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We headed back into town today with the plan of eating at the Seward Brewery. The burger was pretty good and the place was pretty neat. We drove over to the marina and walked a few shops there. After the marina we drove out to Lowell Point which is the end of the road. It was still early and we headed back to the coach. We had minor chores to take care of.

The trip from Cooper Landing to Seward was an easy 1 ½ hour drive. Weather is nice and Seward is about 60 deg F. The Bear Creek RV Park is a little run down but OK. We headed downtown and checked out our dining choices. We chose the Sea Salt Grill so we could sit outside and enjoy the views of Resurrection Bay. After lunch we walked the nearby shops including Brown and Hawkings. Brown and Hawkings was a really cool dry goods store 5 years ago but it isn’t the same anymore. How disappointing.
After walking the shops we walked Maverick along the bay and checked out the mile 0 marker of the Iditarod trail. We loaded back up and it was still early. We drove out by the Exit Glacier. Exit Glacier is one of the most accessible glaciers by car and by foot. The trailhead was super crowded but we got lucky with a close parking spot. We decided spur of the moment to hike the trail all of the way to the face of the glacier. The trail is a 2 mile round trip. The first half of the trail is flat and paved. The second half gets progressively more rugged and steep. We were pretty winded by the time we came to the glacier but we were rewarded by great views of the glacier very close.  For dinner Donna cooked Panko breaded Salmon and it was by far our favorite Salmon dinner to-date.  Yum!

This morning we took our time getting ready. We are making short drives and don’t want to arrive too early. Our route retraces our steps through Soldotna and ends at Cooper Landing. We ate fast food and filled the coach with diesel in Soldotna. We arrived at Kenai Princess RV Lodge and RV Park about 2:30pm. The park is located on the Kenai river where it becomes the Kenai Lake and the setting is really beautiful. We checked out a few stores in Cooper Landing but there wasn’t anything too interesting. We ate dinner in the coach and then went on the short nature trail from the Kenai Princess Lodge down to the river. It was a really beautiful walk and Maverick LOVED running off leash. The only problem is that it was REALLY steep down to the river and of course steep back up.

We headed out for a late breakfast today and ate at Wild Honey and had Crepes. The Crepes were ok and it was a very nice restaurant. We decided to follow the East End road. The road is very scenic and is the furthest you can travel South in this area. The views of the glaciers and the Katchemek bay were wonderful. After returning we went to the Wildlife Refuge Visitor Center. We restocked at Safeway and headed back to the coach. Once the groceries were put away we headed back to the Homer Spit. We decided to eat at the Chart House Grill at Lands End Inn. The fish and chips were awesome and the view was really nice.

Today’s main activity is a flightseeing trip with Alaska Bear Adventures. After a little phone tag confusion our tour is confirmed for a 12:45 meeting time for a 1:45 departure. We arrived on time and got fitted for hip waders. We received a tour and safety briefing from the nice employee and then watch a safety video. The briefing explains that the guide will take us as close as 50 yards from a bear and the bear may choose to come even closer. The bears here are never hunted and don’t see people as food. The bears have been closely observed by tours for multiple generations and are used to us being there. If we follow the rules, bears won’t be interested in us. Yikes, that sounds scary.
We are taking this tour on a Cessna 206 with two other tourists from England and our pilot/tour guide Matt. We loaded up in the airplane and departed the Homer airport. The flight followed the coastline North before turning West across the Cook inlet toward Lake Clark National Park and Preserve. Our destination is a beach near a big tidal flat. Our bush plane landed easily on a gravel beach and we all deplane. We could see about six Coastal Brown Bears from the plane and followed our guide out into the tidal flats. Its pretty nerve racking at first walking on foot toward huge wild bears. The bears here are feeding on clams buried in the sand of the flats. As briefed, we walk until we are about 50 yards from one of the bears. We kneel down and wait while the bear walks by us only 10-20 yards away. WOW! We observe this one female bear for quite a while before walking back near the plane to observe some other bears. There are about 10 bears visible from this location though at a pretty good distance. After observing these bears a while we jump back in the plane and head a very short hop away to a different bear viewing area. This new area is part of the National Park and we can’t approach the bears as close as before. Again, there are about 10 bears in a beautiful meadow mainly grazing on grass. The bears are super close but it is fantastic to see these magnificent animals in their natural, unspoiled environment. Our guided explained that a little later in the season the Salmon would be running and hundreds of bears will gather along the river to catch fish. That happens later in the season.
On the flight back we circled the Iliamna Volcano and the glaciers were spectacular.  There was steam boiling off of the mountain near the peak. The site seeing from the airplane was really superb. Finally we returned to the Homer airport around 5pm. What a great experience. We rescued Maverick from the coach and headed back into town. We ate at the Boardwalk Fish and Chips. The food and view were good though the food a little pricey.

