Kasilof and Kenai

Low tide marina

When we left Homer we headed a few miles back north to the town of Ninilchik.  Not really much of a town but famous for charter trips to catch huge (up to 300 lb) Halibut.  Dave and Ellen Smith, whom we met at Escalante this spring, have a summer home there and invited us to fish with them on their little boat.  We stayed closer to shore and fished in 40' of water.  We had to launch and recover the boat, down a river during high tide so were only able to fish for about 2 hrs.  When we got back empty handed, Dave said that was the first time he'd ever been skunked.  Hmmmm, could it have been us?  Ellen did have some freshly canned salmon that she turned into salmon patties that were delicious!

Homer, the peninsula and Ninilchik have a strong Russian influence. There are other Russian named towns and churches still remain, and are still "working" churches. Besides fishing, there isn't much else to see in Ninilchik.

Next, we moved north again to Kasilof which is about 12 miles south of Kenai and Soldotna. Across Cook Inlet, that part of Alaska is roadless. Four volcanoes mark the shoreline and are the start of the Aleutian island. We had beautiful views of Mt Iliamna and Mt Redoubt. Both have erupted in the last 10 hears.

Fishing the Kenai

Russian Orthodox church

We spent 6 nights there and were able to catch up with Bill and Peggy Deal, whom we met when we wintered in Texas, and  they have their summer home just north of Soldotna.  We were able to spend some time with them and  they even took us to their cabin along the Kenai River.  Now the Kenai river, for all of us non fisherman, is the primo spot to catch salmon when they're running up stream to spawn.  They provided us with their fishing gear and expertise and turned us loose.  A few  fish were actually hooked but nothing landed.  They said they had never been skunked before, so now, we're pretty sure it's us.  Don't ever take Bill and Gail fishing unless you want to get skunked!!  It was still a great afternoon and they grilled some fresh frozen salmon for us for dinner.  The only down side to Kasilof was that we had our 2 gas cans stolen off the truck.  Thieves have been hitting the State Park down the road and I guess it was just the time for them to expand their crime spree.  It could have been worse.

We visited a couple of breweries, Kassik, very good and St. Elias, ok. We walked the beach agate hunting at Captain Cook state park but it was more fun plopping rocks in the mud flats at low tide. All of the Cook inlet and Turnagain arm have mud flats and very low tides. It is very dangerous to walk out on them at low tide as it is like quicksand. Quickmud and you will disappear. Tossing rocks in is like watching mud pots burble at Yellowstone. 

Plopping

Mt Iliamna

Mt Redoubt

Camping on the peninsula is different and not to our liking. Everything revolves around fishing and those people just want to pretty much step out the camper and fish. Consequently, most campgrounds are just gravel parking lots, RVs stacked side by side and in the middle of town. Not inviting. At Kasilof we found a quiet, wooded campground, but 15 miles from Kenai/Soldotna town. We got quiet a surprise when we went to the Kenai Walmart on a Saturday. Pretty empty parking lot and inside practically all the food shelves were empty! I mean completely empty. Everything was bought up by the tourist the last weekend of the season.