Alaska, Day 5: Red but not Bald, Orca Island Waterfall, and Grumpy Old Men

After a run through Anchorage and a fancy breakfast at Grandma Dee's, we headed to Southcentral Alaska via one of the most scenic routes possible:  The Seward Highway.  It was not quite as beautiful as I anticipated from my reading, but I really believe most places are much improved with sunlight and there was none of that to go around.  We did not have a lot of time to hike around, but we did get a chance to take one little walk to Devil's Creek (above) and saw the first salmon of the trip: a sockeye that had already spawned.  Then, to the boat dock in Seward for the water portion of our trip.

On the boat dock, we saw the classic Alaskan fisherman, and I wish I paid him $20 to take a picture with me.  He had waterproof overalls, a thick beard, water pogies, etc. plus a boat full of fish.  We also watched big fish get prepped on the docks while we waited on our captain, Dennis.

Our boat was sadly not the "Red Head," but "Seascape" got us to our destination just fine.

On the way out, Dennis pointed out our first bald eagle sighting on the trip (see below).  He didn't chase down the Orcas in the bay (we heard other captains talking about them via radio), but we figured we'd see some of those on our boat trip the last day, so no big deal.

As we planned our itinerary, we researched places to stay and--like all other lodging in Alaska--the summer prices were nuts for even the most basic amenities.  We had seen ads for Orca Island, but figured Aaron and Julie wouldn't be up for it.  Julie mentioned something about it one day, and we wrote back that we'd be interested, and within about 24 hours we had the place booked for the 4 of us.  Best decision of the trip!  This place is a yurt in the middle of Resurrection Bay at Humpy Cove--completely remote and reachable only by water vessel.  The yurt itself was so much better than I expected: nice heated room, comfy queen bed and futon, great dishes/cookware, and best of all, the coolest compost toilet (aka our "charming litter box").  I would have said best of all the hot shower, but the on-demand-hot-water shower went frigid on me twice!

This is the part of the trip where I really abused the word "charming."

 The yurt came with the use of their nice kayaking equipment, plus a row boat, grill, and all the materials you need for fires, cooking, etc.  The kayaking was the best part of the package, and the first thing we did that afternoon was kayak to a waterfall.  First wildlife sightings via kayak?  Hoards of jellyfish.

All the trail-less hiking in Denali made Julie a scrappy hiker, and she led the way up to the base of the falls.

The view of Resurrection Bay:

  That night, we got back to the yurt and I saw a dad and his daughter from Anchorage jumping in (see the swimsuit man below).  I knew if I was going to make the plunge into mid-50 degree water, I would have to do it when I knew for a fact I could run to take a hot shower.  So, I threw on my swimsuit and ran down the dock.  Brady yelled at me, "WAIT, WAIT, WAIT!" and I replied, "I CAN'T!  I CAN'T!  I'M TOO COLD!" and jumped.  Somehow he still got a picture of the splash.

You know when you jump into really cold water, and you get used to it within about 30 seconds?  This was nothing like that.  It got colder and colder every second I was in there.

...But I had to take one more jump, if only for the swimsuit guy to have images of the plunge on his camera forever.  Weird.  He said he might put them on Facebook.  Eek, even worse!

The worst part about the jump?  Somehow in my klutzy, hurried, frozen state, I busted up my toe on the dock.  It turned black and blue, swelled quite a bit, and it hurt the rest of the trip (and now, as a matter of fact).  I would not be surprised if I broke it.  Worth it?  Yep.

The rest of the trip was a scene from "Grumpy Old Men": Brady and Aaron out catching fish on a row boat in the POURING rain.  They were adorable out there, and caught plenty of rock fish and a few other varieties.  They pulled in one after another, totaling 12 caught, and 8 that we cooked up for dinner at 10:47pm.  We finally put our headlamps to use cooking them up (it actually got dark in Seward, unlike Denali).  We loved that we could have whatever schedule we wanted.  It was like being five years old again and Mom telling us we could stay up another hour.

Cleaning the fish:

Some fishermen were also staying the yurts, and they took their personal boat out about 15 miles to catch salmon earlier that day.  They gave us a pink salmon filet, which was "delectable," according to Brady.

Totals for Day 5:
Hiked:  about 1.5 mile
Kayaked: 3 miles
Wildlife:  1 bald eagle, tons of jellyfish, harbor porpoises on the way back from the waterfall