The Road To Homer & the “Spit”

Recorded June 26, 2009

It is about 220miles from Anchorage to Homer, Alaska and one of the big talking points prior to our trip was “Are you going all the way to Homer?” It seemed like a no brainier to us. Why would you drive over 4,000 and not see everything you can, within reason? The road to Homer is a ways out the Kenai Peninsula and is a cutoff about two thirds of the way to Seward so from Seward on Wednesday the 24th we retraced 40 miles to the turn and got a much better view of the mountains then two days prior. We hope the same will be true as we travel back again the balance of the way to Anchorage. I want to say here that the Sterling Highway #1 to Homer & Highway #9 to Seward are excellent two line picturesque roads. Along the way in my research & talking to people I somehow gathered that that was not the case. They are flat & are in the best condition of our trip.

The surprise came after we made the turn to Homer. Initially the highway followed the river deep in the mountains. We pass by areas where the fishermen are in their body boots, wading out up to their groins, fishing for salmon. They were thick, dozens & dozens of them out in that ice cold glacier water! The geography changed. We came out of the mountains to a flatter coastline of rolling hills. This continues nearly 150 miles with the ocean sometimes in view but always within a few miles. This detail seems important because it is the first time on our adventure that the terrain has been a surprise.

We picked a little town part way down the peninsula to camp. This area is fish fish fish!!! There are charters everywhere. The towns & the RV parks all sound like fishing too. In fact they are not really RV parks but fish camps. You should see some of the sorry heaps in these parks. These guys are some serious fishermen certainly not RVer’s. Our little Ninilchick fish camp (my words) was called Alaskan Angler campground. Bill & Linda Moorhead, our partners on this adventure were dying to go deep sea fishing. They went right from the campground at 4:00 AM the next morning. Catching their limit in Halibut.

Thursday June 25th -Now for Homer and the Homer Spit; we kept hearing about the “Spit”. But what do Californian’s know about such a geographical term. I guess I, again, am showing off my stupidity because I either Bar-B-Q on one or yell at Bill for launching one. A spit is an outcropping finger of land that has a larger land mass at the protruding end. Such is the case in Homer. Homer’s spit is also at the entrance of a massive body of water, the Kachemark Bay that looks to be willing to through some nasty weather around. What seemed unusual was the location. The businesses etc. have grown up here in the middle of this ice water with glaciers and the like all around!

Additionally I suspect, from my vast experience, that the Spit is “The Place” in the summer. Meaning it has some campgrounds, a marina and parks plus all the tourist stuff too. A raised boardwalk with wind beat clapboard buildings of all the usual bars & restaurants with the addition tours & fishing charters. My guess is that, to the young people in Anchorage and Alaska, since half the population of Alaska is in Anchorage, the Homer Spit is, Venus Beach or Palm Springs or Lake Havasue City or Time Square on New Years Eve. It looks like the kind of place that really parties hard. We really should have spent more time there. No one seemed to care that the wind was howling & it was freezing in the middle of summer.

Upon leaving our little Ninilchick fish camp (my words) campground, we retraced back up the Kenai Peninsula and on toward Anchorage again. We missed a couple of places but you can’t be everywhere. There is an artist colony a ferry ride away near here and we should have stopped at the town of Kenai. Sometimes we have to accommodate the guys when they want to go.

The next leg of our trip will ultimately take us to Valdez but we have a bunch of stops between now & then a few days from now.