Hike to Grewingk Glacier

Hi Blog!

On Wednesday, June 29, 2016, after our visit to the Islands and Ocean Visitor Center, we headed back to the Homer Spit to catch a water taxi ride over to the Kachemak Bay State Park and State Wilderness Park. Our friends, Dan and Gail, who had visited Homer back in August 2014, recommended this outing to us. The water taxi picks you up in Homer and drops you off at a beach front trailhead. From there, you hike to the Grewingk Glacier on the Glacier Lake Trail and then return to another beach via the Saddle Trail. The water taxi picks you up at an agreed time and then takes you to Halibut Cove for dinner. After dinner, you return to Homer via the regularly scheduled ferry. And so the adventure begins....

It was a little scary when the boat pulled away and left us alone on the deserted beach. Well, almost deserted, there were a couple kayakers about two miles down the beach. Other than that, we were all alone.

With GPS in hand, we marked our waypoint and began to search for the trailhead. The big, bright orange triangle marking the trailhead was easy to spot from the boat, but once on the beach it was difficult to see over the tall sea grass.

After a couple of false starts, we found our way. We were soon walking in the woods. There were no blazes on the trees, but the route was easy enough to follow.

We realized once we started that we wouldn't be able to walk up to the glacier and get back to the beach in time for our pickup. However, we didn't want to miss the hand-pulled tram across Grewingk Creek, so we made the two mile round trip out and back to the tram as a side trip off of our main trail to the lake. The Grewingk Tram Spur Trail leaves the forest and takes you across a glacial plain. Cairns mark the trail across the rocky surface.

As we were hiking out to the creek, we met a family of four coming back. They, too, wanted to take a tram ride, but they warned us that once you reach the halfway point, it is difficult to pull the tram back uphill.

We took their advice and only went just to the halfway point, which was plenty to give us some great views of the braided river plain.

Back on the trail, Kathy took a moment to look out to where Grewingk Creek emptied into Kachemak Bay and wondered what the Kilchers are doing up at the head of the bay. Brothers Atz and Otto Kilcher are the stars of the Discovery series Alaska: The Last Frontier, documenting how they and their sons continue to live off the land much in the way their father, Yule, did when they were growing up.

We headed back in the woods and worked our way around to Grewingk Lake. As we came out of the woods, we got our first look at the Gewingk Glacier. This 13-mile-long glacier is located in the Kenai Mountains. It was named in 1880 by W. H. Dall of the U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey for the Baltic German geologist Constantin Grewingk.

The wind was blowing down off the glacier and we immediately bundled up. Seeing icebergs floating toward us didn't make us feel any warmer.

How cool is blue ice?

As Kathy can attest, it is pretty darn cold.

After taking hundreds of photos, we decided this berg looking like a mushroom on its own pedestal was our favorite!

We thought we heard a couple cracks, but did not see the glacier calve. Oh, well, maybe next time. It was back to the trail for us. Unfortunately, the return trip would take us over rocky glacial moraine. All those years of hiking across the Pocono Boulder Field have finally paid off.

Once we crossed the saddle and headed back to the coast, we entered a northern rain forest. There were wildflowers and berry bushes everywhere. This was one of our favorite - lavender foxglove.

The Saddle Trail basically takes you back and forth across a cliff face down to the beach on switchbacks too numerous to count. If we had to climb up this trail, we're not sure we would have ever made it to the glacier!

At the very end of the trail, they added a couple flights of stairs.

We arrived about 15 minutes before our scheduled pickup time. This gave us a chance to relax, watch a sea otter feed and bald eagles fly by. We learned from our taxi captain that these pilings were from an old herring salting warehouse, or saltry. Once the herring were fished out, the business closed and homesteaders came in and took the lumber away. All that remains are the pilings.

We hiked a total of about 7 miles of the 80 miles of trails located in the park. Thanks, Dan and Gail for suggesting this outing. We look forward to coming back and putting together other adventures.

Let's eat. Halibut Cove - here we come! More on that in the next blog.