Fishing and Farmer's Markets

Wednesday morning we rode our bikes to the Pratt Museum in town. There is a bunch of really cool exhibits there. One was a live video feed from Gull Island, a island in the bay with thousands of birds on it. The camera allows you to remotely pan and zoom the camera from the Pratt. There was also a live video feed from Brooks Falls where several bears were feeding on the spawning salmon. They also had a good exhibit on the infamous spruce bark beetle, and a depressing collection of black and white photos taken at the Exxon Valdez clean up on Mars Bay. You could also listen to the captain's distress call among other things.


Thursday morning I went on what was advertised to be a "fly fishing" guide service on the Anchor River about 15 miles north of Homer. Meredith wasn't feeling well so she slept while I fished. The taxi picked me up at 4:30 am, met up with the guide in town and was at the river by 5ish. The guide pulls the "fly rods" out of the carrying cases only to reveal that the spool lacked any fly line. Strike one. Then he pulls out the salmon eggs we were using for bait with the "fly rod". Strike two. Then to sound legitimate, he calls the bobbers, "strike indicators". Strike three. He told me I could use a real fly rod at the next river so I went along with it for a while and had fun catching 4 dolly varden, a pink, and a king salmon. From the time is started using the fly rod on no one saw a single fish. Up to that point, however, you could see the salmon and dollies jumping and swirling upstream. Sorry for this rant. However, the guide was very helpful in discussing the health of the salmon fishery and potential global warming implications. Anyways here is a picture of the pink salmon I kept and we ate that afternoon...


Thursday afternoon we were visited by another moose. Apparently it is a a lone yearling that comes through from time to time. We watched him munch on a rose bush for while before it gave Meredith the stink eye (pictured below) and ran off...


Friday morning we ran some errands in town and made some more calls regarding interviews and meeting times with more people. We got in touch with Kyra Wagner who runs SustainableHomer.com and ended up going to her house that afternoon to speak with her about her website and her work. Luckily, she lived on the next street over and had an amazing house. She had a huge garden, chickens, a solar panel which runs their entire house, and a huge plot of land. Talking to her was very interesting, and we learned mostly about the politics behind the Climate Action Plan and how to make the issue of climate change apeal to all demographics.


This morning (Saturday) we went to the farmer's market which we've been to three times now, to see Kyra play in a marumba band. The market is a recent addition to Homer and is "the place to be" on a Saturday morning. It is a great example of the progressive liberal demographic that helped push the Climate Action Plan.

More work, more fishing, more good weather...

After going to the Wynn Center, we spent our evening at Bishop's beach. We intended on walking all the way down the beach, but got caught up in a highly competitive game of "rock" bocce ball (lasted well over an hour.)
After a disputed victory...our attention turned to the incredible amount of wildlife out. We saw several loons fishing for dinner along with a couple of seals. We also saw an eagle and two sandhill cranes flying over head.
Another shot of Bishop's Beach...




We spoke with the erosion specialist, Steve Baird, about his work in Homer. He was very helpful and may even be Brendan's new hero (big fisherman). Here is an example of his work in which he compiles decades of erosion rates and distances into GIS software, creating figures like the one below.
We got our bikes fixed and let's just say...we underestimated the hills of Alaska. None the less, they have been very helpful!
Picture taken of Grewingk Glacieron the way up one of the hills...
After a long day of biking we decided to once again try our luck fishing off the Spit. Here is a picture of Brendan trying to catch a halibut on the fly rod. teehee

I was more impressed by how clear it was that night!

Hard at work...and play.

Today we went to the Islands and Ocean Center and the Kachemak Bay Research Reserve. We spoke with several people whose research centered around various aspects of Alaska wildlife and nature being affected by global warming (coastal erosion, seabird populations, marine mammals, spruce bark beetle). We also set up future meeting dates with other specialists and we are excited to have made such helpful connections!


Later today, we went on a guided hike through the Wynn Nature Center (part of the Center for Alaskan Coastal Studies). We learned all about local flora and fauna and saw more of the damaging affects of the spruce bark beetle.
Here are some pictures we took along the way...

Here is a picture of a fallen tree after being infested with the spruce bark beetle, and picture of a cross section of a tree that suffered the same fate. We learned about the beetle's life cycle and the gradual process of infestation in addition to how the trees attempt to defend themselves.

Here is a photo of a few sand cranes we took on the way to the Wynn Nature Center. Apparently the sand crane is endangered and birders come from all over to see them (Click to enlarge).
We also fished a little bit more off the spit. The amount of fish around the spit is unbelievable. Here are few pictures of Pollock that we caught on either herring or spoons. We also caught flounder and the strange-looking irish lord fishHopefully we'll get our hands on some halibut. The Homer Chamber of Commerce tagged random halibut with dollar amounts on them and whoever catches them wins the alotted money.

Here's a big ol' pile of bear poo we found around the yard. Hopefully we never get too close to its owner...

Some pollock and moose

This is a picture Brendan mapped of our kayak adventure. The yellow is the course of the water taxi that took us across Kachemak Bay, and the red is our own arm-power at work in Peterson Bay!!


Last night we finally got to see the cow and calves that have been living on Peter and Deborah's land. We got to watch them wander right up to the house, grazing along the way, until Brendan's flash scared them up the hill. :)



This afternoon we walked our bikes a very long way to CYCLE-LOGICAL where we are having them tuned up and made ready to ride! After the hike, Peter took us down to the end of the spit where we had a lot of luck fishing. Here is a picture of Brendan reeling in a Lunker!

We all caught Pollock and had a blast despite the cold wind. Brendan even reeled in two at once!!

Kayak Trip in Peterson Bay

This morning we took a ferry across Kachemak Bay to the Alaska Center for Coastal Studies headquarters on Peterson Bay. It was sunny, seventy, and calm for most of the trip. We saw all kinds of wildlife and are going to be terribly sore in the morning.

We saw several bald eagles and a few nests...
Several sea otters which were curious and did not mind us invading...
A pod of Harbor Porpoises hunting for lunch right amongst our kayaks (click on image to zoom)...

Some seals hanging out on the dock next to us...
And here is another picture of the view from behind Peter and Deborah's house...

First Few Days in Homer

We finally made it to Homer after two long days of traveling. Here are a few select photos of our trip thus far...Here is a picture of the front portion of Pete and Deborah's house. Sure beats the hostel. It is about ten minutes from downtown and sits right on a slope with a perfect view of the spit:

They have a six acre yard with trails and lookout points all around the property. The dirt around their house is full of moose tracks and the occasional bear patty.
We're doing some work too. Here is a photo of a spruce forest now dead due to the local spruce beetle outbreak which caused a small fire to spread uncontrollably throughout the dry dead trees. This same trend can be seen all throughout Alaska. The usually clear mountainscape is covered in a smokey haze due to an unusually large number of fires in Alaska this summer.