Day 5: Homer to Seward via Kenai

The distance from Homer to Seward is 170 miles, so we opted to ride in the van for the last part of the distance. Our ride on the bike went from the fantastic house we rented in Homer to the town of Kenai, for a distance of 88 miles (as the tandem rolls). The weather forecast looked good with just the possibility of showers, the doppler radar confirmed it, and the view from the house was of high clouds and mountaintops. The temperature was a brisk 48 degrees.

The house we were in was on a hill with a great view, but it wasn't at the top of the hill. So as we headed out, we had to climb right from the start, up about 600 feet in a less than a mile in the lowest gearing possible. There's really nothing like hitting a 10% hill right off the bat on a ride! The reward was worth it, however, as we could see Homer spit and the mountains ringing the bay. After the climb to the ridge with the views, it was a quick and cold descent back down to the Sterling Highway.

As we rode along it sure felt like there was more headwind and more climbing on the way back north than what we'd experienced on our ride south. I kept wondering if maybe the brakes were rubbing. No, it was just that after a couple of long rides already, some hiking and a day of kayaking, we were tired. So we just ambled along, took frequent stops, and held out hope that it wouldn't start raining. One of our stops was at North America's most westerly highway point in the town of Anchor Point. We had one of our halibut salad sandwiches. Yummy! Another stop we took along the way was at a giftshop that had almost everything imaginable made out of antlers, including cribbage boards, jewelry, and cooking utensils made of walrus tusks, moose antlers, and bones. They even had whole mastodon bones you could buy for around $1,000 and huge moose antlers. The proprietor told us that both carribou and bull moose shed their antlers every year, which is amazing when you see the size of some of the antlers. We read later that a bull moose can grow antlers as fast as 1 lb a day. (Bill asked, somewhat incredulously, "How do you measure such a thing?") Out front of the shop they had this really great totem.

Once back on the road it started to rain around mile 45. It was light at first and I was convinced it wouldn't continue, so as Kristina put on here rain jacket I choose not to. Well, in less than 5 minutes we stopped so I could put on my jacket and we could don our booties! The rain kept on and off for about 25 miles. In the town of Ninilchik it wasn't raining so we stopped for a bowl of halibut chowder at a roadside stand. It really warmed us up and tasted fantastic; it included big chunks of halibut in a thick and creamy broth, with a hint of cayenne.

We continued riding along Kalifornsky Road, it was good to be off the highway and the rain stopped so I was able to take off my rain jacket along the 16 mile stretch of beachfront road; Kalifornsky Road - it must be some kind of Alaskan joke. As we got within about 5 miles of our destination a light rain started and then turned into real rain, so I had to put my jacket on again. By the time we got to the little cafe in Kenai where Patty & Bill were waiting, we were soaked and covered in road grime. The cafe had a tiny but wonderfully heated bathroom where we were able to change into dry clothes. Then we devoured an amazing bread pudding covered in caramel sauce, and hopped back into the van for a ride to Seward. Since we had arrived in Kenai later than expected, we opted for an early dinner in Cooper Landing rather than waiting until we got to Seward. We dined again at Kingfisher restaurant on the Kenai Lake where they do an excellent job in cooking fish. Patty and Kristina had king salmon, Bill and I had rock sole - both were delicious! Then we got back in the van and drove the last hour into Seward.

In Seward we will take a boat tour of the Kenai fjords and glaciers. It'll be nice to just hang out for a day.