Day 3: August 23, 2000
Kayaking in Katchemak Bay

Walendo waiting for tour on Homer Spit

We got an early start and drove down to Homer Spit to check in at Inlet Charters for our kayaking trip. The woman there told us we'd have the "luxury" tour because it was just us two on the trip, which was very nice. We were early, so we got a hot chocolate and muffins and sat outside for a half hour. At 9am we went over to the boat and met Don, our guide, and Scott, the boat owner. Without any fuss we took off out of the harbor and motored across the way past Gull Island, where we'd been yesterday, and docked on a small dock with some kayaks on it. Scott quickly took off, and Don got us set up in kayaks. We decided to go with singles, even though there was a higher risk of rolling. Walendo was in the biggest boat with the foot pedals set to the longest setting, and I was in a smaller boat with the pedals set to the smallest setting. We must look like such a pair.

Don gave us a little orientation, reminding us a few things about using the kayaks, which was good since I didn't remember some stuff. He was an older man, probably in his 50s, and he had a understated way about him. He was good about explaining things clearly but not going on too long about them. After we'd gotten in our boats and were ready to go, we started paddling around the bend to this little narrow archway. He had us paddle through it, as a kind of test to make sure we could stear and generally handle the boat. We both did fine. Then we continued on into a little inlet looking for some otters but didn't see any. As we were paddling, he was answering a bunch of questions about living in Homer and what the winters were like (pretty snowy, with temperatures usually around 20 degrees). When we came out of the inlet, I spotted an otter, so we paddled up to it pretty close, and it was munching away at some shellfish, spinning around to clear it's "table." When it was done, it would pop its head up a bit, look around, and then dive back down again. We'd wait for a bit to see where it came back up, and then paddle over there. We did this two or three times, and then continued on. It was nice that it let us get so close. Don told us about how thick its fur is and why it spins, which we'd learned the day before. But he also told us that the males are very territorial and will keep to themselves, while the females and pups will hang out in larger groups. He said this one was generally pretty tolerant of people, but others would scurry away as soon as they saw people.

As we continued on, Don pointed out a series of rocks ahead that looked just like an otter on its back. It was as if an artist had come out and made a sculpture in their honor. Don said that it didn't always have such a strong resemblance, it depended on the water level, but the water was at a perfect level right then. It really made me smile to see it. Don had told us that it had been a very windy summer and he would adjust our trip depending on the choppiness of the water and the tides, saying that yesterday it had been so choppy they couldn't go out to Gull Island at all. But today was much calmer, so we were able to paddle out. As we were getting started, Walendo saw a big animal that looked like a seal, but when we got closer we realized it was just a very big otter. It looked like it was well over 100 pounds. He didn't let us get that close, though, so we paddled on. It was a good distance to the island and took us about 20-30 minutes to get out. It felt nice to get into a rhythm and paddle away. We didn't chat that much at this point. Once we got there, Don pointed out a lot of the different birds, which I was able to see much better now. On the boat ride out, they had a poster that showed the different types of birds of the area and he'd shown that to us, so it was a little easier to pick things out. We saw a few puffins up at the top, and mostly there were Muhrs (?sp) and Kitiwakes and a few Puffins and Cormorants. We slowly circled around, and Don pointed out how they each lay their eggs in different places and basically lived fairly harmoniously. Once we turned downwind of the birds the stench was pretty bad. He said it was especially bad late in the season. I guess the winter storms clean it off while they're away. Still, it was pretty cool to see so many birds so close up.

