halibut cove lagoon...act 2...

it's raining today, which is always a nice break from the sunshine. i know that sounds counter, but it's so hard to actually get anything done at home when the weather is so brilliant outside. a little rain makes it easy to stay inside. did just walk the bog and the mosquitos are out in full force. i try to avoid the spray, seems so counter to take a shower and then douse yourself in bug dope.
love to use the paddles or kayaks in photos. the water was so lovely in the early hours. morning and evening paddles are the best.
just realized i have a cabin rented out at byer lake for next weekend. will have to see if anyone wants to join me out there and make some plans. the dogs will be happy that they get to join in on this one.
we were on the water several hours on saturday. that isn't to say we covered alot of miles. we had a leisurely paddle. very relaxing. i love to paddle along the shore and observe all on the waters edge. just such a different perspective from the boat. the lagoon sucked us in and so we ate lunch on a beach in the lagoon and waited for slack tide before attempting to leave. these area's fill in with water with the tides and empty. trying to paddle counter to tides is a great deal of work and can be so frustrating. best to pay close watch on the tides and use them. there were tons of eagles in the lagoon.

didn't take too many eagle shots. this one was close. a junvenile. halibut cove has lots of private cabins. some look really cute, would love to have a cool cabin out in kachemek bay to play in on the weekends. not sure halibut cove would be my first choice. seems quaint enough, but we all decided that it would be a great place for a murder mystery book/movie. we wanted stephen king to paddle in to town and then go write a book.

great reflections with the water being so calm.

harlequin ducks. saw lots of guilliants out there as well. a rare cormorant and then there was a strange overabundance of crows and ravens in halibut cove itself. added to the mystique.

a few of us tried to stop at the wrong end of town. this little boat house has fish tails on it. this was the public dock but we saw few people and the one guy we spoke to was friendly enough but it was clear that we weren't welcome. we could be on the public dock, but everything else was private property and the boardwalks at the other end of town were only to be used by people with reservations at the restraunt there, the saltry. when asked if there was some place to get coffee and sit down, he said homer was 8 miles across the bay, we could get coffee there.

it stayed pretty overcast all day. had some rain, but nothing too hard came down. i think that night in the wee hours i heard it come down a bit harder but i'm fine kayaking in the rain, just don't like the wind.

loved this property. looks awesome, unless a tsunami comes through.

above is just us coming back out of the lagoon and headed to halibut cove proper.

can't believe it's almost 4 already. i start back for 3 nights work tonight. no idea how busy it is right now there. still have some things to do to get ready for my trip out to point adolphus. hotel in juneau, pet sitters, pay the balance for the trip and send off the forms required.

while we were in the halibut cove lagoon a group got dropped off at the forest service cabin there. 3 nurse friends were in the group. we saw angie unloading on the boat, ran into maureen the next day kayaking and i guess karen was there as well. she did some hiking. i wouldn't mind renting the cabin and doing some hiking some time. we saw bob and tanya on the dock when we got back to homer, they had the yurt after us.

set up the camera for some goofy group shots. the camera takes 3 shots so once they figured that out they got googier with each shot. i've decided after seeing these pictures of an older me that i may just have to put on some makeup even hiking. not used to seeing my face so plain looking. we are always our own worst critic. people frequently don't like pictures of themselves. it was a nice spot for lunch.

the kayaks wait in the lagoon.

taken over my head and upside down. not too bad. val and i shared the double. i like a double. we seemed to always be up front. don't think it was because we are such stellar paddlers, every time i looked back it seemed that everyone else wasn't paddling but was instead just taking it all in. nice that nobody was in a hurry all weekend. it was all very relaxing. great to be out in nature, it does center and ground you. first paddle of the season.

reflections of all the various greens out there.

no paddling required entering the lagoon. we just sat and let the tide float us.

as we started in the lagoon there was a brief thought of changing plans and just skipping the lagoon and heading to halibut cove, we were too far in and the tide wasn't going to release us so i'm thankful that we just rode in to the lagoon.

all these little house, but mostly we saw little activity in them. adds to the spook factor.

have never been to either of the cabins i have rented this year. just wanted to start renting cabins and doing some sleep outs from time to time. the forest service cabins are great escapes and it's always so nice to have a place to stay that is warm and dry. so i have byers next week and nancy lake in august. they are available in the winter as well for snowshoe/cross country ski treks. maybe this winter we'll try and get a cabin or two as well.

not sure what these pilings are but i think halibut cove was a bustling community years ago. these are probably left over from those olden days. just read that back 1911-1920's halibut cove had 42 herring saltries. the population then was over 1000. now it's more like 50-150 dependant on the season. the nice end of the island is apparently in a family trust. a one time politician bought a great deal of property out there which has been developed somewhat by family. they put up the boardwalk, some art shops, cabins for guests and a restraunt. the community has potential, but i suspect it's a divided community with those not involved with the family trust just wanting a peaceful, tourist free place to be.

it's always tough in these small communities to balance tourism with the way of life that you enjoy. the restraunt is a bit pricey and so i suspect it's not a place the locals could really eat at. when i lived in ketchikan the locals were always more supportive of business that also seemed to have the local population in mind. many of those businesses there come and go with the tourist season.

remembered this trailhead from several years ago. this will take you to the grewingk glacier trail. my friend natalie and i got dropped off at a beach probably near where our yurt was and then we hiked over to this pick up spot to await our water taxi. would have enjoyed tying up the boats and going for a hike, but perhaps another time i'll do that.

loved this picture below. at first when i looked at it, i thought i had taken a black and white, but then you can see the greens in there.

the rocks and layering are always amazing to look at. wish i knew a bit more about how these were created. i think it was upward thrusts from the ocean floor, but who knows.

some major earth changes occured though in order to make these designs in the rocks.

my friend sandra checks out the cool rock formations

strange colour changes as well.

another over the head and upside down shot from the kayak. we had just taken off saturday morning for our first paddle of the weekend. great to be out on the water. will post pictures more in halibut cove in the next few days as i get time. off to take a nap and get ready for work.