RV Trip to Seldovia: June 25-July 2

 Finally on the road - Saturday June 26! We had a little pressure, as we had reservations on the ferry - Alaska's "Marine Highway" - for Sunday morning and had to be there, 250 miles away, by 9:45 am (ferry left at 11:45 am but lots to get ready and loaded.) The ferry was 1 1/2 hrs. to get to Seldovia. 

From Wikipedia: Seldovia (Alutiiq: Angagkitaqnuuq; Russian: Селдовия) is a city in Kenai Peninsula Borough, Alaska, United States. Its population was 255 at the 2010 census, down from 286 in 2000. It is located along Kachemak Bay southwest of Homer. There is no road system connecting the town to other communities, so all travel to Seldovia is by airplane or boat.

and more from Wikipedia: The Alaska Native people of Seldovia make up approximately one quarter of the population and have ancestors of Aleut and Alutiiq (Sugpiaq) descent, as well as some Dena'ina.^[5]

The town's original Russian name, Seldevoy, translates to "Herring Bay", as there was a significant herring population prior to rampant overfishing early in the 20th century.

Until the development of a more complete road system in Alaska, Seldovia was an important "first stop" for ships sailing from Seward, Kodiak and other points outside Cook Inlet. At one time Seldovia was home to over 2,000 residents, but today fewer than 300 persons reside year round.

And now from me: Another interesting fact - at one time, the Main Street of town could only be walked from one end to the other at low tide - by high tide, water was right up to the doorsteps - Seldovia has anywhere from a 15' to 21' tide! The boardwalk was built around the 1920s and enabled people to walk to houses and businesses at any time of day. 

Pictures of us coming into Seldovia on the ferry and of the ferry itself. There is also a "high speed ferry" that we couldn't take our RV on and several "water taxi" companies that ferry people from Homer to Seldovia and back. 

Ferry coming into Homer before we load. 

Our first look at Seldovia. We had a great time there, camping at "Outside Beach, with very few people around and a wonderful view out our very big windows that we appreciate on our RV. The beach is rocky for the most part, gravely, rather than sandy, and with the very big tide, big craggy rocks emerge at low tide. 

And lots of hiking here too -  up to their Resevoir, also the Rocky Ridge hike which was a loop back into town and then through town back to our RV on the other side, fairly steep, lovely primitive trail. We drove 10 miles up to Jakalof Bay and met some new people, learned something more about salmon fishing there, and the next day did another hike we found out about from a young woman who'd come over to bike for the day and. was waiting for a water taxi. That hike was about 7 miles, a combination of an old truck road into a mine and a primitive trail over and through a couple of creeks and washed out narrow strips of land. The mining was for chromium at one time, years ago now with some evidence of the abandoned vehicles and structures. Oh - and also a fast-retreating black bear who caught our scent or was alerted by my calling "Coming through bears" and took off before we encountered him - thank you bear. 

and a hike our last day before we left again on the ferry, which I thought was going to be nothing, the "Otterbahn Trail" that started in town and went to Outside Beach and back - it was a fun trail with more up and down, more to it than I expected - we got there at low tide, note the rocks that are usually under water, and we met another interesting couple who talked to us about retirement as they are selling their place in Halibut Cove, a short boat ride away and looking at what's next. 

 

We had a couple of lunches in town and a couple of trips to the bakery - highly recommended. And I found the library, which I love to do in every town that we visit. It's only open a few hours each day, so if I ever move to Seldovia, I'm going to be a volunteer librarian so that it can be open. I was able to circle back and buy 3 books for $1 each. It's a wonderful small-town life, we met lots of interesting people, had a campfire with one group one night, and ran into everyone who we met on the ferry coming over several times - because it's a one-street town basically for businesses, so lots of running into people. Even a family that we met in Jakalof Bay met up with us one afternoon and said, "Wait - we know you!" They were visiting a parent and were from Arizona now, and the parent had a cabin there - "good forethought," I said. It was a beautiful bay to have a cabin on.  

And on the way home - Ninilchik, where we stayed on the beach on the way up at the Deep Creek State Recreational Site - and then on the Skilak Road, which is a 19 mile gravel road that we probably won't take again!  A little too rough and very slow! But a beautiful day hike above Skilak Lake and a new discovery of the Hidden Lake Campground, which thankfully is almost at the end of the Skilak Lake Road! Skilak Lake Road runs through the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge, and we heard two stories when we got back that testify to the wildlife. One man was on a trail just 2 miles up the road from where we hiked and was attached by a black bear with two cubs. He was slashed on the arm and then bitten in the shoulder but managed to hike out and was ok. Another couple somewhere on Skilak Lake was attacked, I think by a brown bear, while sleeping in their tent and managed to get away by canoe but with injuries. You do have to be careful, as we saw lots of bear skat while we were hiking most days. 

Although the days are getting shorter, the sunsets are getting longer. These two pictures are an hour apart, at 12:30 am and 1:30 am approximately, one night when I wasn't sleeping. 

