Day 14: Free Beer, free Camping, and what is that?
"A man's got to believe in something. I believe I'll have another drink."
-W.C. Fields
Friday, August 5, 2011
I’m in the tent again. I seriously debated staying home. The weather forecast took a change for the worse… wait.. somebody is pulling into my camp site here.. ok.. they are pulling back out. Haha. Nope, move along fella. This camp site is claimed in the name of pirate tours Alaska LLC. .. or whatever I’m calling this trip. Something about pirates I’m sure of. bey0nd that and I have no idea. Back to what I was saying. The weather forecast crapped out. 30% rain for Saturday, 80% for Sunday. FU weather. It rained on my way into work and rained until about lunch time then it stopped and the sun came out. The weather is weird up here. It just changes from one thing to another in an hour or so and normally stays that way for days. That’s why I’m here. I walked out of work and it was a beautiful sunny day with temps in the high 60’s. If it had been raining I’m fairly certain I would have just gone home and laid in the bed. It’s not raining but it is colder than it has been. It dipped into the high 40’s for a little while I was riding down. Yes, down, as in south. I have unfinished business and I’m going to finish it. I’m about 3 miles outside of Seward right now near Exit glacier in a free camping area. I love that it’s free, but I hate that all the yahoo’s use it. I walked from my campsite further back into the area and found 2 lounge chairs and a big bag of trash. That’s beautiful right next to the river. Bastards. It’s not that hard. 1 bag of trash and two busted chairs. Pack them out.
So I’m in my tent snuggled up in the sleeping bag with my head propped up on my helmet and my pillow on top of that. I tried to get a fire going but everything is so wet that it was a no-go. I didn’t have any gas in the little tanks so I couldn’t “cheat” like I did the last time. I couldn’t even get the leaves to burn that’s how wet it is. I’m going to do a little research and see how it’s done when everything is wet. I’m sure the old timers didn’t let a little thing like wet wood slow them down from having a toasty fire. I tried ever so long to get it going but it just wasn’t happening. It doesn’t really mean anything in the grand scheme of things I suppose. It’s just a camping thing.. You go camping, you have a camp fire going at least for a little while. I cooked some more dehydrated food using the MSR pocket rocket. I’m so impressed with that food. It’s really good! Maybe I’m just hungry but I swear it is completely acceptable.
Hmmm, I saw some stars in the sky which was a first for me in Alaska. It was about11:30 I guess and I could see the north star. That was the only one. Even at 3am it’s something like having a full moon night here the way the sun does it’s thing. I read something about sunburns being more severe here than elsewhere because of the angle of the sun. I can vouch for that. I had a sunburn on my head and face from last weekend and I might have spent 2-3 hours total in the sun all weekend without a helmet on.
Unfinished business. I am going to Homer tomorrow. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. That’s my plan and I’m sticking to it. No side tracks, no distractions, no problem! I’m going… after I go on into Seward for breakfast and gas in the morning anyway.
I did go by that place I want to camp in Hope but it was full up again. I figure the only way to get that is going to be to show up on Thursday or something. I’m sure it’s very popular because it’s such a unique camp site. If I get down this way again I’ll check though.
Well this pillow/helmet combo is putting a huge strain on my neck and it’s getting annoying, plus I’ve got some archer to watch before bedtime..
Ohh..!.. free beer! .. and caribou!
I saw a caribou. It was very far away and I thought it was a beaver or something until I used the super zoom on the camera. .. or at least I’m fairly certain it was a caribou… maybe an elk. I dunno.. it was a large vegetable eating quadruped for sure. I’ll put a picture up and you can decide. I’m certain it was no moose though. I actually thought it might have been a bear for a few minutes then I realized how long the ears were and that ruled that out.
Free beer? Yes! I was setting up the tent and noticed some cans sitting by a tree. 3 Budweisers! Score! And acceptable cool.. not cold.. just cool. I debated drinking them and then decided to do it since it was that or water. They were good with the dehydrated chicken and rice! The downside is that about 3:00 am I am going to have to pee.. I would bet money on it and that annoys the crap out of me.
Anyway. Camping, outside of Seward, going to Homer.
** Update: It was a Moose. - See pictures.**
I’m in the tent again. I seriously debated staying home. The weather forecast took a change for the worse… wait.. somebody is pulling into my camp site here.. ok.. they are pulling back out. Haha. Nope, move along fella. This camp site is claimed in the name of pirate tours Alaska LLC. .. or whatever I’m calling this trip. Something about pirates I’m sure of. bey0nd that and I have no idea. Back to what I was saying. The weather forecast crapped out. 30% rain for Saturday, 80% for Sunday. FU weather. It rained on my way into work and rained until about lunch time then it stopped and the sun came out. The weather is weird up here. It just changes from one thing to another in an hour or so and normally stays that way for days. That’s why I’m here. I walked out of work and it was a beautiful sunny day with temps in the high 60’s. If it had been raining I’m fairly certain I would have just gone home and laid in the bed. It’s not raining but it is colder than it has been. It dipped into the high 40’s for a little while I was riding down. Yes, down, as in south. I have unfinished business and I’m going to finish it. I’m about 3 miles outside of Seward right now near Exit glacier in a free camping area. I love that it’s free, but I hate that all the yahoo’s use it. I walked from my campsite further back into the area and found 2 lounge chairs and a big bag of trash. That’s beautiful right next to the river. Bastards. It’s not that hard. 1 bag of trash and two busted chairs. Pack them out.
