Kenai Peninsula Adventure for Women, Alaska

The Trip

Women in the Wilderness: Celebrating 40 years of Women’s Outings

The Kenai Peninsula features a smorgasbord of natural delights including abundant wildlife, sparkling turquoise rivers, wildflower-studded meadows, glaciers, and snow-covered peaks. We’ll explore and enjoy this rugged land during our nine-day Alaskan summer camp as we travel by foot, boat, kayak, and raft. Discover the stunning bays, lakes, rivers, and culture of Southcentral Alaska with like-minded, active women. 

We'll cruise the waters of Prince William Sound and listen to the snap, crackle, and splash of icebergs cleaving off glaciers, raft the Kenai River, beachcomb, hike through boreal forests, admire the wildflowers, kayak Kachemak and Resurrection Bays, and tour a number of environmental education centers. Wildlife-viewing opportunities abound daily as we enjoy heavenly views, comfortable lodgings, and hearty meals.

The ancestral, traditional, and contemporary lands of the Dena’ina and Supiak peoples encompass Anchorage and the Kenai Peninsula. We travel on these lands with gratitude and respect for the contributions, innovations, and contemporary perspectives of Indigenous peoples.

Day 1: We’ll meet in Anchorage in the evening at our hotel for introductions and then head to dinner together. Dinner and lodging are included on the first day of the trip

Day 2: After an early breakfast, we will gather our group and depart to Whittier. Along the way we’ll pass through the longest combined vehicle-railroad tunnel in North America. Named after the poet John Greenleaf Whittier, the community lies at the base of mountains that line Passage Canal, a fjord that extends eastward into Prince William Sound. Once in town, we’ll board a boat for a wildlife and glacier tour. If time allows, we may take a short hike before retiring to our hotel. 

Day 3: Seward is our destination today. Known as the Gateway to Kenai Fjords National Park, the community has a frontier-town atmosphere with some homes and buildings dating back to the early 1900s. The town was established in 1903 by railroad surveyors as an ocean terminal and supply center. The Iditarod Trail was surveyed in 1910 as a mail route between Seward and Nome. Eventually the trail was replaced by the airplane. It is now a National Historic Trail that is best known for the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race.

We will hike to a glacier before arriving in town and visiting Seward’s famous Alaska Sealife Center. The Center is Alaska’s premier public aquarium and the state’s only permanent marine mammal rehabilitation facility. Everyone will have some free time to wander around the historic town before we meet for dinner.

Day 4: We’ll take a short drive to our kayaking outfitter’s headquarters and put on splash jackets for our day of sea kayaking and cruising Resurrection Bay. We’ll have an opportunity to see many of the birds and marine mammals that we learned about at the Sealife Center. After a tasty dinner, we’ll take a sunset walk along the waterfront and learn more about Seward’s history and the conservation challenges facing Resurrection Bay.

Day 5: Heading inland today, we’ll leave the coast for some river time. The highlight of the day will be our rafting trip on the turquoise waters of the Kenai River, which originates in Kenai Lake and flows 85 river miles west to Cook Inlet. After we take out, we may have time for a river-side hike before returning to our van for the short drive to our hotel and dinner.

Day 6: On the road south, we’ll stop at a few beaches and historic sites before arriving in Homer. The town calls itself the “Halibut Fishing Capital of the World.” A large artist community resides here, so plan to spend some time at the galleries while we’re in town. First, we’ll spend time beachcombing at Bishop’s Beach and visiting the Alaska Islands & Ocean Visitor Center. Accompanied by a local guide, we’ll visit the 140-acre Wynn Nature Center and admire the many wildflowers of the boreal forest. Fireweed predominates among scattered patches of geranium, paintbrush, lupine, rose, and many other species. This is one of Homer’s birding hot spots, so we should see a good variety of birds; it’s also a great place to spot moose. We will have dinner at our Homer lodge and be able to settle in, as this will be our home base for the next 4 nights.

Day 7: After some time on the Homer Spit, we’ll head out onto Kachemak Bay State Park via water taxi. The name Kachemak (in Aleut dialect said to mean “smoky bay”) is said to be derived from the smoke which once rose from the smoldering coal seams jutting from the clay bluffs of the upper north shore of the bay. Today the erosion of these bluffs still drops huge fragments of lignite and bituminous coal on the beaches.

