Day 27 of Lupe’s 2018 Dingo Vacation to the Yukon, Northwest Territories & Alaska!
4:50 AM – Not raining! That was all the encouragement needed to hit the road out of Soldotna. Still dark out, so it was hard to tell what the day was actually going to bring, but may as well think positive until proven otherwise. Lupe needed to get to Homer early, if she wanted to have a chance at an adventure in Kachemak Bay State Park today.
6:45 AM – Despite 20 miles of road construction, part of it following a slow pilot car in the dark, the Carolina Dog arrived in Homer with time to spare. However, things weren’t looking good for Kachemak Bay State Park. From the Homer Spit, Lupe saw dark clouds hanging over the mountains across Kachemak Bay.
The gloomy sky wasn’t the only problem. A fierce wind out of the NW was roiling the ocean into big breakers crashing against the windward side of the spit. Mako’s Water Taxi wasn’t open yet, so Lupe had time to check out the roaring surf. Over by Grace Ridge (3,136 ft.) where she’d had a fabulous time 2 years ago, the skies were brighter and much more encouraging.
The ocean was exciting, and everything looked so beautiful! What would Mako’s say about the forecast, though? A day of rain and wind would not be worth the water taxi expense to get across the bay.
Lupe was outside Mako’s ready and waiting for the moment they opened.
The phones were already ringing, when a pleasant young woman opened the office. Lupe and SPHP were willing to wait for her to take the calls, which she expertly handled. However, calls kept pouring in. For a while she was simply inundated. No rush. SPHP wasn’t expecting good news.
During brief breaks between calls, the young woman began giving SPHP a rundown on the situation. Mako’s wasn’t taking anyone anywhere. The wind was crazy at 35 knots. 10 foot seas. Tomorrow was supposed to be better, no rain expected and lighter winds, so the water taxis ought to be running. The best day, though, was 2 days from now. Calm and sunny! Could Lupe come back then?
Sure. Lupe would be back. Maybe not such a bad thing to rest up for a day or two, anyway. SPHP tentatively scheduled a trip across Kachemak Bay for Looper tomorrow morning. It all depended on the weather, and at least one more paying passenger turning up.
So that was it. What now?
Anchor Point! In 2016, and again in 2017, Lupe had done her Last Mile West trek along the ocean there. Only 15 miles from Homer, Anchor Point is the farthest point W on the North American highway system, and likely as far W as Lupe would ever be in her whole life. May as well go there again to walk the beach, and stare out over the sea toward the world the American Dingo would never know.
10:30 AM, Anchor Point – After a breakfast of iced raspberry-filled cinnamon rolls bought at Safeway in Homer (Lupe generously let SPHP have all the raspberry parts), Lupe visited the Anchor Point sign over by the campground entrance, then headed down to the beach.
The tide was way out. A flock of seagulls rested on the sand, perhaps not eager to have to contend with the wind which was still fierce out of the NW. Cook Inlet was beautiful! Watching the waves roll in was great fun. Exposed out on the windswept beach, though, Lupe agreed with the seagulls. This sea breeze was a bit much!
20 minutes on the beach was enough. The NW wind was simply too strong and cold to be enjoyable. Maybe Lupe could do her 2018 Last Mile West trek later on? In the meantime, a nap sounded good.
3:00 PM – Conditions had improved. The day had warmed up. Still windy, but not as annoyingly windy as it had been earlier. Recharged by the long nap, Lupe and SPHP returned to the beach for another Last Mile West attempt. The Carolina Dog had to get it done! A visit to the Rock of the West was an Alaskan tradition!
The tide had come in a long way during the past few hours. The beach wasn’t nearly as enormous as it had been. The wind was bracing, but much more bearable now. To Lupe’s delight, seagulls sailed by. Close to the pounding waves, Lupe and SPHP wandered S.
Lupe’s home in the Black Hills of South Dakota is about as far from any ocean as one can possibly get in North America. So seeing the ocean is a rare occurrence, a treat always to be savored. With nothing else in store the rest of the day, Lupe and SPHP followed the shoreline S farther than ever before, enjoying every moment.
In 2016, Lupe had gone as far as the Rock of the West, a big dark rock that had been surrounded by the incoming tide before she reached it. The intention in 2017 had been to return to that same rock, but it was nowhere to be seen. No problem. SPHP had simply designated a new 2017 official Rock of the West, an even bigger green stone that Lupe had gotten to climb up on.
What happens to these Rocks of the West along the shore of Cook Inlet during the course of a year? Who knows? All that was for certain was that Lupe never saw them again. Once again, although SPHP kept an eye out for them, neither of the 2016 or 2017 Rocks of the West appeared. Yet Lupe had certainly gone beyond where they must have once been.
Oh, well! That just meant that a new rock got to enjoy the honorary title of 2018 Rock of the West. A big gray stone right at the edge of the water earned the distinction. The tide was still coming in, but Lupe had time to get up on the brand new 2018 Rock of the West before the waves would wash over it.
On the way back, SPHP walked as close to the roaring waves as possible. Lupe roamed sniffing near and far. For some unknown reason, there didn’t seem to be nearly as many big rocks on the beach as there had been in prior years, but Loop got up on a couple more of them, perhaps testing them out for future honors. In 2017, huge parts of the beach had been strewn with seaweed, but today there was almost none.
Loopster had been to Anchor Point 3 years in a row now, but who knew if she would ever be back? Maybe the Carolina Dog ought to pick up a souvenir to remember the beach at Anchor Point and her Last Mile West treks by? Lupe found a dead fish and a seashell. Of the two, SPHP would only consider letting her keep the seashell.
Loop thought that was an odd choice, since the seashell was a perfectly ordinary one, and the dead fish was mighty interesting, even if your nose wasn’t quite as keen as an American Dingo’s. She graciously went along with the decision, though.
5:50 PM – Nearly two hours went by before Lupe made it back to the G6. By then the wind had died down even more, but the sky was cloudier. The tide had come in so far that there was hardly any beach left. The seagulls were gone. A shining, silvery sea had already erased all trace of the paw prints Lupe had left in the sand during her 2018 Last Mile West.
The plan was to take another trek along the beach at sunset, still a few hours away. This time Lupe would go N, which she had never done here before. However, by the time sundown drew near the wind was blowing again as strongly as it had been this morning. Cold and unpleasant! Sadly, the sunset stroll got nixed.
Lupe did return to the beach for just a little while, though. SPHP was hoping for a splendid sunset. Seemingly promising for a few minutes, it never developed. That’s the way it often goes. The big question was, what would happen tomorrow?
Far into the night, the G6 shook in the roaring gale.
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Lupe’s Last Mile West, Anchor Point, Alaska (8-27-16)
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