is sooooo gorgeous.
Snack time at the end of the hike! We’re eating our share of Kind and Granola bars! Kane is sad, because 5 minutes earlier, I slipped in the mud and totally smashed our mushrooms (all of them). We had found some nice Chanty’s and Boletes on this hike.
Periodic Vistas to the south from Cape Lookout hike. At times, I felt like we were at a Caribbean island.
View of Oceanside beach from our parking spot.
Shout-out to the Jeep!
Cool tunnel from one beach to the next. Impassable during high tide BTW.
I’m the laggard, they’re already finding Jade (I can hear Kane howling in the distance)
Looking for Jade at Oceanside beach.
A Jade, an Agate, and a bit of sand (if you look close)
So very happy with her find.
Typical view if you look down at the Oceanside beach. We found cool Jade chunks and Kat found Agates.
Typical Oregon coast – ho-hum. 🙂
Anemone in one of the tide pools.
Chunk of jade right in the rock at the edge of a tide pool.
Reminds me to appreciate the simple things in life. We loved this time at the beach.
Some keepers!
I could eat her up, sometimes!
Turns out, Kat REALLY likes finding Jade. She announced later in the day, that in addition to potentially being a vet, she’s seriously considering going into Jade mining.
Someone who came before us to this place, stacked these rocks in this little waterfall. I could not resist.
Don’t try this at home. This is a re-enactment done by professionals. Kane had found a piece of foam that looked like a rock. He ran up behind us, shouted, and beaned his mother with it. It was so funny! At least it was funny the first time, after he hit us 4/5 times, it got old. He gets that from his old man (riding a good thing into the ground and auguring in).
Tides rolling in, time to go!
Taking inventory of the booty.
Are you ready for some cheese!?!?!?
That is one handsome cow, but don’t mind the extra mouth nor the extra set of arms on that farmer… they are legit.
Huge blocks of cheddar, coming out of aging to be chopped and packaged. Love the automation… most of human intervention was quality control.
Rennet (enzyme harvested from intestines of un-weaned calves) We’ve confirmed that it is indeed used in cheese making, and this was the first 55 gallon vat of it for proof. Sorry sympathetic vegetarians!
Kat spent the next 30 minutes picking the cookie dough out of her’s with a straw. Kane was sad… after he ordered the Rootbeer float, he got a sample of the “White Chocolate Raspberry Ice Cream”, he was begging to change his order…. but we had already paid and they started making his float. I have to agree, it’s totally backwards to let you sample after you order and pay??!!!
Baby you can drive my false-front, mini cheese van.
Well, Seattle, I have some good news and some bad news. First the bad. I did everything I could to grease the skids with Kim, telling her how great you were and what a great place you would be to live. When your big moment came, and I introduced you to Kim, you crapped the bed. I understand that you had record rainfall (by 20%!) for September, and it was unseasonably wet, but you had 4 days to get your act together, and you didn’t do it. Too bad for you that she met you on the tail end of about 20 days of rain starting in Seward.
Now the good news. We still had a great time visiting! So at least you made the “great place to visit, but I don’t want to live there” category. That’s something to hang your hat on.
I’m ashamed to say, that I’m starting to take some of this stuff for granted. I’m a week overdue to write this post, and as I chose the pics and wrote the captions, I perhaps for the first time truly appreciated the breadth of the Seattle experience. It was in and of itself, wonderful, and unfortunately for it, sandwiched between Vancouver and the Northern Oregon coast (that’s stiff competition!).
On to the details… the Seattle visit was a great blend of touristy stuff, and “real living”. As per usual, I think we agree that the “real living” experiences are a tad more precious and almost always sneak up on us because their not planned (could they be?).
We camped in Bellevue, which is a sizable town in it’s own right, east of Seattle on the opposite side of the massive and beautiful lake Washington. The campground was sufficient, basically a parking lot with hookups, but the location was good, they had (modest) wifi, and much to the kids joy, an indoor pool! We rolled in mid afternoon, and decided to walk to Pizza Hut for dinner. Actually, we debated between Pizza Hut and Outback Steakhouse as we have (had) gift cards for both. We’re a pizza family, and you know what to expect from Pizza Hut. Lots of talk about Chickens and Octopus’s over dinner. The kids are obsessed, and I have to admit I’m intrigued by the idea of fresh eggs. How often does a female Octopus lay? 🙂
Our first full day was Saturday, and we decided to do the Space Needle and the Dale Chihuly museum (gallery) combo ticket. Our friends the Marings had visited recently and strongly recommended the Chihuly place. I’m glad they did, because I would have leaned to skipping as we visited the Botanical gardens several times when Chihuly was there, and I felt like I’d seen it all. I had not. It was a bonus that Chihuly was right next door to the Space Needle.
I get the feeling that the Space Needle is a different gig when the weather is nice and visibility is good. As it was, I’d put it in the STL Arch and Statue of Liberty bucket… enjoy it for the history/context and enjoy it from outside, but don’t bother going in/up. The view from the Needle far exceeds the Arch etc, but it was so wet, foggy, and WINDY outside there was no desire to linger. We got up, took our requisite pictures, ate our packed PB&J lunch, thoroughly inspected the junk food offered in the snack bar, read some exhibits, got frustrated by the touch screen kiosk, and left. If you have the budget, I suspect the rotating restaurant would be great… the menu looked good, but pricy. The gift shop is magnificent, and of course, the elevator down drops you there. I think we survived relatively unscathed as the kids have learned a keen ability to judge “good/bad deals” on this trip. Actually we’ve all sharpened those skills!
Mixed levels of excitement as we wait for the Space Needle elevator ride. It was raining in the elevator!They sprung for the Swarovski spotting scopes, but should have gotten the anti-fog model. I wish I had a nickel for every selfie we’ve seen taken on this trip. We usually offer to take a proper pic for them though. By “we” I mostly mean Kim. When Kim’s not around, I do it by proxy.Cool to see the city from the Needle, even if visibility was limited. I’m pretty sure the tan concrete hotel on the left is the “Red Lion”, where I shared the presidential suite with a dude in July 2011. (story for another day)Most of us are happy to be at the Space Needle. I think Kane just got shutdown on his request for a bag of Lays from the snack bar.Kat, checking out Seattle via a Space Needle scope. Visibility was poor!The combo tix for the Needle and the Chihuly gallery are too good to pass up, and they’re next door to one another. This was taken from the Chihuly garden.Touch screen kiosks… great idea… poor execution. They mostly “sporadically” worked.
From the Needle, we sauntered over to the Dale Chihuly museum. This place is amazing. We jumped into the theatre which was showing short documentaries chronociling some of his “epic” installments (Venice, Isreal, Rio, etc). We stayed put and watched them all (the kids were into the first 2/3, and Kim and I were enthralled throughout and didn’t want them to end). Then we proceeded though the exhibits inside, bounced out for the gardens, and ended in the “glass house”. It’s all great! A wedding reception in the glass house would be amazing. You gotta checkout these pics.
It’s love/torment, mostly love.The contrasting textures and colors in the gardens are breathtaking.Welcome to the gardenA little rain can’t keep us down… we’re Chiefs fans and we’re Crawfords.Thought I’d include one of the the entire, incredible “red trumpet glass” piece.How in the world do they make this stuff?The scale of some of these pieces is incredible. If you get a chance to see a Chihuly exhibit, see it!Sorry for all these pics, but these are just the best of the best! Chandelier used in “Chihuly over Venice”.My feedback for them is they need to have artisans on-sight demonstrating how they make this stuff.This is a long, narrow room, and by no means does this pic do it justice, but when you turn the corner, this is what smacks you in the eyes. It’s utterly incredible. A+mazing.The Bellagio called and they want their ceiling back.I know there are too many pics of the art, but It struck me that I like this picture “much” better than I like this piece in real life.The talk all week had been, Kat getting a Chicken and Kane getting an Octopus when we get home. And of Kane potentially going into marine biology. Fitting that Chihuly had an entire room dedicated to marine life. (no chickens, however there were several egg shaped elements)Love me some bowls. Aspiring artists, take note, a gallery is 75% lightingPictures of this can’t do it justice. The colors are so vibrant and vivid.
