The Rise Up Ride: Day 103, I Got That Old Thing Back
Date: 3 August 2021
Start Location: Kelly Lake Campground, Sterling Highway, Kenai
End Location: The Nauti Otter, Seward
Distance: 102 km
Time: 5:49
Total elapsed: 8:01
Elevation: 648 m
That body buzz before coffee was the first sign that my mojo was back. As soon as I'd begun stirring in my tent, I could feel it like an idle set high on an old four-barrel carburetor. Billions of mitochondria revving their Krebs cycles… fed, watered, rested and ready to assault Moose Pass. I cooked oatmeal, fixed a cup of exquisite camp coffee, struck the Big Agnes and rode off on the final pitch of a four-day dash across the Kenai Peninsula from Homer to Seward.
Yesterday's ride was a triumph of necessity over exhaustion, plus a dash of dogged determination. With a prepaid cabin booked for tonight in Seward, I was locked into finishing 260 km and 2000 meters of climbing in four days. If I had bailed early yesterday, it would have left more than the 102 clicks remaining this morning. Eating, drinking and getting a good sleep was the recovery ticket. Today was an exceptional day on a bike.
Don't order the Kenai Stack at the Sunrise Inn unless you are prepared to be humbled in the attempt to eat this enormous pile of carbs. Some small village could have fed well on the pancakes I couldn't finish this morning. But it fueled me up and over the mountains today and to my adorable ramshackle shack at the Nauti Otter, a rustic hostel just outside of Seward.
Their flailings caught my attention while crossing Quartz Creek, a clear, shallow fast-moving tributary of the Kenai River. If you were driving you'd never see them below the low bridge, trying desperately to return upstream to the water that smells just when they were just small fry. These Sockeye salmon, bright red as their bodies transform in the dash from the ocean up the freshwater, were just dying to get home to spawn. There were half a dozen "reds" three meters below me in the stream and I spotted them only because I was moving slowly on a bicycle. After looking around to make sure that I was the only charismatic mega-vertebrate interested in these gorgeous fish completing their biological destiny, I spent a few minutes just soaking in their valiant struggle heading upstream through the shallow rapids. This was really cool watching big red salmon!
Tonight I'm staying in "The Beaver Boudoir", one of the several cabins and yurts at the Nauti Otter. I'd discovered the place while exploring the region in 2017, and had been looking forward to experiencing again the unique vibe of a shared communal cooking and socializing space on the edge of the wildness. After a night on the ferry, two nights in my tent, and one night in the fishing bunkhouse, I was ready for a comfy bed, shower, and the camaraderie of fellow budget adventurers.
Tomorrow I'll write through the morning and head down the road about 5 km into Seward to grab a late lunch and catch the train to Anchorage in the afternoon. From there I'll continue on the train about 500 km north to the interior of Alaska and then deep into the wilderness of Denali National Park. Onwards.