This will be a great opportunity to spot sea otters and other marine mammals. We’ll have an opportunity to explore Peterson Bay and maybe even the artist colony of Halibut Cove by kayak. We’ll also enjoy a visit from a representative from Inletkeeper, a community-based nonprofit organization that combines advocacy, education, and science toward its mission to protect the Cook Inlet watershed and the life it sustains.

Day 8: After a hearty breakfast, we’ll return to Kachemak Bay, where we’ll gear up and jump in our kayaks. Two days is not enough time for us to see all of this magnificent deep-water bay. The wild timbered coastline of the south shore, across from Homer is indented with many fjords and inlets, reaching far into the rugged glacier-capped peaks of the Kenai Mountains. We’ll learn about the history and wildlife of the state park while we explore its waters. We may even get to paddle our kayaks close to a glacier. 

Day 9: We'll say goodbye to Homer and head north to Anchorage. Along the way, we'll stop at a few scenic locations for short walks and some photo opportunities that we missed on our journey south. Lunch is the last meal included in the trip price. 

Please do not book any flight out of Anchorage before 5:00 p.m. You can choose to be dropped off at the airport or the hotel of your choice. Also, please note that the trip does NOT include gratuities or insurance of any kind. All accommodations are double occupancy.

The itinerary may change due to outfitter availability, weather, or other circumstances. 

Getting There

You will need to arrange your transportation to Anchorage. The International Airport in Anchorage is a modern facility serviced by most major carriers. You will need to arrive on or before the first day of the trip in order to meet up with the group in the early evening.

Please do not make non-refundable travel arrangements until notified to do so by the trip leader.

Accommodations and Food

Hotel rooms will be double occupancy. Our comfortable lodge in Homer has a number of different types of rooms and shared bathrooms. A single supplement may be available if requested well in advance of the trip’s start date. 

We will try to accommodate dietary restrictions. We will eat in restaurants while we stay at hotels and will cook our own meals during our time at the lodge in Homer. Participants will assist with cooking and kitchen clean up on a rotating basis.

Trip Difficulty

The hiking, rafting, and kayaking activities are rated easy to moderate, but we will be active every day, sometimes for most of the day. Many of the hikes involve elevation gain and steep, slippery, rocky trails. Each person needs to be in basic good health so we can all enjoy our hikes and paddling time. Participants are encouraged to walk, hike, and exercise in preparation for the trip.

Equipment and Clothing

No special equipment is required for this trip. All rentals and gear for the kayaking and rafting trips, including personal flotation devices (PFDs), will be provided. A packing list of appropriate clothing and personal gear will be sent to all participants after acceptance on the trip.

Each participant will need to bring the items on the packing list and little more; all will need to fit in one carry-on sized bag and a small daypack for hiking.

Weather in Alaska is unpredictable. Most likely we will experience drizzly, overcast days with intermittent sunshine and high temperatures in the 60s-low 70s. Nighttime lows generally are in the 50s. Layers and good rain gear are essential. Binoculars are recommended for bird and wildlife viewing. 

References

Books:

• Bitter, Daisy Lee. Alaska’s Kachemak Currents. 

• Heacox, Kim. The Only Kayak: A Journey into the Heart of Alaska. 

• Klein, Janet R. Kachemak Bay Communities: Their Histories, Their Mysteries. 

• Muir, John. Travels in Alaska. 

• Sigman, Marilyn. Entangled: People and Ecological Change in Alaska’s Kachemak Bay.

Websites:

• Alaska Islands & Ocean Visitor Center: http://www.alaska.org/detail/alaska-islands-and-ocean-visitor-center

• Alaska Maritime National Wildlife Refuge - US Fish and Wildlife Service: https://www.fws.gov/refuge/alaska_maritime/

• Kachemak Bay State Park and State Wilderness Park - Alaska: http://dnr.alaska.gov/parks/units/kbay/kbayl.htm

Conservation

Because of its abundance of natural resources, Alaska is a hotbed of environmental issues and threats. We’ll take time during the trip to discuss the protection and management of public lands, fisheries management, and threats to wild salmon. Alaskan stakeholders believe one of the greatest threats to the region's fish and wildlife is the threat of large-scale mining and the slow creep of other development. When this development is poorly planned, critical habitat can easily be disturbed or degraded. In addition, Alaska’s vast public lands are increasingly threatened by the impacts of climate change. On our drive south from Anchorage, we’ll take time to discuss Cook Inlet and its endangered Beluga whale population.