Right Beach--Camping Across the Bay

Heading out of the Homer Harbor. Our destination is straight ahead where the boats are.
We hadn't planned on a camping trip so soon after returning from our vacation, but when my aunt and uncle invited us across the Bay, we couldn't resist the opportunity so we packed up our camping gear (again!) and prepared for the journey! In my uncle's boat and smooth waters, it can take as little as 16 minutes to speed across Kachemak Bay to Halibut Cove. Right Beach where we camped is like an island at high tide since rock pillars at each end of it hem it in, and cliffs and bluffs covered with Devil's Club back it up.

Our weekend started with a glorious, sunny day on Friday and loading up the boat at the Homer dock, one of those incessantly busy places in the summer. Six of us were going over on Friday, and another 7 of our party were going to come over on Saturday. The water was fairly smooth so the ride over was a fast one, and then we had the challenge of unloading the 2 kayaks, stoves, tents, sleeping bags, pads, food and various other miscellany. Once the pile was on shore, we started hauling it up and deciding where to put up tents, where to have the fire, etc. It was so hot kids were swimming on the beach when we got there (there was already a large party already camping at the beach in the yurt and tents), and that's what we wanted to do too once camp was set up. However, soon enough the wind blew up and it got chilly and we were donning our warmer weather gear.

The first evening as we were sitting around the fire a harbor seal came walking (wrong word: waddling? scootching?) out of the water across the beach towards us, checking us out and obviously very curious. It was so neat (sorry--no picture!), and throughout the weekend we would see a seal pop up by shore every few hours, look at us, then swim away, but it never came out of the water again.

The second day was overcast but the water was calm and still so we took turns going out in the kayaks. Heading further into Halibut Cove the rock formations were fascinating, looking like lava rocks that had been twisted into bizarre contortions. When the rest of the party arrived midday, we had lunch and then headed into Halibut Cove with everyone on board the boat to the Grewingk Glacier trailhead. A quick 2 mile (maybe not even that) hike got us to the glacier lake where we threw rocks, ate snacks and tried to stay warm as a nippy wind blew off the glacier and it began to rain. Some of us decided to take the "long" hike back (Glacier Spit Trail, then a mile on the beach), and hope the tide was still far enough out to walk back to our campsite. It was an easy hike, completely flat, following the historic path of the glacier. We'd seen plenty of berry-filled bear scat along the trail, so we talked loudly to warn of our presence.

The highlight of this trip for Denver was the "cave" on one end of the beach. He borrowed dad's headlamp and made excursions into it (all 15 feet!), identifying popcorn, stalactites and other features learned from the cave tour we took near Butte, Montana this summer. Denver gave official "tours" of the cave to everyone who would walk down the beach with him to visit it.

After much camping in the Lower 48 this summer, we deeply appreciated the lack of what I call the "ickies": no wood ticks, no snakes, no mosquitoes and no flies. It makes camping so much more pleasant to not have to look out for these things, though of course bear are the "biggie" that we watch out for here (give me one bear we can scare away with our noise over a zillion mosquitoes any day!).

While we didn't yurt-it, this looks like a great option, though a tad pricey at $65/night. This yurt at Right Beach had 3 double beds, a woodstove, portable propane cookstove and, out back, an outhouse with no door. For that kayak trip along this area, a yurt would provide a dry, warm night if it is rainy or cold!

10,000 mile road trip adventure….and the Alaska Highway

Two years ago when we drove our U-Haul 4000 miles from Michigan to Alaska, my husband swore never to do that again. Since then we’ve been on the Alaska Highway 4 more times, and our trip this summer takes the cake. We decided to swing down to Vancouver, pop in at Yellowstone, then visit family and friends throughout the Midwest while taking in a few sights, all of which was to be topped off by that 4000 mile drive home. People kept asking us, “Why don’t you just fly down there and rent a car?” Why, indeed? It didn’t quite hold the appeal of the journey, and we had the time. There were places on the AK Hwy we’d wanted to visit on previous trips that we hadn’t had time to see. To gain the kids' support we gave them a budget to plan the fun activities on the trip and they researched online and decided where they wanted to go. June 5 was our big day: the beginning of the journey!

