North to Alaska 2010

Kenai Landing and Kenai

First day trip out of Soldotna was to Kenai Landing on the Kalifornsky Beach Road. This road leads to the historic Kenai Landing where the canneries were. The cannery is long gone, closed within the last 2 years but the buildings, docks, and living quarters are still there and some of them are being renovated to become a shopping area. We talked to a gentleman that worked there and he told us that the cannery closed because of the desire for everyone to want the "farm-raised" salmon instead of the wild caught salmon. The cannery was a 1920's era salmon cannery that now offers lodging, camping, restaurants, shops, galleries and fishing. Visitors can tour the fish processing plant and watch fishermen unload their catch. However, everything was closed with the exception of the one shop that is completed in the larger building. They are still working on the rest of the building and we didn't see but one small restaurant that offered sandwiches and no lodging units with the exception of the campground that is on the grounds as you enter the area.

Next to Kenai - population 6,975. Kenai is situated on a low rise overlooking the mouth of the Kenai River where it empties into Cook Inlet. There are some great views across Cook Inlet of 3 major volcanic peaks in the Alaska Range - Mount Spurr, the largest, which last erupted in 1992, Mount Iliamna, identified by the 3 smaller peaks on its left and Mount Redoubt which was identified by its very regular cone shape until it erupted in 1989. Mount Redoubt also erupted last year but the tourist books aren't current with that information. Kenai is the largest city on the Kenai Peninsula. Prior to Russian Alaska, Kenai was a Dena'ina Native Community where they fished, hunted, trapped, farmed and traded with neighboring tribes here. After defeating the Russians in the Battle of Kenai in 1797, there was the first Alaskan gold discovery made on the Russian River. In 1869, the U.S. Army established Fort Kenai (Kenay) and the first fish canneries were established in the 1880's. Of course, oil exploration began in the mid 1950's and there are several oil drilling platforms that are visible in Cook Inlet.

We went to Old Town Kenai which has a self-guided walking tour that takes in Fort Kenay, the Russian Parish House Rectory, Russian Orthodox church and chapel. Fort Kenay had more than 100 men stationed here in the 1-1/2 years it officially served to protect American citizens in the area. The Parish House Rectory was constructed in 1881 and is considered to be the oldest building on the Kenai Peninsula. The parish house is the only one still remaining out of 4 rectories contracted by the Russian Orthodox Church in Alaska. The Holy Assumption off the Virgin Mary Russian Orthodox Church is one of the oldest Russian Orthodox churches in Alaska and a National Historic Landmark. With its 3 onion-shaped domes it is considered on of the finest examples of a Russian Orthodox church built on a vessel or quadrilateral floor plan. Inside are icons from Russia and an 1847 Russian edition of the Holy Gospel with enameled icons of Matthew, Mark, Luke and John on the cover. We were disappointed that the church was not open to the public due to a renovation project. There is also the St. Nicholas Chapel that was built in 1906 on the site of the original church. This also was closed to the public.

On one of our side trips to Kenai, we watched the "dip-netters" fishing for salmon. When the salmon are abundant, the fish and game commission opens the fishing for dip-netting. The stipulations are that you be a native Alaskan and this type of fishing is for subsistance fishing only. They use nets that are around 48 inches in diameter and along the banks at the mouth of the Kenai River is tent city! They drive onto the beach and pitch a tent and stay there for the entire time they are fishing - until they reach their limit. Some of them are in boats and some of them are fishing from the bank and it is shoulder to shoulder fishing.

Nikiski is another little town up the Kenai Spur Highway and the only thing of interest there are the oil refineries; CononcoPhillips 66 LNG Plant and the Tesoro Refinery along with the Agrium Kenai Nitrogen Operations plant. This petrochemial facility produced nitrogen-based agriculture products urea and ammonia and was closed September 2007 due to natural gas shortage in Cook Inlet.

Although the Kenai area is very interesting it is a bustling place with a lot of traffic. Way too busy for us after being in the wilderness for so long. I'm sure we will find this to be true in many places.

