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| Kachemak Bay Glaciers Seen from Kenai Backcountry |
Stats
Difficulty: Easy - Moderate Distance: 15 mi Time: 6 hrs+
Summary
Dan Eidem runs Alaska
Wilderness 4-Wheeler Tours, a tour on ATVs, for small to medium groups. An earlier post described our trip with him
in May down the beach from Bishop’s Beach in Homer (AW4WT
- On the Beach). This time we took
his more usual route, into the Kenai Peninsula backcountry. This area includes meadows filled with
Fireweed, spruce forests, sweeping vistas and views of glaciers and volcanoes.
Opinion
This trip was a blast! We went several miles
into the backcountry, stopping at several locations to watch for moose, bear, and, if we were lucky, wolves. Dan has had tremendous success in the past spotting all three. But even when there are no animals, the views, vistas, glaciers, and volcanoes are well worth the trip!
into the backcountry, stopping at several locations to watch for moose, bear, and, if we were lucky, wolves. Dan has had tremendous success in the past spotting all three. But even when there are no animals, the views, vistas, glaciers, and volcanoes are well worth the trip!
Trail Advice
Dress in layers and bring a
jacket. If the sun is out, the
temperature can get quite warm, but the wind in the mountains can still be
quite chilly.
Bring water. It’s a long day and you’ll get thirsty
Bring a camera, ideally with
a good zoom. You never know what you
might see.
Suitability
Dan tailors his adventure to
his customers and doesn’t encourage daredevil driving with his ATVs, so this
trip is suitable to people of all ages.
He also has a limited number of 2-person ATVs for people who don’t or
can’t drive. The start of the tour is a
familiarization with driving ATVs so you don’t have to know how to drive one
ahead of time.
The trail can be rough in
spots and after a couple of hours driving on rough trails can be tiring. It might be moderately difficult for someone
who has weak arms or is young.
Starting Point
When you schedule your trip
with Dan, he will tell you where to meet him and give you directions.
The Adventure
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| Fireweed Fluff |
After
a short ATV drive up the road to the trailhead, we headed out into the
backcountry. Immediately the trail
headed up into the mountains through fields of fireweed. The fireweed bloom was basically over, but
the remaining flower seedpods were still a dark red-fuchsia and quite
pretty. Some of them had reached the
point where the pods had burst and they were filled with cottony fluff. The fluff was also blowing in the wind, which
made for interesting driving. We needed
to keep our mouths closed on some legs to keep from eating fireweed fluff.
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| Trail Running |
The
trails were an interesting mix.
Sometimes they were smooth and solid with a thick line of grass and
weeds growing between the tire tracks.
At first, I was afraid of high centering on the area between the tracks,
but that never happened. At other times
the trail was a series of deep and slippery mud puddles. At those times the driving was tricky as we
tried to find the highest point on the trail to avoid the mud. Again, we never got truly muddy and the
challenge was fun. Sometimes the track
was dry and clear, but very bumpy. In
those stretches we needed to slow down or bounce ourselves right off the
seats. It was not unlike riding a
rollercoaster.
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| Dan with Blueberries |
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| Far Ahead, Dan Rounds the Bend |
The
first pull-off of the trail was a fabulous overlook with a tremendous view of a
stream valley and meadow filled with late season fireweed and patches of
spruce. We watched for several minutes,
but, although this area often has moose or bear, there was no sign of them
today. Unfortunately, this was to be the
way of things for the trip. Dan has had
great success with wildlife viewing in the past, but on this trip the largest
things we saw were ravens and spruce grouse. He did find some low-bush blueberries, but we didn't have our blueberry picking gear with us, so we moved on.
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| Redoubt Dominates the View |
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| Alaska Cotton in the Wind |
We
drove further into the hills, periodically stopping to look over valleys and
meadows for moose and bear. At each stop
the view got better. First we started to
see the volcanoes across Kachemak Bay: huge and dramatic against the
skyline. Later as we got higher, the
glacier from the far end of Kachemak Bay reared up over the horizon. With the angle we had on them, they seemed huge. We stopped at that point for a picnic lunch
with a view of the glaciers and an alpine meadow: truly a beautiful sight! Shortly after lunch we headed back to the
trailhead. It was a marvelous day.
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| View from an Overlook |
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