Traversing the Alaska Highway is a very Alaskan thing. North of Haines Junction in the Yukon, 85% of the traffic is American, which is why the U.S. paid millions of dollars to Canada for road improvements in that area. Here are a few snippets of my observations, culled from this trip and others on the Alaska Highway.

The road: Frost heaves are still there and they’re still really bad in the Yukon Territory north of Haines Junction and also on the Tok Cutoff in Alaska. RVs and fifth wheels were passing us regularly early in the day out of Haines Junction, but once we hit the frost heaves we passed them all. I would much rather be doing this in a car than a big rig since a car can fly over them as opposed to creep over them. Yet the road was much improved from even 2 years ago when we drove our UHaul over it. There was less gravel this time than on previous trips (20 miles or so is our rough estimate), and besides the risk of a cracked windshield and the annoyance of the dust, the gravel road is in better shape than the frost heaves.

Road construction: A number of large road building projects have been completed in the past few years, and there were only a few isolated spots that we were delayed by road construction, 30-40 minutes of delay between all of them the entire trip. Contrast that with the 1 ½ hours we were delayed at Kluane Lake last summer—and that was just one of many.

Wildlife: We saw at least a dozen black bear, a mother grizzly and her cub, stone sheep beyond counting, a family of Dall sheep, moose, caribou, elk, and bison. Nearly all the wildlife was between Ft. Nelson and Watson Lake besides the grizzly, which was seen near midnight as we neared Haines Junction. I believe the bear were displaced by the forest fires, which is why we saw so many on the way down and only one on our return trip. One caribou did not want to get off the road because it was so busy licking it, and the bear we saw were scarfing the flowers at an amazing rate (video below).

Gas: It is crazy how expensive gas is ($4.50 gallon), and twice on this trip we got so low our gas light went on, and that was in mid-Canada before we even reached the AK Hwy! We learned our lesson and didn’t let our tank get below half the rest of the trip if we could help it. Besides the rare town, gas stations are small operations where the owners live right there and are scraping by. I told one lady who was pumping our gas at a station how much I appreciated all these small gas stations and how I was amazed they could make it. The lady replied that she was going to have to close. I could sense the pain that statement gave her; this is her livelihood: providing gas and care for travelers on the Highway. It is a tough life, as evidenced by the number of gas stations that are shut down along the way, including some that we gassed up at just a couple years ago. Tourism is way down, and time and again we commented on how deserted the road was (which made for a speedier trip and less stress, but I ache thinking of how business owners must be hurting).

Adventure: We had planned to take the western route down the Cassiar Highway, cutting off 129 miles from our journey, but at Junction 37 where we were to turn we saw a sign saying, “37 closed due to mudslide.” I was very bummed because this highway follows the continental divide down through British Columbia and is incredibly beautiful (no, I wouldn’t necessarily say all of the Alaska Highway is beautiful—much is very boring). So we had to go straight on down the AK Hwy towards Dawson Creek. Just as we began looking for a campground I noticed a haze and commented, “I’ll bet that’s smoke from the forest fire.” I opened the window and smelled and sure enough, it was smoke.” The AK Hwy was closed the day before we started our trip due to forest fires, so the next village we got to we pulled off and asked if the highway were still open. There were fire trucks all around the buildings and men standing there, waiting for the fire to come, since it was heading that way, as is obvious from the picture shown here. The highway was still open so we pushed on. For 25-30+ miles the trees were burnt along the road. We saw fires still burning, and the smoke was pretty bad, though not reducing visibility. We had our masks in the vehicle from expecting Mt. Redoubt to blow, so we just put them on and that took care of that problem! When we reached Liard River Hot Springs, the first campground past the burn area, the campground was full. The campground host kindly let us set up in the day use area (pictured below). Firefighters were pouring into the parking lot in droves, getting out and walking back to the hot springs for their bath/break, then back to the front.

