Alaska Part 2

We weren't completely sure how we were going to make it for the last 10 days by ourselves without a car and a solid plan.  All we knew was that we wanted to hang around the Kenai Peninsula and hopefully get the whole way to Homer.  We had heard a lot of good things about that town. We were pretty excited to figure out how we were going to manage the days of the trip, but we could tell that dad was kind of nervous and/or thought we were crazy for trying to get around Alaska without our own car to drive.  They don't really have a great public transportation system other than the expensive railroad.  Hitch hiking was our best option we had going into it, and dad was not thrilled at all about that plan.   Fortunately, we had met Jeff through Brucker and we were able to stay a few nights with him and his awesome dog, Trout.  He lives in the beautiful peaceful town Moose Pass which is in the heart of the Chugach Mountains.  It was nice having a couple relaxing days there doing a lot of reading after we got done hiking.  It pretty much rained the whole time we were there.  We did take Jeff out for a birthday drink and then the next day we met up with our couch surfer host  to do a hike half way between Moose Pass and our next stop, Soldotna.  The trail was called skyline, and it went straight up to the ridge of the mountain.  We saw a black bear a few hundred yards away and Trout took off in a mad dash for it.  Fortunately he turned around before we saw him get in a serious fight with the bear.

We checked out the local fair with our next couch host and watched the pigs race and a rodeo.  The sun finally started to peak out for a few hours.  We didn't spend too much time in Soldotna we found a ride through Ride Share on Craigs List and we pitched in some gas money for a guy that was driving from Anchorage to the bed and breakfast him and his wife owned in Homer.   We had made contact with someone from couch surfing who lived in Homer earlier that week, but we couldn't get ahold of him before we arrived, so our ride gave us a good deal on a spare room for the night in exchange for some help doing chores around the house (we never actually had to help because the weather was bad the morning we were going to and he never called us to come back).    That night they dropped us off at the local bar, Down East, while they had some stuff to take care of and that is where our adventure in Homer started.  :) 

We met Adam and Forest, they work on a halibut charter boat,  and they were talking to us about going fishing and telling us about a birthday party that their friend Olympia was having the next night at the Down East.  Olympia had just been up to Homer visiting for a few days on vacation and she loved it so much she flew back home to Atlanta, quit her job, and moved up to Homer.   Another one of their friends, Stephanie, was one of the couch surfers that Annie had messaged.  She showed up later that evening at the bar and said that she had just got our message and would be more than happy to host us.  She had our own room attached to the garage and her place was on the hill overlooking the ocean and the mountains across the bay.  It was the most beautiful place to wake up at every morning.  We were only planning on spending 3-4 days there but we ended up staying 7!

We had a great time at Olympia's luau pig roast and the next day we went halibut fishing with Adam, Forest, and Captain Art. The first day we went out the weather wasn't very nice, but we did see some humpback whales and each caught 2 halibut.  We were only catching ones that weighed 15 - 20 pounds.  They can grow up to a couple hundred pounds which would have been no fun to bring up.  Our arms were sore after pulling up what we did! We ended up going out fishing with them 4 different times, and we even learned to fillet them.  The last couple trips the weather was beautiful and we could see the 10,000 ft volcanoes in the Aleutian Island chain.

  In the evenings, after a trip to the Salty Dawg, a famous bar on the spit, we'd go to Captain Art's house with the gang and cook the fresh fish and have a few drinks then typically go out to the bar.  Another day Adam, Annie, and another friend, Garrett, went across the bay whale watching and hiking in the mountains. The whole week was a blast of non stop laughing and good times.
 Oh yeah, and we saw the northern lights our last night there.  :-)
 It was a perfect way to end our Alaska adventure.