Portage Glacier - Northern Kenai Peninsual

Portage Valley is the home to at least 6 different Glaciers. The most visible and easiest to get to is Portage Glacier which empties into Portage Lake. Five of the glaciers people are able to hike to, including Portage, for a closer look. The last is not much more than a big snow packed area now and is very isolated.

At one time Portage and Burns Glaciers were one glacier eventually creating Portage Lake. Nestled between the Chugach and Kenai mountains, the weather in this region is a changeable as the winds. While it might be 55 degrees in Anchorage just 55 miles away, there may be gale force winds with driving rains in the Portage Valley.

"Portage Pass is a narrow land bridge between Prince William Sound (Seward) and Turnagain Arm (superb of Anchorage). As the air pressure between the two areas equalizes, extremely high winds can be created. These winds have snapped 50 foot flagpoles like twigs, peeled away asphalt, and lifted boxcars from the railroad tracks."

The ice found in our refrigerators is clear because the air bubbles scatter the light--creating the white appearance. When sunlight strikes glacier ice, the lower energy colors are absorbed by the ice and only the blue color (which has the most energy) is reflected back to the eye.

I know I have said it before, but it bears repeating that glacier ice is formed under the weight of countless snowfalls, which squeeze out most of the air, leaving dense, compact ice.

We came in search of ice worms. All we found were the ones at the Visitor Center, where a penny is compared to the size of the ordinary ice worm. Yes, the ice worm is related to the earth worm.


Resembling a piece of dark thread, the ice worm can reach a length of 1 inch and 1/32 of an inch in diameter. The dark pigmentation protects them from the sun's ultraviolet rays. Thus they can only be found at night or maybe under very cloudy, dark conditions. The ice worms are often found in large colonies containing millions of worms. They live on red algae which grows on glacial snowpacks; and it is believed they may forage for pollen grains blown onto the glacier and snowpack by the winds. If the surrounding temperatures increases much above 40 F, the worms become lethargic and begin to disintegrate. If a human finger touches an ice worm it may instantly die from the heat.

These 3 pictures represent the town of Portage after the 1964 earthquake. It is very hard to imagine that the earth could and would drop 8 to 9 feet at one time. Alaska's south saw a lot of devastation from that earthquake.

The Last Night at Homer Spit Fishing Hole

From the warmth and dryness of the motor home, I watched a salmon being caught.

And a Harbor Sea looking for a free handout.

Heading north again toward Anchorage.

BBFN, Karen and Don

Anchor Point North of Homer, AK

This most amazing scene played out in front of me when I stopped at Halibut Cove State Park and Recreation area in Anchor Point. Instead of lining up boat trailers in the parking lot, the were lined up along the sand beach.

When a boater was ready to come back in, he called ahead. The tractor picked up their trailer maneuvering it along the sand beach into the water, enabling the captain to simply drive up onto the trailer and be hauled out of the water and up to the paved parking lot. When I told Don about this amazing way of getting the boat onto a trailer, he was not impressed at all as he has seen it done that way before. Oh well, guess an ole boater such as himself has seen plenty in his day.

Of course the ever present seagull, but I was surprised:

to see these Sand Hill Cranes along my drive route. I knew they were in Alaska, but never gave a thought to seeing them here, and in someones yard yet. I felt honored to have seen them in their Spring habitat of Horan, Wisconsin then here in Alaska also.

My intent was to take a drive north from Homer to Anchor Point (see Halibut Cove above) and attempt to find the Russian Village to take a picture of the Church. I took the North Fork Road out of Anchor Point. I followed this very winding, very hilly road forever, getting deeper and deeper into what I viewed as no-man's land. The farther I went the scarier it felt; but I was on a quest. The books say the trip was only 9 miles but it sure felt a lot, lot longer.




As you see I did indeed finally find the Russian Church. I took the pictures and got out of there as fast as I could. Once again I ran out of paved roads when approaching the village. The village appeared to me as many of the native peoples villages (in the lower 48) are when we drive through them; in disrepair and disregard. No one was anywhere to be seen and I simply felt ill at ease.

Amazed to see the Community was established in 1968.

Our friends Judy and Jerry Funk had also been to this town (yea, there were two of them--one of me) and stopped at the Post Office (I saw it but would not have stopped there). The postmistress told them of a nice Russian Cafe up and down a block or two. They went there and enjoyed the experience. The proprietress was dressed in full Russian custom and adorned them with babushka and fur hat. While plying them with many Russian stories. They were served a Russian meal starting with Bourst, however, no spoons were served with the soup. When they asked for spoons they were given Russian lacquer spoons which were to be used for the entire meal. Boy were they surprised when they could not return the spoons but had, unbeknownst to them, purchased the spoons at the time of accepting them. The entire meal including the spoons was pretty pricey, even if it had been an evening meal instead of lunch. More importantly Judy and Jerry enjoyed the whole experience, which you can read about on their blog: http://theadventureroadshowwithjerryandjudy.blogspot.com/



BBFN Karen

P.S. Anchor Point holds title to having land out to the farthest western point in the United States.

Downtown Homer Scenes

This lighthouse is one of the views to greet the traveler traveling out of the Spit to the town of Homer.

Most of the building I have taken pictures of are original buildings from the time Homer was settled.

This is more or less how the town of Homer, away from the Spit, looks today. Most of the activity and commercial/tourist traps are along the Spit.

The flat roofed brown building is home to Fat Olivers, an Italian Restaurant serving outstanding Stromboli's. Yummy!

The pizza oven is made of brick surrounded by aluminum decoration on the outside. Originally the building housed the school buses for the local 8 schools. The renovation was done with care, attempting to utilize as much of the original building and what was already in place as possible. Sections of the floor in the bar are the metal strips the buses were run over when it was time to change the oil. Modern art by local Alaskans adorns the walls in the restaurant area.

Outside I could not help but take a picture of the "once upon a time" Hobart commercial mixer. It hit home to me as Whirlpool purchased the small appliance business from Hobart years ago, which included the much smaller household version of the mixer.

BBFN, Karen & Don

Russian Community at the end of East End Road

At the end of my drive along the East End Road, between where the pavement ended and I had to turn around, I realized I was driving through
a Russian community. As I was investigating whether I could drive farther, two young girls dressed in long, shiny pretty dresses drove by me on an ATV (confirming I was in another land).

I came across a fabric shop and stopped in. Another signal that I was in a Russian Community. This shop looked very old fashioned to me, with flowery materials and shiny materials.

It is obviously an all in one stop for girls getting married and for other dressy occasions. There were also many type shoes just inside the front door, I guess to try on for a fitting.

How long has it been since you saw you could purchase a men's shirt for this price? I was completely blown away. I was glad no one was in the shop to see my astonishment.




Views of what I could not get closer to by not being able to go

down that
dang sandy
hill.

BBFN, Karen

East End Road, a drive out of Homer

These gardens are extremely soothing. Someone put a lot of time and energy into making this beautiful perennial garden.

The gardens

are at the entrance of Stream Hill Park, a development in the "beginning" stages.


Along this very scenic drive I had many views of the glaciers in the Harding Icefield, across the Kachemak Bay.

The houses are as diverse in Alaska as the drives and scenery.

And the roller coaster roads add to the fun of any drive.

East Gate Fellowship Church

No knowing exactly where I was going or what I was going to see, I traveled 22.4 miles on pavement out of Homer then 8.3 more until I reached a high brush-covered cliff. At this point the road turned to a sand road going down another 1,000 feet before reaching the beach. Many warnings told me not to drive down this "drop off" and I heeded those warnings.

BBFN, Karen