After a leisurely morning we headed for Soldatna. On the way we stopped at the Exit Glacier. This is one of the 36 glaciers that come off the Harding IceField. This Icefield is the largest in Alaska. If we had been able to complete our tour yesterday we would have seen several more of the Glaciers. The Exit Glacier is one that you can walk almost to the face and touch. we had a mile and a half hike out to it.
After we left the Glacier we drove to Soldatna. It was a largere town than we had thought it would be. We have found that the interior of the kenai is a lot flatter and has a very different feel from the East side especially because we couldn't see the mountains. we missed them. we pulled into a Fred Meyers and grocery shopped. While we were in there Garry aked a local where a good place would be to go for dinner for our Anniversary. We lucked out as we were going to stay parked in the parking ot there overnight an we were able to take a path through some woods and ended up at St. Elias Brew Oub. We had the best Chicken Ranch Pizza we have ever had. We had some of their own brewery beer and there was a local band playing that night. after splitting a huge piece of homemade Peanutbutter pie we waddled home.
The next morning we finally had some SUN! We tored Soldatna dna then drove to Kenai. There is a bit of Russin history here also. We finally got to Kasiloff where we made plans to meet with George and Dot. They were another couple that we met on the Ferry. George is an avid fisherman. We stayed at a SP Campground for 2 nights. The Kasilof River ran right by the park but Garry was unable to catch a fish there. The next morning George picked up Garry and they drove to 4 different places to fish. No luck. They arrived back for lunch and then headed out again. This time Garry cam back with a Salmon!!!
Salmon for dinner! The next morning they were out from 5 - 7AM. No luck. George took Garry out to the mouth of the Kenai River to see the DipNetters. Sorry, no pictures. Dip netting is done only by Alaska residents. They have a 5 foot square or round net on a long pole that they stand along the bank and hold in the water waiting for the incoming salmon to run into. They are allowed 25 fish per household plus 5 for each member in the household. When we got back from observing the dip netters, George went to get a newspaper and came back and told me that the fish count for the Kasilof where we were fishing at 5AM only had a count to 6 sockeye salmon during the hours we were fishing come up river. Guess it was not our morning. After saying our Goodbyes we headed down to Homer.
We spent the afternoon exploring "The Spit". This is a 4 mile long spit of land with shops, tour companies, resataurants, etc. We spent the night at one of the City of Homer Campgrounds. On the water but not much privacy. The next morning we drove up to Ninilchuk. Saw a mother Moose with a baby!
There was to be an unusual low tide and we had been told the Razor Clam clamming was excellent. Garry purchased a 'Clam Shovel" at a hardware store on the way there. He put on his fishing waders and walked out on the beach. Remember that there is usually a 30 foot tide here but this was a -4 tide. There were hundreds of people out clamming. He had a limit of 30 with his license and within an hour he came back with 30. I had hurt my back so was laying low. When he got back to the camper we drove back down the highway towards Homer and found a nice pull off along the road. We backed into a nice space along the Anchor River. garry waded down to the river and washed the clams off. He then brought them back to the camper and spent the next hour cleaning them. Fried clams for dinner tonight!
There was no fishing allowed on the river where we camped. We were excited to see 4 King Salmon making their way to the spawning grounds. They had already turned bright red.
Today we had planned to take a ferry tour/excursion over to Seldovia form Homer. However I am still incapacitated with my back and it is raining. We stopped by the Hospital ER this morning and I am now drugged up so we are taking it easy today and will do the ferry tomorrow.
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