Kenai

From Seward to Exit Glacier

While the forecast doesn't leave much hope for an improvement, we find that even local meteorologists can be wrong.

We go to see theExit Glacier not far from Seward, which we skipped yesterday due to rain. From the visitor center we take a path along which there are signs indicating the dates. These are the years that mark the end of the glacier and indicate how its retreat was remarkable. Even in the last ten years there has been a heavy downsizing. Let's go around to see it from above and below. It is still impressive and one wonders how it could have looked even at the beginning of the last century when the front was a few kilometers ahead.

We stop at Moose Pass, a lovely village embellished by the surrounding greenery. In a small post office we deliver the postcards to an employee who carries out her profession with a smile on her face.

Towards Kenai between lakes, salmon and Sterling Highway

We take the Seward Hwy northwards following the Alaska Railroad tracks in parallel along the Kenai Lake to reach the Tern Lake Jct. A beautiful lake with the sky reflected in it, it calls for a stop before taking the Sterling Hwy heading west.

We immediately reach a very busy area: it is the salmon fishing season and people come from all over to take part in the event. A sport that fills the freezers for the winter. It's all a proliferation of campers and cars parked or moving with a single objective. There is also commercial traffic to and from Homer, but especially in the Soldotna and Kenai City area, the heart of the oil industry. Under a beautiful sun we fill our eyes (and our palate too) with the sight of the streams flowing down rich in salmon.

In case we haven't accumulated enough hours of driving on dirt roads, we take a detour to Skilak Rd., a 19 mi bypass. from which beautiful paths branch off. We take the Skilak Loop Rd, not very long, to go and see the narrows of the Kenai River, a canyon at the bottom of which the watercourse flows turbulently. A little further on it opens and you can see the fishermen again waiting for their coveted prey.

Given that there are 5 different types of salmon, each period of the summer season has its own suitable time for fishing of one type or another. This is the good time for silver salmon, red in color and notable size, and lasts for 5-6 weeks. We cross Soldotna, an already relatively large center but which has no noteworthy attractions and we head towards the southern side of the Turnagain Arm to reach Kenai City, which appears more beautiful than the reports reported.

Kenai, Ninilchik and arriving in Homer

Kenai lives on salmon canneries and especially on the oil industry. In Cook Inlet there are 15 platforms and some supertankers. Not far from the coast there are large oil plants of Conoco Phillips, one of the former "seven sisters" of which nowadays we have lost count. In the quiet village where time seems to have stopped in the days when you could still do without oil, the white orthodox church, a sign of the Russian past and of a religion still active throughout the peninsula. Here too the Visitor Center is disproportionately large.

Along the Inlet we go south on Kalifornsky Rd. to get to Kaiutof, returning to the Sterling Hwy without having to cross the busy Soldotna again. On the transfer to Homer the sky remains clear, short stop a Ninilchik, an ancient community founded in 1820, continues to have a strong Russian influence in its population. On the hill above stands a Russian Orthodox church with characteristic onion domes. There wouldn't be enough room to spend much time there anyway. We don't stop at Clam Gulch, the kingdom of clamming, the extraction of razor clams from the sand. For some a sport, for others an economic activity.

Finally we arrive at Homer, from which we had high expectations but which we are a little disappointed with. It is a village that would like to be touristy, but it appears shapeless, so much so that we have difficulty orienting ourselves to find the common thread even just to look for a restaurant. The most interesting attraction is certainly theHomer Spit, a characteristic 7 km long strip of sand that penetrates the bay and is a few hundred meters wide.

Evening in Homer

After dinner we will go for a walk without finding anything other than campsites, restaurants and a fishing port. Theunique monument it is dedicated to those who lost their lives at sea. The accommodation however is the best that could have happened to us. It is located on the hill overlooking Homer, with an unparalleled view of the bay that penetrates this last strip of land on the Kenai Peninsula. On the other side there are mountains whose glaciers descend almost to the fjord.

The B&B is in fact an elegant villa on East Hill Rd managed by a Hawaiian couple. Here too, when we arrive we find everything open and we follow the instructions left with some notes hanging at the entrance, which lead us to the room. After all, those who rent rooms if they are not retired have a business during the day and do not return until the evening. We go out for dinner and upon our return we will meet Star, the lucky owner of the accommodation.

The couple has two children and has a number of businesses that seem to be doing well. Next to the B&B in their house, they have another one further down the town where they also rent accommodation, while she runs a car wash. The husband deals with services related to salmon fishing: they smoke and send everywhere the catch of those who arrive in these parts by plane, they rent all the equipment, and they fish themselves, selling the finished product. All this in the summer: in the other seasons when the tourists leave, they also emigrate to go to their home state, Hawaii, where they manage real estate businesses.

Speaking to Star, he tells us that locals work intensely during the summer season to earn the money needed to live the other months of the year. The locals are very basic and are not interested in luxury, therefore they do not need much money. The remainder is obtained by hunting, fishing and cutting wood for heating and for crafts. The superfluous does not belong to the Alaskan character, in a country where it is already difficult to provide for the essentials.

After all, the locals love to enjoy their village when it empties of tourists, returning to being a small and quiet community until next summer. Despite being, with all the limitations that the comparison may have, an Alaskan Riviera, the tourism business has not yet taken over Homer and perhaps what at first sight could be judged negatively could be re-evaluated from this perspective.