North to Alaska 2010

Soldotna

After looking one last time for the grizzly bear at Hidden Creek, we hooked up and took off for Soldotna which turns out to be only 43 miles away.

First town we passed through was Sterling - population 5,123. This is the a sports fishermen and canoists place to be. Fishing on the Kenai and canoeing on the Moose and Swanson Rivers. Of course with population of over 5,000 there are many tourist places, restaurants and stores along the highway. Too busy for us.

Next up is Soldotna - population 3,983. On the western Kenai Peninsula, the city stretches over a mile southwest along the Sterling Highway and northwest along the Kenai Spur Highway. Soldotna gets very busy during fishing season and there are several outfitters and guides in the area. We were parked in a gravel lot near the Soldotna airport. A gentleman who owned the property had wanted to put in a campground and the city told him he couldn't - so he told the city he would just let people park there for free. That was when the property was right across from the airport. He and his wife CeCe decided to build another house in a different location on the property and sell part of the property where their old house sits to the airport as the airport wanted to straighten out the road. In the meantime, the man had his friend come in, build a huge gravel parking area with a run way where his friend and he could fly their planes in and out from. Unfortunately, this kind gentleman died last spring and his wife has been left with the property. CeCe was kind enough this year to allow people to stay there for as long they wanted rent free. Whether this will remain as a place for campers to continue staying is up in the air.

At the end of the runway is the fish and game building with a walkway - several, in fact - that go down the bank to the Kenai River. There is a nice cleaning station and places that make the river accessible to fishermen and women. Sockeye salmon were running - what the locals call "Reds" and they were expecting CoHo or what they refer to as "Silvers" to come in right behind them. In fact, while we were there, they were catching some of both kinds. Every day we would see several people either coming back with their limit of up to 6 salmon, and more going down to the fishing area to try their luck. John went fishing every day, but Ken had no desire to fish but he did enjoy watching and talking to everyone. We were even lucky to have a couple of people share their catch with us. Some of you will recognize the guy on the right. That is Ken's brother John enjoying the fishing.

The day we arrived in Soldotna, we were told that a young man, 41, had lost his life in the river. He lost his balance, went down, came up once and they found him 2 days later. One of the women in our area also lost her balance, but she was fortunate that the guys around here were quick to grab her as she went floating past. She made the statement to Ken when she was retelling the incident, that she was 80 years old and she didn't think she would fish anymore. This is a treacherous river, the area where you stand to fish is not very wide and it drops off abruptly and the water is fast. I enjoyed watching them fish, but this is not a sport I want to participate in. I'm not even sure I would get in a boat on the Kenai River.

On this property were also moose and bear. We took several rides after the sun went down to see the moose along the road. Usually we would see a female and calf in the field right next to the parking area and several down the road. One evening we were coming back from town and one of the campers stopped us to say that a grizzly was chasing the female and her calf just down from where we were parked. So, we drove through the entire area but didn't see either the bear or the moose.

These people that come to the Kenai peninsula to salmon fish are serious about it. The people that were camped around us had various ways of preserving their catch. Some would take their fish to a processor to have it smoked, and either vacuumed packed or flash frozen and most of the time they would ship it back to their homes. Some others that were more industrious brought their canning equipment and freezers with them and processed their catch themselves. These people were not all in big rigs either. Some of them were in truck campers, some in small motor homes and others in small trailers. They usually towed a good size utility trailer behind them and that is where they set up their processing. One couple filled up two small freezers then canned the rest with a pressure cooker. They told us they had canned 10 dozen pints and still had more jars to fill. While there, just about everyone that was fishing and catching salmon was eating it everyday, too. Now I like salmon, but not everyday. Once or twice a month is enough for me and Ken said he is still deciding if he really likes salmon or not. Good thing we weren't fishing!!

We will be doing some day trips around the area and plan on leaving here in a couple of weeks.

Here are a couple of pictures of some mushrooms we spotted on one of our walks.