So I’m in my tent snuggled up in the sleeping bag with my head propped up on my helmet and my pillow on top of that. I tried to get a fire going but everything is so wet that it was a no-go. I didn’t have any gas in the little tanks so I couldn’t “cheat” like I did the last time. I couldn’t even get the leaves to burn that’s how wet it is. I’m going to do a little research and see how it’s done when everything is wet. I’m sure the old timers didn’t let a little thing like wet wood slow them down from having a toasty fire. I tried ever so long to get it going but it just wasn’t happening. It doesn’t really mean anything in the grand scheme of things I suppose. It’s just a camping thing.. You go camping, you have a camp fire going at least for a little while. I cooked some more dehydrated food using the MSR pocket rocket. I’m so impressed with that food. It’s really good! Maybe I’m just hungry but I swear it is completely acceptable.
Hmmm, I saw some stars in the sky which was a first for me in Alaska. It was about11:30 I guess and I could see the north star. That was the only one. Even at 3am it’s something like having a full moon night here the way the sun does it’s thing. I read something about sunburns being more severe here than elsewhere because of the angle of the sun. I can vouch for that. I had a sunburn on my head and face from last weekend and I might have spent 2-3 hours total in the sun all weekend without a helmet on.
Unfinished business. I am going to Homer tomorrow. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. That’s my plan and I’m sticking to it. No side tracks, no distractions, no problem! I’m going… after I go on into Seward for breakfast and gas in the morning anyway.
I did go by that place I want to camp in Hope but it was full up again. I figure the only way to get that is going to be to show up on Thursday or something. I’m sure it’s very popular because it’s such a unique camp site. If I get down this way again I’ll check though.
Well this pillow/helmet combo is putting a huge strain on my neck and it’s getting annoying, plus I’ve got some archer to watch before bedtime..
Ohh..!.. free beer! .. and caribou!
I saw a caribou. It was very far away and I thought it was a beaver or something until I used the super zoom on the camera. .. or at least I’m fairly certain it was a caribou… maybe an elk. I dunno.. it was a large vegetable eating quadruped for sure. I’ll put a picture up and you can decide. I’m certain it was no moose though. I actually thought it might have been a bear for a few minutes then I realized how long the ears were and that ruled that out.
Free beer? Yes! I was setting up the tent and noticed some cans sitting by a tree. 3 Budweisers! Score! And acceptable cool.. not cold.. just cool. I debated drinking them and then decided to do it since it was that or water. They were good with the dehydrated chicken and rice! The downside is that about 3:00 am I am going to have to pee.. I would bet money on it and that annoys the crap out of me.
Anyway. Camping, outside of Seward, going to Homer.
** Update: It was a Moose. - See pictures.**
Day 15: Holy crap it got cold!
"Any proverbs about weather are doubly true during a storm."
-Ed Northstrum
Day 15: Saturday August 6, 2011
I got up this morning around 1:30pm. Yep, that’s what the clock said. Damnit! I am going to Homer today one way or another. I loaded up the stuff and went into Seward for breakfast/late lunch and along the way noticed the clock on the bike said 10:30. “That’s strange. I know I just sat that correctly yesterday?” Then it hit me. When you first turn the cell phone back on it shows the time it was turned off until it completes it’s “turn on” procedure. It wasn’t late at all! That problem sorted I rode into seward for breakfast. Pancakes and Reindeer sausage. Good stuff! The pancakes were waaaaay to big to eat all of them. It looked like a kid had sat down to eat a plate of pea’s when I got done. .. IE – barely touched. I was about to pop though. After that I did a little shopping and bought myself a shirt and tonya a little boggin’ thing. I think I got a Alaskan flag sticker too. Then I got down to business. Homer was calling my name and I was off.
The ride from Seward to Soldotna was most uneventful. I took a few pics here and there but I had already been this far once so I knew I had most of the pictures I wanted. No wildlife sighting. Once I got into Soldotna I stopped at a McDonalds.. not for the food, for their wifi and charging station. I ate lunch their as a courtesy for mooching off their electrical grid to charge the computer. I stuck around there for about 45 minutes till the computer was mostly charged and then loaded up the bike again and took off into parts unknown. As I was loading the stuff it started sprinkling. “Typical Alaska sprinkle storm.” I thought and got going on my way. I was very very wrong. At least I hope it’s not common for this to happen.
There are ~90 miles between Soldotna and Homer with nothing much but some random houses in between town wise (Anchor Point is just before Homer but there isn’t much there) There are more houses than anywhere else I’ve been but still sparse. The rain started just a few miles outside of Soldotna a steady moderate rain complete with fog and cold. It got chilly first. 47-48 degrees so I retaliated by plugging the heated suit up. “Take that mother nature!” I said. Then the rain got harder and it got colder. 42 degrees. At that point it just got cold. I cranked the suit up to high, turned the hand warmers up to 75% (that’s about the max I can do and not run the battery down with the suit and the hand warmers going). The rain and cold were relentless. My suit has proven to be very good in the rain and it did good yesterday as well. I was wet around the top of my shirt from rain seeping in down my neck and my wrists were wet. Aside from that I was dry as a bone, but still cold. After about 70 miles of it I changed positions on the seat only to find a puddle had formed. For whatever reason the ass of this suit doesn’t do a great job if you sit in a puddle.. haha I got the wet ass. At that point I decided something was going to have to change in my plans. I was really close to Homer so I wasn’t turning back. I thought about setting up the tent in the rain, in low 40’s temps while I was wet and then wondered if I would ever get warmed back up. No chance of a campfire and even if you had one it would be raining on you. Nope, I wasn’t camping tonight. I started looking for a motel/hotel. I waited until I got within the city limits of Homer then hit the first place I saw with a vacancy sign. Bay View Inn is the name of the place I’m at right now. As I pulled into the parking lot I noticed two other bikes sitting in front of the office. I couldn't help but chuckle cuz I knew by the way they were loaded they were doing the same thing I had decided to do. I talked to them for a while and they were from Seward and had planned on camping as well. One older guy on a Suzuki 250 street bike (forget the letters) and another guy on one of the big KTM adventures. When they saw me I could see the smiles on their faces cuz they were thinking the same thing I was. "This sucks!" haha The hotel had a have a very nice looking little gal from Oregon working their desk and she was very helpful. Let's be honest here. This girl was so cute she could have been rude and thrown stuff at me and I would still have talked nicely about her. I really should have taken her pic. It's not often you see true redheads that make you feel warm and fuzzy inside. :)
I got lined out with a room to the tune of $114 +tax and got settled in. Took a shower which was great. Then realized how crappy this little room was. The walls are so thin I know I heard my neighbor snore and I’m fairly certain I heard her fart as well. Very thin walls. That’s okay though I’m sure she heard me fart too. :/
They advertise wifi but it’s more like lofi. It would work long enough to load one page really quickly.. Then the next page would take 5-6 minutes while it thought about it. Ehh.. better than a tent I suppose. Hoping for better weather tomorrow.
