Camping In The Alaskan Wilderness

We had planned to go fishing today anyway, but yesterday afternoon I got the brilliant idea that we should take a tent and go that evening to camp overnight.

It turns out a family of six needs a lot of gear to spend a night in the wilderness across the inlet. Sleeping bags. Gun. Food. Bear tags in case we see a bear and could bring it home for the freezer. Fishing gear. Coolers.

But finally we headed to the Homer harbor around 7 pm.

The ocean was calm, and we made it to Tutka Bay without much trouble, even though it is seven miles of open ocean, and quite the little hike for our skiff.

There was a stiff wind blowing out of the bay, kicking up some whitecaps and making the ride bumpy and uncomfortable. We motored into the Tutka Bay Lagoon to get away from it and try to snag some salmon.

I’ve never been all the way into the lagoon, but it is beautiful! There were salmon jumping everywhere, as far as you could see. Suddenly we realized that the water was clear enough that you could see the salmon swimming along beside the boat. There were literally rivers of fish, and they were so numerous that the water looked almost black where there was a bunch of them.

We took turns fishing and holding the baby, and in less than half an hour Andy and I both had our limit – 6 each. 

It was 10 pm by this time, so even though the sun was still above the mountains, we figured it was time to quit fishing and find a quiet shore to anchor the boat and set up our tent. The baby was crying now, tired, so we all donned life jackets once more and pointed the boat toward the open bay once more.

The wind was still fierce, and the waves choppy, but about a mile further we were able to find a nice camping spot sheltered from the wind and overlooking the bay. Andy hiked in first with his gun to make sure that there were no predators lurking, and then we unloaded all the gear and our tent from the boat and set up camp.

Andy worked on filleting the salmon, while I put the children to bed. We were both done by 11:30, and then Andy and I sat in camp chairs overlooking the water and watching the sunset. It was perfect.

This morning we woke all at once because we were in a tent, and once one is awake no one else can sleep. Breakfast was scrambled eggs on top of our toast because I had forgotten to bring forks and spoons. I’ve always thought there’s something that just tastes better about food cooked over the fire and eaten in the open air. There was hot chocolate for the children, and coffee for Andy and I, and then we explored and found blueberries along the shoreline. 

After we got tired of eating blueberries, we decided it was time to pack up camp and push the boat down into the water. It had gotten dried out when the tide receded. With one last glance at our lovely camping spot, we pushed off and headed home.