This was my favorite hiking trip I’ve ever done, so it gets a long entry. Ben and I did a 5-night backpacking trip in Kachemak bay, across the bay from Homer, in August 2021. We followed part of the Tutka backdoor trail, a 32-mile trail built between 2016 and 2021, and hiked to nearby lakes and mountains. The trail can be accessed via boat from Homer on one side and float plane from Homer on the Taylor Bay side.
Waving goodbye to Ben’s mom and sister, we boarded a float plane on a Wednesday morning.
We took off from Beluga Lake in Homer, with Ben excitedly taking pictures from the back seat. The flight over the mountains started off smoothly, and it was cool to swerve through the passes. Then it got bumpy. My head started hitting the side of the plane, and I gripped the arm rest to try to keep myself steady. In the back seat, Ben’s head was banging against the top of the plane, a disadvantage of being tall. When we got across, the pilot dipped down and flew around Taylor Bay for a few minutes before determining it was too windy to safely land. So, we flew back. By this point, I was closing my eyes trying to not feel sick, and this is coming from someone who doesn’t get motion sick on planes, cars, or roller coasters. We made it back to the lake, and the pilot said we could try again in the afternoon if we wanted. We quickly eliminated that option and drove to Homer spit to get a ride on a boat across the bay instead. All in all, we got a free float plane ride out of it. But not sure if I would choose to go on another free float plane ride.
The first few hours of hiking were through forested areas and crossed around 15 streams. There were so many salmon! This made us a little nervous about bears, especially when we came across ripped up salmon and bear poop when trying to find the trail. And one river was mysteriously full of floating dead salmon. Thankfully, we made it through salmon land to a more open terrain without seeing a bear. After that, the trail was solely marked by cairns (piles of rocks). We hiked for a couple more hours through to what is marked on the map as “Tundra Playground.” After making a dinner of cous cous with oven-roasted chickpeas, we crawled into the tent under the still-bright sky. Note: roasted chickpeas lose their crispiness when you store them in a plastic bag; we do not recommend.
The next day, we left the tundra and hiked over some snowy sloped areas that were a little challenging to cross without slipping. Ben, the Alaskan, was a lot faster on the snow than me. We made it to the top of a pass and began to descend. This part was really rocky so took a while to go down. A while later, we saw and talked to other hikers which was exciting. Then came what we called the rocky scramble, basically rock climbing up a mountain (Ben might say this is exaggerating), which proved quite challenging with backpacks on. After ascending part of the rocky scramble and losing the trail, we decided to call it quits for the day and head back the way we came from. We camped near a roaring river (words of Ben).
The third day, we climbed back over the pass, past the mountain we named “The Thumb” the previous day, and down the snowy slopes. I spotted a black bear likely 1.5 miles away (Ben says 100 feet) at one point, and we walked far out of the way to a snowier area, calling out frequently to make our presence known and avoid surprising it. When we made it back near the tundra playground, we took a long break in the sun. We then hiked off trail to a lake called the infinity pools, set up our tent, and swam in the freezing water. We decided to go on a short walk around the area, bringing just a camera and bear spray. A mountain tempted us to walk up it, so we went. And walked and walked and walked. We kept thinking we were about to be at the top and saying we’d just walk a little further. When we were just on the verge of turning around, the view opened, and we could see the bay and many mountains in the distance. At this point, we had walked for over 2 hours. On the way down, Ben took a bunch of pictures of reflections, while I started to feel dehydrated and out of it. Luckily, Ben got some nice photos, and I survived after drinking water and eating some pasta. The fourth day, we hiked over huge rocks to turquoise lake, a beautiful lake surrounded by snow-covered mountains.
We then packed up, hiked for a few hours, and set up our tent in a meadow area. While we were super lucky with the weather the first days, it started to rain a lot that night. Unfortunately, I left my raincoat in Ben’s mudroom. We made a makeshift raincoat for me using the plastic ground sheet and set out the next day. I quickly got soaked through the raincoat but still felt warm enough. We hiked uphill for a while to another meadow where we quickly made pasta and then got into the warm tent. Luckily, Ben always brings extra clothes, so I had plenty of dry clothes to wear to sleep. The last day, we hiked downhill to the bay. We got to the beach where we were scheduled to get picked up with a couple hours to spare. The sun came out, I changed into Ben’s extra dry clothes, and we made peanut butter chocolate “crepes” – a perfect end to the trip. The boat showed up as we drank post-crepes tea, and we made our way back to Homer to celebrate the successful trip with a taco dinner!
We took off from Beluga Lake in Homer, with Ben excitedly taking pictures from the back seat. The flight over the mountains started off smoothly, and it was cool to swerve through the passes. Then it got bumpy. My head started hitting the side of the plane, and I gripped the arm rest to try to keep myself steady. In the back seat, Ben’s head was banging against the top of the plane, a disadvantage of being tall. When we got across, the pilot dipped down and flew around Taylor Bay for a few minutes before determining it was too windy to safely land. So, we flew back. By this point, I was closing my eyes trying to not feel sick, and this is coming from someone who doesn’t get motion sick on planes, cars, or roller coasters. We made it back to the lake, and the pilot said we could try again in the afternoon if we wanted. We quickly eliminated that option and drove to Homer spit to get a ride on a boat across the bay instead. All in all, we got a free float plane ride out of it. But not sure if I would choose to go on another free float plane ride.
We made it to the top of a pass and began to descend. This part was really rocky so took a while to go down. A while later, we saw and talked to other hikers which was exciting. Then came what we called the rocky scramble, basically rock climbing up a mountain (Ben might say this is exaggerating), which proved quite challenging with backpacks on. After ascending part of the rocky scramble and losing the trail, we decided to call it quits for the day and head back the way we came from. We camped near a roaring river (words of Ben).
At this point, we had walked for over 2 hours. On the way down, Ben took a bunch of pictures of reflections, while I started to feel dehydrated and out of it. Luckily, Ben got some nice photos, and I survived after drinking water and eating some pasta. The fourth day, we hiked over huge rocks to turquoise lake, a beautiful lake surrounded by snow-covered mountains.
I quickly got soaked through the raincoat but still felt warm enough. We hiked uphill for a while to another meadow where we quickly made pasta and then got into the warm tent. Luckily, Ben always brings extra clothes, so I had plenty of dry clothes to wear to sleep. The last day, we hiked downhill to the bay. We got to the beach where we were scheduled to get picked up with a couple hours to spare. The sun came out, I changed into Ben’s extra dry clothes, and we made peanut butter chocolate “crepes” – a perfect end to the trip. The boat showed up as we drank post-crepes tea, and we made our way back to Homer to celebrate the successful trip with a taco dinner!