--update. The storm seems to be moving on. It warmed up a little and is only sprinkling now so I drove down into Homer and out onto the Spit and found some dinner. Alaska Fresh Catch Café was the place I ended up at. Café – should be mostly cheap/decent food. right? WRONG! $25 for halibut and fries… what a ripoff. The food was good but come on.. it’s deep fried fish and you bought it off the boat this morning. $25 really? -sigh. Don’t complain Bryan, it’s an adventure and money is just a necessary evil.
-- After the fact update (several days later) I am picture poor for this day because of the rain. If you really want to know what it was like. Put on a motorcycle helmet. Go get in the shower, turn on a fog machine and then turn the water down as cold as it will go. Then drop some ice cubes down the front of your pants.. stay in this position for about 2 hours. That will closely approximate the ride from Soldotna to Homer. Don't worry though. I made up for it on the way back. :)
There are a few pics from my cell phone from Seward I need to add but I haven't sync'ed my phone yet. I'll add them later.
I got up this morning around 1:30pm. Yep, that’s what the clock said. Damnit! I am going to Homer today one way or another. I loaded up the stuff and went into Seward for breakfast/late lunch and along the way noticed the clock on the bike said 10:30. “That’s strange. I know I just sat that correctly yesterday?” Then it hit me. When you first turn the cell phone back on it shows the time it was turned off until it completes it’s “turn on” procedure. It wasn’t late at all! That problem sorted I rode into seward for breakfast. Pancakes and Reindeer sausage. Good stuff! The pancakes were waaaaay to big to eat all of them. It looked like a kid had sat down to eat a plate of pea’s when I got done. .. IE – barely touched. I was about to pop though. After that I did a little shopping and bought myself a shirt and tonya a little boggin’ thing. I think I got a Alaskan flag sticker too. Then I got down to business. Homer was calling my name and I was off.
The ride from Seward to Soldotna was most uneventful. I took a few pics here and there but I had already been this far once so I knew I had most of the pictures I wanted. No wildlife sighting. Once I got into Soldotna I stopped at a McDonalds.. not for the food, for their wifi and charging station. I ate lunch their as a courtesy for mooching off their electrical grid to charge the computer. I stuck around there for about 45 minutes till the computer was mostly charged and then loaded up the bike again and took off into parts unknown. As I was loading the stuff it started sprinkling. “Typical Alaska sprinkle storm.” I thought and got going on my way. I was very very wrong. At least I hope it’s not common for this to happen.
There are ~90 miles between Soldotna and Homer with nothing much but some random houses in between town wise (Anchor Point is just before Homer but there isn’t much there) There are more houses than anywhere else I’ve been but still sparse. The rain started just a few miles outside of Soldotna a steady moderate rain complete with fog and cold. It got chilly first. 47-48 degrees so I retaliated by plugging the heated suit up. “Take that mother nature!” I said. Then the rain got harder and it got colder. 42 degrees. At that point it just got cold. I cranked the suit up to high, turned the hand warmers up to 75% (that’s about the max I can do and not run the battery down with the suit and the hand warmers going). The rain and cold were relentless. My suit has proven to be very good in the rain and it did good yesterday as well. I was wet around the top of my shirt from rain seeping in down my neck and my wrists were wet. Aside from that I was dry as a bone, but still cold. After about 70 miles of it I changed positions on the seat only to find a puddle had formed. For whatever reason the ass of this suit doesn’t do a great job if you sit in a puddle.. haha I got the wet ass. At that point I decided something was going to have to change in my plans. I was really close to Homer so I wasn’t turning back. I thought about setting up the tent in the rain, in low 40’s temps while I was wet and then wondered if I would ever get warmed back up. No chance of a campfire and even if you had one it would be raining on you. Nope, I wasn’t camping tonight. I started looking for a motel/hotel. I waited until I got within the city limits of Homer then hit the first place I saw with a vacancy sign. Bay View Inn is the name of the place I’m at right now. As I pulled into the parking lot I noticed two other bikes sitting in front of the office. I couldn't help but chuckle cuz I knew by the way they were loaded they were doing the same thing I had decided to do. I talked to them for a while and they were from Seward and had planned on camping as well. One older guy on a Suzuki 250 street bike (forget the letters) and another guy on one of the big KTM adventures. When they saw me I could see the smiles on their faces cuz they were thinking the same thing I was. "This sucks!" haha The hotel had a have a very nice looking little gal from Oregon working their desk and she was very helpful. Let's be honest here. This girl was so cute she could have been rude and thrown stuff at me and I would still have talked nicely about her. I really should have taken her pic. It's not often you see true redheads that make you feel warm and fuzzy inside. :)
I got lined out with a room to the tune of $114 +tax and got settled in. Took a shower which was great. Then realized how crappy this little room was. The walls are so thin I know I heard my neighbor snore and I’m fairly certain I heard her fart as well. Very thin walls. That’s okay though I’m sure she heard me fart too. :/
They advertise wifi but it’s more like lofi. It would work long enough to load one page really quickly.. Then the next page would take 5-6 minutes while it thought about it. Ehh.. better than a tent I suppose. Hoping for better weather tomorrow.
