Icy warmth

Walk into spruce forests,discover a secret glacier. In Kachemak Bay,Alaska,witness the splendour of nature at every corner

Walk into spruce forests,discover a secret glacier. In Kachemak Bay,Alaska,witness the splendour of nature at every corner
Our 12-day road trip in Alaska was turning out to be a vacation of good clichés. The journey was as important as the destination and we went where the road took us. We ended up at the tip of the Kenai Peninsula in a town called Homer whose claim to fame is its famous spita narrow,hooked finger of land,nearly seven and a half kilometers long,jutting out into the waters of the Kachemak Bay.

The Homer spit is a lively place with shops,cafes,seafood restaurants and tour operators for fishing expeditions and chartered flights. But large crowds were something that we were trying to avoid. We found a spot to park our Recreational Vehicle or motor home (RV) inside town,away from the spit. It turned out to be a wise decision since it was empty and offered what we really wanteda breath-taking,uninterrupted view of the Kachemak Bay state park across the water.

With such beauty outdoors,it was difficult to just go shopping or visit a museum. So we soon found ourselves huddled in warm clothing,racing in a boat across the cold water to the other side for a five-hour hike. We were headed to the state park,a vast 400,000 acre playground of mountains,valleys,glaciers and wildlife and the only way to get there is to hire a plane or a boat. Todd Scanlon,a guy from upstate New York who shows up in Alaska every summer to make some money running a water taxi service between Homer and the Kachemak Bay state park,helped us get there.

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He dropped us on a lonely gravel beach that marks the start of the Glacier Lake Trail and headed back for Homer. To our satisfaction,there was absolutely no human being in sight and we entered the trail through the woods with little idea of what lay ahead.
Soon the forest of cottonwood and spruce ended abruptly,opening into a treeless zone of gravel. We marched on,following the trail,curious about where this sudden change in the landscape was leading us. A huge mountain emerged in the sky and we were enthralled,like an eager audience waiting for the curtains to go up.

After a few minutes of crunching gravel beneath our feet,it happeneda moment revelation. We found ourselves standing at the edge of a lake,with a rim of ice cubes and a few icebergs in the middle. And flowing down into this lake from the opposite end was a majestic river of icethe Grewingk Glacier. The glacier,the lake,the rocks,the raven overhead,all seemed to have a personality. We felt we had stumbled upon a treasure.
Dumbstruck by beauty we might have been but we still had to reckon with hunger pangs. On a fine flat rock,we laid out our makeshift lunch of strawberries,granola bars,grapes,bananas and Oreo cookies,and found that never had a meal of such odds and ends been so satisfying.

It was time though to bid farewell to our glacier (we were already proprietorial about the Grewingk glacier) and complete the rest of our hike. In summer,Alaska has nearly 20 hours of daylight so there was no fear of the sun going down in the middle of the forest. But it was starting to get grey and cloudy. Secretly,everyone prayed that Todd had not forgotten us. As the Kachemak Bay came into view again,a little speck of a boat was making waves. To our immense relief,Todd had shown up at the stroke of five.
Both sides were proud of their clockwork precision without the exchange of even a single phone call. We jumped into the boat,happy and exercised,and with the warm glow of those to whom nature has revealed a little secretbeyond Homer where the road ends.

Getting There:

You can fly to Anchorage from New York via Seattle. If youre renting an RV,most companies will pick you up from the airport. The distance from Anchorage to Homer is around 360 kilometres and you can make the journey in about six hours without stops. Check out http://milepost.com/ for information on whats available along the highway from sight-seeing and shopping to eating and hiking. Once you reach Homer,you can easily shop around for the best water taxi or charter plane deal that will take you across the water to the Kachemak Bay state park.

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Best time to visit:
The best time to visit are the summer months of June,July and August. However,going in May and September will fetch you great discounts and allow you to beat the crowds and frankly I loved the cold Alaskan air.
Accommodation:
We rented our RV from Alaska Travel Adventures http://www.bestofalaskatravel.com/. They gave us a new,clean RV and their staff was extremely supportive and friendly. The RV comes with a supply of towels,bed sheets,blankets and pots and pans for cooking. Ideally,you should pick-up and drop-off the RV from the same city because some RV companies charge a one-way fee if they have to drive somewhere to pick up the RV from you. The number of seat-belts in the RV determines the number of people who can stay in it. Homer also has plenty of hotels to choose from
Eating:
No dearth of sea-food restaurants if thats your thing. But if you plan to cook in the RV,just like in the rest of America,there are huge grocery stores and shopping malls along the way.
Shopping:
Since Alaska was once owned by Russia,the souvenir shops are full of Matryoshka dolls and other Russian paraphernalia which is good for kicks. I avoided books on Sarah Palin and earrings made from moose droppings.