Kira finds new comfortable riding/sleeping places in the RV besides my lap, which I'm grateful for, and she's glad to be home. It's probably a good thing that she doesn't know we're leaving again on our next trip in a few days! 

Trying to get out of town on RV Trip

 What a start. Thursday, June 24th, we decide to leave early on our trip - we were renting out our house while we were gone, already had it clean, so we might as well go! About an hour or so into the trip south down Highway 1, the RV started chugging if we went over 40 mph. So we turned around and came back, camping illegally at a trailhead so as not to mess up the house again and planning to have it fixed if possible on Friday. Friday came and no solution yet as they couldn't find the right water pump - and our renters let us know that their plane was canceled so they weren't coming in til Saturday. So we came home carefully for Friday night, eating takeout on the deck, changing bed coverings, etc. and trying to have Kira shed as little as possible! A friend of ours watched her the next morning, and by 6. pm we were ready to leave again. 

Moose on the road into South Fork Eagle River Trail 

But . . . on Friday since we had all day and didn't want to be in the house, we started our vacation by doing a 10 mile, 5 hour hike on the South Fork Eagle River trail to Symphony Lake. We'd done this hike about an hour or so out before to the bridge or even beyond up towards the "Hanging Valley" but had never gone in the direction of the lake. Lots of hikers out that day, and a gorgeous trail - and a moose sighting on the road on the way up!

 

This is one of my favorite hikes -  a standby that's relatively flat, not as much elevation gain, but beautiful views surrounding us as the. trail cuts through the valley. And it. is where we can cut up too, if we choose, much more steeply, to do the ridge hike I mentioned in our last entry over to Rendezvous - views the whole way! 

More Fun. in June 2021

 Mid-June, Brian and I continue hiking, committed to getting stronger and looking forward to a tentative plan to hike in the White Mountains in New Hampshire in September for our 25th wedding anniversary. There is a hike that we've done several times up Rendezvous Mountain that climbs first through a pass that opens up to the Eagle River Valley. The last bit up to the top is very steep, more so than I remembered, but the view is astounding. We've also done this as a ridge walk, as you can continue for a total of about 4 hours over to the South Fork Eagle River Trailhead and descend - or as we did it, instead of having to drop off a car to go end to end, we hiked over and back, about the same distance, ~ 10 miles I think. We. only did Rendezvous this day though, that was enough for me - and very windy at the top, so the ridge walk would have been blowing us over! We met a young woman and her mother at the top, and they took a picture of the two of us. Kira was driven crazy by ground squirrels chirping at her on the way down. She caught one a year ago, and now she has that incentive. 

My daughter, Jessica, and her partner, Stevee, visited for 6 days,  and one of the nicest things we did was to drive over Hatcher's Pass - which we had never done, and I always wanted to. We ski and hike at Hatcher's Pass fairly regularly, but we'd never taken the Pass Road through to Willow, a distance of about 60. miles. The beginning is really scenic, sharply steep with breathtaking drop-offs. They took more pictures, which I'll have to get from them, but here are a few. 

It was chilly while they were here, a little rainy at times, but we managed a little deck sitting. They too a LOT of selfies of the two of them and of our time out on the boat with them. I'll have to add when I get them! 

Where did June go?

 We went out on our Alaska boat overnight at the beginning of June - Kira hadn't been on the boat since she was a puppy but she tolerated it pretty well. You can see her out on the bow enjoying the sites! Prince William Sound is an incredibly beautiful spot, especially when the sun is shining - which isn't that often out of Whittier! 

Just a few days later, we were camping in Hope, Alaska, in our RV -- Kira seemed to like that too, and it's one of our favorite spots by Resurrection Creek and the Resurrection Pass Trail. We hiked just about 4 hours total out and back on that trail - it's approximately 32 mi. long end to end and goes through to the Kenai Peninsula. We did meet a woman on her way back while we were hiking out who'd been backpacking for 5 days and wanted to know how much longer - she didn't really look the backpacking type, but hey, it looked like she was going to make it! 

If I had a nickel for every picture of me reading a book . . . 

Or every time I told one of my children, "Just one more page . . . 

                                                               Our two most relaxed campers! 

The second day camping we tried again to climb Pt. Hope, but we ran out of water again, forgetting how long and how steep it was - plus it was unusually sunny and warm - we almost got there but had the final bit to the peak, 1/2 hour or so probably, that we have to try for again. Beautiful, beautiful hike though, and they've put switchbacks in over the last 5 years or so that make it more possible to get up the mountain! 

I know - that was a lot of pictures, but it's such a gorgeous place! Hopefully we'll get back there before we go to New York in August. More to come! 

Memorial Day Weekend

 This Memorial Day Weekend started out rainy and cool, so we delayed plans to go out in our Chinook and started with day hikes! I wanted to climb Flattop, because I think it's a great diagnostic at the beginning of each season - to see how well we're hiking, how out of shape, how long it takes us, how painful it is! We hiked up only about 30 minutes, and Brian wasn't feeling 100%, so we turned around and went back. It was also windy, with a driving light rain and cold, so it wasn't that hard to quit. Even the hour that we hiked seemed a challenge, but a good one, and we went home and talked about Brian's recent medical history and what might be adding to his distress. 