--update. The storm seems to be moving on. It warmed up a little and is only sprinkling now so I drove down into Homer and out onto the Spit and found some dinner. Alaska Fresh Catch Café was the place I ended up at. Café – should be mostly cheap/decent food. right? WRONG! $25 for halibut and fries… what a ripoff. The food was good but come on.. it’s deep fried fish and you bought it off the boat this morning. $25 really? -sigh. Don’t complain Bryan, it’s an adventure and money is just a necessary evil.
-- After the fact update (several days later) I am picture poor for this day because of the rain. If you really want to know what it was like. Put on a motorcycle helmet. Go get in the shower, turn on a fog machine and then turn the water down as cold as it will go. Then drop some ice cubes down the front of your pants.. stay in this position for about 2 hours. That will closely approximate the ride from Soldotna to Homer. Don't worry though. I made up for it on the way back. :)
There are a few pics from my cell phone from Seward I need to add but I haven't sync'ed my phone yet. I'll add them later.
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Day 16: The day you dream about.
"If nature were not beautiful, it would not be worth knowing, and if nature were not worth knowing, life would not be worth living."
-Henri Poincare
Day 16 – Sunday August 7, 2011.
Today was the best day yet. I woke up around 9ish at the hotel and stepped outside to a beautiful, if chilly, morning. The view of the Bay was outstanding. I would say it was well worth the $120 admission ticket I paid for the room but there was a free parking area about 0.1 miles away that actually had a better view. No big deal though I was warm and cozy last night in my bed. I grabbed the obligatory bagel (in two flavors) at the deluxe complimentary breakfast included with the room which consisted of bagels and a container of OJ and a microwave.
After that I got everything loaded back up on the bike and ended up much more organized that I had been originally with the packing. I even had the power cord for the laptop in the same compartment as the laptop this time. A crazy system I know. I got everything loaded up, took some pictures, and spoke with one of the owners when I checked out. They live in Homer year round and are retired. The hotel just brings in extra money for 3 months during the Summer then they close it down the week after labor day. Nice guy. The cute redhead is his niece and she comes up from Oregon every year to help with the hotel and spend time with them. Single as far as he knows too. haha
I pulled out of the parking lot and went back out of town to get a quick picture of the “welcome to homer” sign and then rode down into Homer. I went there last night but it was mostly dark and rainy so I didn’t see much. It’s a beautiful area. Possibly as pretty as the Girdwood area only in a different way. Girdwood is all mountains and of course Cook Inlet, Homer is the Bay with snow capped mountains all around. The water here has the green tint but it mixes with the deep blue of the ocean in sections so it’s a gradient change in color in some areas. In other areas it just goes from green to blue almost instantly. I tried to capture this in the pictures but I’m not sure if it caught the colors correctly. It is so hard to get the pictures to look like what I’m actually seeing. I tried to do a panorama from my room but the picture is just too big. I had 15 individual pictures that needed to be stitched together. The computer doesn’t have enough memory to do it. I’m going to try to piece it together into two halves and then join the halves later. Fingers crossed it will work because it was a stunning view of the bay and the surrounding mountain ranges.
I drove down to the Homer Spit after that. A spit is a man made projection of land. Basically It was a lot of boulders piled up on each other to make a little peninsula about 500 feet wide at it’s thinnest and probably 1/2 mile at it’s widest. I can’t even imagine how much work was involved and how long it took. I’m sure there is a history of it on Wikipedia. I just haven’t taken time to look it up yet.
I went down to the “beach” and found that to be a really unique thing. It’s like a beach, it has sand and waves, but the sand is buried under river rock, or probably more correctly ocean rock. Most of the rocks are about the size of a fist and smaller and are all rounded off smoothed by the currents and deposited on the beach. There are shells just like a normal beach and a type of seaweed as well. All of the buildings are constructed on stilts around the outer edge but the stuff in the middle is just on the ground and has a very “thrown together” look about it. I’ll try to remember to add pictures of this.
I stayed around on the spit for a couple of hours and did a little shopping. My purchases were kept to a minimal because I blew my budget on the hotel and because I just didn’t see much I was interested in. I bought a sticker and a bracelet made out of some kind of animal bones for Chloe. I wish I had asked what it was because I can’t figure it out for the life of me. It looks like it’s some type of back bones from a smaller animal and is colored reddish/orange. I really wish I had asked because it is quite pretty and it’s a shame not to have the story to go along with it.
