Twilight into Homer (Day 8 Part 2)

Monday, 6/21, the 2010 summer solstice, we arrived in Anchorage where a combination of things made me want to go find somewhere else to spend the layover.  It was crowded with traffic, I didn't want to camp in a (relatively) big town, and even Motel 6 was $140/night. In the midst of finding a sporting goods store to replace my tent and sleeping mat, I even turned the wrong way onto a major one way street. I was way too stressed for being on vacation.

I got directions to a Sports Authority, but while looking for that I found a place called "Sportsman's Wharehouse." This place was huge and they had the variety of camping gear I was really hoping for. The firearms department was pretty impressive as well.

Don, who I think was some sort of manager there, spent at least a half hour walking me through the tent, air mat and waterproof bag options. Did you know thermarest color coats all their products based on the type of use? (bet you wanted to know that)

I ended up going with a 3 man all season tent and I am sure glad I did. Being able to sit up inside and having places to put my boots besides right up against where I'm sleeping has really helped my camping morale. It's also warmer inside than my last tent because I can close off all mesh openings. When it's warm outside, or I need a little air flow, there's six separate mesh windows I can open up to get some air flow inside.  It also has heated floors, AC power, support for satellite TV, wifi, and a shower with hot water... Ok, not really the last part, but I'll make due.

After I re-organized my bike with the new gear, I rode across the parking lot to Borders where I charged my netbook, checked email, and picked up a milepost. The stress level was much lower now and I was ready to go find a camping spot south of Anchorage.

I headed out down the Peninsula around 9:30pm. Starting out I had a nice view of the coast and the sun was still looking as it would at maybe 4:30pm at home. There was a lot of traffic heading the opposite direction, but not much going South.

I found the first campground about 20 miles down the road. The fee was $14.00 "per unit" (i.e. per tent, car, or rv). It's self serve where you just drop your money in an envelope, but I did not have exact change.  In fact, the only cash I had was my emergency money which is in $100 bills to keep the wallet thin. I didn't put too much worrying into this because I another idea I had before this trip was to ride into the Alaskan twilight on the longest day of the year. The GPS had me in Homer at around 12:30am, which was about perfect, so I just continued South.

The first part of the road heading south of Anchorage is called the Seward Highway. It starts out by taking you east around the Cook Inlet, where you eventually cross the water and start heading south. The views of the inlet with the backdrop of snowy mountains are pretty amazing, especially late in the day. Once you cross the inlet, you are driving through a valley in between the mountains seen on the earlier part of the drive.  The mountains aren't that far off either, you are right at their base. As with a lot of roads up here, it follows and crosses back and forth over streams.

About 90 miles into the Seward Highway is Tern Lake Junction where I turned off onto the Sterling Highway.  On the map, it's all actually Hwy 1, but there are names for these sections of it.  The Seward Highway actually continues onto Hwy 9 another 37 miles down to Seward. From Tern Lake Junction, it's about another 140 miles to Homer.

The Sterling Highway takes you west to the coast along the Kenai River, and then south into Homer. Soon after making the turn east is a popular fishing spot called Cooper's Landing. As I drove past this one spot in particular, I saw a few fly fishermen out there.  I thought it would be a good picture so I made a u-turn. That's when I noticed how many fishermen there actually were all the way down the river. Note that it was about 11pm too!

As I was getting closer to the coast, the sun was right in my eyes.  Looked like sunset was  going to happen within a half hour. I started to think that it might be difficult to setup my tent for the first time if I actually got into Homer when it was dark, or almost dark. It started sprinkling a little bit at this point too.

Off to my right across Cook Inlet were was some land, and mountains that came to a very sharp peak.  I think it was Mount Iliamna Volcano. I wasn't expecting to be able to see anything over that way. It would be like seeing a range of mountains 50 miles out as you drive down Hwy 1 in CA.

The sprinkling eventually stopped and I hit some road construction.  This set me back so that I didn't get into Homer till around 1am. It was barely still twilight. I asked a cop on the side of the road where I could setup camp and he directed me to a nice campground, on a hill in the middle of the town. It was actually pretty nice.  I found a spot and setup the tent without a problem. I needed a flashlight to read the instructions, but there was enough twilight left to setup the tent.

I still had the money problem though.  This campground was $8/night and I needed to get change.  I drove back out into town after the tent was setup, but everything looked closed and I couldn't find the Safeway I saw on the way in.  I saw a couple people walking around, probably in their late teens or early twenties.  I asked one guy if he knew if Safeway was open. "I think they close at midnight ... what do you need?"  I told him I just needed to get change for the campground.  "How much is the campground?" After telling him 8 dollars, he rifled through his pockets and said "I think  I have eight dollars here for you."

So people are really nice here in Homer.  I wasn't going to take money from a kid and told him thanks, but I'll get change in the morning.  Worked out well because the ranger came around and didn't charge me for that night because I got in so late.  I had change for the next night by the time she came around.