BLOG 13--ALASKA: KENAI

September 07, 2015 • Leave a Comment

Hello!

Kenai was absolutely gorgeous! The vistas and the beautiful glacier silt river.

Learn a little more about Kenai (pronounced "key-nigh") at this link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenai,_Alaska

We arrived via bus from Whittier and stayed at the Kenai Princess Wilderness Lodge. We had large rooms and a wood burning fireplace that we used to keep the room toasty!

This was the chandelier in the restaurant...

Some photos from the deck of the main lodge...

We went on a hike--notice the large wood burl?

On our second day in Kenai we spent an entire day canyon rafting..

Such fun...

Boots anyone?

This is Eric! Our rafting guide..

He is pointing at a photo that shows where we would be rafting...7 hour trip in total.

We rafted through the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge (down the Kenai River) and went through class II and III rapids. Then we went into Skilak Lake, a pristine glacier carved lake in the the heart of the refuge. That was followed by lunch and then a 1.5 mile hike through "heavy duty" bear country on the Hidden Creek Trail.

Check out the photos below...

Just being silly...

Our trusty rafts...

Rapids ahead...

At the start of the raft trip we were lucky to witness what they call "combat fishing!"

Essentially salmon fisher-people who are standing on the banks trying to snag a salmon as it swims up river to the site where it was hatched and released about 4 years ago or so--on it's final life's journey to spawn...(check out our blog on salmon spawning if you are interested).

Typically rafters will count eagles as they float down the river and into the lake...

Our raft saw 147 eagles--and--broke the outfitters eagle sighting record which was in the 90's.

This is a view of the lake where we went to shore for lunch...

This is Eric and Jimmy. Jimmy had just purchased his first pair of Chaco sandals (incredible sandals--I must say) and wore them on the raft trip in water that was frigid cold.

Notice the lovely flowers on the table...nice touch!

"Mayo Art"

Nature's Closet

After lunch Eric packed up the rafts and headed back to a pickup point.

We then hiked up the Hidden Creek Trail...

Before we left we asked Jimmy--"Do you have bear spray?" And he said, "No--I have my trash bag."

He said that if bears are approaching you take a black trash bag and snap it open and the sight of the bag and the sound chase off bears. He said that guides at the outfitters have used this many times, as has he, with success. Then he continued to tell us the a story about Jake the "bait" who was surprised by a bear trying to get the rafts into the water to take back to the pickup point. Essentially Jake was attacked once, was mauled and played dead, then tried to get back up when he thought the bear was gone...the bear wasn't gone but came back and roughed him up again. The second time Jake stayed "dead" for a long time to ensure that the bear won't return.