The fourth of July weekend provided another opportunity for adventure this Summer. Tyler had never been to Homer, so we opted to spend the long weekend in Homer/Kachemak Bay State Park. We decided to drive down Thursday evening to beat the crowd and come back Sunday, and we ended up lucking out with hardly any traffic! 

The Homer Spit was quite busy when we go there and there was some confusion about whether or not beach camping was allowed (the signs indicated no, but people were camping anyway). To get away from the noise and the crowds, we made the decision at midnight to sleep in the car in the boat trailer parking lot. It was much more peaceful and had cleaner bathrooms. I ALWAYS enjoy cleaner bathrooms. 

The next morning we got up early and headed down to the water taxi. Knowing that I’m still limited by what I can carry (so far I tolerate ~20lbs fairly well), we opted to have the water Taxi drop us off at Glacier Spit where we could camp on the beach and avoid carrying our packs too far. I was able to use a regular pack with waist belt on this trip, but still kept my pack light. I actually found that I was more sore where my old stoma used to be after carrying the pack, which was not what I expected. 

We enjoyed the breezy ride across the bay and I pointed out the different hiking/camping areas to Tyler. After being dropped off by the water taxi, we hiked down the beach and set up camp near the trailhead to the Grewingk Glacier Lake Trail. We chose to camp near the trailhead because it had a bear box and the only outhouse on the beach. I always find it easier to keep my ostomy clean when there is an outhouse. So if there is one available, I’m definitely going to use it. I think I’ve even perfected my outhouse sanitization method during the pandemic. 

My abdomen was still sore from activities/daily life the week before, so we decided to take it pretty easy on our first day of hiking. We hiked out to the hand tram (but didn’t go across because I couldn’t help pull) and then hiked to the glacier lake where we spent time reading and enjoying the sun. On our way to the lake, we heard a bear in the woods, but luckily it didn’t come out to greet us! While we were at the lake we decided to fill up on water since we hadn’t seen any fresh water sources in our days travels. I’m glad we did decide to fill up because we never ended up finding a fresh source that day, and I was feeling quite thirsty (and I’m at increased risk for dehydration with my ostomy). 

After a few hours we headed back to the beach to cook dinner and do some more reading. I felt pretty wiped out after 7 miles of hiking and not sleeping well the night before, so I tried to take a nap. Unfortunately, there were hundreds of tiny red bugs everywhere and the feeling of them crawling on me prevented me from napping. Tyler didn’t seem to have a problem sleeping as I spent my time trying to squash every bug in my site. Since I couldn’t sleep, I decided that a walk down the beach would be a nice idea before actually going to bed for the night. There is a small spit at the end of the beach that I felt determined to find. We never did make it all the way there, but we enjoyed watching the birds and otters as we walked. Well, we enjoyed it until a group of swallows starting dive bombing us because we got to close to their nest. At that point, we decided to turn around, head back to the tent, and go to bed. 

We awoke the next day to the sound of crows feeding their babies. And let me tell you, it is not a pleasant sound. After trying to ignore the crows, our objective for the day was to hike the Alpine Trail that overlooks the bay and lake. But before we could begin our hike, we had a mission to find fresh, not silty water. I found out the night before that I had cell service, so I was able to find an old posting that someone had written about a water source near the main trail junction. On our first day, we had bushwhacked and crawled our way down a completely overgrown trail in search for water, and had failed. We were determined not to let that happen again. After hiking back to the main trail junction, we followed a small trail off to the right. We finally heard water in the woods, but again, everything was super overgrown. We ended up deciding to follow our original route up the Saddle Trail to find the source of the water. Partway up the Saddle Trail, Tyler noticed where the old trail cut off to the right and we decided to follow that since the new trail seemed to lead away from the water. Finally, we heard the water closer to us and worked our way through the trees to a tiny creek. We squatted and spent time filtering water into every single one of our water bottles while mosquitos ate us alive. With 2L each, we felt good to continue on to the Alpine Trail. 

The Alpine Trail was in very good conditions with a few trees to climb over. I had never been up that trail before, and was excited for a new adventure. I was also a little nervous because it was my biggest hike yet since surgery. Each week I’m able to do more and more. The Alpine Trail gains about 2100 ft of elevation in 2 miles, but is worth the views. It felt nice to be back in the alpine with hardly anyone else up there. After eating snacks, hydrating, looking at my map in comparison to the terrain around us, and chatting with a seasonal worker from Montana, we headed back down the trail. I felt proud of myself for making it all the way up the trail at a decent pace. We decided to stop at the lake again on the way back to camp to relax and do some more reading. We also decided that it was a more pleasant place to fill up on water than the mosquito infested trickle of water. The trail back to the beach was quiet with only the birds and the rustling leaves. I was excited to make it back to the beach and enjoy the rest of our last evening. After more beach time, we were off to bed for an early wake-up.  

The next morning, I was pleasantly surprised that my abdomen was not very sore. For this trip, I decided to wear my Level 2 support underwear from Comfizz while hiking, and I think it really made a difference (I hiked at home without it the day after we got back and was sore again around my stoma). I ate breakfast on the beach, we packed up camp, and then headed back down the beach for our water taxi pickup. We arrived early to the pick-up location because we didn’t want to miss our taxi. But our pick-up time came and went and none of the taxis that were dropping people off indicated that they were there to take us back to the Spit. 

Finally around 9:30, another taxi camp to drop off some hikers. I walked over and asked if he could contact our company because they hadn’t come yet. Apparently there was some confusion on their end, but we ended up getting a ride back with that water taxi that was dropping people off. As we rode back across the bay, I enjoyed the views and reflected on another beautiful Alaska weekend.