What you might see if you look up from within the Chihuly glass house (available for rent). Sweet venue.Some of the places in here are stunning, and I love how they’ve planned sight lines. This is inside the “glass house”, looking out over the gardens.
Well after Chihuly, we had no plans, and though it was raining we felt compelled to wander around a bit searching out our next victim (or was it the prey searching for the next predator?). The Sience center looked pretty cool, but the budget was shot for the day, so we just saw what we could through the windows. I agreed to walk more in the rain for a promise of food (I was silently hoping for a samosa). We headed south toward the sculpture park. The rain let up to a drizzle, and it was a nice walk “downhill” through a nice downtown hood, though the only potential snack was a Subway. The sculpture park was a nice place to hang out, right on the edge of the Puget Sound. As far as the art goes, it’s probably a notch below Lauramier? Opinions vary I’m sure. The only “interactive” installation that we found was basically the roof of a house built directly on the hillside. After reading the sign of warnings, it dawned on me that we “might” be allowed to walk on the roof. As I’m thinking out-loud about the goodness of the idea, Kane scampered to the top. Kat quickly followed suit (albeit slower), so I went with her. I guess it was OK, nobody chewed us out. I did have a hard time getting Kane off that roof for some reason, but it had started to rain hard now and we were a mile from the jeep. We made a bee-line for our parking spot, and didn’t get that snack after all. Solid day none-the-less, and once again Kim was vindicated in her insistence that we all buy “decent rain gear” for the trip.
Walking from Seattle Center (Space Needle/Chihuly) to Sculpture Garden.Seattle sculpture garden. Free and we had the place virtually to ourselves.It took some nerve to finally climb up here, we were not 100% certain we could, but nobody stopped us. Not sure what kind of art this is… a roof built in the hillside. Did I mention entry was free?Included this so you could appreciate how close this is to the sound.
The following day was Sunday, and I had one thing on my mind… my Chiefs were still undefeated and playing at 12 central (10 am Seattle time). Kim again took pity on me, and we scheduled the day around this 25+ year affliction of mine.
We got up reasonably early, and headed downtown for Pike Place Market. I’d been here a few times to buy souvenirs for the kids and to watch the “fish throwing” at the seafood shop. Neither Kim nor the kids had ever been, and Kim got word from her friend Allison that there were fresh doughnuts to be had as well. This was to be our breakfast!
We got close, but parking was a challenge. On Sunday it’s free to park on the street, and we knew this, but it was also busy. We were giving up on free parking, and pulling into a paid lot, and we were approached by the self-proclaimed “parking guru”, who told us (for a suggested tip) that we could park in any zone but handicapped on Sunday (including police etc which we’d been avoiding). So we headed back out to find any opening possible on the street. We did find one, and unfortunately for the guru, we didn’t have to walk past him to get to the market.
We wandered around the market, amazed both by the offerings and the offerers. 10 bucks can go a long way at the market, surprisingly! Just as we were ready to fire up the MiFi and look up the doughnut shop, we found it. It was busy, and we had fun watching their doughnut making robot work while we waited. Everybody placed their order with Mom, and she brokered the deal. After that, we wandered around a bit more, watching the fish market workers, looking for souvenirs, and being impressed the the “worlds largest shoe museum” (worlds smallest, coin operated museum?). But, it was close to gametime, so we headed for the jeep.
These babies are FRESH (at least the plain ones), we watched them roll out of the “doughnut cooker 2000” robot and onto this platter.One of the toughest decisions of our lives this year… what kind of mini-doughnuts to buy. Settled on half dozen maple frosted, half dozen sprinkles, and a dozen powdered. We passed on the maple-bacon, as I was told never to eat seafood in the midwest nor pork in the Pacific Northwest. 🙂I always feel like a leach, hovering around this place waiting for somebody else to buy something, so I can watch them holler and throw the fish.
Kim dropped me at a previously researched location (“Fuel Sports Bar on Washington st”). Kane was given the option to go with me, but bars scare him at this point (since he got bounced from the place in Anchorage), which is probably OK for now. So Kim, Kat, and Kane headed to the childrens theatre to catch Pippi Longstocking, and I settled in for some great football, and the worst biscuits and gravy I’ve ever had. The Chiefs handled the Giants, and Seattle made a 14 point 4th quarter comeback, which created an excellent atmosphere at Fuel.
Kim took kids to see Pippi while I was at a “fuel” sports bar watching the Chiefs game.
After the game and Pippi, the family picked me up, and we went back home for lunch and MATH! We really just hung out at home and didn’t do much the rest of the day. I think Kim did laundry maybe, while I did Math with the kids.
The next day (Monday), I had made an appointment to get the Jeep fixed. Our clutch had been squealing since the day before we drove it to McCarthy and back. It had done nothing but get worse since then, but I wanted to get back to the lower 48 for such a major repair. Sam at “The Shop” in Ballard had told me that they were about 1 mile north of the “locks”, which we wanted to see anyway. We decided to drop the car off with Sam, and spend the day in Ballard, on foot. It turned out to be our best day in Seattle, oddly enough.
Here’s the day, and I’ll let the pictures do the talking:
1) Stopped at the coffee shop for Kim to get a Latte. I got the best brewed coffee I’d had for awhile (Ethiopian beans?), and the kids split a hot chocolate.
2) Stopped at a small, independent bookstore for an hour. We all love books, this was a no-brainer. Kids both got new books (Ive & Bean for Kat, and Ender’s Game for Kane). I spent my time reading a book on Zen written by Jeff Bridges, which I want to read, but won’t pay 27 bucks for hardcopy Bridges. Kim talked with the owner, and looked at baby books.
3) Stopped at the petstore to coo over the “tuxedo” kittens in the front window.
4) Made it to the “Locks-n-dam”. Hit the visitor center/gift shop first for the lay-of-the-land. Put simply, the Locks rock. First of all, what a gutsy idea to connect the ocean to lakes miles away, and 12 feet above sea level. Second, I can only imagine the feeling of accomplishment of the engineers, when this thing went from paper to concrete/steel, and they saw it work for the first time. It’s incredible. I may be the last person on earth to see a lock in action and to figure out how it works, but WOW!
5) From the locks, we walked across the dam to the “fish ladder”. This is a stair-stepped series of mini-locks, that allow fish to swim from the ocean up the ladder to the fresh water to spawn. They had the forthought to install windows and a viewing area underground where you can watch the fish move up 3/4 of these locks. The sliver salmon happened to be moving up to spawn, and so we got to watch a dozen or so work their way through the ladder. Really cool to see, especially since Kane caught silvers in Alaska, and we’ve been eating them.
6) Lunch! Thai food across from the coffee shop. It was really good. The “free lunch soup” was the tastiest I’ve ever had. The pad kee mao was great, as well as the cashew nut chicken (all with jasmine rice). So happy to have decent Thai food. We miss Addies so much!
7) Dessert! We had passed a gourmet popcorn place on the way to lunch, so we went back. We sampled almost everything (we are expert samplers at this point), and bought a bag of “Hawaiian Salted Carmel” (sea salt and carmel corn). So good, and they keep it under a heat lamp, so it was warm!
8) Still had time to kill, so we jumped across the street the movies. Cloudy with Meatballs 2 was the only option. It was marginal, but still fun to see a movie.
9) Quick call to Sam to see if the jeep is ready… not yet, so we look up the public library. It’s just around the corner! Really nice library. Funny thing happened to me. The kids and Kim headed over to the kids section, and I went looking for a book. I found a cool encyclopedia of world religions, and took it over to read near the family. After 15 minutes or so, a librarian came over and said “excuse me sir, do you have a child with you?”. I said “not yet, but prospects are good”. I wish I had said that, in reality I just pointed at Kat. It’s difficult to describe the depth of humility experienced the moment you realize somebody suspects you are a predator (in an actionable way no less), but I also gained some respect for their policy and for this lady specifically. It’s nice to know that some effort is made to keep kids safe at the library! (even from me)
10) Sam called and the jeep is ready. So we walked back north to “The Shop” and get our, newly silent, jeep. He showed me the bearing (throwout bearing) from the clutch, and I should have taken a picture. The bearings were gone, it was just two mangled rights of metal remaining. I guess bearings are optional if you don’t mind some obnoxious noise!
