Intro - This was our second time in Alaska. On a previous trip we had explored the northern area around Fairbanks and Denali along with part of the panhandle section near Skagway and Juneau. This trip we wanted to check out the Kenai Peninsula. We took a week long backpack trip in Kachemak Bay State Park near Homer and a week of day hikes and touristy sightseeing around Seward. We also spent the weekends in-between with our Alaska friend Karen.

Day 1 (Anchorage) - We hadn't done much conditioning and training back home before coming on this trip so Karen picked out an "easy" nearby day hike for us to sharpen our teeth on. It was a trail that went straight up the backside of Lazy Mountain. Diane and I were soon winded trying to keep up with Karen. The trail led us up the small stream valley formed by McRoberts Creek. It was heavily overgrown with weeds that were as tall as us. We eventually broke out into a large bowl area with Lazy Mountain off to our left and Matanuska Peak off to our right. Taking the left fork in the trail we made our way up and over to Lazy Mountain. The view from the peak was fabulous!. When we think of the views we get when we drive two hours to the Appalachian Mts back home, we were jealous. Here was a majestic view and it was only 15 minutes from Karen's house! Unfortunately, we only had one day for "practice hikes". Tomorrow we had to head off to Homer for our main backpack trip.

We've just emerged out of the McRoberts Creek drainage and are heading for Lazy Mt. (the peak in the far center of the photo)

Here's a 360 degree panoramic shot from the top of Lazy Mt with Diane and Karen. Click on the image for an enlarged view (116k)

Day 2 - Today was a driving day. After a good hearty breakfast at Karen's, we took off and drove to Homer. It was a drive of about 227 miles from the Anchorage area and took us most of the day. The scenery along the way is nice and there was certainly no reason to hurry. When we got there we checked in at Mako's Water Taxi. We had prearranged with them to ferry us across Kachemak Bay over to Kachemak Bay State Park. It was then that we learned that our well planned backpack trip was doomed to failure. The water taxi operators told us that the trails we had picked out were heavily overgrown, blocked by many blow-downs and nearly impassable in many sections. Several other people with the same planned trip had bagged the trail part way thru and turned around. Not sure what to do, we went and had supper at a nearby restaurant. In the 15 minutes while waiting for our food, we re-planned the entire backpack trip that we had spent weeks planning. That night we stayed in Beeson's B&B in Homer, anxious to see what other unplanned adventures were waiting for us across the bay.

^ The view on the drive into Homer. Across Kachemak Bay is Kachemak Bay State Park, where we'll be backpacking amongst the mountains the next day. > There's camping on the Homer Spit. Not real fancy, but it is cheap.