Independence Weekend in Kachemak Bay

We spent a sunny and warm 4th of July weekend with our friends Liza and Debbie in Kachemak Bay State Park. We accessed the park from Homer -- took a water taxi from Homer to the "Saddle Trail" trailhead, just south of Glacier Spit. From there it was an easy hike in (about 1.5 miles) to Grewingk Glacier Lake. Great camping all along the lake with stunning views of the Grewingk Glacier. We could hear the glacier calving, and there were plenty of little iceburgs for Emerson to float on.



On Sunday we hiked to the glacier via a rather circuitous and long (roughly 15 miles RT) route. To cross the Grewingk river, we used the hand tram, which is a very cool contraption, just tough on the arm muscles. Most of the trail was below treeline, but the payoff was awesome -- Debbie and I ventured down and touched the glacier, saw the water rushing through the ice itself, carving it into little cubes, and saw little pools of water forming below the glacier. On the way back, we took a rather adventurous route (we naively thought we could cross the river w/o the help of the hand tram) and ended up bushwacking about a mile through solid bear habitat. Singing every campy, folksy song we could think of, we safely made it back to the trail and to camp.