Exploring the Kenai | Lost & Found EP.09
Hello everyone and welcome back to episode 9 of Lost & Found!
This episode starts after we return from Katmai National Park and head onto the Kenia Peninsula for the first time. The Kenai Peninsula is a landmass that is southeast of Anchorage and home to towns such as Girdwood, Whittier, Seward, Homer, and Soldotna… All of which we will make it to eventually as this series rolls out.
Owen and Girdwood Brewing Company, 35mm
The road onto the Kenia Peninsula (the Seward HWY) traces the edge of the Turnagain Arm which is quite possibly one of the most beautiful highways we’ve ever driven. The Turnagain Arm is a body of water that creates one edge of the Kenai Peninsula and is home to glacial mud flats, beluga whales and the Bore Tide wave. (We circle back to discuss the bore tide wave a little later)
Waiting for the Bore Tide, 35mm
Owen reading up on the bear alert at our camp spot
After returning from Katmai I was feeling a bit under the weather so we quickly made our way to Whittier so we could find a place to sit still while I rested. But on the way we experienced our first ever earthquake. Thankfully we, and everyone else on the peninsula was fine, even though some towns were evacuated due to a tsunami warning.
Whittier is a unique town, to put it simply. Known as the city under one roof, roughly 95% of the entire town lives in one single apartment building. This is because there isn’t a ton of land to accomodate all who live there.
While I was resting in the camper, Owen went out on foot to check out the town.
MAK taking some pictures near camp in Whittier
Thankfully I started feeling good enough to enjoy the sunset from our camp. We had impressive views of a glacier across the water which made for a lovely evening.
We only stayed a single night in Whittier because the town is so small and Owen was able to see just about everything, on land, in a day. Even though we didn’t know it yet, we’d return in a few weeks to see it by water.
Sunrise view from camp outside of Homer, AK
After leaving Whittier we ventured deeper onto the Kenai to explore Homer. Just outside of town we found one of our favorite camp spots in all of Alaska. We ended up staying for a few days so we could focus on work and the abundance of eagles that called the area home.
Juvenile eagle near camp outside of Homer.
Much to our delight the bald eagles were abundant giving us plenty of opportunity to watch them fishing in the ocean and fresh water streams that terminated at the beach. Owen and I spent HOURS with our faces pressed against our camera getting footage and photos of these fascinating animals.
Mature eagle looking for it’s next meal
Juvenile eagle with it’s nictitating membrane (extra eyelid) over it’s eye
The speckled eagles are juveniles who have yet to develop their trademark markings. It typically takes about five years for an eagle to develop its trademark white head, yellow beak, and dark body.
Juvenile eagle getting swarmed with mosquitos
Another reason we loved this spot so much was that we had sweeping views of multiple volcano’s across Cook inlet. We watched just about every sunset and sunrise here leaving us somewhat sleep deprived because of the hour in which sunrise and sunset were happening. It was well worth it. This vista really put on a show!
Fancy feast at camp
This fancy east was all Alaskan, local sourced goodies to get a real taste of the place
Fancy Feast with Owen
Otters out of the water on our way to hike
After leaving camp we ventured back into Homer for a day on the water with our friends Cori & Dave. We met them on (both legs of) the ferry as they happened to be on the same boat! We were excited to reconnect with them in their home town. When we met up we knew that we were going out on their boat to find a hike, but didn’t know much more beyond that.
Dave taxiing to shore
Cori & Dave’s cute boat waiting for us to come back from our hike
After boating across the inlet we floated past a massive raft of otters. We’d yet to see so many in one place! After we anchored and went ashore to hike over the headlands to a lake they thought we would like.
And boy did we?! They took us up to a massive lake that was decorated with icebergs that calved off and drifted from the glacier on the opposite end of the lake. Being that we didn’t have any means of paddling out into the water they brought a stand up paddle board and an Alpacka Raft. Conveniently, Owen and I had been long toying with the idea of buying packrafts so we saw it as a unique opportunity to give the Alpacka a try! Being able to get so close to the ice was an incredible experience, one that wouldn’t have been possible without Cori and Dave generously offering to take us across the water for the day.
Needless to say, Owen and I fell in love with the Alpacka Raft and are now the proud owners of two Wolverine pack rafts from Alpacka. One we bought the day after we left Homer ;)
The community of Halibut Cove
After wrapping up at the lake we motored over the the small coastal community of Halibut Cove. The vibrant artist community is nearly entirely made on stilts with each home connected by a boardwalk.
Our first stop in Halibut Cove was to the coffee house that is known for their Coffee Milk Shakes. After our pick-me-up we wandered the boardwalk and saw the different homes and small shops around town.
Halibut Cove’s floating post office
The USPS boat that services Halibut Cove
As we made our way back down to the dock to leave we spotted the floating USPS Post Office. I feel like I need to explain why it caught my eye as it’s a little strange to get excited about a unique post office. Over the years I’ve started to spend a lot of time at post offices sending orders from our web store. We go to them all over the country, in small and large towns. I’ve come to love seeing the architecture and buildings that are used for all the different Post Offices. Thus, this floating post office and USPS boat really made my heart skip a beat (the good kind). After further research this is one of the only floating post offices in the country and the town is quite proud of it!
On the way back across the inlet we stopped at a massive seabird rookery. As we got closer the sound of screeching birds was deafening. Along with the noise the rookery smelled strongly of guano and was thick with flies. Braving all of the above was well worth it to get a closer look at how these birds raise their young.
Again, we can’t thank Cori and Dave enough for being so generous with their time to take us out and see their home a little more in detail. Without them, none of these adventures out of Homer would have been possible. So, if you read this Cori & Dave, THANK YOU. We had an absolute blast with you all! We fell in love with Homer greatly because of our day with you!
Thank you all so much for returning for another episode of Lost & Found! We will see you next week!
Love,
MAK
Thank you to our sponsors
These brands made it possible for us to document our travels through Alaska and turn it into this series. Without their support none of this could happen. We are forever grateful to have brands we already use and love on our side to help us create something we’re proud of!
Our work life is powered by Battle Born. They make the best lithium batteries on the market and are a crucial part of our power system that enables us to work from the road! It took an incredible amount of power to create this series, and we have Battle Born to thank for making it possible.
Power and power management are key to living and working full time from the road. Our mobile lives run on a Redarc Manager 30. It’s a state-of-the-art battery management system that charges and maintains auxiliary batteries by incorporating AC, DC and solar inputs. We’re not sure where we’d be without it!
We’ve now been living out of our flat-bed Four Wheel Camper for 3 years. FWC builds comfortable and durable campers that can fit on any truck. We can confidently say that our FWC is the most comfortable and livable rig we’ve had in all our years on the road!
Maps are your best friend when you’re on the road. On X makes it easy to find open routes and trails no matter where we are. On X allows us to access saved maps offline so we can locate ourselves in the wild when there’s no service.
Main Line Overland is the shop that built our rig, Roxanne. They are incredibly knowledgable on everything overlanding. We chose to work with them because they build thoughtful, reliable and durable vehicles that can get you anywhere you want to be!
Tires can be some of the best insurance when you are out in remote places. We love and trust our Toyo ATIII’s to get us in and out safely, no matter the terrain. They’re amazing in mud, moon dust, loose rocks, slick rock, you name it!
We’ve trusted our Jetboil cooking systems for years. Our favorite, the Flash Cooking system is lightweight, compact and perfect for any trip!
