Alaska Day 8: Homer Wildlife Tour

Monday morning, I awoke refreshed for a great change, feeling far better than I did the day before. We were scheduled for a wildlife boat tour on Kachemak Bay from 10 to noon. If you look closely at the panorama below, a temperature inversion has the bay fogged in with a thin layer of clouds on the water's surgace, the air above being colder than the water. As beautiful as it was on shore, this was not auspicious weather for seeing much in the way of wildlife.

Temperature Inversion Has Kachemak Bay Fogged In

Sandhill Cranes Make Their Morning Appearance

We had coffee as usual outside on the patio while waiting for time to depart to the harbor to board a Coldwater Alaska water taxi for a cruise on Kachemak Bay to see what we could see. It being really foggy, there was not going to be too much opportunity to see anything at a distance, precluding any whales, if even there were any in the bay. We saw a few whales out in Cook Inlet later in the week; whales in the bay are rare. Ann really wanted to see whales, but this wasn't the time for them.

Walking down the ramp to the harbor docks, the harbor was socked in with low-level fog. After we had been standing around for three or four minutes, our pilot Patrick brought the boat around to one of the demarcated loading zones at the foot of the ramps. The vast ramps and floating docks are necessary because of the very large tide swing. We were the only two passengers on the boat, so it was a very intimate and personal tour. Patrick seemed as excited to show us his Alaska (he’s from Wisconsin) as we were to see it.

Immediately exiting the harbor, we saw a great many storm petrels skittering about, some doing their dance on the water. Close in as well were rafts of common murres and the water was dotted here and there with tufted puffins. I had hoped to see and photograph horned puffins on this trip, and while I think I saw one or two of the small birds flying by the boat, I never got close to taking a picture of one or even saying definitively that I saw one.

Storm Petrel Doing Water Dance

Common Murres

Tufted Puffin Taking Off

We made our way fairly quickly straight across the water to Gull Island where we spent a few minutes circling the fogged-in rocky island, home to nesting black-legged kittiwakes, glaucous-winged gulls, common murres, and tufted puffins.

Black-Legged Kittiwakes on the Nest

Murres Nest High up on the Rocks

Pigeon Guillemots

Glaucous-Winged Gull Attacks Kittiwake Chick

Pelagic Cormorant

Flap Between Murre and Puffin

From Gull Island, we moved over to China Poot Bay to see if we could see seals and sea lions hauled out on the rocky shore. The fog lying right on the water was a clear sign that the air was colder than the water and so the seals and sea lions were still in the water rather than out basking. I had hoped to see a Steller's sea lion on this trip, but it was not to be. We have a few on our coast in Oregon but I have yet to get lucky enough to see one. California sea lions yes, Steller's no.

Curious Harbor Seal

From the shelter of China Poot Bay, we moved a bit east to the exclusive enclave of Halibut Cove, one of the most picturesque places that I have ever seen and the place where we were to have dinner tomorrow night at the famed Saltry restaurant. Halibut Cove is reachable only by boat or by floatplane and the Saltry runs its own ferry service to and from Homer using an impeccably maintained wooden 1940s fishing boat called the Danny J. Our few minutes spent in Halibut Cove was the only time this morning that we would have sunshine. The fog closed back in around us as soon as we left the shelter of the cove.

Saltry Crew Quarters

The Danny J Ferry at Saltry Dock

The Saltry Complex

Stormbird Ferries Goods and Mail from Homer

This wildlife tour being the first time that we were on the water of Kachemak Bay was the first of many days for us to see sea otters whose presence is unmistakable. If you are on the water in the bay, it is a given that you will see otters. They seem to the original Alaska stoners, placidly floating away on the water oblivious to pretty much everything, sometimes miles from the shore. I have seen sea otters before in the kelp beds of California's central coast, but never up close like this. These were the first sea otters that Ann had ever seen. At 4-5 feet long, they are larger than you imagine and impossibly cuter as well.

Impossible to be in Kachemak Bay and Not See Otters

Highly Unusual: Sea Otter with Two Pups

Looking Into Kachemak Bay State Park

Sentinel at Opening to Halibut Cover

The Hillsides are Incredibly Steep

After idling through Halibut Cove checking out the scenery and otters, we puttered back out to the bay proper where Patrick revved the twin outboards in the thick fog and had us back at the dock in the harbor in about 20 minutes.

Alaska Day 7: Walking the Homer Spit

Last night was a doozy in that I was up most of the night with reflux like I have rarely had in my life. Fortunately in our room, we had the tail end of the baguette that we bought in Anchorage the day we drove to Homer. At various periods during the night, I ate small bites of that and sipped water to help keep the acid at bay. Sleep was not possible.

When I finally gave up on trying to sleep and rolled out of bed, I found out that I had an easier night than Michael, who went to the ER because his GI symptoms mimicked a heart attack. I know exactly this feeling. Man, this getting older stuff is not something they tell you about when you're younger. Anyway, I feel like hell and it's just going to be a day to get through. Fortunately, it is not a day of big plans, just a short 10-mile walk the length of the Homer Spit and back.