11) We drove home in rush hour traffic, got to see Seattle from the north (it was clear), and all felt great bout a day of “doing normal stuff” in a new/exciting place. For once, it felt less like we were traveling, and more like we were living somewhere. Ballard is excellent, and we never would have known that if not for the jeep repair.
The start of a great day in Ballard, waiting for the jeep to be “de-squeeked”. Coffee & Hot Chocolate!Ballard is sweet, somewhat of a hybrid between Webster Groves and U-City. I wonder if the public school is any good?Across the street from Starbucks, what would you choose? Still stick’n it to the man (when it’s convenient).Stop #2 in Ballard was the bookstore. I guess we didn’t really take many pics here, we all scattered and dug into some books. I found a cool book that I deemed too expensive called “The Dude and the Zen master”… by Jeff Bridges and his Zen mentor.The lock and Dam. A must see.The large lock opening up for a huge tugboat to head up to lakes (Union and Washington). Lake side is 12 feet above the sound (ocean) side.Small (cabin cruiser) pulling in to be lowered and head out to sea. The little lock leaked more than the big one.Lock drained, he’s ready to go, 12 feet lower. Amazing.Large lock is to the right, small to the left. This is the puget sound side where the boats head out to sea. We all loved it, though by this point, Kane was anxious to get to the fish ladder.Fish ladder at the lock-n-dam from the top. It has sequential chambers with successively higher elevation. Some fish jump from one to the next, some swim super hard though tunnels between them. (there appears to be a powerful flow of water through the tunnel)Viewing area of the fish ladder (the method by which the fish spawn around the dam). There’s one now!The silvers were nearing the end of their run. Some (like this one) looked good, others a bit mangy. Did you know they die after they pair up and spawn?Dam happy.Lunch! Thai! We opted for 4 stars and .7 miles away since were were still on foot. This place did not disappoint.A movie? Could this day get any better!? Yes, it could have been a reasonable movie! At least we brought our own snack… hawaiian salted carmel popcorn from across the street (it was killer).Killing more time at the Ballard public library. Nice place. I was “carded” for being weird looking and in the children’s area.Back on the road (and squeak free!), we got to see the city from the north.
One last note on Seattle, one night before Kat went to bed, she made this sign. She used masking tape and taped this to a plate. She put the plate on the stove. Kim was in the back and didn’t see this until the kids were in bed. We had a great giggle, and put a couple of bucks on the plate. Kat was so incredibly happy, and immediately made her self a “chicken fund” box to save her money for her pet chicken when we get back to St. Louis. She’s been researching this, and Kane has likewise researched keeping Octopuses as well. We’ll see… Clearly, Kat was impressed by one of the many homeless in downtown Seattle, and leveraged some of their strategy for this sign.
One of those mixed emotion type moments. Hey, learning to passively panhandle is still learning, right?
One last, last note. One evening, I was able to sneak out for a drink. A friend of mine from work, who had helped edit one of our 48 hour film projects, now lives in Seattle. He lives in the “Capitol Hill” neighborhood, which I was liken most closely to U-City, really cool eclectic area. Anyway, I met Alec at a brewpub down there, and we were able to catch up. I’m glad Alec is doing well, and it was fun to have a bit of normal social interaction in amongst 24×7 family time.
We left Seattle, feeling great about getting our jeep fixed. Originally, we planned to spend some time in Victoria and Olympic Nation Park. We elected not to ferry the RV over to Victoria due to cost, and the government decided to shutdown the NPs due to ACA. We’re doing the next best thing… State Parks! On our way to Astoria, we stopped in Olympia to visit the Washington State Capitol, which was interesting and fun. I have pics for that, but it will need to be another post sometime!
Well, we “crushed it” from McCarthy AK to Vancouver B.C. One one day of rest/fun, otherwise, 8/9 days driving, covering 2,250 miles. I’ll try to cover a few highlights, but truly we were driving all day. Almost all of this was done in the rain, and two of the days were the worst roads of the trip.
The first day from McCarthy to TOK, I covered in the McCarthy post. It was a monster mostly because we drove in the jeep from McCarthy to Chitina, then had to pack up and drive the RV up to TOK. The Richardson Highway that we were on was mostly good, and very picturesque, but there was a 50 mile stretch that was battered with frost heave (think about sections of road sunken by as much as 10 inches, wide enough to drop one tire down).
Here are a few pics of the long drive day to TOK.
Kids having “School Time” on the drive. We try to do school on drive days, and math on non-drive days.Goodbye Amazing place.6 of the top 10 peaks in NA lie in this park.Cool shots of Wrangell Elias on our way north to Tok.
We spent the night in TOK after 3 stops (first park was too small for our rig, but they didn’t tell us until after we paid and had driven into the camping area), second park was too expensive and wouldn’t give us internet, third park worked great, but we were bascially by ourselves which was eerie.
The drive day from TOK to Kluane Lake (Destruction bay area), was the most intense of the trip. The Alaskan (or Alcan) highway just east of the Alaska border is by far, the worst stretch of that road. It’s littered with gravel patches, front heave, pot-holes etc. We had to deal with lots of construction, which usually means waiting as long as 15 minutes at a stoplight for a “pilot car” to come and lead you through a single lane of gravel or dirt road section. It rained most of the way. The moisture was actually really helpful though, as the pooling water helped me identify low spots in the road in advance. We drove until dusk because we wanted to stay at the “Cottonwood RV park” at Kluane Lake where Kane had the Grizzley near-miss. Unfortunately, it was closed for the season, so we had to keep going…
We drove around Kluane Lake in the dark. It turns out the RV is fine to drive in the dark, as long as there is no oncoming traffic. It was actually a pretty neat drive, but Kim was worried that we’d hit wildlife after one Grizzly Bear ran across the road right in front of us (it was large), and 5 minutes later we saw another Grizzley (a blond one ala Denali) running on the left side of the road. So we debated each “turnout” (mini gravel rest areas along side the road) as a potential place to “Boondock”. Many of the rest areas say “no overnight parking or camping”, but we eventually found one that was empty and devoid of such signs. Kim was pretty spooked about camping on the side of the road, in the middle of nowhere. I have to admit it did seem strange.
The next morning, we got up, and it was snowing! The ground was still to warm (probably 42 degrees F) for accumulation, but no doubt it was snowing. Furthermore, I opened the shade in the windshield, and there was an airplane parked directly in front of us! When I went out to get the Jeep ready to go, I waved at the pilot who waved back. After the jeep was ready to go, I walked over to the plane. It was a very well maintained “piper” (I assume a cub), white with read trim. The pilot rolled down the window and we had a nice chat. “Where’d you land this thing?”… “Right over there on the road”… “Everything OK?”… “Yeah, I can’t fly in this weather, this had happened before”… He told me he was headed to Arizona from the Kenai peninsula. We commiserated about gas mileage, and determined that we had about the same range (500 miles), but his efficiency is better (48 gallons vs 80 gallons).
Big surprises in the morning. Snow, and a Piper Cub parked in front of us.Note from the pilot instructing us how to help him… notify air traffic control of his delay. Kim called from Haines Junction. (20 miles down the road)
I got back to the RV and told Kim the story, she said, “did you offer to help him?”. “I think I did, but I’m not sure”. So I went back over for round two. “Is there anything we can do to help you?… give you a ride to Whitehorse?”. He said no thanks, and we exchanged pleasantries. A few minutes later, back in the RV, there was a knock on the door. Jim was back with a request, could we notify air traffic control when we got to the next town (Haines Junction), and let them know that he was delayed by 3 hours. No problem Kim said, and we offered him some coffee or granola bars. He said no thanks, he had plenty of stuff with him.