Around 1:00 I decided I was ready to pull out of Homer and start heading back towards Anchorage with plenty of time to stop and do whatever I saw worth doing. The ride back was as close as I can get to what I imagined riding in Alaska would be like. Not much traffic, sunny but a little chilly, beautiful vegetation on both sides of the highway, glimpses of the bay of Alaska sneaking through here and there (with plenty of places to stop and really see it all) snow capped mountains always in the background with smaller mountains covered in pine trees in the foreground. In short.. it was beautiful. The scenery isn’t all I think of when I think of Alaska though.. I think of wildlife. I wasn’t disappointed today. I saw Eagles all around Homer. I saw them flying, I saw them taking fish from the water in the bay, I saw them perched on trees and I heard them “scream”. It was amazing. I also met another moose at extreme close range.
I had been driving for maybe 20 minutes and noticed a car flashing it’s lights at me. My first thought was “cop” so I slowed down to a few miles per hour under the speed limit and kept going. The next curve I came around there she was. A big female moose was about 5 feet off the edge of the road eating grass very casually. I went by and when I looked at her I could see the texture of her fur and could see the details around her eyes. I had to turn around and come back for pictures. When I got turned around and came back there was a perfect parking spot directly across the road from her. When I pulled in she got a little spooked and took a few steps back toward the trees but then she calmed down and watched me for a minute or two then went back to eating. I stayed there taking pictures of her for a good ten minutes and watched her walk across the road and got into the bushes on the other side maybe 20 feet away from me. It was amazing to be that close and for her to be so casual about it. I guess I’m not the first funny looking 2 legged thing to stop and watch her eat.
The rest of the day was just riding for a bit and then stopping for pictures and food. I ate at a place called ‘boat’ in the town of Ninilchik. That was it’s whole name 'Boat'. The building started as an old fishing boat and the owner, a charming little old lady and her daughter, had added a dining area to the backside of it and made a restaurant. I had a 16 oz. ribeye with fries and a salad for $15. The prices in Alaska vary from ridiculously high to ridiculously low. My whole tab, beer and all, was $18. I left $25 and told them it was too much food for $18 on my way out.
I also stopped at the turnagain arm – pit BBQ. I tried the brisket on a bun ($18) and it was good but it’s not the best BBQ I’ve had. I also had some deep fried jalepenos. They were pretty good and HOT.
I stopped at a lot of places and saw a lot of things and if I wrote about all of it this would be another 20 pages so I will just put my favorite pictures up and put a little note with them for this day.
It was a good day.
Today was the best day yet. I woke up around 9ish at the hotel and stepped outside to a beautiful, if chilly, morning. The view of the Bay was outstanding. I would say it was well worth the $120 admission ticket I paid for the room but there was a free parking area about 0.1 miles away that actually had a better view. No big deal though I was warm and cozy last night in my bed. I grabbed the obligatory bagel (in two flavors) at the deluxe complimentary breakfast included with the room which consisted of bagels and a container of OJ and a microwave.
After that I got everything loaded back up on the bike and ended up much more organized that I had been originally with the packing. I even had the power cord for the laptop in the same compartment as the laptop this time. A crazy system I know. I got everything loaded up, took some pictures, and spoke with one of the owners when I checked out. They live in Homer year round and are retired. The hotel just brings in extra money for 3 months during the Summer then they close it down the week after labor day. Nice guy. The cute redhead is his niece and she comes up from Oregon every year to help with the hotel and spend time with them. Single as far as he knows too. haha
I pulled out of the parking lot and went back out of town to get a quick picture of the “welcome to homer” sign and then rode down into Homer. I went there last night but it was mostly dark and rainy so I didn’t see much. It’s a beautiful area. Possibly as pretty as the Girdwood area only in a different way. Girdwood is all mountains and of course Cook Inlet, Homer is the Bay with snow capped mountains all around. The water here has the green tint but it mixes with the deep blue of the ocean in sections so it’s a gradient change in color in some areas. In other areas it just goes from green to blue almost instantly. I tried to capture this in the pictures but I’m not sure if it caught the colors correctly. It is so hard to get the pictures to look like what I’m actually seeing. I tried to do a panorama from my room but the picture is just too big. I had 15 individual pictures that needed to be stitched together. The computer doesn’t have enough memory to do it. I’m going to try to piece it together into two halves and then join the halves later. Fingers crossed it will work because it was a stunning view of the bay and the surrounding mountain ranges.
I drove down to the Homer Spit after that. A spit is a man made projection of land. Basically It was a lot of boulders piled up on each other to make a little peninsula about 500 feet wide at it’s thinnest and probably 1/2 mile at it’s widest. I can’t even imagine how much work was involved and how long it took. I’m sure there is a history of it on Wikipedia. I just haven’t taken time to look it up yet.
I went down to the “beach” and found that to be a really unique thing. It’s like a beach, it has sand and waves, but the sand is buried under river rock, or probably more correctly ocean rock. Most of the rocks are about the size of a fist and smaller and are all rounded off smoothed by the currents and deposited on the beach. There are shells just like a normal beach and a type of seaweed as well. All of the buildings are constructed on stilts around the outer edge but the stuff in the middle is just on the ground and has a very “thrown together” look about it. I’ll try to remember to add pictures of this.
I stayed around on the spit for a couple of hours and did a little shopping. My purchases were kept to a minimal because I blew my budget on the hotel and because I just didn’t see much I was interested in. I bought a sticker and a bracelet made out of some kind of animal bones for Chloe. I wish I had asked what it was because I can’t figure it out for the life of me. It looks like it’s some type of back bones from a smaller animal and is colored reddish/orange. I really wish I had asked because it is quite pretty and it’s a shame not to have the story to go along with it.
