Two Bob's OH to AK 2016 - Ram + Hawk + Husky + Wing

[DYNOBOB]

Friday Sept 2. Homer. 2 miles.

Today we're just going to relax and enjoy one of the coolest places of the trip. Last night we stayed at Mariner's Park which is the first place you can camp out on the peninsula. It's basically a public park for day use access to the beach, but also has $10/night primitive camping. While it has a gorgeous view, its only facilities are a few porta-johns. If you want to hang w/ the hippies, this is where you go.

A few of these rigs are putting down roots..

To give you some bearings, the spit is a couple miles long (a lot bigger than I was expecting), has a huge marina at the end, a bunch of tourist shops, condos, and two private campgrounds. The southern part of the Kenai has a surprisingly temperate climate so Homer seems to be a popular place for the affluent retired. It also has the "real deal" commercial fishing folks, plus tourists, so it's an interesting mix of people. Anyway, tonight we want showers so we'll move further out the spit. About half way out is a very nice, modern campground that wants $80/night. All the way at the end is the famous Homer Spit Campground. It's facilities are more rustic but will do just fine at $45/night. Having been on the road for 2 weeks, it has completely snuck up on us that it's Labor Day weekend, and apparently half of Anchorage flees to Homer for holiday weekends. We got the last campsite. The truck is overdue for an oil change and needs another tire patch so we'll get that knocked out today. Other than that, I just wandered around taking pics.

A beautiful but very sad monument.

 

[DYNOBOB]

Something caught my eye in this shot. If you watch Deadliest Catch you'll see it. Gave me an excuse to wander down and shoot some of the working boats.

 

[DYNOBOB]

Beluga Lake is right in the middle of Homer and is home to at least a dozen floatplanes.

A funny story from the campground that evening.. Just after we back into our campsite, a 12yr old boy walks up to Dad and asks if we have a motorcycle chain breaker. Down from Anchorage for the weekend, he and his dad are planning to ride the beach up to Anchor Point tomorrow but his TTR80's chain is stretched to the point it won't stay on. Of course I have a chain breaker (my friends are laughing) so his dad gets rid of a couple links and they're in business. His dad later told me around the campfire that they were amazed/proud that their son took it on himself to walk over to the guys with bikes and ask for a tool. I say, that's a kid that wants to ride - never say die! Anyway, I'll leave you with the wood gathering, families walking, campfires, and evening views from the Homer Spit on Labor Day weekend...

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[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Thanks for the shots of Homer.We spent 3 nights at the Ocean View RV,but only got out to the spit one day.
Way too many people for us. We enjoyed Homer some great places to eat.Two Sisters the favorite.
Why so many tier problems especially with "E"rated?

Frank

 

[DYNOBOB]

I think we were lucky and tourism was winding down when we were there, even with the holiday traffic it didn't feel overrun w/ people. In fact, Seward, Whittier, and Valdez all had seen their last cruise ships of the season. Two Sisters was great!

I think the tires was a combo of truck keeping up with the dual-sport on gravel and soft, street oriented tires.

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[DYNOBOB]

Saturday Sept 3. Homer to Hidden Lake. 159 miles.

At some point yesterday it occurred to me that the muffler shop will be closed Monday for the holiday. This means we have an extra day to kill on the Kenai. The original plan was to be in Seward tonight but instead we'll have a lazy day and stay somewhere around Cooper Landing. After two weeks on the road with almost no rain, there's precip in the forecast for the next few days. Today we'll have on/off showers and few opportunities for pics.

On the way out of town, we hit the Two Sisters Bakery.

Not far up the coast in Ninilchik I have a waypoint marked for an old church. Per Wiki: The Holy Transfiguration of Our Lord Chapel is a historic Russian Orthodox church that was built in 1901. It's an approximately 20-by-50-foot, roughly cruxiform-shaped building, mainly designed by Alexi Andreev Oskolkoff who came from Sitka to supervise the building's construction. The 1901 church replaced an older church built near Ninilchik village's 1846 founding.

I'd read that Kalifornsky Beach Rd was worth a detour off of Rt 1. Maybe the overcast conditions ruined the experience, but I wouldn't go out of my way again. Did see a moose though.

 

[DYNOBOB]

We stopped for lunch in the town of Kenai, and decided we'd go to Skilak Lake and check out campgrounds. The 20 mile gravel (bumpy) road that takes you up to Skilak was the original Rt 1.

Riding along the edge of the lake, I looked down the embankment and saw these guys having dinner.

We checked out the Skilak Lake CG but decided we liked the Hidden Lake CG better so that's where end up tonight. It's quit raining, so once we were set up I took a short hike around the lake.

 

[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Two Sisters was a great find.We enjoyed their baked goods the three days we stayed in Homer.
Even got a great sandwich to go for lunch up the road the last day.
We were going to stay at Hidden Lake but the store guy at the Sportsman store in Soldotna
suggested Quartz River just up the road from the Hidden Lk. area.
We had checked out Hidden Lk.on our drive to Homer and had planed to stop there on the return.
There were so many campgrounds in the Kenai to choose from.

Did you drive all those miles without a muffler? Or was it just the tail pipe part.
Seems like a lot of noise to endure.
Continuing to enjoy your trip ,thanks.
Frank

 

[DYNOBOB]

Yep, no muffler since Prudhoe, just 4ft of 4" pipe off the turbo. It's loud but not horrible, the turbo chops up the exhaust pulses.

