This morning we took a chartered boat across Kachemak Bay to Kayak Beach, which was about a seven mile journey from the harbor. The captain and his wife excitedly told us that there was a mama bear with three cubs on the beach the day before and that morning. We kept our fingers crossed for some exciting nature viewing.
The seas were quite calm as we made the crossing and I was blown away by how crystal clear the water was as we approached the shores of Kachemak Bay State Park. This was where we were going to stay in a yurt overnight after a day of hiking. Our goal was the summit of Grace Ridge (3,188 ft) but by the time we headed up the trail it was getting to be late in the day.
Hans was the only one of us who got to see the bears while we were dropping things at the yurt and getting ready to hike. He said that the cubs were really cute and rolling around on the beach. He managed to get a couple of photos of the mom before all of the bears disappeared into the woods.
The hike was brutal but a really fun time. We spent a good hour picking massive amounts of delicious blueberries which is part of why we didn't make it all of the way up to the summit. We had to set a turn-around time of 5 pm so that we would be back to the yurt by dark. This was the longest and most elevation-gain hike we had done in a good decade but the views were absolutely worth it. Considering how glum the weather has been this whole trip we were grateful for an afternoon with broad views from the mountain. The mosquitoes, though. They were absolutely brutal. Right as we had decided to start the descent back down the rains came and we got absolutely soaked and covered in mud.
Once we were back in the yurt with the wood stove going we got pretty slap happy from being warm and dry and full of instant mashed potatoes. What an adventure.
Do you see how many dang mosquitoes were flying around?
They were ruthless.
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