2017 Alaska adventure - Homer, Alaska Days 2 & 3

Sunday was very windy and chilly so we really didn’t do too much. Our calm Kachemak Bay was not so calm. In fact there were white caps throughout the day. We took a drive out of Homer to Voznesenka, which is a Russian village. Voznesenka is a community of Russian "Old Believers", or followers of the Russian Orthodox Old-Rite Church. They left Russia in the late 1960s to practice their religion without persecution. Photos are not allowed to be taken in the area and the road leading to the village is very steep and unpaved.

The weather on Monday was very different from Sunday. The winds died down significantly and the temperature was around 60. We decided to take a boat taxi over to Katchemak Bay State Park and hike to Grewingk Glacier and lake. It was a great hike – not strenuous. On the way we took a side trail to see a hand pulled tram that crosses one of the glacier rivers. The tram car holds 2 people and it takes 2 people to pull the car via a rope about 100’ across the river. We did not take the car since we were not going to continue along that trail. We did watch part of another group of hikers that did cross the river. It was definitely an upper body workout to move the car.

We continued on our hike another couple of miles and came to the lake at the bottom of the glacier. It was filled with icebergs from calving. It was beautiful. I love looking at icebergs. It was chilly at the water but we were warm during the hike. On the way to the taxi pickup point we saw a lot of bear scat, but no bears. Thankfully. In several places the path was very narrow with walls of thick vegetation on each side of the path. There would have been no place to go if we did come across a bear.

After arriving on the Spit we stopped at the Salty Dawg Saloon for a drink. The Salty Dog is a very unique place. The building was originally built in 1897 and was the site for several different businesses. In 1957 the building became the Salty Dawg. The walls and ceiling of the saloon are covered in dollar bills that customers have signed or written messages on.

Subsequent to the hike Marianna and I did some shopping in the shops along the Spit and the guys tried unsuccessfully to fish in ‘The Fishing Hole’.

Tomorrow is our last day in Homer.