North to Alaska 2010

Seward to Hidden Lake Campground


Our first stop after leaving Seward was to spend the night at the Quartz/Crescent Creek Trail head parking area. There are two campgrounds on the Quartz Creek Road but we chose to take advantage of the free parking space at the trail head. One big problem with this spot were the mosquitoes which were enormous and we could actually see clouds of them invading the area. Attire for the rest of the afternoon and evening - mosquito repellent, long sleeves, long pants, collars up and hats on. Thankfully, we were only spending the night and decided it would be easier to stay inside - which we did.


On the road the next morning we are heading towards Soldotna - our main destination for the Kenai Peninsula but we don't expect to get there for a few days. Too much to see and do on the way. Of course, the scenery is beautiful and the color of the Kenai River is awesome. Again, this river is composed of glacier ice melt so is that gorgeous blue color we have been seeing all summer.





We took the Skilake Loop Road which was part of the Kenai Peninsula Highway built in 1947. It is a gravel road and although it is heavily traveled by fishermen and tourists, the road is still bumpy with lots of potholes so it is slow going. Three miles down the road is Hidden Lake Campground which has an observation deck for viewing wildlife and lake shore campsites - none of which we would fit into - we were too long. We did, however find a site suitable for us and even though it wasn't lakeside, it was a really nice site.



After setting up we decided to take a ride on the loop road. Great idea. Just about 1/4 block from the campground entrance is Hidden Creek and when we turned toward it we noticed quite a few cars stopped alongside the road. They were all watching the female grizzly bear feeding on salmon. We stopped also and got the camera going. She was catching the salmon, biting their heads off, flinging the carcasses aside and moving further downstream. We enquired as to why only the heads and it is because that is the best part of the fish. All the best nutrients are there and when they get their fill and realize the fish are plentiful, they will start eating all of the fish. She was a joy to watch. She didn't care who was there watching her as her main purpose and goal was to eat as many fish as she could. That was evident by the number of carcasses littering the sides of the creek. After a while she moved far enough upstream we couldn't see her anymore so we moved on. We stopped along Lower Ohmer Lake to look at the lily pads and across the lake was a moose - female and a little bit further to the west was a Bull Moose. They didn't care that we were watching them either as they were fully engrossed in eating the roots of the lily pads. We went to the end of the road and turned around headed back to the campground - all signs of wildlife are gone.





Day two at the campground found us back at the creek and again the female grizzly was there. We could hear bells as we watched the bear and here were two young women - early twenties - hiking down the middle of the road with one carrying a shotgun on her back with bear bells attached to it. They volunteer for the Fish and Game Department and their job is to count the salmon behind the gate and then release the fish into the creek. As we were talking to them one of their co-workers drove up and we learned a little more about what they do and a little more about the bear. The grizzly is a 3 year old sow and she is collared. The volunteers for Fish and Game think she is a problem but I said - after all you are in "her" territory so she isn't the problem, she thinks you are the problem. They agreed but still they said, she makes it hard some days to do their job because they can't get past her. The guy and Ken got to talking and after finding out we had never had fresh salmon gave us the one he had caught just that morning. He said he could catch another one tomorrow. Looking forward to that meal!


The third day we went to see the bear, there was a party of 4 people there that were totally obnoxious in their behavior with the bear. The picture taker decided he wasn't close enough so he moved in towards her, and of course the bear moved away. Then while the people were talking in loud voices, she moved into the woods and the picture taker followed her up "her" path. He came back out, they all got in the vehicle and slowly proceeded up the road until she came out on the road, then they chased her and made her run. I was incensed! When we went back later, she wasn't around and she wasn't visible the next day when we left either.








We did go back to Cooper's Landing while we were camping at Hidden Lake and got to see the famous "Russian River" Landing area. The Russian River Ferry is privately operated and has a passenger capacity of 28. The ferry crosses the Kenai River to the opposite bank and to the mouth of the Russian River for fisherman. When we were there we couldn't get much of a view because of the trees, but the parking lot was full.




Cooper Landing, population 353, is located at the west side of Kenai Lake. It was named for Joseph Cooper, a miner who discovered gold here in 1894. According to the Alaska Department of Community and Regional Affairs, the population of the area nearly doubles each summer.


Next stop should be Soldotna, where we plan to stay for a couple of weeks or so. John and Fran are already there and they said the salmon fishing is good.