Ellen Kayaking

After getting our fill of the birds, we started to paddle south to the point just before China Poot Bay. We then came around the curve and saw some amazing rock formations. The rock was in thick slices and it curved around, vertically and horizontally in some beautiful patterns. The water was pretty clear and the sun had gotten higher in the lightly clouded sky, it felt wonderful. We paddled around some more and came to a black sand beach, and Don said we'd stop up ahead for lunch. We pulled up onto the beach at around noon, and Don asked if we wanted to go on a hike first. That sounded good, so off we went. We hiked for about an hour, stopping along the way to ask about the plants and trees we were seeing. There were some gigantic leaves, maybe a foot wide and high, the he said was Devil's Club because it had thorns on the underside and all along the stalk. They had clusters of red berries growing along some of the leaves. As we were hiking, Walendo spotted an eagle flying right above us and we stopped to watch it. We found out along this hike that Don had been a wildlife biologist and had gotten his degree at University of Maine. He'd worked in Juneau for a while and a few other places, and this was his first year back in Homer for a while. I think he said he'd been here in the late 1970s. I had thought he knew a lot just from living in the area and running the tours, but it was nice that he'd learned a lot from his schooling and from working as a biologist.

China Poot Bay

We hiked back to the point we'd turned at in our kayaks and had a great view of the Bay. Don talked more about some of the politics of the area. He said about 10-20 years ago when there was a lot of oil money, the state had put aside something like a $10 billion surplus and invested it, so now every single person in Alaska got the dividends from that investment (after putting some back into capital), which he said was as high as $1900. So a family of 5 might get a $10K check. He said the state kept trying to dip into this fund, but they'd always gotten voted down. They even put a referrendum to the people asking them to choose whether they'd rather dip into the fund or establish an income tax and people voted for the income tax. Smart because you know they'd establish an income tax anyway after they depleted that money. (Of course, one of the choices wasn't just to spend less money.) He said there wasn't that much animosity between white people and natives, but the big issue was always over hunting and fishing rights. There are people who depend on it to live on, and they're always battling the commercial interests who tend to want to clean out an area because they can always move on to the next. He said some law just passed saying that everyone in Homer could hunt & fish for subsistence, which is silly, but he figured it won't be seen as constitutional. He seemed pretty down on Ted Stevens, one of the Alaska senators, who is a "boomer" he calls it, someone who wants to build rather than conserve. But he said he was very good at getting money for the state. I'd read that Alaska was the state that got back the most money per capita from the federal government compared with what they sent, and he said that was true. I was surprised at how much he knew about the state and federal politics, since so much of it must seem irrelevant, but in a way it made sense, since they have a real interest in making sure that stupid laws don't adversely affect their lifestyle, which is a big reason they're there. (He said most Alaskans are people who moved there for the lifestyle, that there were few natives.) He sometimes referred to "outside" to refer to the 48 states. He said something you hear a lot is "I don't care how they do it outside..."

After chatting a while at the point, we made our way back to the beach, this time going around the other side of the island. The island is apparently privately owned by a group of doctors he said. It's for sale, in fact, which got Walendo thinking... though they're asking $2 million for it. Anyway, we got back to the beach and settled in for lunch, which was way too much food. They had a focacia bread appetizer, then sandwiches, oranges, chips, then muffins and cookies. Scott had teased us that we had to eat all the food or he wouldn't let us back, but it was too much, at least for me. At lunch we talked about logging, and how the government was managing to spend $95 to get $1 of income for each tree. How stupid can you be. Other than politics, Don told us a bunch about the tides and how important they were. He was always watching for them and he said they pretty much control your life out there. He said that area had the second largest tide changes in the world, second to the Bay of Fundi in Nova Scotia & New Brunswick. The tide could change as much as 30 feet in one cycle at the peak of the cycle. He was continually watching how the tide was going, and telling us to watch out for shallow areas because you could get stuck since the tide was going out. Just during the time we'd gone for our walk, the water's edge had receded about 10-15 feet from where we'd put our boats. Then as we ate, you could see some rocks gradually emerge from the water. Particularly in China Poot Bay, he said, you had to be careful because it was so shallow that as much as 85% of it could become exposed, and the tide going in could be as strong as a river current so you couldn't get out, even a power boat couldn't get out. Amazing.

