Hiking Fools

It's been raining off and on for days now, but as we have observed the locals you can't let it get in your way.  Just put on your raincoat and get out there so that's what we did.  I shouldn't exaggerate we have seen a little dry weather in between the drops.

A little glimmer of sun on the way to Seward

Seward is where the Exit Glacier is, and we remembered a pleasant hike back in 2005 that was interrupted by a momma bear and her cub, in fact it scared the crap out of us, so we wanted to go back and complete the hike.  The day was mostly dry but the showers and clouds would waft in from time to time.

Exit Glacier

Clouds on the mountains

Looking down from the glacier

It was a very pleasant 2.3 mile hike that goes right up next to the glacier, and if it wasn't already cool, the breeze coming off the ice was downright cold!

Off we go!

Almost there

It was great.  We weren't able to make it a complete loop like we planned as part of the trail had been washed out by the torrential rains.  Our timing was superb, we were just leaving as 5 tour buses pulled up filled with avid tourists and hikers.  So we went to what we consider the best restaurant in Seward for lunch, Thorn's Showcase Lounge, we had tried to eat there the day before but it was packed and people were waiting in line so we went elsewhere and weren't so pleased.  This time early as it was we got right in and had fantastic "Bowls of Buts", fried halibut chunks, done perfectly with hardly any batter.  Yummy!  We were so hungry after our hike that we forgot to take a picture of the food.  But here are a couple pics of the interior of this throw back lounge and restaurant.

Thorn's Showcase Lounge

After lunch we went for a walk around the town, nice small town vibe, and a great waterfront, saw this one house with the shingle highlight and thought you John, would appreciate it.

Pretty neat.

The next day we went to tackle part of the Caines Head Coastal Trail and the Tonsina Beach Trail.  It is 10 miles round trip, but the catch is you can't do it all at once.  The Caines Head Trail goes along the beach and is only possible at low tide, so if you want to do the whole thing you need to hike south at low tide, then wait 12 hours for the next low tide to get back.  We didn't want to do that but we decided to do at least part of it and then turn around.  Now to begin the Caines Head Trail, you need to do the 1.5 mile Tonsina Beach Trail first, and we found that is kind of a misnomer, it is not along the beach at all.  It's actually in beautiful woods with a lots of uphill and down.  In order to hit the tide right we left at 0645.

Off we go

Some of the pretty trail

Now it wasn't raining at the beginning of the hike but we started to hear the pitter patter of droplets on the trees.  We climbed and climbed wondering why since we were supposed to end up on the shore, but it was worth it.

A view from the top

Then of course, we had to go down steeply to the coast, and down came the rain!  It was pouring by now, but we were committed.

A stream feeding into the bay

Salmon heading upstream to spawn in the rain

It was pretty

Wet, but smiling

Karen decided to turn around to tackle the cliff face we had descended, and Jan and I went another 3/4 mile or so down the beach, before turning around.  

Heading back in the pouring rain

It was worth it rain and all, 4.4 miles, a good day, although we were all ready for some warm showers when we got back:-)

So then Karen and Jan decide to do yet another hike today, I had hit my hike limit for now, so off they went to do a portion of the Lost Lake hike.  Now they have better pull or I'm just a jinx, as the weather turned out to be fabulous with sunny blue skies.  

And off they go

Beautiful view

You can see the bay from their turnaround point

I wanted to show you a view of Exit Glacier in the sun for comparison, pretty impressive.

Exit Glacier

And I'll part with a quick shot of the view from the roof of our motorhome in our campground.

Tomorrow we move up to Cooper's Landing, right in the middle of the Kenai Peninsula, and right in the middle of some very prime salmon water.