Hot springs: Near Whitehorse we paid $20 to swim in a hot springs pool at the campground we stayed at. It was basically a swimming pool with hot spring water. At Liard River Hot Springs pictured here there was a deck built along one side of the springs with steps leading in, but the rest of it was the natural bottom and banks covered with lush vegetation. It didn’t cost anything and is open 24 hours a day. It was an ethereal, beautiful place—an incredible gem. It soothes me just to think of it. The kids loved it because it was just the right depth for swimming (chest high), and they could choose the temperature of the water they wanted by walking further away from the incoming water.

Adventure of a different sort (are we crazy?): At our last stop in Michigan before we headed back to Alaska my friend Lorraine had a cat we all fell in love with. She was happy to give him a new home, so we had a cat with us in the car for the drive back to Alaska. It could have been bad, but luckily it wasn’t. The cat sat in laps, slept on the floor by the kids’ feet, wandered calmly around the car and used the kitty litter when needed. At night he slept in the tent with the kids. The vet had given us some relaxants which we gave him starting on the 3^rd day, partly because we were driving so long, and partly because the frost heaves bothered him. Seymour is a great addition to our family, and we have a fun story to tell about getting him.

Long haul: from Michigan it took 3 days of hard driving (12-14 hour days) to get to the beginning of the Alaska Highway in Dawson Creek. Then we really started to pour it on and did 16 hour days, and we made the entire 4000 miles in 5 days.

Journal: I kept a notebook on the dashboard and jotted down notes throughout the day: animals seen, interesting sights, reactions, etc. Already I have referred to it a number of times as I needed a reminder of where we were on what day or wondering about charges on our credit card. I highly recommend this! I also wrote notes in my Mileposts Magazine, adding to their account of the highway.

Sanity (How did we keep the kids happy?): I borrowed “The Complete Sherlock Holmes” from a friend before we left and I read aloud to the family for many, many hours, building up my vocal strength as the trip went on. I was halfway through the last story, The Hound of the Baskervilles, when we arrived home Monday. Reading kept Doug alert driving and the kids mentally occupied trying to figure out the mysteries. Games, the camera, the calculator, and the notebook all kept the kids happily occupied on our iPhones for hours. Aurora had her brain puzzlers book and Denver had some legos he had bought on the trip which kept each of them content. And we had our moments of conversation, sing-alongs (We had great fun with Alaska Highway jingles we made up) and, lest you think this was a perfect vacation, arguments (wouldn’t be a family vacation without them, right?!).

Sanity (How did we keep us happy?): I don't recommend 10,000 mile road trips with kids, a cat, lots of relatives and new places every day as a form of marriage therapy. But we had our tent and the kids had theirs, and as long as I was reading I wasn't watching the road, which was a good thing for a backseat driver like me! Ironically, we celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary on Monday, the day we arrived home after 5 weeks in the car. Hey, one really appreciates home after a trip like this!!

Glitches: There were none. Considering the length of this trip, it blows me away that we are home safe and the worst things that happened were a screw embedded in our tire (no flat; got it pulled out and repaired in 15 minutes) and small crack in our windshield (an AK Hwy special). We were healthy and the heat wave in the Midwest was the most annoying part of the trip (Ok, I’m glossing over the traffic through Chicago and the traffic jam outside of Anchorage on the return trip).

On returning to Alaska: I’d begun to take the beauty around us here in Alaska for granted. After 10,000 miles, the drive along the Seward Highway south of Anchorage took my breath away. Of our whole trip, I think this is the most beautiful place. I really do love it. And yet I appreciate the beauty that is special to each place--even Minnesota corn fields. More than the beauty of the land is the comfort of people. We went on this trip in part because I was missing my family and friends in the Lower 48 and needed to reconnect with them. It fills my heart to overflowing to think of all the love, companionship, and warm fuzzies of this trip. People were so kind, wanted to give us things, wanted to hear about our lives and share their own. It has helped me reestablish my place in this world, and that is priceless.

Do it again? My curiosity is piqued. What is the Alaska Highway like in the winter? I really want to know. I don’t think my family wants to know, though. Maybe this will be one of those urges that goes away….

Summer Vacation!

