Today I got back on the horse and re-started my journey around Alaska. After a day of so called rest that was very busy talking, changing tires and oil, and washing cloths, we are back on track. Even though I had to do a little modification of the planned route so I could end my day in Homer.
So after breakfast and packing, the 3 of us, BMW, Dixie, and myself set off south toward Seward. In Anchorage the temperature was right around 60 degrees at 8 am. It pretty much stayed there the entire time until about 50 miles south of Anchorage. At that point I had to pull over and put on thicker gloves. The temps between Anchorage and Seward fluxed back and forth between 67-45 degrees. As I approached Seward, estimating about 3 to 4 miles out, I could see a low level cloud layer no more than 200 feet above my level, not sea level, my visual sight level. This is when the temperatures once again plummeted. The city of Seward struck me as a fishing community and maybe a harbor to bring in goods for internal distribution. The rails also came into Seward, so this makes sense to me. The view from the ports and campgrounds over the bay were beautiful. The clouds that hung just 200 feet or so above the water were different than anything that I had ever seen in person. Seen pictures, but never the real thing.
I buzzed around Seward a little bit and even took a little dirt road out to the furthest point south and then started my way out of the city. Leaving I saw a sign for Exit Glacier and since I just drove 5000 miles, I figured I should at least make an effort to drive back into to see it. I got a great shot of the Glacier and learned that they refer to glaciers as natures bull dozers. I never heard that one before. What I didn’t do was hike up to the glacier to get the best shot.
After visiting the glacier it was time to head to Homer. The ride over to Homer put me back into the flat lands and the temperatures once again rose to 70. That my friends didn’t last long at all. Out in the distance I could see another strange looking cloud formation that looked like it was hugging the ground and pushing toward me. Within minutes I was driving through the fog and temperature rapidly fell back into the 40’s. No lower than 48, but it was bitter at speed. So I pulled over and changed gloves again to the Gerbings. 10 miles outside of Homer I broke out into the clear and I could even see the town below me at sea level partially covered in clouds.
It is pretty here in Homer and it also looks to me to be a majority fishing community. I drove out onto the spit but that low level cloud layer pretty much blocked out all views in any direction. Climbing back out of the spit, you could see for miles. I never did figure out how that cloud thing worked in the middle of the day. It must be very similar to what happens in San Francisco. Cold air pushing east into the warmer air over land which causes a very low cloud layer and or fog. The one picture I took from the roadway dropping into Homer looks like I’m flying in an airplane above a solid cloud deck.
Tonight I’m staying in a Bed & Breakfast style hotel and there is a shared common area, living room and kitchen, but I have my own room and bathroom/shower. There was 2 older than me couples in the Kitchen cooking fresh Salmon that they caught today and offer me to join them. Unfortunately, I had just eaten dinner but I did sit down with them and taste the Salmon and had Strawberry Short cake and wine for dessert. They want to hear more and more about my trip and in the end came to same conclusion, “you’re crazy.” Yep, pretty much. It was a lot of fun hearing their stories and they listening to mine. They all flew up from Georgia and I still speak southern, so I understood them perfectly.
Tomorrow, I will be doing a lot of back tracking from Homer through Anchorage, which is the first 220 miles of the leg. I will do another 239 miles and end up at the base of Mt McKinley. The plan is to camp for the second time on this trip and this will put me out of Wi-Fi world and therefore no blog. If that happens, I could blog dark for a day or two depending on a few factors. Leaving Mt McKinley the plan is to ride the Denali Highway east and then turn north into Fairbanks. If the Denali is still closed, then I turn north and drive through Fairbanks and attack the first 250 miles of dirt to Coldfoot Alaska. So the next few days are fluid and I will just play them as they are dealt to me. You just might be out of touch Blogs wise. You will still be able to Spot Track me no matter what unless I cannot recharge my batteries or find normal AA batteries. It is not that remote up here, just different than the lower 48 States.
Short easy day today at 336 miles and trip total has risen to 5.352 miles. Tomorrow will also be the completion of week 2. This is already starting to go by way to fast for me. I’m having a great time up here and that is likely because of the weather, scenery, and the people. Been a great trip so far. That’s all I’ve got for you today, so till I have Wi-Fi again, have a great day.
I almost forgot, Dixie got so cold today she didn’t want to come out of the Tank bag to have her picture taken. She’s in at least 3 photos’ in the album for the day. The one below, and then one that is very obvious and then I tried to sneak her into a beauty shot, can you find her?
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