The Halibut Fishing Capital of the World

Day 4 of Alaskan Adventures with Joey

Mmm, tasty!

Our first, and only full day in Homer, so we drove down the 'spit' to find some seafood and look at boats. We originally discussed getting a boat taxi to take us across Kachemak Bay so we could hike around some glaciers and look for wildlife, but they were all really expensive. Oh well, we still had a good day and it was actually kind of nice to have a more mellow day. Well, it was mostly mellow.

We walked around on the spit, looking at the shops and boats. The Time Bandit, made famous on "Deadliest Catch" is docked in Homer, so we did the obligatory tourist shots of it. We stopped over at Captain Pattie's for some Kachemak Bay oysters, chowder and a beer. Afterwards, we went to Homer Brewing company to get some Alaskan beer. It was a cute little place, and a pretty tasty porter (China Poot Porter). We took our beer back to our cute little guest house and watched the Sandhill Cranes.

AMERICA! 

Teehee, *snort*.

That's a lot of netting!

So many fishing things everywhere! 

Time Bandit

Time Bandit and Joey

Homer Brewing Mascot

Our peaceful guesthouse

View from the back patio of the guesthouse

She also rents this yurt! You have to use an outhouse if you stay here.

Sandhill Crane flying by the guesthouse

Interestingly, we spotted a Northwestern Crow with an odd bill deformity. These are the best pictures I could get of it.

After that, the day got a little crazy! We wanted to go do a hike, and found this one where you get to climb down to the beach at low tide. It sounded pretty nice, and we would have gotten down as the tide would have started coming in, but the trail was closed. Actually, that didn't stop us. No, getting chased off the trail by a moose did though! We made it 100 ft or so down the trail when we saw a moose just standing in the middle of it. She looked at us for awhile and then started walking down the trail, so we sort of meandered with her. After another 100 ft or so, she turned around and started walking toward us. So we walked back with the moose following us all the way to the car. As soon as I opened the door, she wasn't having it, and went on her merry way. A little nerve-racking, but I think she was only curious and never seemed agitated by our presence.

Communing with nature.

After our experience with the moose we walked down to the beach then got some food and went home. I am not sure, writing this almost three weeks in to the field season if this is all that happened. But it is as much as I can recall. I will also write a quick update on what is going on here before I do the final post for the Alaskan Adventures with Joey.

 

Bikes and Moose

Day 2 of Alaskan Adventures with Joey

After traveling all day and doing the hike the previous evening we were pretty pooped, so we slept in to about 10. With a quick bagel for breakfast in the morning, we walked down to the Tony Knowles Coastal Trail to check it out and walk over to Earthquake Park.

Sandhill Crane hanging out on the tidal zone

In 1964 a 9.2 earthquake devastated south central Alaska. 75 homes that sat on Bootlegger cove clay cliffs in Cook Inlet were destroyed in a landslide. Apparently Earthquake Park used to contain the debris from these homes, but has since filled in with trees and other vegetation. Later, we drove over to hike in Kincaid Park. Big mistake. It was fairly nice, and is one of the largest mountain biking and motocross tracks in the country (at least I think it is), which doubles as a cross-country skiing trail in the winter time.

Oh really?

But it may also have contained the highest density of mosquitoes in all of Anchorage. We were bit often and they really loved Joey. Poor guy had so many bites on his forehead... Sorry babe. After that fiasco, we went to dinner at Mamma O's Seafood. The only place in Anchorage where you can eat fish and chips with some udon if you so desire. It was pretty good, and decently priced for seafood.

Old VW Bug in Kincaid Park

Joey found a place where we could rent bicycles for a pretty good deal. If you rent after 5:30, you get the bikes for $16 a person and can return them at closing at 10pm or the next morning before 9am. It is called Downtown Bicycle Rental for those that may find themselves in Anchorage in the future. This trip was also the first time either one of us saw a moose and a moose calf! We spotted some people looking at something on the trail as we were riding by and when we stopped to ask them, we saw a female moose. They kept calling it a male, but whatever. She moved a bit and then we noticed she had a calf. They weren't too close so we were not worried but far enough that pictures weren't great. 

Our mighty steeds

We continued our ride and got out on some coastal bluffs at Point Woronzof and watched some planes fly right over head for a little while.

Semi-crappy photo of Downtown Anchorage from Point Woronzof

People on the beach below

Then we made it all the way to Kincaid Park on the trail; but we didn't stop or walk around inside the park since we learned our lesson earlier. When we passed the spot with the moose and calf on the way back they had moved quite a bit and created some excellent opportunities for picture taking! They didn't seem to care that we were there, and we weren't a threat so they kept moving and got really close. It was a nice end to a long, 18 mile bike ride.

Chowing down

Checking on baby

Getting a drink

I'm slowly getting these out. I have been pretty busy up here and it is only going to be busier as the days progress. So stay tuned!

The Beginning of the Adventures

I apologize for being so late with all of this exciting stuff happening. I forgot to pack my card reader and the cable I have works... extremely... slowly, but I remembered we have a card reader for the cameras on the project I can use! Hooray! I will try to break this down as best as I can.

Day 1 of Alaskan Adventures with Joey

Finally! After three summers of field work in Alaska, Joey has made it out with me. We planned a whole trip before starting work on the North Slope and it was one of the best trips I have been on. He may say differently, but I really enjoyed our time in Alaska together immensely. So, on with the tellings of the tales. We flew into Anchorage the afternoon of Friday the 23^rd. We had a delicious elk hotdog from a vendor in downtown Anchorage and walked around the streets for a little. Afterwards, we headed over to the house we were staying at in the beautiful Turnagain neighborhood. We used Airbnb for our stay in both Anchorage and Homer. If you don't know what Airbnb is I suggest you check it out. Basically people can rent spaces they have in their homes, guest houses, or their whole apartment/house when they aren't living there. It is a little strange but is legit. And it was much cheaper to do than a hotel or even a hostel, and much cozier. The guy we stayed with also sometimes lives in a condo he owns in Portland, so that was pretty crazy. We ate dinner at Humpy's Ale House and had some delicious halibut before we did a very nice hike up to Flattop Mountain in the Chugach National Forest in the evening. 

Flattop Mountain

Those little specks up there are people! 

It is an accurate name for this peak as you can see in the pictures. It is a 3.4 mile hike round trip through some awe-inspiring scenery. When reaching the peak, you have to clamber over some large boulders. The gentleman we stayed with mentioned that it is a difficult part but you really just have to watch out for the people ahead of you and coming down since they can kick rocks onto you, otherwise it is a strenuous, realitively quick and beautiful trek. Not to mention the views from up there, wow!

Top of Flattop view with some poppies.

Top of Flattop!

Golden-crowned Sparrow

Singing his little heart out.

That is it for this one, I will try to post the next couple of days with the lowdown of the other days Joey and I spent in Alaska together. Nothing has been too terribly exciting up here yet, except the Kuparuk bridge is out again like last year and the Sagavnirktok river is flooding the area around the Dalton Highway (Haul road). So we aren't sure if we'll be able to lay our artificial nest transect on it. It is snowing today, which doesn't help, but things do change very quickly up here.