Bill and Kev's Excellent Alaskan Adventure: Fire and Ice

Day 4

From volcanoes to glaciers, Alaska has it all. After waking up early, again (4:00 a.m.) we headed south to Exit Glacier. Once again there was a cloudless sky and although the morning was near 40 degrees, the day warmed up quickly. This glacier is located near Seward AK on the Kenai Peninsula, south of Anchorage. Exit Glacier is a large retreating glacier which has been around a long time. Due to our early start, we began hiking toward this destination before even the park rangers were on duty. We decided quickly that today was a day for seeing wildlife. A couple from Missouri who were just behind us said that they startled a black bear as they were coming up the trail. Lots of moose scat (which looks like giant rabbit scat) littered the ground. The signs were good.

From here we headed back up a ways, then turned south on the Sterling Highway toward Homer for halibut fishing (tomorrow). We saw a wolf, a moose, sea lions, a beluga whale, and about 10 bald eagles on the way to Homer (plus two volcanoes, which tweaked my buttons). As we approached Homer we stopped at an overlook to see the town and noticed that there were bald eagles everywhere. Turns out there is a large nesting area there. Got some great pictures of the eagles, but since Kevin was in the navigation chair and did not have his camera ready (Like he was supposed to) I am sorry to say at this point of the trip we have no pictures of grey wolves or moose.

Tonight we are spending the night on the Spit at Homer. If you saw Sarah Palins show, this is where they camped when they went halibut fishing. I did not realize that it is in a Tsunami warning area. Once again I will sleep very good tonight (did you catch the sarcasm?). We saw the Time Bandit, from Deadliest Catch. Kevin got caught in one of its traps, but got thrown back (see the photo). Shutting down early tonight so we can get up early and hopefully catch some halibut tomorrow with Captain Greg on the “Tomahawk II” .