This morning we broke camp and headed to Homer. The drive took us along the Cook Inlet and the views across the inlet of the mountains was spectacular. The drive took about 1 ½ hour and we arrived at the Homer/Baycrest KOA. The KOA is a small park with most of the sites situated on the edge of a cliff over looking the bay and mountains. The views are great.

After setup we drove the 3 miles into Homer. We eventually drove down the Homer Spit. The Spit is a long narrow “spit” of land with touristy shops, restaurants, dry camping, RV parks and the Lands End Inn. We randomly chose the Harbor Grill for lunch based on the nice appearance from the outside. The food was really good and the view of the marina and mountains was really nice. After lunch we walked around many of the little shops. One shop was the booking office of the Alaskan Bear Adventures. We signed up for the shortest bear viewing tour scheduled for tomorrow. Bear tours aren’t cheap but it was a bucket list activity. Finally, we stopped by the Salty Dawg Saloon. The Salty Dawg is a very iconic or infamous Homer establishment. The Salty Dawg is just a small bar and really didn’t hold much appeal for us.

Today we got up and Donna decided to re-wash Maverick in the coach shower to hopefully do a more thorough job. It worked. Maverick no longer smelled. By the time all of us had cleaned up it was lunch time. Today we headed to the Kenai River Brewery. The food and atmosphere was great. Kenai was coverered up with locals and we had a hard time finding a parking spot. Despite the crowds we got in and out ok. We like Kenai much more than St Elias Brewery from earlier in the week. The food, service, and atmosphere was really nice.
Just after lunch we got a call from the fish processor saying our fish was ready to pick up. We picked up the flash frozen fish and headed to Walmart to get a cooler to store it. I bought a nice cooler, filled it with fish and ice.

Today the plan was to just hang out around Soldotna. When it was time for lunch we picked The Flats Bistro nearby. The Flats was super nice and our food was really good. After lunch we continued down the road to Kalifornsky Beach. We had hoped to access the Cook Inlet beach but it was all private property. We followed the road until it looped back to the Kasilof River Public Access Area. This is where the Kasilof River we fished meets the Cook Inlet. There was a huge number of fishermen on the beach and camping. This group is Dip Net fishing. You have to be an Alaskan Native to Dip Net and apparently they catch huge amounts of Sockeye with no limit. The fishing is simply sticking a large hoop fish net into the river and waiting for the Sockeye to swim in.
We let Maverick run the beach off-leash and he had a great time. Too good of time. Next thing we know he is rolling on something. Maverick found a dead fish and was rolling on it. Maverick was now all wet and incredibly smelly. That finished our running around for the day and we headed back to the coach. Once back it was dog wash time. Donna washed Maverick outside from the faucet. It helped tremendously but using only very cold water limited the thoroughness. He still smells a little fishy.