Around 1:00 I decided I was ready to pull out of Homer and start heading back towards Anchorage with plenty of time to stop and do whatever I saw worth doing. The ride back was as close as I can get to what I imagined riding in Alaska would be like. Not much traffic, sunny but a little chilly, beautiful vegetation on both sides of the highway, glimpses of the bay of Alaska sneaking through here and there (with plenty of places to stop and really see it all) snow capped mountains always in the background with smaller mountains covered in pine trees in the foreground. In short.. it was beautiful. The scenery isn’t all I think of when I think of Alaska though.. I think of wildlife. I wasn’t disappointed today. I saw Eagles all around Homer. I saw them flying, I saw them taking fish from the water in the bay, I saw them perched on trees and I heard them “scream”. It was amazing. I also met another moose at extreme close range.
I had been driving for maybe 20 minutes and noticed a car flashing it’s lights at me. My first thought was “cop” so I slowed down to a few miles per hour under the speed limit and kept going. The next curve I came around there she was. A big female moose was about 5 feet off the edge of the road eating grass very casually. I went by and when I looked at her I could see the texture of her fur and could see the details around her eyes. I had to turn around and come back for pictures. When I got turned around and came back there was a perfect parking spot directly across the road from her. When I pulled in she got a little spooked and took a few steps back toward the trees but then she calmed down and watched me for a minute or two then went back to eating. I stayed there taking pictures of her for a good ten minutes and watched her walk across the road and got into the bushes on the other side maybe 20 feet away from me. It was amazing to be that close and for her to be so casual about it. I guess I’m not the first funny looking 2 legged thing to stop and watch her eat.
The rest of the day was just riding for a bit and then stopping for pictures and food. I ate at a place called ‘boat’ in the town of Ninilchik. That was it’s whole name 'Boat'. The building started as an old fishing boat and the owner, a charming little old lady and her daughter, had added a dining area to the backside of it and made a restaurant. I had a 16 oz. ribeye with fries and a salad for $15. The prices in Alaska vary from ridiculously high to ridiculously low. My whole tab, beer and all, was $18. I left $25 and told them it was too much food for $18 on my way out.
I also stopped at the turnagain arm – pit BBQ. I tried the brisket on a bun ($18) and it was good but it’s not the best BBQ I’ve had. I also had some deep fried jalepenos. They were pretty good and HOT.
I stopped at a lot of places and saw a lot of things and if I wrote about all of it this would be another 20 pages so I will just put my favorite pictures up and put a little note with them for this day.
It was a good day.
An orphan baby musk ox. It came from Prudhoe Bay. The guy that called them about this little orphan said the mother was killed when a Grizzly tried to get to the cub. The mom attacked the bear and basically sacrificed herself to save it. It was an interesting story. I wish I had taken a picture of the story part so you could read it. | I love these ghost forest. I finally figured out why it happens. There is a link under this comment if you want to read it fully. Short version is... Big earthquake in the 1960's changed the sea level. These trees ended up in salt water and it preserved them. I think they are just visually cool to look at. Link to Wiki about Ghost Forest. |
Day 17: . . and then he rested.
"Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired."
-Jules Renard
Monday, August 8th, 2011.
It’s Monday, it’s rainy, and that’s about it. I tried to change out the control box to the heated grips to a simple toggle switch. No dice. Apparently it’s more complicated than that. Everything “worked” but nothing actually worked. I’m emailing the company to see if it’s even possible to replace the control box by itself. I’m not tossing $80 (+shipping) away for a new set from the same company if it failed anyway.
That’s about it for the moment.
It’s Monday, it’s rainy, and that’s about it. I tried to change out the control box to the heated grips to a simple toggle switch. No dice. Apparently it’s more complicated than that. Everything “worked” but nothing actually worked. I’m emailing the company to see if it’s even possible to replace the control box by itself. I’m not tossing $80 (+shipping) away for a new set from the same company if it failed anyway.
That’s about it for the moment.
Day 18: Why does shit keep breaking?
"Nature has a funny way of breaking what does not bend"
-Alice Walker
Tuesday, August 9th, 2011
The heated grips are toast. I read some info about it online and the control box does more than just turn them on/off. Long story short.. they aren’t going to work just plugging them up to the battery. I called around to try and find a replacement here but no dice. I can order them and they’ll be here in a week. That kind of sucks. I called motorcycle-superstore.com and talked with them about the problem and they can ship me a whole new set and have it here by Friday for about $80. The brand is hot grips. It’s supposed to include a control box that does off – low – high and a max of 30watts which is good for my bike because I can do full power and have the heated suit plugged in and not run the battery down, assuming the alternator continues working correctly. I took that deal. So fingers crossed it will get here a day early (not holding my breath) but it should be here Friday at the latest. That presents a problem. I really want to get out of here ASAP this Friday to get to Fairbanks and beyond, but I really want to have the new grips installed before I go north of Fairbanks, which is the plan for this weekend. I’m going to say a little prayer that they get here a day early and that will solve my problem.
The chin vent on my helmet decided yesterday was the perfect time to break. Really? What were the chances of that. I don’t think I’ve ever had one break but of course it decides to do it in Alaska when it’s raining every other day. That figures.
Aside from those two nagging issues everything with the bike is sorted and ready for the long haul.
The mileage on the bike this morning was 10,528 miles. That’s a pretty decent amount of mileage in 19 days. It had 8,475 when I got it so a little over 2,000 miles in 20 days. That’s an average of about 110 miles per day. Not impressive by any means really but when you realize that majority of that has been done over 2 weekends and 1 Sunday then it’s a little more promising I think. I feel like I’ve ridden a lot but it’s a bit alarming to realize that I need to more than double that in half the time to get back home on time. Should be exciting and/or extremely tiring I’m not sure which. I refuse to rush through the Alaska/Yukon part of the ride. If I do 300 miles per day so be it. It’s why I’m here. I can do 1,000 mile days in the US if I have to but not here.