My dear blog readers,

I am so sorry for leaving you hanging...I am in the middle of a 6 week road trip to the Lower 48 (an Alaska thing: 10,000 miles in 6 weeks!) and have not had access to a computer to update you on my adventures. And the many things that I wanted to blog about before we left got set aside in a mad dash to pack our house up as we prepare to move closer to Homer.

I will return in late July and will keep you updated on "Life in Alaska!" Meanwhile, from Wisconsin I am enjoying what the Midwest has to offer, while hankering for our Alaska summer. I thought we might come here and I would want to stay down here, but 90 degree weather has us thinking AK is the place to be!!

Thanks for you patience and come back and visit again in a month or so!

Razdolna School Milestones

Yesterday was a special day for Razdolna School: it had a high school graduate for the third time in the school's 25 year history.
There were also 8 kindergareners graduating (their biggest class of kindergartners ever!) and 3 eighth graders being promoted to high school. The sad part is that this may be Razdolna's last class of graduates as well. The school building has reached its capacity and the population of the village is growing rapidly (next year's kindergarten class is expected to be 12 students). The villagers have worked hard at getting funding to allow them to build a new school building since the school district will not build schools in the villages, but they have run into a plethora of stumbling blocks. Thus, if they do not have a building by fall, the 7th through 12th graders will have to drive 25 minutes down the rutted backroads to Voznesenka's school, the next closest Old Believer village. While this plight did not mar the specialness of the day, it was on the parents' minds, as many of them came up to my husband and said, "We don't want our kids to go."

The Russian Old Believers in Razdolna know how to do a beautiful celebration as evidenced by how they transformed a local garage into a tastefully decorated hall. The school building is too small for a celebration (it can only hold 50 people, and there are 50 students!), so one of the villagers donated the use of his garage. It is a huge garage, with the front section used for spraying down and cleaning up his boat. The back third of the building is a immaculately clean room almost as big as the current school building (In fact, many parents came up to Douglas and said, "Why don't you see if we can use this building for our new school?" When Douglas asked the owner she said, "Ask my husband when he comes back from fishing."). It was done up with cloth, balloons, streamers, window treatments and more. All of the kids were wearing matching outfits that the mothers have sewed in the past few weeks.

After the ceremony, in which each of the 8th graders and high school graduates spoke, there was a wonderful spread of native foods. The previous day a student was sent door to door around the village on a 4-wheeler asking each family what food they were bringing for the party. Nearly everyone in the village was there besides the men who were out fishing.

The high school graduate will receive an $11,000 scholarship to UAA, and she also receives $4000 from Project GRAD, a program that seeks to get more graduates from the villages. In the past, many Old Believers would drop out after 8th grade (which is why they changed it to "promotion" rather than "graduation"!). Boys can earn good money working on the fishing boats with their fathers, and girls get married or help their mothers at home. More and more the kids are completing school, though, and many are going on to college.

There are now about 300 students in the 3 Old Believer villages at the Head of the Bay. Some of these families moved to 7 different countries, persecuted in each, before they found this oasis near Homer, Alaska. They are struggling to retain their traditions, religion and identity, though assimilation was obvious even at the graduation ceremony: a few students from Voznesenka came to the ceremony, and when it was over they clapped. The Razdolna villagers looked at them strangely; in their tradition, they do not clap. One mother came up to Douglas after the ceremony and said, in the ultimate compliment, "I would have clapped!"

Mopping up the Fire

We are back home: the evacuation has been lifted, the road is open again, the buses are shuttling kids to school and life returns to normal. As I gaze out the window on the charred remains of trees, the fields of green grass that were unscathed in the fire, and the fire fighters in yellow and green uniforms continuing to work their way through the area, tears of gratitude well up in my eyes. What a week!

