North to Alaska: Upper Skilak, Kenai River and Seward

We left the Homer Spit and hooked up the car to Maxine at Safeway and drove up the Sterling Highway along the coast of the Cook Inlet to Soldotna, which is a supply center for the area.  You could not imagine the traffic in the parking lot of Fred Meyers!  We were going to look for a few things there, but decided to exit the madness and head to Sterling, where we took a dirt and gravel road down to Skilak Lake.  The first campground we came across must have had about 10 families of local Mennonites camping in all the possible areas.  We moved into the next one-Upper Skilak-which was just perfect for us.  We set up in #9 which was near walking paths and the lake and had a big private area.  The tent sites were even more fabulous, but our days of tent camping are now over.  We had perfect weather:  sunny, low 70s, blue skies!

Skilak Lake

Our campsite-#9

Boardwalk to a marina nearby, the
only place where we could make
phone calls (and then you had to stand
in just the right place to get a signal)

Jim at the marina in just the right place
Checking in with Janet and Tony (Tony had just returned home after
12 days in the hospital)

Lots of ducks and birds in this gorgeous water

Hiking in what seemed like a rain forest

The following day, we packed a picnic lunch and drove down the road to the Cooper Landing area where we hiked down to the absolutely gorgeous Kenai River.  Jim fished while Boo and I took a hike and then we had a lovely lunch and watched the salmon jumping upstream!

Some people in a river raft fishing

View from our hike
I only ran into one person on our hike.  He told me that he had seen grizzly scat on this
path.  Boo and I hightailed it back to Jim.  I sang all the way to keep the bears at bay!

Tying flies

The darkness out in the middle of the river are the salmon.

So gorgeous!

 We left the campground the next morning.  I drove the car up and out of the campground to the entrance which would be easier for us to hook up to Maxine.  I got there a little before Jim and I immediately saw a bear on my left.  Jim didn't see it and was pulling up ahead of me to get into position.  I knew he would be getting out of the car right away, so I pulled up between the bear, who was crossing the road in front of us, and Maxine (and Jim).  I take full credit for saving Jim's life!

The bear, escaping into the woods in front of us.  Sorry I didn't get a
great picture.  Found out later that this area is prime bear habitat.  We went
back to warn the campground host and he was well aware of many bear visitors.

Off we went, again towards Cooper Landing, to Seward. The 127 mile Seward Highway, leaves Anchorage, right near Athena and Josh's home, and ends in the community of Seward on the east coast of the Kenai Peninsula.  It is a National Forest Scenic Byway, an All-American Road and an Alaska Scenic Byway.  It is a beautiful drive, past lakes and rivers, mountain ranges, glaciers and all kinds of wildlife.  We arrived in Seward mid-afternoon and found a wonderful camping area right on Resurrection Bay, where we had a great view of the mountains and cruise ships as well as smaller craft.  The only problem was that we couldn't get the car to disengage from Maxine and we were right in the middle of the right of way through the area.  The camp host, after at first snickering a little at our situation, suggested we call a man who runs a towing service.  Although we didn't need a tow, he was the only idea any of us could come up with, so we called, Leif.  I was impressed right away on the phone as he wanted to know exactly what we had tried, etc. and said that he thought he could help us.  He had Jim put the car in forward and reverse, over and over and finally the pins knocked loose.  He charged us $135 and we thought that the lesson was well worth it!

This path led the entire way into town and out to the
docks where the cruise ships were.

That evening, we found out that Tony had ended up back in the hospital and I decided that we should return to Anchorage and that I needed to fly out the next day to NYC, where Janet and Tony live.
When we called to tell Athena and Josh of our plan, they informed us that Josh's grandmother had died and that they were flying to Denver in the next few days.  We arranged for Jim to hold down the fort in Anchorage with their 3 dogs, Boo and their cat, while the rest of us flew off to our duties.  We stopped at Exit Glacier on the way out (didn't have my camera) and loved how they had sign posts to show the speed of receding in terms of years.  It sure is now happening fast.

The drive back was astoundingly beautiful along the Chugach Mountains and Turnagain Arm.  The only issue was that we were missing Girdwood and the beluga whales on the way back-perhaps when we get back on the road again.