#alaska2012

(by emelex)

So my wwoofing host is friends with the guy who delivers mail to the few year-round residents across the bay.  I've been trying to get across the bay to do some hiking in Kachemak Bay State Park, but water taxis cost $86, and that is so not in my budget right now. So Carey asked her friend Dave if we could go for a ride with him on his skiff as he delivered mail, and he kindly obliged.

Riding along with us were two researchers conducting a study on sea otters in the area. We dropped them off on a rock in the middle of the bay (!), where they set up their equipment and set up camp for two hours. It wasn't even high tide yet! Crazy ass scientists.  We picked them up in a few hours, no harm done.  But it was quite an operation navigating those rocks and getting all of their equipment on and off board.

The homes on the other side of Kachemak Bay are off-grid, and mostly just used in the summer as vacation homes. There are also a number of resort cabins and yurts, but everything is abandoned this time of year, except for a few cabins that have year-round residents.  So we got to enjoy a ride through the many coves and inlets across the bay, delivering a couple of packages, and eventually ending up at the home of and elderly couple, where the mail is sorted.

Here, we disembarked and spent a really lovely hour or so having coffee and tea and sticky buns with Sandy and Jimmy in their relatively newly built and incredibly gorgeous cabin. Out their front window they have a view across the bay to Illiamna Volcano (pictured in the photo with the researchers), and right behind their home is the beginning of Kachemak Bay State Park.  Nestled in the mountains with a stellar view, incredible handcrafted architecture, a raging wood stove... it was heaven. I really hope I have a future that looks something like that life.