Jakolof Bay Revisited Once Again

I have found Jakolof Bay to be a great starting point for across-the-bay adventures.  On a recent weekend there, we were treated to 70 degree weather, sunshine all the way and nearly perfect calm--a rare combination. 

Tidepooling a -4.6 tide uncovered some awesome finds, including a giant pacific octopus and a Christmas anemone eating a fish.

The Jakolof Dock and beach at a low low tide

Tidepooling involved moving aside the kelp to find cool things

A pincushion with unusually long spines

An anemone made its home in an old clam shell

Thanks, Jen Aist, for a picture of this anemone eating a fish!

With the tide extremes, low and high tides were very different, and made a difference in how many boats could fit at the dock without going dry during the low tide.

The dock at high tide--no beach!

Our tidepooling area is completely covered in water at high tide.

And a video of the dock and beach; lots of beach at this low tide.

The bike ride to Seldovia to get ice cream reminded me that it is not an easy ride--lots of hills! It sure is fun going down those said hills though!!

A great view of Grace Ridge from the Seldovia road

Looking towards the MacDonald Spit by Jakolof Bay from the Seldovia Road

The kids biked to Red Mountain (no pictures unless they decide to share them with me!). They said it was rough. As Denver put it, there were about 20 places a car would not have made it. He couldn't believe just 4 or 5 years ago we drove in a truck all the way up to the base of Red Mountain, and it was a pretty good road. The stream has taken over the road so the road is now the streambed. Since it is a dry summer, there was just a trickle, which the kids were happy to walk in as they walked their bikes because it was a hot day. 

It took them 2 hours to bike/walk to "the bridge" at the base of Red Mountain. From there they ditched the bikes and explored, finding a 30-foot-deep mine shaft. The ride back was an hour, testament to the effect of the 1500 foot elevation gain from the dock to the mountain. They enjoyed their expedition and want to do it again, spending more time up there to explore.

The folks from Anchorage who joined us kayaked from the Spit to Jakolof. They forgot their map so only had a GPS, and the tide was coming in and the afternoon wind came up, so it made for a seven hour, 19 mile paddle. While they were experienced paddlers, they had never kayaked in Kachemak Bay before so without the map they couldn't tell if islands were bays, which made it a bit longer than if they'd known the route. But they were pleased with the challenge. I don't hear about many folks who paddle from Homer across the bay since it is 3 miles from the tip of the spit to Gull Island, and then more to mainland past the island. They did it though so kudos to them.

All in all, in was an amazing weekend to be across the bay!