As far as feeling ready for the ride I feel okay about it. I am comfortable with the bike and feel like we understand each other. I’m not looking to set land speed records, which is good because the bike can be quite squirrely at about 95-100 mph anyway with the wind. It’s important to remember the bike has roughly the same aerodynamic signature as a brick with various tree branches hanging from it in different directions. I remember reading that a Hayabusa was one of the most aerodynamic bikes made and had a aero profile of something like 0.54; judging by that I’m going to say the Vstrom loaded turned it all the way up to 11.
I am trying desperately to get the website updated so I can share it with people and they can get up to date. It’s proving to be difficult with shoddy internet, and a site that seems determined to keep the site as simple as possible. I’m making progress though. Once I get the first 15 days up I am going to put the link out there for everybody. I’m hoping today or tomorrow on that.
I’ve heard that Aurora Borealis (northern lights) are starting to be visible if you can find a clear sky. That would be awesome, I have my doubts about clear sky though. I don’t think I’ve seen a clear sky since I’ve been here. I’ve seen mostly cloudy and completely cloudy with maybe one day of partly cloudy. Fingers crossed though. Seeing the lights is a huge goal for this trip. I had heard it only starts late in August but fingers crossed I’ll get to see it.
The heated grips are toast. I read some info about it online and the control box does more than just turn them on/off. Long story short.. they aren’t going to work just plugging them up to the battery. I called around to try and find a replacement here but no dice. I can order them and they’ll be here in a week. That kind of sucks. I called motorcycle-superstore.com and talked with them about the problem and they can ship me a whole new set and have it here by Friday for about $80. The brand is hot grips. It’s supposed to include a control box that does off – low – high and a max of 30watts which is good for my bike because I can do full power and have the heated suit plugged in and not run the battery down, assuming the alternator continues working correctly. I took that deal. So fingers crossed it will get here a day early (not holding my breath) but it should be here Friday at the latest. That presents a problem. I really want to get out of here ASAP this Friday to get to Fairbanks and beyond, but I really want to have the new grips installed before I go north of Fairbanks, which is the plan for this weekend. I’m going to say a little prayer that they get here a day early and that will solve my problem.
The chin vent on my helmet decided yesterday was the perfect time to break. Really? What were the chances of that. I don’t think I’ve ever had one break but of course it decides to do it in Alaska when it’s raining every other day. That figures.
Aside from those two nagging issues everything with the bike is sorted and ready for the long haul.
The mileage on the bike this morning was 10,528 miles. That’s a pretty decent amount of mileage in 19 days. It had 8,475 when I got it so a little over 2,000 miles in 20 days. That’s an average of about 110 miles per day. Not impressive by any means really but when you realize that majority of that has been done over 2 weekends and 1 Sunday then it’s a little more promising I think. I feel like I’ve ridden a lot but it’s a bit alarming to realize that I need to more than double that in half the time to get back home on time. Should be exciting and/or extremely tiring I’m not sure which. I refuse to rush through the Alaska/Yukon part of the ride. If I do 300 miles per day so be it. It’s why I’m here. I can do 1,000 mile days in the US if I have to but not here.
As far as feeling ready for the ride I feel okay about it. I am comfortable with the bike and feel like we understand each other. I’m not looking to set land speed records, which is good because the bike can be quite squirrely at about 95-100 mph anyway with the wind. It’s important to remember the bike has roughly the same aerodynamic signature as a brick with various tree branches hanging from it in different directions. I remember reading that a Hayabusa was one of the most aerodynamic bikes made and had a aero profile of something like 0.54; judging by that I’m going to say the Vstrom loaded turned it all the way up to 11.
I am trying desperately to get the website updated so I can share it with people and they can get up to date. It’s proving to be difficult with shoddy internet, and a site that seems determined to keep the site as simple as possible. I’m making progress though. Once I get the first 15 days up I am going to put the link out there for everybody. I’m hoping today or tomorrow on that.
I’ve heard that Aurora Borealis (northern lights) are starting to be visible if you can find a clear sky. That would be awesome, I have my doubts about clear sky though. I don’t think I’ve seen a clear sky since I’ve been here. I’ve seen mostly cloudy and completely cloudy with maybe one day of partly cloudy. Fingers crossed though. Seeing the lights is a huge goal for this trip. I had heard it only starts late in August but fingers crossed I’ll get to see it.
Day 19: Beautiful day, lets waste it!
"It's a beautiful tale and today is a beautiful day, without any bugs."
-Hugo Pratt
On the Seward Highway from last weekend.
Tuesday August 10, 2011
I did a few redneck mods to the Vstrom today. I added a 3 inch piece of plumbing tube on the back and secured it with hose clamps. I originally thought it would be awesome for tools but the tube isn’t big enough and it’s too deep. If I put tools in I can’t get them back out with out some major work. So it’s serving as a bungie cord storage device at the moment. Always need more bungies! I have room to add a 4 inch one over top of that. I may do it closer to the end of next week. I am turning tight wad with the money because it’s getting closer to time to go and I want to be “at goal” money wise when I pull out of Anchorage for good.
The other mod I did I’m going to have to change up a bit. I thought it would be pretty easy to add some makeshift highway pegs using a 24 inch piece of ½ inch pipe and just hose clamp it to the engine guard/skid plate thing. Turns out that thing is mounted on rubber bushings so the highway pegs move. They work fine. I just have to keep both feet on them or it tilts. I worry about the pressure it’s putting on the mounting point. I’m probably going to move it to the engine guards that wrap around the front and are solidly mounted. I can do that anytime though. Ten minutes tops.