The Homer Spit is a 4.5-mile finger of land running northwest to southeast that juts straight out halfway into 9-mile-wide Kachemak Bay. Cook Inlet opens to the southwest (the ocean side) and Kachemak Bay (the bay side) runs to the northeast of the Spit. Rising on average 19 feet above the water, the Spit ranges in width from just over quarter-mile to just barely enough room for the roadway. Before the 1964 earthquake, there was some larger vegetation on the Spit, but now it's primarily just gravel and sand.

Because of the narrow beaches hard against rip-rap on the ocean side, we had to wait until late morning for the tide to turn to walk on the exposed beach, so we sat out on the patio listening to the sandhill cranes trumpeting and looking at the stunning mountain view across the bay. Annie had her coffee but I couldn't stomach it.

Bagel with Lox with a View

Late morning on the way to the Spit, we stopped at The Bagel Shop where we both got bagels with lox. They weren't gold standard New York bagels, but they were better than average and were some of the best food we would eat in Homer, sad as that is to say. The little shop in an industrial area east of town had a long queue out the door. Because of COVID, all orders are to go and we took ours down to the beginning of the Spit where we ate them on a picnic table on the ocean side.

All alone on the beach covered in small, well-rounded pebbles and stones, our plan was to walk the length of the Spit on the ocean side. Walking the bay side would be impossible along the shore because that's the protected side where the boats enter the harbors, including the deep-water harbor near the end of the Spit. Alas our timing was off and despite the ebbing tide, there was still a quarter-mile stretch where the water came right to the rip-rap bolstering the side of the roadway.

Ann’s confidence in navigating rip-rap and scree fields is slim. So, we put plan B in motion, carefully climbing through the giant rocks to the highway above. On the bay side of the highway, a paved bike path runs the entire length of the Spit. We crossed to the bike path and continued our trek alongside the highway, trading the solitude of the beach walk for a schlep through all the touristy bits of the Spit, dodging children, dogs, and bikes for much of the way.

Before we left the beach, a bald eagle took off from the sand. It’s sheer size prompted Ann to quip, “Is that a prop jet?” We would see a lot of eagles during our stay, but honestly, I was expecting to see more of them. Michael said several times that eagles in Homer are as common as pigeons elsewhere. I'm sure there are more eagles to see in the winter when they congregate, not being busy off raising babies.

During our outbound tour of the Spit, we walked past abandoned boats, the ice rink, a fishing lagoon, boat storage, campgrounds, a drydock facility, lots of tourist-focused businesses such as art galleries and fishing charter operations, the harbor, and a fish processing complex before going down to the beach on the bay side once again just past the Alaska Marine Highway System ferry terminal. Businesses are clumped together in pods along the Spit with the businesses on the ocean side up on a boardwalk above the beach.

Starting Our Beach Walk with Quite a View

The Only Two Loons, Gavia immer, I Saw in Alaska

Is This Not a Stunning View?

Boreal Yarrow, Achillea millefolium v. borealis, and
Beach Fleabane, Senecio pseudo-arnica

Pink Foxtail Barley, Hordeum jubatum

Fishing for Salmon at Entry to Fishing Lagoon

Where I Filleted Salmon Yesterday

Homer Harbor with Stunning Glacier Backdrop

After Homer Harbor, we made a 180 following the beach around from the bay side back to the ocean/Cook Inlet side, passing the Land's End Resort, and stopping at the iconic Seafarer’s Memorial for a few minutes. The memorial honors those who have been lost at sea and underscores the importance of the fishing industry to this region.

Seafarer's Memorial

Bell at the Memorial

From the end of the Spit, we retraced our steps back to the car, which feeling as miserable as I was from last night's GI pyrotechnics, I never thought we would reach. The walk back was a real trudge despite being flat and paved; I was out of gas.

The car was a welcome site. Ann wanted to go out for a late lunch/early dinner, but the only thing keeping me going was the thought of bed and a long nap.

After a decent snooze, I was feeling a little better, but still not great. Ann wanted to go out for dinner but I didn’t feel I could stomach food. Mike offered a glass of wine while we sat outside and watched the bird activity pick up in the late afternoon. I passed on the wine, not wanting to pour gasoline onto the fire that was my stomach.

In the golden rays of late afternoon sun, we watched the goldfinches eating cow parsnip seeds just off the patio, while flycatchers worked from the taller shrubs. A bald eagle circled in close over where we were sitting, above the cranes which were busy feeding and trumpeting in the meadow. It was a really relaxing scenario and just what the doctor ordered for me.

Flycatcher Posing in a Red Elderberry

Ann asked me to take her on a beer run so we went part way into town to the liquor store. Back at the inn, she enjoyed a couple cold IPAs while we talked with Mike and ate the remainder of our sandwiches from yesterday's lunch.

Mike and I having been up the night before, we decided to head to bed around 7:15. I fell asleep around 10, only to be awakened at 11:20 by other noisy guests who managed to get themselves locked out. I got up to let them in before they woke anyone else and finally crashed out for a decent night's sleep.