Full-grown Bald Eagle (far tree) & immature eagle (near tree)

Anyway, after we'd rested a while, we got back into the boats and continued on, further into China Poot Bay. After a short while, we saw two bald eagles soaring above, and then they settled into some trees. Then one of them flew out to the end of that stretch of land and then settled high in a tree again. We paddled over to that area, again with Don saying it would be okay because the tide was with us, and we got a great view of this dramatic bald eagle perched high above. After a little while, Don noticed another bird that he said was an immature bald eagle. It had grayish coloring with a white tail. He said it takes 2-3 years to get the white head and black body coloring. We heard them chirp and were surprised that it was kind a high-pitched high-frequency call rather than the long, trumpet-like sound we'd expect. We lingered there a while and admired them both. Finally, we pushed on and came into a beautiful cove. There was a dark peak not far off the cove, which he said was China Poot Peak, and it had some snow-capped granite peaks behind it, very lovely. Unfortunately, a chain saw was going on the far side of the cove, disturbing the tranquil setting, but it didn't bother me that much. He said there had been a bunch of seals in that cove the day before but we didn't see any. We did catch a glimpse of an otter, but it went under pretty quickly and disappeared. After a while, we docked again at a spot where Don said we'd do a short portage across the land. He said it would be too hard to paddle against the tide, which was now coming in again. While we were docked, we went for a short hike, again to a point overlooking the whole area. At the beginning of the trail, Walendo spotted some berry-filled bear scat. (He claims it tastes like chocolate, but I'd rather not try it to find out.) They mostly have black bears on that side of the bay, brown bears on the other, but he said there weren't many living there. A few minutes after we got to the end of the trail, we were joined by Scott and four others who I guess had gone on a half-day tour. We chatted with them a bit, and then just the three of us headed back to the boats. The portage was very short, maybe 100 yards, and we put the boats back in the water. Don said we were pretty close to where we'd started, so we had only about another hour of paddling, how sad.

Oyster Farm

We paddled around that inlet, which was really quiet, practically still. We saw a whole bunch of bouys all lined up in multiple rows, which Don explained was for oyster harvesting. A few retired school teachers live in the nearby houses and they farm oysters for extra income. He said it takes 2-3 years for oysters to harvest, sometimes 4 years, which can't be that profitable. We saw another otter doing its thing, and eventually we made our way back to the dock. It had been such a wonderful day. It sounded like we'd gotten really lucky with the weather being so nice, with the tide being in just the right part of the cycle for us to go as far as we did, and with the wind being low so the water was calm enough. I was very happy for the experience. By the time we'd gotten back, we'd really come to like Don and I think he liked us too. I gather Californians (especially from the Bay Area) don't have the best reputations out there, so it was also nice to be a counter-example. (Don said Texans were the worst, because of the oil boom, but Californians were next.) We got out of the boats and Walendo helped Don get them back up on the rack. Meanwhile, Scott arrived with the others, and we helped to put everything back away. Scott also seemed like a good person. He owned the boat, all the kayaking gear, and the land around the dock with a little cabin on it. The kayaking gear was all on a small dock with a kayak rack, which he'd built. It was attached to a boat dock further from shore, so he'd dock the boat then walk onto the kayak rack. Even closer to the shore was a smaller dock that he had rigged with a pulley so he could stand on it and pull on the rope to bring it to shore and then back to the dock again. It was a clever setup. He said he'd built the dock and the kayak rack back at Homer and then brought it over here, since it would be too hard to build it across the bay.

On the boat ride back I went back over the birds I'd seen with Don. Walendo also noticed what was called a "sun dog," which was some streaks of pink and blue in the clouds just below the sun. Don said that meant it would rain within 24 hours, and indeed he said the forecast for tomorrow was rain. Oh well. Still, I felt like we'd been so lucky with weather that day, it was okay. When we got back to the dock and left, we said a warm goodbye to Don and thanked him for the experience. I think he knew we'd really appreciated his company and the day's adventure.

We drove back to the room and unloaded our stuff and relaxed a bit. I wasn't very hungry, and Walendo wanted to make sure he visited McDonalds at least once in Alaska, so this seemed like the right time. We first stopped at the supermarket where I got a fruit salad, and then Walendo picked up his favorite at McDonalds. We came back to the room and munched our dinner, and now Walendo is reading his Tom Clancy again while I catch up with the journal.

Previous   (Boat trip to Seldovia)

Next   (Exploring Homer)