Day 3: Cooper Landing to Homer

So far on our trip we've been lucky with the weather. The forecast always had a chance of rain, but it never materialized; until today. When we went to bed last night we checked the forecast and it didn't look good. When we woke up in the morning, it was raining lightly. The thought of riding 120 miles in the rain was daunting. We immediately discussed option B: ride in the van to Homer and spend time touring the sites. Their sea life center is quite highly regarded. . . but we checked the weather report and it did seem promising. Doppler radar showed spotty rain coverage and it did stop raining in Cooper Landing. We decided to go for it, knowing we would be riding in some rain, but it wouldn't be all day. So we finished packing, had breakfast, and donned our rain gear.

The ride started pretty well. The rain had stopped and the only real wetness came from the spray off the road. At about 7 miles along the road we spotted a large brown bear ambling across the road. We slowed down and he just looked at us without altering his pace. Within moments a truck came along behind us and the bear took off across the road. I looked in my rearview mirror to see some more, large tractor trailers coming at the same time. Because the shoulder was so narrow, I slowed down and pulled over to the side of the road. Kristina was alarmed and thought that I was interested in stopping and going after the bear! Unfortunately we don't have a picture because it all happened too fast. The picture here is from the deck of the restaurant where we had dinner the night before in Cooper Landing.

As we continued down the road our luck was holding out with the rain and we were even able to stop and remove some of the rain gear. But it wouldn't last, as around mile 40 it started to sprinkle and we had to put it all back on. And it wouldn't stop for the next 80 miles. We made our first stop to get out of the rain at the Moose is Loose Bakery in Soldotna. As the sign says, the apple fritters were good, but the the pecan crusted sweet rolls were even better! After warming up and sort of drying out, we headed back down the road and would stop in Ninilchik (mile 84) for hot & sour soup and General Tsao's chicken. We had one more stop before the end around mile 106 in a warm gas station for water. We took a detour of the main Sterling Highway to ride the Old Sterling Highway for about 8 miles. It turned out to be a great detour as we came across a mother moose and her two twin calfs eating by the side of the road. If you haven't seen on in person, the size of an adult moose is awfully impressive.

The final mile was a 9% climb to the house we are renting in Homer. Sheesh! Tomorrow the forecast is a bit better as we are planning to kayak.