Reflections on Alaska

sketchesofalaska.blogspot.com

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We have finished our first full week 
in Alaska, and find ourselves in Homer, Alaska at the end of the Kenai Peninsula.  Lots of thoughts and memories swirling in my mind this quiet Sunday morning looking out across Kachemak Bay.  This may seem rambling or contain incomplete thoughts, but I need to write down As Best I Can Remember.

The drive from Anchorage to Wasilla was beautiful.  A highway sign warns us to watch for moose crossing the highway.  Apparently, 322 moose were hit by cars on the highway last year.  The Alaska Highway patrol has a sign-up list of people willing to "harvest" wildlife that has been struck and killed by automobiles.  We did not see moose on the highway, nor do we have room in our suitcases to pack any moose meat I might harvest.

Speed limit signs in Alaska are advisory only was you are out in the bush.  Basing that on the number of cars blowing by me as I do the posted speed limit.  It's not the autobahn, but wow!!

There are coffee roasters in Alaska!  Thank you Kaladi Brothers and K-Bay.  We encountered Kaladi Brothers coffee when we stopped in Glenallen on our return from Valdez.  Driving from Anchorage it was the first serious gas stop (Tesoro) on the way to Valdez, and where your 3 hour trip due west turns directly south.

Lynne and I stopped at Glenallen for lunch at the Thai Food stand, and I strolled next door to Kaladi Brothers for a cup of coffee.  If you have been to Alaska you know there are coffee stands along the road all over Alaska.  I had an interesting conversation with the two young ladies who were serving coffee to cars and walk-in customers.  Left them with a challenge:  What is the source of your coffee?  One young lady said they get it from Anchorage.  We discussed terroir, and how geography affects coffee flavor.  Coffee, like wine, is influenced by the climatic conditions and soil of the growing region.

From Wasilla to Talkeetna was a beautiful drive.  Wide well-paved road.  The drive the next day from Talkeetna to Denali was a long drive.  If the weather is clear you can see Denali off-and-on during the drive.  We were driving in misty rain, so we did not see Denali on the drive up. 

On our bus tour of the park, we saw Denali the whole time.  In fact, the drive stopped announcing when Denali was visible because people were not paying attention. If you click 'Denali' you can see our pictures from the tour.  We saw grizzlies (two sets of parents with cubs), elk and lots of ground squirrels.  There is one road in and out of Denali, and private vehicles must have a permit to enter.  When it comes to wilderness, Denali is the real deal.  By the way, there are no hiking trails.  You are on your own.

On the long drive from Talkeetna to Denali, we made a pit stop along the road.  There are long stretches of the drive north along which there is no sign of civilization.  I found a short dirt driveway with some trees near the road, so that became our roadside pit stop.  After taking care of business, and while Lynne was checking the woods for bears (remember this was a pit stop), I decided to explore the area where we parked.


 Check this out!  So there were plastic hangars, a wireless Bluetooth speaker, and a book of God's Promises.  I looked around for a video camera catching my reaction but didn't see one.  What in the world.  This was as close to the "middle of nowhere" as you can get.  There was another book there but I don't remember the title.  Two days after these photos the Bluetooth speaker began spoking and stopped working. For those of you intrigued about where we were, it was halfway between Talkeetna and Mt. McKinley Park (click to see map).

We love Homer.  The Homer Spit was interesting, but not our jam!    We stayed at the Pioneer Inn in Homer.  We were in downtown just minutes from a grocery store and K-Bay Coffee.  The knew the origin of their coffee (Colombia).  Rich and Amy Fetterhoff were our hosts.  They are originally from Georgia.  Rich had just returned from a fishing trip on Kachemak Bay with a 30-pound halibut.  Amy and Rich shared a filet with us, as well as, a pan and recipe to cook it in the oven in our efficiency room.  Spent evenings in chairs on the front lawn looking out over Kachemak Bay.

Our best breakfast the entire trip was at The Smokehouse in Seward, Alaska.  As you can see it is inside a decommissioned train car.  Most people would consider it pricey, but for Alaska it was reasonable.  Warm, cozy atmosphere and great coffee.

Hiking on the Matanuska Glacier was certainly a highlight.  We met some very interesting people from our guides to the folks on the tour with us.  We wore crampons and actually walked out on the glacier, which was cool and unnerving at the same time.  Like most glaciers it was dirty, but there were places to see the blue glacial ice.





The last place of note is Hope, Alaska.  Hope was established as a mining camp in 1896.  We found this little gem on the way to Homer using the Alaska app on my phone.  It is a bit out of the way, but worth the drive.  The last census placed the population at 192.  The largest establishment is a combined bar and restaurant.  My highlight for Hope was seeing a Sandhill Crane.  That was a "lifer" for me (not on my birdwatching life list).
We had lunch at Tito's Discovery Cafe on the way out of hope.

If you want to see Alaska, I recommend you make your own reservations, fly to Anchorage and rent a car. There are so many interesting places we discovered by accident that are not covered here.  The Flying Squirrel Bakery-Cafe comes to mind.  Rocky Mountain High Pizza is also awesome.

I am available to help you plan your trip if you need phone numbers, contacts, etc.