Day 29
7/19/26. Sunday
Mosquito count: one or two. The beauty of cold and wet I guess.
Officially one month since we left home in Billings Montana
We slept well on our highway pullout with rain falling all night long. It was a pretty steady somewhat heavy rain until we climbed up and out of Seward. We came to the junction with the main highway to Soldotna and the sun was even trying to shine. By that I mean the rain stopped and the clouds lifted much much higher. Standard nice day for our summer trip.
Coopers Landing is the headwaters of the Kenai River at the end of Kenai Lake. This section of the highway is busy. The town is famous for their brewery… and it looked to be true on a Sunday at noon. Maybe it’s the food too!
Skilac Lake Road. We came across a mama black bear and 2 cubs grazing the borrow pit then walking across the road. This side road drive we took near the lake is a dirt/gravel road off the main highway that reconnects after 18 miles. There had been a fire here on both sides of the road in 2019 so there was great visibility for several miles of the lake and mountains beyond.
Skilac Lake
Those cubs were CUTE
We reconnected with the highway that heads to Soldotna. We’re back into the steady heavy rain as we descend toward sea level in Soldotna/Kenai area. There’s a big highway warning about moose crossing. Apparently there’s a 20 mile stretch that has the highest moose/vehicle collisions in the state!
Rant of the day! Vehicle headlights. It always amazes me in poor driving conditions… rain, snow, fog, dusk or dawn that people don’t turn their headlights on! When you are driving along and the cars are coming toward you on a two lane road/highway and you notice how easy it is to see the approaching cars that have lights on… does it not occur to you to turn YOUR lights on??? Makes perfect sense. Plus every road in Alaska there are signs to turn your headlights on.
Peninsula cities. Soldotna is adjacent to City of Kenai and together they make a pretty big population on the peninsula. We’re stopping for gasoline. $4.59/gal and a couple of grocery items. This also happens to be the salmon spawning fishing capital of Alaska. They’ve got everything in this town to help you fish. Guides, boats, gear, clothing, camping…you name it. The “Alaska resident only” fishing season (spawning) is upon us and the people and traffic are everywhere. I’ll have more on that later because we will be coming back to this very area to spend some time with family next weekend.
Homer. A few tasks are taken care of in Soldotna and we are headed to Homer with 90 miles to go. Homer is nearly on the westernmost end of the peninsula. It’s the end of the highway anyway. You have to have a boat to go further in Alaska. There are two towns accessible by the Alaska Marine Ferry that are further west…Seldovia and Kodiak on Kodiak Island.
As we travel it has changed to the boreal forest. Seward was very much rainforest vegetation…Sitka spruce and hemlock.
Since Homer is ocean (halibut, salmon) fishing country we are starting to see big fishing boats in people’s yards and I can smell the kelp ocean smell when I step out of the van. I never noticed this in Seward for some reason.
Russian influence. Ninilchik Village and the Russian Orthodox Church, built in 1901, overlooking the Cook Inlet and the village below. The village was intended as a retirement village for Russian fur traders. They supplied them with provisions for one year.
Note the Russian Orthodox Cross in their graveyard. 2 horizontal and bottom slanted.
I like this one!
Just 10 miles to go into Homer. We are camping on what they call the Homer Spit. We are at an RV campground out in the end. One side of us is the Alaska Marine Ferry and the other side is the small boat harbor. All along the harbor are little shops and restaurants. Dozens of them. We have a couple of days here so more on that village and the actual town of Homer to come.
Right now at 8:30pm it is still steadily raining. We are happily parked, have had a nice chicken Thai salad dinner in the van. Not going anywhere.. just watching the comings and goings of fellow campers. They kind of pack you in like sardines. It’s just a gravel parking lot with interior or waterfront views. Today it doesn’t matter… there is no view. We tried to find wild camping here but nothing popped up on our IOverlander app so we booked this place this morning for two nights. We’re good😊
Tomorrow we have booked a water taxi to Kachemak Bay State Park to take a 3-4 hour hike. Not too early so the rain can move out of here! it’s looking like a decent day… far less rain.. not sure about seeing the sun though.
cinnicrew 