More kayaking

While I am waiting for my other images to upload (do we still call them photographs?) I think I would like to relate to you a brief sagacity about another kayak trip.

Yes, we did it again.

This time, I was in the front, and Doreen was in the back, her legs being better suited to steering, and my "go along to get along" (that should be my aptonym, much like "Dew Catcher" or "Spider Catcher" is for Doreen) nature is better suited for the front seat, where all I do is paddle and look on in awe at the natural splendor. So we got a better boat:

and off we went:

It was a good, though shorter ride:

but with more open water crossings.

At about that one mile point above, we saw a bunch of harbor seals playing hide and seek with us. Very cute animals, big eyes and friendly.

That part of the map above at the very bottom, the south side? That was really an island.

On the crossing on the way back it was rather windy, and quite choppy. Since Doreen and I had a sense of anestrophic anticipation, we had no idea that we might be in trouble. When we got back to shore, John said that he would have had a lot more fun if we had not been with him. "I kept saying to myself, "Please don't tip over, Please don't tip over"". And he was talking about us.

We had a good time, as you can tell:

Kachemak Bay Wilderness Lodge

We had low or no bandwidth since we left Homer. We are still bandwidth deprived, but I will try to keep up the stories. These are mostly for us, so that we remember what we did here years hence.

As the previous post mentioned, the KBWL is a great place to stay. On our first full day out there, we decided that we needed to get up close to the ocean, and jumped in a Sea Kayak.

We were assigned a Nekki, a big plastic shell of a boat that nobody else wanted. That is because it is hard to maneuver and slow. We were assigned this boat because I was too tall to sit in the back of the other, nicer boat. (More on that tomorrow).

Here is Doreen, all buttoned in:

Y'all probably know that these boats have rudders that you manipulate with your feet. My legs were too long for the pegs, so we steered the old fashioned way. With our paddles:

 We kayaked out to China Poot.

Here is the first part of the ride. And I gotta tell you, we were flying! That is because the tide - that big Kachemak Bay Tide, was heading our way.

We thought we were kings of the ocean.

And we took a little break.

This is our guide, John, another Kayaker, Steve, and Doreen.

China Poot Bay.

Then we got ready to paddle back to the lodge.

And it started off nice and calm.

We even stopped at another beach. Coalition Beach.

Then we had to paddle back. Against the tide. Against the wind. We were running against the wind. Against the wind.

It was sort of like murder.

But we made it back to the lodge.

In one piece, in Old Snake Eyes. (our affectionate name for the kayak, stolen from John McPhee)

Last day in Homer, on the way to Kachemak Bay Wilderness Lodge

Our last day in Homer was an easy one. We took a little hike around town, ate at the Sourdough Express (great sandwiches, and it is for sale! Seems like a business opportunity. They make their own sauerkraut! Bake their own bread! It is in Homer!) and then headed over to the marina for a quick 30 minute boat ride over to the lodge.

Very nice place:

 We have our own little cabin, with quite a view. I am convinced there is not a bad view in the whole state.

And we when for a short (about 3 mile) hike just to break ourselves in.

We are close to Gull Island, and you see Kittiwake eggs that have been eaten by ravens.

And many Bald Eagle feathers. We let them lie, however, as they are illegal to possess, even if you find them in the woods.

Looking around is a good thing to do.

Because sometimes you will see an eagle on a rock, being watched by two sea otters.

Or an eagle in a tree:

And with just a little glance in the water, you see starfish.

Plenty of them.

 A nice place to stay.

A Hike to Diamond Gulch. A Hat plays a Key Part in this story. Burying the lede.

We had a very easy going Sunday morning since the Roes had to drive back to Anchorage that day.

Before they left, we had a nice lunch at the Harbor Cafe. The food here is surprisingly good for a town of only 5,000 souls. I suppose that part of that is the easy access to fresh seafood. Part because there are plenty of tourists, and part because of all the hippies and hipsters.

We don't complain.

We had a hard time coordinating the head shots, but there you go. I'm in the upper left, J Noel in the lower left, Josienne in the middle, and Julius on the upper right. Can you see us?

Later in the day, we decided to take a walk down to the beach via the Diamond Creek Trail. This is an interesting trail, as it had many warnings about checking the tide before you go. You can get trapped by the tide as it rises rapidly, and cuts off access to the trail to let you get out.

There should have been a warning about hats as well.

As we were leaving, I asked Doreen, "What hat will you be wearing?"

She replied, "My Pink One" (A new hat from Rust Flying Services we bought in Anchorage. A nice looking hat, by the way)

And off we went.

This was sort of an ominous sign:

But do we care? NO!

and right about this time I ask Doreen where he hat is.

She says, it is in your backpack, can I have it?

I say it is NOT in my backpack. She insists that it is. As I was the one who packed the backpack, I knew it was not in the pack. Doreen, being the skeptical sort, asked to look through the backpack.

It was not there.

Remember my comment above? Good. Not everyone does.

Luckily, the day was not too sunny, or as Brother-in-Law Frank pointed out to me, someone could have had heatstroke in a matter of moments. If we were in Africa.

You may also recall that Doreen's nickname is The Spider Catcher. This is particularly useful as we walk through the woods, and there are many spiderwebs crossing the trail.

Doreen is nice enough to walk with her arm raised to get the webs that would hit me in the face.

Diamond Gulch is really steeper than it appears in these photos

But we made it through anyway. Even though Doreen did not have a hat.

And there were not many moments that Doreen did not let me forget that she did not have a hat:

even though she is the one who preaches from the pulpit of responsibility.

But it was a spectacular beach.

that was fortunately marked with a TeePee of wood at the trail head:

We had a fantastic walk down this beach. The pebbles on the beach were very friable. You could pick them up and shatter them in your hands:

The weather was great, the view was spectacular, as always. It is hard to have a bad view in Alaska:

You can see the coal seams in the hills (the black lines below). The coal mines here did not last very long - only about a couple of years. They would ship the coal to San Francisco. It was not economic.

Here is a detail of the coal:

and one of the seams:

Very brittle:

What a beach!

But someone still didn't have a hat:

Contemplating the vicissitudes of the coal trade:

Lots of this big kelp around here:

And The Dew Catcher leads us home:

To see her hat (the pink one) was right were it was supposed to be. On the hat rack.