We stopped at Haines Junction (one intersection with a police station and 4 businesses), Kim ran into a restaurant, told the story and borrowed their phone to call air traffic control. Good Deed for the day, CHECK!
It was another long, rainy day, ending at “Junction 37” where the Cassiar Highway starts (a right turn for us off of the Alcan). Where we said goodbye to the Alcan, and hello to the Cassiar. We camped at another semi-deserted RV park, which for some reason seems so much more secure than the pull-out on the side of the hiway.
From there, we headed south on the Cassiar. It turns out these mountains produce 80% of the worlds Jade, and we stopped in “Jade City” to learn about Jade mining, and look for souveniers. Jade is expensive! Dice were interesting at $10 apiece, but they were sold out. The kids settled on tiny bears with fish in their mouths. Still, it was fun, and… free coffee!
Big hunk of Cassier Jade. These things were laying all around “Jade City”.We let them buy a little souvenir here, and they didn’t have to use their allowance. Very exciting time for them! Too bad, you can’t buy much for $10 here.
Kim had picked out a sweet place to camp called “Waters Edge RV Park”, and we drove all day to get there. Unfortunately, they were closed for the season, so we went another 60 miles to “Mountain Shadow RV Park”. It’s for sale, BTW… 1.2 Million. Really nice place, great view of the mountains, access to a nice lake, with a private hiking trail down to the lake. We stayed 2 nights to recharge the batteries. The kids had a great time down by the lake. Biking was tough because of the gravel they used in the campsite area, but it was nice to chill out for a full day and not do much.
View from our campsite at Mountain Shadow. I wonder if they used to have glaciers over there?Our lonely RV taken from the path to the lake.Jump-ropes, if you only use them for jumping, you’ve greatly underestimated them.
Kat loved messing around by the lake, playing with various sticks down there.
Some fun little places to hike around Mountain Shadow park. In hindsight, some of the “social trails” are really bear or moose trails.The trail from the campground leads to this view of the lake and crude bench. Very peaceful spot.The kids in the orange van were a pain in the butt on the road the next day! So slow
Nary a fallen log is ever safe from scampering kids on this trip!
From there, we continued south. Some nice folks from MO we had met in Homer (Dempsey was his name), had told us about the bear watching in Hyder Alaska. Demp suggested that camping was better in Stewart B.C., and Hyder was a short drive over. It also happened that the Chiefs were playing the Eagles on Thursday Night Football this night. After some debate (and begging by me), we decided to camp in Stewart B.C. Thur night, so I could watch the Chiefs, and we could pop over to Hyder to see the bears.
Thankfully, there is at least one “sports” bar in Stewart, and Sportsnet broadcasts the Thur Night Football games in Canada. I found a spot to watch: “Casey’s Pub” adjacent to the “King George” hotel in Stewart. Got there 20 minutes till kick off, enough time to get the bartender to turn on the game, and settle in for some pregame. I ordered a Sleeman Honey Brown, and a Denver sandwich. Think ham, green pepper, onion, cheese, and scrambled eggs served on toast (with fries too). It was great. The Chiefs won handily, and the first half was full of big plays by the Chiefs defense and special teams. I got to know some of the regulars at Caseys… mostly guys there for the last 4 months working on a new bridge. I told them they needed to work on their grading on the west end of the temporary bridge, because I almost tipped over coming up.
This place is surreal. Mountains, Glaciers, Fjords, RIvers, Bears…. and a nice little town built on mining, tourism, and shipping apparently. The port never freezes over.This is the place that advertised on the web “come in to watch sports!”. Sounds perfect to me.Nothing on draft, list of beers were pretty much all boring. This was actually pretty good. A Sleeman commercial came on as I took my first sip, fate?I thought I was ordering an omelet (Denver Omelet), turns out it was a Denver Sandwich. Stick-to-your-ribs tasty!
The next morning, we got up “early”, and went to Hyder AK to look for bears. Quickly as we pulled into town, Kim spotted a black bear on the left side of the road, so we pulled over. Kim asked me to kill the engine, because our clutch is screeching. We got a pretty good look at him (20 seconds), before he went into the bushes and disappeared. We found the “wildlife viewing platform” west of town, and it was amazing. It’s like a boardwalk that juts out between the river and a little pool that is fed by another river. There were tons of fish (dead and alive) around there, and many birds hanging out (and some eating). We waited for maybe 30 minutes or so, but didn’t see any bears. The forest was really nice at 7:30, there was a light rain, and we enjoyed watching the birds and the fish. I guess the bear watching is best there when the salmon are spawning heavy. We should have gone to the dump (but we didn’t learn of this until we crossed the border and the Canadian border agent told us). We went home and rested, then later that day when we left town, I noticed that my pub buddies had corrected the problem that I complained about the night before! I honked to one of them, operating the heavy equipment on my way by, and he waved. It was weird.
So from there, we continued south and reached Vanderhoof B.C. We stayed at “Dave’s RV Park”. Nice enough place. While there, Kim received texts informing us of a friend’s suicide and another friends need for further brain surgery. We’ve been praying for them and their families regularly.
Some of these RV parks really try to nickel and dime you to death! WiFi: 3 dollars, Cable TV: 5 dollars, Shower: 75 cents, Sewer Hookups, charges for the 2 kids, etc etc. Drives me nuts sometimes!
The next day, we drove to Cache Creek. This part of the drive really surprised me, as we started back into the mountains, and the scenery was quite nice. We got there after dark, and it was tight. I’ve decided I don’t like driving the RV at night, because I can’t see 100 feet in front of me when there is oncoming traffic. It’s scary.
The kids played outside all morning at Cache Creek, the campground was “Brookside”, and as the name implies has a creek. It also had a nice playground (that was free!). The kids played, and we explored the creek looking for fish. It was a glorious morning.
The drive from Cache Creek to Vancouver was a bit rougher than I expected. Lots of it was coming across a mountain pass, lots of elevation changes, and some quick, windy sections that will sneak up on you. All two lanes to this point. Once we got close to Vancouver, we got a 4 lane road and thought we were in heaven! That ended when the heavy rain hit, and we got stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic in the tunnel. I had to go to the bathroom so badly, that I asked Kim to drive, she swapped in, and I went. It was her second chance to drive, and thankfully she only had to pull forward and stop 2/3 times. Worked like a champ!
Vancouver looks amazing so far. Coming in, I was reminded of San Francisco with the hills and the houses up on the hills overlooking the bay. Downtown has a Seattle vibe, but it seems a tad bit more diverse, and I’d say a healthy amount of “grit”. To me, it seems like a sweet spot between the two cities (San Fran and Seattle). But that’s a 3 day assessment. There is a ton going on, it’s very clean, and tons of residential stuff downtown. Seems to be thriving to me. They say forest fires are vital to renew the forests. I wonder if the same is true for cities? They evidently had a doozy in the late 1800’s. I Love this city! And Stanley Park is my new favorite city park!
Well, first things first, big thanks to our friend Bob! We’d have never known about McCarthy or Kennecott if it weren’t for Bob’s crazy motorcycle trip, and telling us about it. We didn’t experience Wrangell Elias the way he did with cramp-ons and ice axes, but none-the-less had a great time learning some Alaskan history.
On our way back North from Valdez, we made a right turn and went to Chitina. We camped there, with amazing views of the edge of the largest NP in NA (13 Million Acres!). The next morning we loaded the jeep (actually unloaded first, then re-loaded) for our first “roadtrip within a roadtrip”. We drove 60 miles from Chitina to McCarthy in the jeep. This road is notoriously bad, and we’d been warned by folks we’d met already. It was rough and bumpy the first 5 miles and the last 10 miles or so, but otherwise pretty good. Amazing views, especially given the fall colors popping out now. One sort of damper was our jeep clutch started sounding like a worn out serpentine belt (very loud screeching), but we made it.