It rained like crazy last night and neither of us slept that great. Despite last night, today looks dry with a high just under 60 deg F. Our trip today is a half day fishing tour for King Salmon. The tour leaves at 11:30am. On the drive to the river we see a Moose with two very young calves on the side of the road. We arrived at the river, met our guide Michael, and loaded up. There was supposed to be another party of two on our tour and we waited over 30 minutes before the other party was rescheduled. The good news is that it’s just Donna and I now. Fishing for King Salmon involves using Drift Boats. A drift boat is a deep, very stable, row boat. The river is a wide, and very fast moving. The guide uses oars to steer us down the river until you get to a good fishing spot and then drop anchor.
Our guide seems somewhat pessimistic on catching one King Salmon. At any one time we can usually see 5 to 10 other drift boats. Michael says there are probably 50 boats on our route. A little way into the trip we see a Bald Eagle soaring above the river and a short time later we saw a pair of Bald Eagles in a nearby tree. About 50 minutes into the trip, a boat next to us got a bite but it got away. Ten minutes later Donna gets a hard hit. After quite a fight she lands a 12lb King Salmon. We are ecstatic and the guide seems genuinely excited and surprised. This is the first time ever Donna has attempted fishing and lands a big King Salmon on her first try. To us, the fish seems huge. Based on everything we hear we are VERY lucky to get a King Salmon and it seems unlikely we will get another. Donna has used her Stamp so now she can set the rod but can’t touch it if a fish takes the bait. We all figure our luck is used up. We settle in to enjoy the rest of our cruise on the water. About 3 hours in, I fall asleep in the warm sunlight. Suddenly Michael yells and I start grabbing for my rod and reel. Michael is beyond excited and yelling about how hard the fish just hit the bait. I’ve got a big fish on the line! The fish puts up quite a fight and I follow Michael’s instructions to tire the fish and maneuver the line. Finally Michael snags the fish in the net. We are all amazed, I just landed a 30lb King Salmon. Donna and I are thrilled and Michael seems just as excited as we are. Despite 3 hours on the water near many boats we haven’t seen anyone else catch a fish. I credit both luck and the skill of our young, 25 year old, guide. Once the fish is subdued and pictures are taken, our tour is done. We have caught our limit. We head down river to the boat recovery ramp. I feel somewhat guilty knowing there are so many fisher men and women who long to catch anything while the two old non-fishers take the day. Once the boat is recovered Michael gives us an expert demonstration of how to fillet King Salmon. Donna’s is a male and mine is a female filled with eggs. Michael is thrilled because those eggs are one of the main baits they use on these trips. By the way, Michael shared AFTER I caught my fish that it typically takes a tourist 36 hours of fishing to catch any kind of Salmon when with a guide and 40 hours of fishing without a guide. We caught our two fish limit in 3 hours. Maybe we should play the lottery.
We head back to the coach to rescue Maverick from his isolation and allow him a much needed bathroom break. Boy is Maverick excited by the bag full of Salmon I bring in. I cut off a 1lb piece of Salmon because Donna has offered to attempt Salmon cooking tonight. I jump in the Jeep and take the rest of the bag to the nearby fish processing store. They measure our fish meat at 19lbs. This is ONLY the fillet meat and none of the waste already discarded. What a haul. It will cost about $30 to have it vacuum packed and flash frozen in about 1lbs packages. It will take one or two days before the fish is ready for pick-up.
When I return from the store Donna has completed cooking our Salmon. I should point out that neither of us have a clue how to prepare Salmon. Based on advice from friends and our guide the results were excellent. We each had a tasty Salmon steak. Maverick was extremely pleased with tonight’s meal and thoroughly enjoyed small samples of raw and cooked salmon. What a day. We had great fun in great weather.

 

Last night it really rained a lot. Maverick was up most of the night though we couldn’t figure out why. Today Donna read there was a Magnitude 2.5 earthquake at 2:50AM so that may have been what disturbed Maverick last night. We departed about 10AM and headed 2 hours East to Soldotna and the Diamond M Ranch RV Park. The RV park is by far the most expensive we have stayed at since leaving the lower 48 states at $95 per night. The parks around Soldotna are quite full and hard to get reservations. This is a nice park with full hook-ups. When I checked in at the park I asked about a local fishing tour. Neither Donna nor I really fish but this is THE reason so many people flock to this area. It seems a crime not to participate in such an important part of the area. We ate lunch at the St Elias Brewery. The brewery specializes in Pizza (and beer) and is the number one place to go in the area. The pizza was awesome. I received our confirmation for the tour for tomorrow. It reminded us that we needed a fishing license and King Salmon stamp. It cost $40 each to get a ONE DAY fishing license and King Salmon Stamp. The stamp allows each person to keep one King Salmon. Customers in the store where we got the licenses and stamps said there were not many Salmon, either King or Sockeye. Well, at least we will have a nice float trip.