The smoking piles have finally been extinguished and there is only an occasional fire fighter stepping through the area rather than teeming masses of them. Last night we finally felt comfortable wandering through the charred ruins of our neighborhood. I choked up as we walked past our garden: the fire came so close to our house! It burned through the canyon next door to us, turning the tangled mass of brush into a layout of a few charred stumps. The fire burned right around the clump of trees my son's tree fort is in--continued past it towards our home. It made it as far as our garden when our neighbors and fire fighters got a dozer in there and tore a fireline into place. I don't care for the huge clumps of sod marring what was once the field where I thought of planting a strawberry patch. Amazingly, some of my raspberry plants actually survived the dozer and fire. But I'm not complaining either.

It was not a scorching fire: grass is already beginning to grow, pushing up through the charred remains. Some trees were missed, while others burned to oblivion. On one tree near our house, the trunk was charred, while the needles on the green branches were still intact. If you didn't look at the trunk you wouldn't know the tree had burned.

I don't care for smelling like a perpetual campfire. This smell probably will not hold the same meaning for me anymore: less nostalgia and more awe at just what a fire can do. Just one week before the fire started we had our first bonfire of the season in our fire pit. I threw a pine branch with green needles on the fire and we all watched in awe as it snapped, crackled and burned up within seconds. I made a comment about "imagine how those things would burn in a forest fire." Yes, it's still imagination, but our neighbors were here fighting it and if I cared to I could see videos of just what the inferno looked like.

Part of me wishes I had been here helping put out the fire, experiencing it. There was a sense of helplessness being far away from home and not doing anything about it. And the sense of disorientation when we couldn't go home and we tried to pull together some semblance of life was startling. Friends opened their cabin to us, but it wasn't "home". We didn't have this or we didn't have that--things we take for granted in life when we are at home and surrounded by the things that make life comfortable and normal. I have a deeper appreciation of those who go through natural catastrophes: floods, hurricanes, tornadoes.....fires. This was so small compared to many natural events. One week later we are back in our house, a little smokier than when we left it, but hey, what's smoke compared to everything you own being gone? We were ready for that, but happy not to have to experience it.

Three houses burned and a number of sheds and outbuildings in this fire that covered about a 7 mile swath along East End Road. As far as I've heard, no one has been seriously injured. Once again, we are counting all our blessings and thankful for all we have. My gratitude for those who make it their job to fight fires cannot be described. And I will no longer snort at the FireWise ads and literature that educate people on keeping their homes intact during a wildfire. The lawn and fields around our house made a difference, as they did for the house you see in the picture above!

Little Things that Make a Difference: Pick 'n' Pay

Like so many places in Alaska, the most popular ones are often the most nondescript, and someone not in the know wouldn't even think of going shopping in a place like this.

The local Pick 'n' Pay, a resale shop, is a vital fundraising effort for St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Homer. It is only open from 10-3 on Saturdays, unlike the local Salvation Army that is open 6 days a week. Thus, the diehard deal-finders in Homer show up right at 10 am every Saturday and pack this little building full. All adult clothes is $1, all kids clothes 50 cents, toys are free. Turnover is huge, so each week there could be a completely different selection of items. A corp of dedicated volunteers work many hours each week sorting through and displaying the items. Many times when I drop things off to donate, the donation bin is packed, attesting to the popularity of Pick 'n' Pay as a place to pass on gently used items.

We visit the store only when we're in town and killing time between activities or when we're looking for something that we really need that we would have to drive all the way to Soldotna to buy. We have managed to pick up some incredible deals. Last year both the kids needed hiking boots for our backpacking trip, and when we went in there there just happened to be a pair of nearly new hiking boots that fit my daughter perfectly. The next week we went again and there was a pair that fit Denver. Our son has worn boots for the past 6 months so hasn't needed shoes. We decided to do the 5K Migration Run on the Spit last weekend, but discovered he didn't have any shoes for running in. We decided to get to Pick 'n' Pay right at 10 to nab any good shoes, and amazingly there was a very nice pair of running/hiking shoes that fit and (more importantly!) Denver approved of.

When times are tight, places like this can be vital for families with little extra cash, or for people like us it saves us a trip up the road. When I walk out of there with something we really need, it makes me appreciate little things about Homer that help us get by, like Pick 'n' Pay!

Perspectives on the East End Road Fire

This is the area where the roadblock was set up and is the general area the fire started from a downed powerline Tuesday afternoon.

