Day 347: Seward and the Exit Glacier

Posted on July 20, 2014 by Ben

We started the day by practicing for M’s bar mitzvah Torah reading portion. We use Kol Koren software to practice:

We headed East today, seeing great views along the road:

When new reached the junction of the Sterling Highway and the Seward Highway, we followed the Seward Highway south to the end of the road, at Seward, Alaska. Seward is the access point for Kenai Fjords National Park, which is mostly reached by water, so the town has an extensive marina:

Not a bad view from our parking spot while in Seward:

We stopped in at the Kenai Fjords visitor center in Seward, then headed back up the Seward Highway to the Exit Glacier Visitor Center. Here, visitors can hike up to the Exit Glacier. We received our Junior Ranger workbooks and headed up the trail. We had also checked out a green “discovery backpack”, which had as one of its activities to measure the water temperature of the creek flowing from the toe of the glacier. We measured the temperature at 35 degrees, which makes sense:

The kids pulled this chunk of ice out of the water as it floated by:

We continued up the trail:

Eventually, we reached the toe of Exit Glacier. The glacier is four miles long, and is hundreds of feet thick along its center line. It’s amazing to think that this massive flow of ice is made up of snow that fell on the Harding Icefield long, long ago. This viewpoint was adjacent to the glacier a few years ago, but the glacier recedes hundreds of feet a year, so the glacier is no longer accessible from this point:

The hike down was beautiful as well:

Back at the visitor center, the kids completed their Junior Ranger workbooks:

They also did additional activities from the discovery backpack:

The ranger insisted on swearing the kids in outside next to the flagpole, much to M’s chagrin:

The kids received their badge, as well as a “Junior Glacier Ranger” patch for their discovery backpack work:

It was getting late, so we decided to overnight at a pullout on the access road to Exit Glacier. Not a bad view!

More views from the pullout:

M and I did some math on his wall, which is floor to ceiling whiteboard:

I finally finished the wall by diving the bookcase in the rear of the bunkhouse:

See the trip map for driving details.

Day 346: So Long, Homer

Posted on July 19, 2014 by Ben

This morning we drove down to the end of the spit and walked by the various businesses there, many of which are built up on pilings:

We also walked through the marina:

Next we visited the farmer’s market, which today featured a marimba group:

We headed North out of Homer (the only choice) and stopped at a large open wayside to photograph the view:

We could see Mount Redoubt and Mount Iliamna, both of which are active volcanoes:

The winds were gusty and the field ends in a 150 foot drop to the ocean below, so I wasn’t comfortable flying, but I figured I could at least get in some kiting practice:

The winds got to be pretty strong, so we put away the wing and continued North to Soldotna. M checked out a rod again, but the Red Salmon run still hasn’t picked up, so we again left empty handed:

They did have a cute bench out front at the visitor center:

We’re overnighting again at the Fred Meyer here. See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Day 344: The End of the Road

Posted on July 17, 2014 by Ben

We were startled out of bed this morning at 3:45AM by Fred Meyer staff. They needed us to move our truck so that they could bring a semi into the parking lot. Thankfully, we had unhitched from the RV, and they didn’t ask me to move the RV.

After getting up the second time at a more reasonable hour, we drove South to Homer, at the Southern terminus of the Sterling Highway. This is literally the end of the road. We found a spot at the city campground which is located at the beginning of the Homer Spit. $15 a night gets you parking lot-style camping with no hookups:

Our neighbor is using his boat as an RV:

Down of the beach, we could see a couple guys setting up to do some kitesurfing in the distance:

We dropped off Trish at the Laundromat and I took the kids to the Alaska Islands and Ocean Visitor Center, operated by staff from the Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge:

The visitor center was very well done, and the Junior Ranger workbook was quite challenging as well:

The kids received their badges. Because it’s a wildlife refuge, the patch is for “Junior Biologist”, not Junior Ranger:

Homer humor:

In Homer you can stand on the beach and see glaciers across the bay:

I went for a bike ride out to the end of the spit, where the harbor is:

I then rode up to Skyline Road where I could look down on the spit and the mountains across the bay:

Homer is a wonderful little town, in the summer anyway. Good Shabbos from Homer, Alaska! See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Day 343: Fishing and Baseball

Posted on July 16, 2014 by Ben

Last night Trish finished making the wall hangings for the Junior Ranger badges and patches the kids have earned at the National Parks, Monuments, Historic Sites, and Wildlife Preserves we’ve visited:

The local chamber of commerce visitor center allows kids to check out fishing gear, so M checked out a pole and I fished with my own pole:

Most of the other folks fishing here took it quite a bit more seriously than we did:

The Red Salmon run hasn’t hit full swing yet, and neither of us caught anything, but we still had a nice time on this beautiful day on the river:

Speaking of full swing, we next drove North ten miles to Kenai where we surprised the kids with attending a baseball game, a family first! It was the Kenai Peninsula Oilers versus the Anchorage Bucs. These teams are made up of college baseball players from all over the US who come to play in the Alaska League for the summer:

M had a fantastic time and even managed to chase down and keep a foul ball! The rest of us had a good time too:

M built a lego pedestal for his caught ball:

Tonight we are overnighting at the Walmart of Kenai. See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Day 342: Red Salmon on the Kenai River

Posted on July 15, 2014 by Ben

This morning I removed the hub and found that the brake arm mounted on the hub backing is sticking. This is probably what caused the wheel to shear off – once the brakes were applied, the brakes on that wheel did not turn off, causing continuous stress on that wheel. I disabled the brake arm on the defective hub backing so we could continue driving.

We drove the RV into Soldotna and purchased a new hub backing. We then visited the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge just out of town. We went for a nice hike though the boreal forest to a lake:

Back at the visitor center, they had on display the skulls of two moose that had become entangled during fighting and died. This is at least the third visitor center I’ve visited that has such a display, which makes me wonder how common of a problem this is:

The kids received their Junior Ranger patches after completing the workbook.

We next visited the Kenai River, which flows through Soldotna. A fellow was prepping fillets from some Red Salmon his family had caught:

Next we drove over to Fred Meyer where we will be overnighting. I removed the wheel and hub, removed the faulty hub backing, installed the new hub backing, and reinstalled the hub:

The annual run of Red Salmon up the Kenai, peaking at over 200,000 fish per day, makes this the fishing capital of the world, at least for a week or so. Obviously we’re not the only ones who know about it; I feel sorry for Fred Meyer shoppers:

I bought a one-day fishing license that I’ll be using tomorrow. Look out salmon!

See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Look Before You Live!

Monthly Archives: July 2014

Day 347: Seward and the Exit Glacier

Day 346: So Long, Homer

Day 344: The End of the Road

Day 343: Fishing and Baseball

Day 342: Red Salmon on the Kenai River