I'd originally planned to camp along the Russian River near Cooper Landing. After thinking about it a bit, I decided those were all a little close to the main road and might be noisy. Hidden Lake was quiet (once the rv behind us shut off it's gen).

Enjoyed your report Frank.

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[DYNOBOB]

Sunday Sept 4. Hidden Lake to Seward. 65 miles.

Another easy day today. Not far from Hidden Lake, we made a quick stop at the Cooper Landing museum. The Russian River area is known for fishing tourism.

I thought this was cool.

The Russian River behind the museum.

The southeastern Kenai Peninsula gets a lot of rain. In fact, it's part of the largest temperate rainforest on earth, stretching from Northern California to southern Alaska. Whittier, AK gets 200 inches of precip per year! Not surprisingly, we get into rain most of the way to Seward. Fortunately it lets up and we get to visit the Exit Glacier just outside of Seward.

Note small people on right...

 

[DYNOBOB]

My research showed Millers Landing Campground to be an authentic little slice of Alaska. Located at the very end of the road a mile or so past Seward proper, it's right on the edge of Resurrection Bay and is probably known more by Alaskans than tourists. I highly recommend it if you prefer quiet over the touristy feel of town. It was raining again when we arrived but shortly thereafter it stopped and became a beautiful evening.

Alaska travel is a dirty business..

The Wing driving light has taken a hit and yesterday it lost a bar end weight going to Skilak.

Seward in the background.

There's a beautiful wooded section of the campground behind this cabin if you're tenting.

Ask dusk settles we get to watch the departure of the last cruise ship of the season.

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[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Nice.Exit glacier was interesting to see. When we were there there wasn't as much water coming from under the ice.
I think there had been a lot of rain between the time you and we were there.
When we left Seward there was a cruise ship that was starting on a trip to New York city via the Northwest Passage.
Pretty cool and also sad that ships can now travel that route. No ice to stop them.
Thanks
Frank

 

[Happyjax]

What an adventure! That was a fun read Thanks! Pics are awesome

 

[DYNOBOB]

Monday Sept 5. Seward to Whittier to Anchorage. 155 miles.

Another short ride today as we only need to end up in Anchorage for our muffler appt tomorrow morning. Our day starts with steady rain which continues until near Whittier. Since we're not in a big hurry, we decide to see the Alaska Sealife Center on the way out of Seward. This is a great stop to see some of the beautiful critters of Alaska.

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[DYNOBOB]

After a nice dry hour inside, it's back out to the rain. It's a bummer because the road to and from Seward is beautiful but we didn't get pics either time. The road to Valdez is similar however and we will get pics there tomorrow.

Just after the turn to Whittier I noticed a fish observation deck so we made a quick stop there. This is the first time we've seen spawning fish swimming upstream.

Just before the tunnel to Whittier is the Visitors Center at Portage Lake. Way across the lake you can barely see the glacier tourist boat.

After waiting in line you get sent thru the railroad tunnel to Whittier. Every 30 minutes traffic changes direction, motorcycles are always the last to enter. You hear about it being sketchy riding a bike between the rail tracks but it's no big deal. If you were pulling a trailer it could be a different story as it would be impossible to keep a trailer tire out of the rail grooves. I'm sure it's been done many times though.

 

[DYNOBOB]

Whittier is a cruise ship and sport fishing town that's situated on a small piece of land between the mountains and ocean. There are 3-4 restaurants, some gift shops, and a boat launch.

The huge concrete "Soviet" looking number is the Buckner Building, an abandoned army facility built at the beginning of the cold war. Referred to as "the city under one roof", it had all the amenities needed to support life in this very remote area in 1949. http://www.atlasobscura.com/places/buckner-building-2

Varley's Swiftwater Seafood is as authentic as it gets and we had a great meal. The pictures and stories on the wall are a glimpse into the hazards of navigation.

We're only a few miles from Bligh Reef.

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[DYNOBOB]

The only thing remaining today is the return trip thru the tunnel and a short run along the Turnagain Arm to Anchorage.

Bird Point

These guys were really flying out there..

Home for tonight is behind the muffler shop. I want to be first in line tomorrow and get going to Valdez.

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[Casa Escarlata Robles Too]

Another nice installment.
Interesting info at the Swiftwater restaurant.
We only had food from the small Trailer outside the ferry terminal.Good coffee and hand food.
The tunnel was a trip.After reading about it and others comments about it.
Enjoyed the ride through.
Did you stay at Willawa campground?
Nice exhibits in Seward.
Frank

 

[DYNOBOB]

I debated staying around Whittier but knew it would set us back the next day getting to our exhaust appt. Williwaw CG looks pretty cool though.

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[DYNOBOB]

Tuesday Sept 6. Anchorage to Valdez. 300 miles.

Had some pretty hard rain overnight but luckily it stopped by morning which made getting everything sorted on the exhaust system a little easier. We had overcast skies throughout the day but never actually got rained on. A shout out to John at Muffler City & Brake for excellent service and having the headlight bulb for the Wing!

Today we'll take the Glenn Hwy north to Glennallen, then turn south on the Richardson Hwy, go over Thompson Pass, and into Valdez. The Glenn Highway from Palmer to Glennallen feels very remote and uninhabited, more so than I was expecting.