Day 12 - Sep 11, 2000 Last updated: 9/11/00 8:00pm AKDT
It was slightly windy, but we went on our bear sightseeing adventure anyway today. So we actually got to do everything we planned in Homer, just not exactly when we planned it! The first day we were here, we didn’t think anything was going to happen.
We boarded the plane at 8:30am for what turned into a 2 hour flight, due to strong head winds, in a single engine puddle jumper (the yellow one below). The ride home only took 1 & 1/2 hours. I got to ride shotgun. Not sure if that was a good thing. It was very cool to see things from the pilot’s eyes, as opposed to looking out the tiny side windows of a 737. But our pilot made me a little nervous when he would take his hands off the “wheel” to look at his watch. The other thing that made me nervous was the fact that we were flying at about 2000 ft. and there were mountains that we had to go over which were considerably higher than that. It’s definitely a different perspective, being able to see the ground so clearly while flying so low.
On the flight over, we saw 3 bears, 3 moose, 1 eagle, and 2 caribou. We flew to Brooks Camp, which is on the Alaska Peninsula (about 150 nautical miles from Homer)(Have you guys been following along on the maps page?). This is a feeding ground for bears because the salmon come here to spawn. Easy pickings for the bears because after the salmon spawn they have no energy left and are about to die. At first I was scared walking down the trail to where the bears were. I kept picturing some mischievous bear hiding behind a bush waiting for a human to walk by so he could jump out and yell “trick or treat” 🙂 But I relaxed a bit once I saw how fat, slow and lazy these bears had become. The bears are in the tail end of fattening up for winter. We saw 7 bears up close here at Brooks Camp. One guy was just sitting on the beach, others were wading around a pond that had salmon in it, and one guy was hanging out at the falls (about a mile hike from the pond). (That’s not blood on the fish, this type of salmon turn red during spawning).
The temperature was a little chilly in the morning, but warmed up by noon. It rained for about a half hour, but nothing like yesterday on the kayaks. It still was a nice day.
Dinner was halibut fish & chips at Boardwalk Fish & Chips. I really like halibut. We’ve had it a lot. It is a thicker white fish, not as thick as chicken, but not real flaky.
Tomorrow is a driving day. It’s 190 miles from Homer to Girdwood and the Alyeska Resort, where I’m hoping to have a phone again! We are never in our room long enough to enjoy a view or a “cozy” space. The Wild Rose was nice, has an oven, refrigerator, microwave, TV, plates and silverware, so how can it not have a phone?