So, a bit of history… it turns out McCarthy is not really the main attraction to this area. It all started when a couple of prospectors went to a trade post in SE Alaska and saw Tlingit indians there trading beautiful copper made goods. Evidently, the Indians were not known to be big miners, so the prospectors had to ask “where’d you get this stuff?!” (I’m sure they played it cool at the time). I guess the answer was honest and detailed enough, that within a year the prospector’s were able to find the place. What they found was the single greatest source of grade A copper ever. They built a cabin, applied for a homestead claim, and went in search of investors.
The search took them to a newly graduated ivy league engineer named Steven Birch. Birch was naive enough to take on the task of designing the mine, and had rich neighbors. The rich neighbors got some other rich friends together (the Morgans of JP Morgan and the Guggenheims), and they started the Alaskan Syndicate which provided the 1 million in seed money required to start mining. They were able to mine enough silver to fund most of the rest of the construction of the copper operation. Depending on who you ask, they grossed between 100 and 300 million dollars (this is early 1900’s), in today’s money more like 2-6 Billion. According to our guide, the two original propectors were sqeezed out and didn’t get a dime. (after 5 years in court, they were unable to beat the fact that the judge was in the syndicates back pocket).
At any rate, once the grade A copper ran out, and the price of Copper dropped, the closed the mine and left it pretty much as it was.
Once they got tired or fighting all of the injury lawsuits, the syndicate donated the mine to the Park Service.
Birch had rules, and two of them contributed to high turn-over in the ranks: you can’t have your family with you, and you can’t drink liquor. As a result, enterprising minds got together, and founded the city of McCarthy, 5 miles down the road from the Kennecott mine. Here, hardworking minors could spend their $5.50 per shift on booze, gambling, and women! It was a raging success. In fact, it improved turn-over so much, Birch even secretly funneled money back into McCarthy.
So you have a really cool “deserted” Copper Mine, in the middle of nowhere, and a ghost town 5 miles down the road from nowhere. Today, if you live in McCarthy, you can pay to use a private bridge to bring cars over, but tourists can only arrive on foot. (or as Bob did via hand-operated trolly).
We parked our car at the foot bridge, walked across the bridge and up the hill 1/2 mile to McCarthy. The next shuttle was in about an hour. McCarthy was pretty cool, but mostly closed, so we did what we normally do, we ate granola bars, the kids found some dogs to pet and play fetch with. Kim engaged anyone she could find with her smiling, inquisitory banter. I looked for coffee, failed, found a bench and sat down.
After Kat wore out two dogs and started fetching her own stick, we got the bus and arrived in time for the 3:30 mill tour. We got lots of stories and history from our guide. We also were able to tour a bunkhouse, and the powerplant. Got some great pictures, and we could really feel this history of the place.
After the tour, we grabbed the last shuttle back to the bridge, and went to stay the night at the “large” cabin Kim had rented. I put large in quotes, because it was a one room cabin, which was actually quite nice and cozy, but it was only large in comparison to a couple of the “Apen Meadows B&B”‘s other cabins. It was great to do something different, but Kim and I actually missed the RV a bit (mostly having our own bedroom and a bathroom).
The next day, we drove back to Chitina, loaded up the RV, and drove to Tok. We all really enjoyed visiting McCarthy and the Kennecott mine. The kids LOVED the cabin, and were so excited to stay there. I’m haunted by the idea that the prospectors didn’t get any of the money (and I guess that they kind of screwed the indians too for that matter). I plan to research this story soon to learn more.
Here are pics from this great adventure. Thanks again for the reco Bob!
View of Mt. Blackburn from our campsite in Chitinia
Our campsite in Chitinia, with Mt. Wrangell in the background
Cool like crevasse we had to drive through. This is the first thankful moment that we didn’t try to take our coach with us
Thankful moment #2, the first part of the road was a mess, which we fully expected
View from the suspension bridge
The suspension bridge, thankful moment #3… no bus
Typical view on the road between Chitinia and McCarthy
We got a treat, with all of the deciduous trees changing color while we were in AK
Remnants of the old train track they purpose built to get the Copper off the mountain
Kane, checking out the old hand trolly cable system
The path of the old hand trolly, look familar Bob?
The “new” foot bridge… where the driving stops and walking starts
Always comforting… this is the shuttle stop on the north/east side of the footbridge
Any moments delay is an opportunity to climb
Looking back across the bridge, amazing views here
On the path to McCarthy… “hoofing it”
The road is laid where the old train tracks are. You can still see some remains here and there
Got the the McCarthy train station!
Train station is now a museum, look we found the old hand trolly trolly! Look familar Bob?
McCarthy is basically a ghost town, with only a bar, hotel, guides, and flight-seeing companies remaining as far as we can tell. Actually, not even all those guys were still there in Sept!
Kennecott Glacier, covered in it’s own till. Largest moraines we have seen so far.
Just in time for the 3:30 tour!
Our guides. Bob?
One of the bunk houses. Basically a prison that you leave to go work the mine.
Steven Birch (the engineer who built and ran the mine), was pretty clever. They ran steam pipes under the walkways so the didn’t have to shovel snow.
Evidently, they were proud of their food storage.. ammonia refreigeration. Either to show off for investers, or to be able to control the temp fo the food depending on who you ask.
Ye old company store. This is where the miners could by snow globes, key chains, and puzzles to send back home to the kids. Just kidding, but we heard they had two items under lock and key. Tobacco and Chocolate. (alchohol was forbidden, hence McCarthy’s existance 5 miles away)
The main mill atop the hill. They ran cables from the mines down to this place (the highest place in the mine village)
Gives you a sense what it looks like to walk into the mine village.
Bunkhouse room. 2-3 men would sleep in a 8×8 room at any moment in time. They would “hot-bed”, sleep in there in shifts…yuck!
Depressing hallway in the bunkhouse.
Evidently, the hospital was not worthy to be restored or protected from “arrested decay”
They needed lots of water to separate the limestone from the copper, so they build locks and dams. Here is whats left of one of them. Not worth a dam now.
To keep the water from freezing in the resevoirs, they ran steam pipes in them! Amazing this stuff actually worked.
Cool shot of the mill building. This guy is undergoing significant structural repair to the terraced foundation. We were not able to enter.
The middle part of this building was the original cabin build by the propecters (who evidently got screwed). In order to file a claim on the land, one only needed to “improve” the land. They build this cabin.
Huge tanks where they later implemented ammonia leachig process to sqeeze even more copper from the slag
Another cool one of the mill, from the other side, sorry I could not resist.
If you can see, out on the horizon, there is a magnificant glacier. This guy used to tower over the main street here. They say 3/400 feet higher than it is today.
The gravel piles in the fore are the lateral moraines of the glacer, in the mid-range is actually the glacier, it is just under a foot of glacial till (rock and dirt his has dredged up)
Kennecott Glacier
Glacial close-up (this was a close as we could get to this guy).
Thank God for the signs helping us find our Cabin, never would have found it without!
Good thing Kim rented the “large” cabin!
Very cozy, and worked great, as great as taking a break from the RV and not getting any sleep can be!
The mountains got some fresh snow overnight.
This was taken from the road on the way back to Chitina. Sorry for focus issues, but this is the Copper River, and the natives are allowed to use “fish wheels” to catch salmon here. Look up Athabascan Fish Wheel on Wikipedia. Pretty clever.
Cool shots of Wrangell Elias on our way north to Tok.
If it’s any indication of how we feel about Homer, Alaska, we planned on possibly 2 nights here, and ended up staying 4. Even though, we’re not in a national park and we’ve seen some amazing things on our trip, Homer must be considered top 3 or better. It’s truly amazing. From the moment we drove in and caught our first glimpse of Kachemak Bay (and the range of snowy volcanoes across the way), to the last teary farewell, this place has captured our imagination and had our adrenaline pumping.
