Steve and I just got back from hiking the long trail near the visitor center at the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge here in Soldotna. We walked about 3 miles altogether. I am so glad I was wearing my long fleece jacket with the hood, because even though we drowned ourselves in DEET, the mosquitoes were totally obnoxious.
The first part of the trail (a nature walk - about a mile) is covered in a thick layer of wood mulch, which makes it a bit bouncy, but eliminates the need to watch out for tree roots, etc. The Centennial Trail (2.2 miles) is just a regular loop trail cut through the forest, and attaches to the shorter nature walk. Once we got deep into the trees, and broke a sweat, the mosquitoes swarmed us. It was just awful!
I only stopped to take photos about a half dozen times. Every time I stopped, I had dozens of the stinging pests land on me - trying to get in my mouth, up my nose and in my eyes. As long as we kept moving, we kept them off of us for the most part. (I’ll share photos at a later time)
We were both a little nervous about being in the woods by ourselves. At this time of year especially, encounters with cow moose and calves, & bears and cubs are a big possibility. I did my part of talking non-stop and making a lot of noise, while Steve laughed at me and told me I was making enough of a ruckus for both of us. The wind was at our back - another good thing - as our scent would have blown towards any wildlife and warned them of our presence. We saw moose hoof prints (little ones too!), but no bear scat. That was a relief.
Now we’re back at the camper and relaxing. Steve’s watching a movie (we packed DVDs for rainy days and down time), and in a little while he’s going to grill some steak for dinner. He didn’t catch a salmon yesterday, but the niece of the guide caught one, and after taking a small fillet out of it, she gave the rest to Steve (about 25lbs!). That was so incredibly nice of her! Steve is happy, even though he didn’t reel it in himself. By the way, his fishing trip scheduled for today was canceled due to muddy water. He’s rescheduled it for Saturday, so he’ll have to drive back down here on Saturday and Tuesday. I think I’ll have him take my car to save on gas consumption.
We leave Soldotna tomorrow, but only have about a 50 mile drive, so we’re going to sleep in, do some laundry, and have a nice breakfast here in the camper, before breaking camp and heading north. I love Cooper Landing’s beauty, but there aren’t many amenities there. I think we’ll stop at Fred Meyers here and replenish our produce supply. We’re definitely topping off both gas tanks here - despite the $4.64/gallon gouge.
I am so excited about Michele and Maddie’s arrival on Tuesday! I can’t wait to see them. It’s going to be so great to have a girlfriend to hang out with! Don’t get me wrong - I love my honey! - but all he talks about is fish, fish, fish! Maybe if I grew gills, I’d garner more attention.
I don’t know what (if any) internet access I’ll have from this point on, so this could be my last entry until the end of the month - or even the beginning of July.
Thank you to those of you taking the time to comment to my blog! I love hearing from you!
Until next time…