Day 2 was a little longer hike, about 2 hours, from Prospect Heights going toward Wolfjaw. Driving towards the mountains, they looked a little spooky with clouds hanging low and a very overcast sky, promising rain. But it was supposed to hold off for the most part til afternoon! 

We once again turned around, just giving ourselves enough of a push to feel like we had done something. 

Day Three - Sunday and Monday promised to be warmer and sunnier, so we got the RV ready and ourselves and drove up to the Hatcher's Pass area, camping at the Gold Mint Trailhead. Although we're "camped" in a parking lot at the trailhead, there are fire pits and picnic tables, and the most stunning thing is the view on all 4 sides! We hiked a little over 2 1/2 hours and found a fair amount of snow before we turned around from the well-publicized avalanches that occured during the winter months. 

When we first got there, we were setting up and having a bite to eat while watching "pack-rafters" get out their colorful, inflatable kayaks and get ready to paddle a pretty churned up Little Susitna River! We went down the bank and watched them put in too. 

And finally Day 4 - we had planned to hike the Reeds Lake Trail off of Archangel Rd, and we found that the bigger avalanches mentioned above that had closed the road this winter, still kept the entire Archangel Rd. closed. So we made our way over to Lazy Mountain and then found that our friends Alys & Pete, who live in Palmer, had suggested that we come there and hike with them near their property. So we switched gears and had a lovely afternoon with them and a good loop hike for a couple of hours that was a decent push uphill. Kira enjoyed meeting their dogs again, Shadow and Rider, and the horses, which I'm not sure she remembered! We ended the afternoon pulling our resources for a picnic lunch outside. We had hummous and guacamole and some tabooleh with chickpeas I had made, and Pete had his homemade rye bagels and Tillamok cheese as well as fresh goat's milk from their goat. 

Back in Alaska in time for Bear & Moose Season!

 We spent two weeks in Utica, New York in mid-May, me spending time with my mother, who is 94 years old this year, and my son, Colin. Brian got to see all six of our grandchildren, and I was lucky enough to see one family - Colleen and her wife, Ivana, and their two children, Torunn, who just turned 5 and Ivka, who will turn 4 in July. I got several walks in trying to stay active, and a couple of times with my friend, Wendy and once with Vige. It was cool and kind of miserably gray and rainy the first week that we were there, and I hardly had brought things warm enough with me. The second week it was much nicer. 

Brian and Carl put the boat in the water before we left for NY, and Carl reported good shrimping while we were gone, so we were excited to get our first shrimp finally after we got back. We hadn't heard too much about bears before we left, but we saw this sign on the trail near our house on our first walk upon returning! 

Haven't seen one yet this year though! We do see moose more frequently, and one afternoon, we were walking with Kira a few blocks from our house, a very residential area, and here comes a moose walking right down the sidewalk across the street from us! I tried to take a video of the moose, but "she?" got shy as soon as she saw me, stopped behind this car, and wouldn't go any further until we walked on. 

Our first few days back here were cool-ish and a little bit drizzly, kind of like our first week in NY, but we were able to start biking - humbling to see where we start out each season. 

Kira was VERY happy to see us when we arrived home. Rose, a former student of mine, stayed here with her then took her to her house for the last few nights. Kira re-trained us very quickly to be the answer to all of her needs, and we got a new bed the day after we got home! A queen size bed for the first time after sleeping in a double all of these years. With the addition of a dog to the bed three years ago, the bed is a lifesaver! 

What A Winter This Has Been!

 Winter in Anchorage this year (counted as when we start cross-country skiing!) started the first week in November, and we MAY have stopped skiing now - the next week will determine that. It has been a beautiful, snowy winter, the best winter we've had in the 11 winters that we've been here! 

Pandemic guidelines and common sense have still meant that we've been home for the most part since we traveled back from the east coast in October. It's been good to be able to get outside here, as it's easy to be separate and not around other people - plenty of open space - wonderful trails, most of them free. 

One of our favorite places to ski, we can easily take Kira, Nancy Lake. The trails are groomed, not tracked, but they are ski only and have always been a great ski - nice hills, enough to be challenging, some flat around lakes and ponds, about an hour 15 minutes from our house - and sometimes we see no one the whole time that we're there - beautiful birch and spruce woods. We went there several times this year, and the first time we went with our RV - then froze as it was about 15 below zero overnight. The marine heater that Brian installed couldn't keep up! 

We also ski on local trails, even right from our house, and we discovered a new set of trails so close by that we never knew we had easy access to - in our 11th year here. We can't even get to all of the places we could ski - there is never enough time! It's definitely been a winter wonderland, often with the hoar frost that covers everything! And it's great to come home to our little deck that keep the winter white lights on for in all of the darkness. And we used the outdoor electric sauna a lot this year - turn it on, go for a ski, and it's ready when we get home. 

And here is what Kira likes to do after her little legs run 5 or 6 or 7 or 8 miles keeping up with us!