We arrived at Deep Creek Beach, Ninilchik, Alaska

Wednesday, May 18, 2011

Another good reason to drive 50 mph:  you arrive at your destination a lot less tense with your spouse than you would have had you been driving 70 and trying to stay in front of the pack…

             We arrived Saturday afternoon to find ourselves on a rock beach looking out on Cook Inlet – and if there hadn’t been clouds, we would have seen Mt. Redoubt (the volcano) across the Inlet from us.  We understand it’s the middle tall mountain of a set of three.  However, we haven’t been able to get a good look at it yet.  The clouds have hung low since Saturday, and the best we’ve seen is the bottoms of snowy mountains. 

            But we did get a good look at a really big bird that sat himself down about 100 feet away from our camper Saturday evening.  We looked and looked and finally got out the binoculars to make sure of what we were seeing.  Sure enough – it was a bald eagle!  And Sunday morning there must have been two dozen of them down on the waterline.  It seems the charter boats that go out from our beach drop their fish refuse back in the ocean – and the eagles (and gulls) come to the shore to partake of fish feasts.

            Sunday we drove about 40 miles further down the coast to Homer, Alaska.  While on the way we passed two large fir trees with enormous nests right at the top.  When we looked closely, we could see the heads of the mother eagles who were sitting in them.  What a sight!

            Because of the low clouds, our solar panel is just keeping enough of a charge to keep our heater fan working so we stay warm in the camper.  That means NO electricity to “waste” on computers.  The highs have been in the 40s and the lows in the 30s, so it’s not been too bad – unless you are from the South.  And the wind absolutely bites you when you go out.  For Gulf Coast natives, these temperatures, the wind, and the constant overcast sky has been enough to keep us chilled a good bit of the time.  We can’t believe that there are people actually sitting in their lawn chairs outside their rigs throughout the days and evenings.  All the little kids are bundled to the gills, but they are running and playing like this would be “normal.”  We’ve been told that it usually doesn’t stay this cloudy this long.  If that’s true, we’ll be OK.  And since we have now found a place to plug in the computers (the Ranger Station in Ninilchik) we may be OK anyway.  Tonight we’ll be here for an hour, so hopefully we can catch up a little bit on the blog…  Tomorrow pictures?

            Our campsite (for now) is on a tall hill adjacent to the water.  We arrived during a low tide and were able to walk out on the beach for a way.  The sand is black (volcanic?) and large grained – totally different from home.  It is also littered heavily with rocks – black ones, speckled ones, white ones, tan ones.  When the high tide comes in, the sound of the waves beating on our hill is quite loud.  In fact, it has awakened Ruthine every night since we’ve been here.  Last night she got up and only watched 4 or 5 waves break on the shore – but Saturday, Sunday and Monday nights she was up for an hour or so watching the water rise on the hill.  It’s fascinating.  We were told that there is only one other coast with tides that have such diverse highs and lows as Cook Inlet – and that is someplace in Norway.

We have arrived just in time for this month’s “clam tide.”  Every month there are three or four days with extremely low tides (and extremely high ones) – and people flock to the beach with their buckets, sharp shooters, and waders to follow the water out as far as they can to dig for clams.  The clams are “razor” clams, and are about 5 or 6 inches long this year.  Last night a camper couple invited us to their rig for clam chowder – and it was delicious.

We were in training all day Monday.  And we finally met “our” ranger today.  She’s a nice lady and certainly wants to make us feel welcome and “at home.”  Another volunteer couple has lent us a screen shelter that they are not using this summer to put up next to our camper, so we can have a bit more space.  If it ever gets any warmer, it may be quite useful.  Tomorrow we’ll probably move our camp to a site near the river on the other end of the campground.  That way, when the King Salmon (we're told these buggers are 35 to 45 pound fish!) start running in a week or so, we’ll have a ring side seat.