Many areas are still smoking, and fire fighters are watching these spots carefully for flareups.

Two years ago when the fires swept through the Caribou Hills near our home (as in 20 miles away!) I thought that was too close for comfort. This time the fire came within feet of our home, so our perspective of what is "too close for comfort" has changed! Now I say, "As long as our house and barn don't burn, I'll be happy." Here's my family's experience with the East End Road fire.

I was picking up trash along this section of road just a few days ago. Unfortunately, the trash didn't burn! For some reason the fire didn't burn right up to the edge of the road.

Tuesday afternoon about 4:30 Doug headed into town to take the kids rock climbing. The fire had started, but Doug didn't think too much about it--it was a mile or so from our place and he figured they would put it out soon. The kids climbed and Doug got his workout, and at 9:00 as they headed home they hit a roadblock: the fire was growing and they weren't letting people in. Doug didn't want to push it, so he headed back to Homer and got a hotel room for the night.

Wednesday Doug took the kids to school, then drove on home. The road was open, the fire appeared to be out, but there was no electricity yet so he headed into town for the day. That afternoon the fire started up again so the road was shut down and they began to evacuate past Mile 14 East End Road (I've also heard past Mile 16), including the Old Believer villages of Razdolna and Voznesenka. One kid in my daughter's class got really upset because he wasn't going to be able to go home (the busses weren't taking kids past the roadblock).

I had just planted part of my garden on Sunday (carrots, turnips, spinach, etc.) and, ironically, my compost pile was still frozen; I had taken off the top (undecomposed part) and was pitching the decomposed part into the garden to till in as it thawed out. Think it is thawed out now??!!

A friend offered an empty cabin at around Mile 12 EE Road for my husband and kids that night so the kids were able to take the bus to school the next day. Meanwhile, I was in Kenai for training all week, so I was getting bits and pieces of news. Our landlord emailed us and told us my compost pile and part of my garden fence had burned before our neighbors put it out (there was still no electricity, but there was enough pressure in our garden hose that they were able to extinguish it). I discovered from my aunt that the fire had gone right under (but not burned) 2 of our next door neighbor's sheds. My daughter told me that one of her classmates' houses almost burned (the house you see in the background of the garden picture)--the fire was right up to the outside of the house. My neighbor said her manure pile went poof and burnt right up, and her bulls lay there in their pen with manure and hay catching fire and smoking around them. On Wednesday the burning and smoke were so bad they couldn't see very far, and our neighbors kept driving up to check on our house since they couldn't see it from theirs.

Thursday evening I left my training a day early to regroup with my family. They let us past the roadblock so we could get to our house. Our plan was to get our meat out of the freezer and get some clothes for the kids--they had been wearing the same clothes day and night for 3 days! All of the pictures you see here were taken yesterday (Thursday) evening. A fire engine has been parked in our driveway for the past 3 days since the area we live in, although it has been burned, is considered one of the "hot spots" that could reignite. Our entire house stank of smoke. Someone had removed the propane tank from our grill and put it in the middle of a nearby field, and they also took the gas cans out of our barn. Our lawn was burnt in patches where a spark had ignited an area, and there were smoking patches in every direction we looked.

McNeil Canyon School is the central meeting place. Tents are set up near the playground for firefighters staying overnight and fire engines park here before heading to the fire 6-10 miles up the road.

As of Thursday morning the state fire fighters were taking over for the local crews. Razdolna School was back in session, though Voznesenka students are expected to go back on Monday. Electricity was approved to be turned back on Thursday evening. The roads are still closed since there are many fire engines and other equipment working the area. Locals can stay in their houses if they want to. We just got some rain here in Homer and temperatures are in the 30's so that is a good thing for the fire. Mopping up will continue for at least a week if no new fires develop.

I left home Monday morning more concerned about Redoubt blowing and stranding me in Kenai, but the surprise came from a totally different direction. We are so grateful to be together as a family and our house safe. From all we've heard, it is a miracle no homes have burnt, so we all have much to be thankful for. It may not be over yet, but we'll hold onto the blessings we have!