Homer is on the west side of the Kenai peninsula (mid-southern coast), and in a bay within a bay (Katchemak bay off of the Cook inlet). It’s a self proclaimed “Little Drinking Village with a Fishing Problem”. The bay itself is only 4 miles across, and the other side of the bay from Homer is a beautiful range of snowy volcanoes, glaciers, and glaciated fjords between them. The view really does take your breath away. There is a “spit” which is a 3 mile or so long gravel peninsula that juts out from Homer toward the other side of the bay. It turns out this was created by the terminal moraine (the rock pile pushed down by a huge glacier marking it’s furthest progression) of a huge glacier. This is home to many a fishing charter as well as commercial fisherman and a few tourist service type businesses (fishing store, restaurants, ice cream shop, motels, rv parks etc). It’s interesting how it’s clearly a tourist destination, but it still feels kind of native in some ways. Probably because it’s not really a family tourist destination as much as a sportsman destination. No strip malls, water parks, or mini-golf courses. It’s also curious how gritty it is, with ship “junkyards” etc next to the fishing lagoon. Not much pretense to be found here.
This post represents the first two days or our time in Homer. I apologize in advance for the verbosity.
So our first day, we drove over from Sterling on AK Highway 1, and rolled in early afternoon. We settled in at the “Ocean View RV Park” which offers a phenomenal view of the bay. The nice man working there took time to offer some suggestions and answer questions. He told us we could fish from the end of the Spit or the Lagoon, but offered no detail on how.
We decided to start by heading to the visitor center, the “Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center”. It was a really nice place offering movies and interactive displays about the area. We met a couple working there from Kimberling City MO. It turned out they were across the street from us at the RV Park. We shared some great stories with them, and got some good advice. We had hoped to go clamming here, but found out we need a “minus” tide for that, and we missed it by a week. We found out about a marine life program at the dock, which is a nice alternative to tide-pooling in the absence of really low tides. The kids raided the gift store, and Kane bought an edible plants guide to go along with his mushroom guide previously purchased. Kat bought a stuffed puffin keychain. The center closed at 5 and we left, confusing a few European families coming in on our way out with a (according to kim unfriendly toned) “they closed at 5”, which were summarily ignored.
From there we went down to the spit to check out the fishing situation. We drove down to the end, and there was a motel at the very end, a commercial dock just prior, and wedged between the two a barren place with several cars jammed in. We found a spot there and parked the jeep. Down on the beach (black sand and pebbles), about a dozen or so people were standing along the shore fishing. It’s a pretty interesting sight really seeing people fishing right from the beach… ocean fishing with no boat or even a pier! It didn’t take long for Kane to zero in on an Asian gentleman in bib-waders, because he was pulling in huge fish two at a time, nearly every cast. Kane ran down to the beach and stood about 5 feet from the guy and watched him. He had a long leader on his line with a huge lead sinker at the end, TWO hooks, and some sort of bait.
About ten feet to his left were an older gentleman wearing a pair of keenes, jeans, a t-shirt, and a fedora. He was with a 12 year old (whom we all assumed was a girl due to his long braided hair and androgynous face). They were taking turns casting out and catching regularly as well. I asked the guy if he minded some questions, and we ended up spending 1/2 hour with “Deacon” and “Finn”. It turned out Finn’s parents own the wood-fired pizza joint (Finn’s) on the spit, and Deacon is Finns grandfather from Boston. Deacon’s been coming to Homer every summer for the past 5 years or so, and is the resident expert on the topic of “end-of-the-spit fishing”. School was in session and Kane and I were apt pupils. According to Deacon, the fish processing place on the spit, dumps their waste (fish guts, heads etc) via a pipeline, that ends right where they (and the other guy) were fishing. He showed us their rig (similar to the other, but they used flies that looked like shrimp rather than real bait… Deacon called it the “fish-bomb”), told us where to go to get set up (The Sport Shack), and even hooked a fish and let Kane reel it in. They were giving their fish to the other guy rather than releasing it. We heard some lore about silver salmon and halibut being caught there, but all we saw were Pollock and perhaps a few cod while we were there. We didn’t care, the opportunity to catch significantly sized fish from the ocean was too good to pass up, and if it’s good enough for Mrs. Paul, we figured it was good enough for us too! We’d be back and ready to try our luck the next day, and Kane was already giddy with anticipation.
After that, we drove back halfway down the spit and found a place to park. Right as we parked, we noticed one of the charter fishing trips had returned to the shop right in front of us, and they were hanging out their catch. A huge haul of salmon and halibut (nice ones), but a monster was hanging at the end… a 231 lb Halibut. It was literally 6-7 feet long, and hanging another 2 feel up in the air. Incredible. We went down to the beach and went for a walk. The kids collected shells, and we “tried” to keep our nikes clean as the tide rolled in. It was really nice to be on the ocean (our first time this trip), and to see the spectacular display across the bay as the sun struck the volcanoes and glaciers laterally from the west.
It was getting late, and we’d heard from two independent sources that “boardwalk fish-n-chips” was good, so we decided to splurge and eat out for dinner. We ordered 3 adult orders of Halibut fish-n-chips, and the kids bought their own lemonade and root beer. (we’ve been getting water every time we eat out, but kids can choose to spend their own money otherwise). The food was good, the view was incredible, and it felt nice not to worry about cooking and cleaning!
After dinner we decided to explore a bit more, and took a drive up and around the top of the ridge to the north of downtown Homer. Most of the homes in Homer are build on the ridge, with parallel roads running at different elevations, all facing bay, spit, and volcanoes. Not a lot of zoning going on, so there is a pretty diverse range of architectures, size, and maintenance all withing a fairly small area. The view from the top was breathtaking, and we stopped to snap a few pictures.
That was quite a first day, but would pale in comparison to day 2.
Our second day in Homer was epic, and probably my single favorite day of our trip so far. Here’s how it went:
1) got up, had bacon, eggs, and bagels for breakfast
2) went to the farmers market and scored some amazing loot
3) came home for lunch and sampled aforementioned loot
4) went to the Wynn nature center for what turned out to be a guided hike
5) Kim and Kids were dropped off at the pier and did a marine life exploration program
6) Scott went to the “Sport Shack” to gear up for fishing, and went home to get snacks etc
7) Scott picked up family at pier, and we went fishing at the end of the spit
8) kim went to McDonalds to get dinner
9) We went home, kids went to bed, Scott cleaned fish, Kim went to grocery store, Scott cooked the Salmon that had been thawed for two days.
Some details:
Farmers Market – we had scoped out the location on our way to explore the Spit the first day, so finding it was no problem. Parking was interesting, because it was packed! We gave the kids their 2 dollar allowance, and headed in. For me, it’s probably my second favorite farmers market ever. Terrific and unique produce (like really cool purple cauliflower, and tasty light green hybrid of cauliflower and broccoli), the thickest, juiciest snap peas ever, Fresh fish and seafood etc. Amazing homemade products: Amish maple cinnamon rolls, russian made salsa, typical $1 cookies and kettle corn (which the kids spent their 2 dollars on). We bought all that. For seafood, we bought 2 lbs of golden crab legs (not eaten yet), and a lb or crab tails (which were good). The market was a success, and really started the day off right. You could tell it was mostly locals, and it was a really decent opportunity to watch people as well… crusty old guy buying plants for his garden, fellow gardeners swapping pointers with vendors, old friends catching up one last time before they leave Homer until next summer. One other interesting thing, after we bought the snap peas and the carrots at the “Steller Gardens” booth, this guy came over to share some maple syrup with the kids working at the booth. They were talking about his trip back to the “lower 48” last year to Vermont, where he did the sugaring and made the syrup. That got my attention because we’ve been blessed to go to Vermont a few times over the last 5 years, thanks to our friends the Hardemans. We chatted a bit about Vermont, then he was sharing the syrup, he started talking with the guy working the booth about the location of the farm (“Stellar Farm”), and he said “it’s about 12 miles east of here, it’s Eve and Eivan’s place… Eve’s garden”. That struck a chord with me because before we left (when we still had TV) we had watched a few episodes of “Alaska:The Last Frontier” reality TV show about Alaskan homesteaders. Eivan and Eve are one of the families they follow on that show. What’s really funny though is, on the show, they make it seem as though they are “in the middle of nowhere”, when in reality, they are about 10 miles from a Safeway. The next day, I also talked with a kayaking guide who lives down the street from Eivans dad “Otto”, another mainstay of the show, I guess Otto plows this guys driveway for him. Small world.