Other than that I chilled out even though it was a beautiful day.
I did a few redneck mods to the Vstrom today. I added a 3 inch piece of plumbing tube on the back and secured it with hose clamps. I originally thought it would be awesome for tools but the tube isn’t big enough and it’s too deep. If I put tools in I can’t get them back out with out some major work. So it’s serving as a bungie cord storage device at the moment. Always need more bungies! I have room to add a 4 inch one over top of that. I may do it closer to the end of next week. I am turning tight wad with the money because it’s getting closer to time to go and I want to be “at goal” money wise when I pull out of Anchorage for good.
The other mod I did I’m going to have to change up a bit. I thought it would be pretty easy to add some makeshift highway pegs using a 24 inch piece of ½ inch pipe and just hose clamp it to the engine guard/skid plate thing. Turns out that thing is mounted on rubber bushings so the highway pegs move. They work fine. I just have to keep both feet on them or it tilts. I worry about the pressure it’s putting on the mounting point. I’m probably going to move it to the engine guards that wrap around the front and are solidly mounted. I can do that anytime though. Ten minutes tops.
Other than that I chilled out even though it was a beautiful day.
Day 20: Eagle River Re-visit.
"May you have warm words on a cold evening, a full moon on a dark night and a smooth road all the way to your door."
-Irish Blessing
I got off work early and went to barnes and noble and got a copy of the 2011 milepost, and then to walmart to get a new phone/gps charger. Both of the chargers are having issues. I bought one that works with both for $9. No worries! I bought some thermal underwear stuff too. I don’t want “I got cold” to be the reason I don’t make it to dead horse this weekend.
After that I went up to eagle river just to goof around because the weather was so perfect. I rode out to Chugach Nature center and turned around to start coming back to eagle river and saw a HUGE bull moose. I took a ton of pictures of him. He was so massive and so close. He didn’t seem to mind me or the car that had stopped maybe 20 feet from him or the cameras.
I stopped by the actual river and got a rock to keep, then went up to baldy mountain to watch the sunset. It was cloudy and it messed up the sunset. Oh well.
The sun is setting much earlier now than what it was when I first got here. It set a little after 10:30 tonight. I did some checking and the days are getting short by 6 minutes every day! 3 minutes later for sunrise and 3 minutes earlier for sunset every day. That’s a drastic change over just ten days... an HOUR’s difference in ten days. Amazing.
I was riding back down the mountain from the failed attempt at a sunset and saw the moon. It was beautiful. I've always had a soft spot for a full moon so coming around a turn and seeing a huge, bright full moon just floating over a snow capped mountain was a moment I am sure I will never forget from this trip. It was so beautiful. It's just another one of the moments where the pictures turned out beautiful but when I look at them they just look flat and they are missing the "something" that makes the actual moment sparkle. I guess it's just all the other senses that kick in and provide the rest of the story that make it so magical. It wasn't anything special. Just a guy sitting on the edge of the road on a chilly night in Eagle River looking at a couple of things that are mostly un-related that just fit together perfectly. I would describe it as achingly beautiful.
Ok, Tomorrow the plan is to leave work as soon as possible (12!) . One of the other interns offered to work for me at my 3pm -4 shift so I could skip out and get an early start. That’s really nice of her because it’s her last day and I’m sure the preceptor would have let her leave early. She is staying in Alaska for another rotation so she is just going home and will be here for another 6 weeks. I think she plans on moving here once she graduates which is cool. I don’t think I could do it though. I like winter but not enough to give up spring/summer/fall for the most part.
After that I went up to eagle river just to goof around because the weather was so perfect. I rode out to Chugach Nature center and turned around to start coming back to eagle river and saw a HUGE bull moose. I took a ton of pictures of him. He was so massive and so close. He didn’t seem to mind me or the car that had stopped maybe 20 feet from him or the cameras.
I stopped by the actual river and got a rock to keep, then went up to baldy mountain to watch the sunset. It was cloudy and it messed up the sunset. Oh well.
The sun is setting much earlier now than what it was when I first got here. It set a little after 10:30 tonight. I did some checking and the days are getting short by 6 minutes every day! 3 minutes later for sunrise and 3 minutes earlier for sunset every day. That’s a drastic change over just ten days... an HOUR’s difference in ten days. Amazing.
I was riding back down the mountain from the failed attempt at a sunset and saw the moon. It was beautiful. I've always had a soft spot for a full moon so coming around a turn and seeing a huge, bright full moon just floating over a snow capped mountain was a moment I am sure I will never forget from this trip. It was so beautiful. It's just another one of the moments where the pictures turned out beautiful but when I look at them they just look flat and they are missing the "something" that makes the actual moment sparkle. I guess it's just all the other senses that kick in and provide the rest of the story that make it so magical. It wasn't anything special. Just a guy sitting on the edge of the road on a chilly night in Eagle River looking at a couple of things that are mostly un-related that just fit together perfectly. I would describe it as achingly beautiful.
Ok, Tomorrow the plan is to leave work as soon as possible (12!) . One of the other interns offered to work for me at my 3pm -4 shift so I could skip out and get an early start. That’s really nice of her because it’s her last day and I’m sure the preceptor would have let her leave early. She is staying in Alaska for another rotation so she is just going home and will be here for another 6 weeks. I think she plans on moving here once she graduates which is cool. I don’t think I could do it though. I like winter but not enough to give up spring/summer/fall for the most part.