Wynn Nature Center – So Kim really wanted to go to this place, and I thought it sounded like “just another hike”, and kind of wanted to skip it. I’m really glad I didn’t. We went up there, and right away I was intrigued because they parking lot had really nice landcape, ironwork signs, fresh cedar walkways etc, and there was only one other car in the lot. We walked along the boardwalk back into the place, and there were nice placards providing info on plants and animals around the area, and a sign that said “$7 fee for day-use”. Then I started to regret it again… 30 bucks to do a hike… yuck! Well, wrong again. We went on back, and there was a young kid sitting at a log cabin… you could see craft areas where educational programs take place there frequently. Kim said “do we pay you, or are you here by yourself”? He says “Both”. Then he asked if we were there for the guided hike, scheduled to leave in 15 minutes. Well, we weren’t, but now that you mention it… The kid was named “Robroy Macgregor” (though for 2/3 of the hike, we thought his name was Rob Roy). What a great guide, he’s recently graduated from college with a forestry degree, and it was his first summer in Alaska, but you’d never know it. It was amazing. He made apple cider for the kids, he made a phone call for us to inquire about another guided tour for us in Peterson Bay, he went and got boots for another lady to borrow for the hike. Besides being nice and accommodating, he knew a ton about all of the plants and animals around the area. We learned about some of the berries that are edible in the area, and some that are not. We learned about medicinal traits of some plants, and how the Monkshood is used by Eskimos to poison tip their whaling spears. (don’t eat Monkshood BTW). What Robroy didn’t tell us about the area, a couple of the other visitors on the hike did… we had two older ladies with us, who seemed to be very knowledgeable, so we bounced questions off of them from time to time. It turned out, that they were both recently retired from careers in the National Park Service! This hike really made us appreciate having guides with us in these places… I’m sure we’ll seek out guided hikes when we can from now on.
Marine Life Exploration – I did not attend this, I dropped off Kim and the kids near the pier at 4:00 and came back at 5:00. I can tell you this, it must have been amazing, because I came back at 5, with new fishing gear to take Kane fishing, and he just wanted to talk about how great the program was. Pretty ironic, because when I dropped them off, Kane was BEGGING to come with me to the Sport Shack to buy fishing gear instead. Evidently, Kane and Kat were the only ones there for the 4:00 tour, and they got to go around the pier (it’s huge), and find all kinds of marine life, touch/hold them, and learn about them. This included sea cucumbers, urchins, sea-stars, and anemone. After the program ended, Kane spotted a jelly-fish from the ramp back up to the street level.
Fishing at the end of the spit – So, in anticipation of some ocean fishing or salmon fishing from the bank, we had gone to “Trust Worthy Hardware and Fishing” in Soldotna (on the recommendation of our salmon fishing guide, Jason), and procured two pole/reel combos (one for salmon, and one for ocean fishing). They are medium to strong stiffness, longer rods, with open-faced spinner reels, capable of dealing with up to 25 lb test line. We had the line and the rods, but we had yet to put the line on the rods, or of course set up the rigs for bottom fishing. So we spent probably a 1/2 hour getting our line on the rods, and getting ready to fish. We used 20lb test braided line, with special mono-filament leaders that I bought at the Sport Shack. The leaders had 2 oz weights at the bottom, and above that, staggered by 10 inches were to “sub-leaders” (12 inch leaders coming off of the main leader) with hooks for bait attached. I asked the guy at the shop what the rig was called, and he said it was a “end-of-the-spit rig” (I’m sure there is a name for it, but he didn’t care enough to recall). He said it’s a great rig for bottom fishing with bait. I bought three of those rigs (1 for each of our new poles, and 1 extra), and a package of frozen Herring to cut up for bait.
So Kim setup camp on the beach (cooler with ice, waiting for fish), snacks, lawn chair, blanket, tackle box. Kane and I got the poles ready. It occurred to me before the first cast, that I didn’t really know what the technique was, so I quizzed a fellow fisherman who said, get it to the bottom, and let it sit until you feel a bite (maybe 4-5 minutes for him), you may try bouncing it in a bit… I’ve caught’m on the way back in before. So I heaved it out. Within minutes, Kane and I were reeling in fish like crazy… sometimes two at a time. We quickly realized that our casts needed to be out beyond the pylons to be effective, so I was casting for both of us when it was convenient. The stiffer, longer pole was much more effective for doing this, so over time, we started taking turns using it.
Early on, I had two small Halibut come in on one cast. I wasn’t sure if they were flounder or Halibut, so I asked the guy next to me (nice retired army guy from Achorage…originally from Mississippi), and he told me how to distinguish between the two by looking at the location of the eyes. Halibut transform, midlife into bottom feeding fish, and their right eye moves to the left side of their head (and their right side turns white and becomes their “under belly”). They are really odd looking fish. He also told me that we could only keep two Halibut, so I decided to release them. In hindsight, I should have kept the larger of the two. We ended up only keeping one Halibut, which was smaller, because we wanted to try it, and it was really super yummy. Tastier than the Pollock. We caught tons of Pollock, we kept the first 4 decent ones (or what we thought was decent), then started releasing them.
It was hilarious to me that in 24 hours, we had become the “experts” dominating the fishing down there. Tourists would run over to look at our fish, snap pictures of themselves standing next to our fish etc. A bit later, a couple of young boys from Wasilla (the HQ of the Iditirod sled-dogging race), came over to fish with rental poles (they forgot their poles at home). They started out down the beach aways, and after awhile came over to ask for tips, as they failed to catch anything and Kane was reeling them on on every cast. I helped them, we gave them some of our fish that we caught, and Kane even let them reel in some fish that he hooked (paying it forward). I was casting for them a few times, but the problem was their rods and setup, would not allow them to cast far enough out to be effective. When we left at 8:30 or 9:00, they were still fishing and had not caught anything. They appreciated the fish that we gave them. One of the last fish we caught was huge, and we decided to keep it, but it would not fit in our cooler, so we gave it to them.
Along with the Halibut and the Pollock, we caught several sea-stars. Kat loved taking the sea-stars off the line, playing with them, and putting them back in the ocean. When other small children would be nearby, she’d take a sea-star over to them so they could hold it and touch it. It was so cute… she was a trooper while we fished for 4 hours. She did reel in a fish or two that I hooked, and she enjoyed that.
One more incident of note while fishing, and a little context. Deacon (and again our friend from Mississippi confirmed) told us that the area where he was fishing was the end of a pipeline of fish waste coming from the processing plant up the spit. The reason the fishing is so prime is the fish come in there to feed on the heads and guts of the halibuts that are brought in by the fishing operations. The other things that like to feed on the fish and the waste are seagulls. As a result, when the waste is being flushed, the gulls congregate just above the end of the pipeline (the exact spot where were were casting to). There must be up to 2-300 gulls at times on the surface of the water, in a 30 foot diameter circle over the end of the pipeline. So I was baiting my hooks, when I heard the boys from Wasilla say “he caught a bird!”… I wasn’t too surprised, because there had been times when I reeled in my bait, that a gull waited for my hook to come out of the water, and it stole my herring. I did think “whatever poor sap got a bird hooked, is in for some fun getting it unhooked”, but I kept on baiting my hook. Then I heard Kane giggling… that sort of “i can’t believe what’s happening to me right now” giggle. Cold chills when down my spine. I looked back, and Kane was reeling in his line and 10 feet from the shore, a gull was twisting, flapping, and squawking, being dragged toward shore. Of course, Kim was off getting dinner for us, so I was there with just the kids. I on put my fish cleaning gloves (kind of like chain mail) headed toward the chaos. Kane was still reeling, and was started to try to “pick up” the bird by lifting up on the rod tip. I implored him to stop, as it was allowing the bird to twist and flail in the air, becoming more entwined, and also putting more tension on his wings that were caught up in the line. (he had not hooked the gull, the gull got tangled up in his line). About that time, the bird was close to shore and super distressed. I got over there and grabbed the line to start to try to untie it… naturally, the bird would submit as it would be obvious that I was there to help him right? WRONG, it freaked out even more and started biting my hands and fingers! So I was struggling for what seemed like an eternity and made a tad bit of progress, then a good Samaritan came over and offered to help. So I grabbed the bird by the neck (loosely people, don’t call PETA) and held it, while he untangled the line from the birds wings. Together we got him free in about 3 minutes, by myself it would have taken 15, if ever. Once the line was off, the bird took off like a shot. After, I thanked the guy who helped and he said “it happened to me earlier and so I felt sorry for you over here by yourself”. Unfortunately, since Kim was not there, and I was busy, we don’t have any pictures of this, but I’ll never forget it anyway!
After we got home, it was getting dark, we put the kids in bed, and I was dreading going back outside in the dark to fillet the fish. It’s not something I’ve done much of, and I don’t enjoy it (does anyone?). Also, each species seems to differ, and I’d never handled a Halibut or Pollock. On top of that, my knife when dull on me after the first fish. It was a pain, but I got them done, fillets soaking in icy salt water, and everything cleaned up by around 10:00. We had pulled out 1.5 lbs of Kanes Salmon for dinner the night before (we decided to eat out two nights in a row), and so we decided to go ahead and cook the salmon that night too. I pan fried in in butter to sear it, and finished it in the oven. It turned out really good, and we used it for breakfast and lunch over the next couple of days.
That’s the story of our first 1 and a half days in Homer! I told you it was Epic… gallery of pictures:
Campground in Homer… Ocean View RV Park. We saw sea otters from our living room!
The end of the Home Spit. We heard twice there was good fishing, so the first night we went down to scope things out.
On the spit, the afternoon fishing trips were coming in to clean and freeze their bounty. Somebody caught this prize… 231 pounder! We got to see the end of the process of cutting this guy up. They sliced open the head to pull the ear drum bones out. Evidently, you can count rings on this bone to determine their age.
Treated ourselves to “spit-priced” Halibut fish-n-chips.
Kane wanted more fish for sure!
We all loved the Halibut.
A nice view from the ridge.
Terrific farmers market for produce, homemades, and people watching alike!
the best sugar snap peas I ever ate, from Homer farmer’s market. These came from Eve’s garden from “Alaska: The Last Frontier” reality tv show.
Eve’s carrots from the farmers market.
Wynn nature center viewing platform. Awesome hike.
PIcking bog blueberries for the tour group with our guide Robroy.
Hiking goes up a notch when you are with somebody who is so knowledgeable about the area, vegetation, biology, etc.
Sometimes nice to have others around to snap a photo of all of us!
Kat with guide checking out the marine life. There were anemone here!
Kane spotted this jelly after the tour was over.
Kane has an eye for wildlife for sure, and loves every little creature he finds.
We had to cast out 100 yards or so to catch fish here. Check out that backdrop… unreal.
Kat was a trooper, waiting while we fished. She got to real in a fish, made a friend, and helped unhook and release a bevy of sea stars that we caught.
One of the little Halibut we caught off the spit. We released all but one, but wished later we kept more… yummy.
Typical size for the fish we caught, though some were quite a bit larger.
Our rig had two hooks, sometimes we caught two fish, sometimes we caught one, this time we caught one fish and one seastar.
Fishcamp Crawford for the evening. So much fun we fished right through dinner and sent Kim out for fast food!
Kane reeling in one of many, many fish caught off the spit in Homer.
I’ve never been much of a fisherman, Kane however, is natural born. He’s spent enough time with his Papa (Kim’s Dad) to learn his craft, and to exhibit the passion and patience equal to Bill Dance. He flat out loves to fish.
And so, how could we take the lad to Alaska, and not turn him loose? After Fairbanks, Denali NP, and Anchorage, we planned to spend some time exploring the Kenai Peninsula (AKA “Alaska’s Playground”) which is famous for two things… salmon and halibut fishing. Our first stop in Kenai was Cooper Landing, which is at the top of the Kenai River, and a great place to take a fishing trip along the “upper Kenai”. This is a pretty big, fast, beautiful river. The water is the milky, aqua blue, that is telltale of glacial melt.
This is typical of this stretch of river… beautiful mountains, and wide & fast glacier water.
Guided fishing trips are a bit pricy, so just Kane and I went. We booked a 1/2 day (4 hour) trip in a drift boat (the guide is also the rower). The guide’s name was Jason, and when I spoke to Jason on the phone, he was in full “expectation setting” mode. He strongly suggested that we fish for trout in order to keep Kane busy, happy, and engaged. He said, he had be “killing’m” this season until 3/4 trips ago, and they stopped biting. I told him that we’d really hoped to catch a salmon, and suggested that we start going for Salmon and shift gears to trout if need be. He grumbled about the trout fishing being best at the top of the trip etc. The thing is, Jason has no idea the depth of patience and terrific attitude on the water that Kane has.
Kane ready to go at the start of the trip! Ever the optimist.
When the trip started (we started at 7am), Jason said, well, if you want to hunt Salmon, you need time, we better just go for it! He gave us a quick lesson on the gear (pretty heavy graphite rods, with braided 30 lb test line, open faced spinner reels, monofiiment leaders, and vibrax spinners), and we drifted down to the first “silver hole”. It turns out the best place to fish for salmon are the “calm waters” on the back side of bends. Jason coached us to cast upstream, and reel the lures in across the break in the water (the line where the swift current meets the calm water). As we pulled into the first hole, we could see salmon jumping (mostly red sockeyes that we could not keep and were too mature to eat anyway). As we moved down the river, we started to see more silvers roll at the top of the water. The fish were there, but not biting.
After about 1 hour, with no bites, we started experimenting with different lures. We could still see the fish there taunting us almost.
At a bit past 2 hours, with no bites, Kane looked at me and said “do you want to start fishing for trout?”. I was shocked that he was losing his confidence, but I suppose probably the fact that we’d not caught anything in a few weeks, and he knew the trip cost real money. I told him, we can see the fish here, we just need to find the right lures, let’s keep trying. Literally two casts later, Kane caught a 10 pound silver salmon. He was thrilled. Jason tried to get him to howl like a coyote, but that was a bit beyond his comfort zone! If Kat were there, I’m sure she would have howled for him! Jason clubbed it to death, we snapped a few pics, and he put it on a stringer.
Catch #1 i the net getting ready to be clubbed.That smile should tell you when I snapped this one.One happy camper.
I asked Jason to switch my lure to match Kanes… it was a bright orange vibrax spinner. He obliged.
About 20 minutes later, Kane catches ANOTHER 10 pounder! Now he’s really excited. Jason started calling Kane “Big Stick”. When other boats came by with nothing caught, he would hold up the fish and announce that they were caught by the 10 year old! If Kane had a hat on, it would have been shredded like the Hulk’s clothing.
Jason was surly, but Kane didn’t notice, and didn’t care (especially after he caught fish)
Heading to the next hole, I looked at my lure and realized Jason had put a shiny brass spinner on my rod instead of the orange one. My bad, I should have checked it out sooner. He apologized and switched it to the right one.
After that, Kane caught a couple of really small fish (trout and dolly varden char). I never did catch anything. I had one bite early on, but didn’t get the hook set.
Two happy campers.
All in all, a great day, I was so happy for Kane to catch a salmon, catching two was incredible. We took the fillets to a place to have them vacuum packed, as we knew we’d have about 10 lbs of fish and would not be able to eat it all in time. We had 9 lbs, and we had 7 of it processed. We ate the other 2 for dinner… chose the safe route and baked it, but next time we’ll use the grill. It was really good. Biggest surprise was when we pulled it out of the fridge to prepare it (6 hours after it was filleted), it had absolutely no smell whatsoever! Amazing!!
The lone fillet that we didn’t have vacuum packed and frozen. It was gorgeous and didn’t have any odor at all!Butter, lemon, dill, and garlic… ready for the oven. Next time… we will grill.From river to plate in 7 hours.Loving it!
