Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
The bears had a routine, a path they walked regularly, up the creek in front of us and
down the dry creekbed in back of us. Sometimes we were surrounded by bears, few of
which I am relieved to report paid us much mind. “If you're in the same place at the same
time every day, acting the same way,” Gary said, “pretty soon you're part of the scenery.”
Of course he also told stories about boars tearing into cubs the moment a sow's back
was turned. “Why do they do that?” someone asked. Gary replied, a thoughtful crease in
his brow, “Well, you know, I think the boars just think the cubs taste good.”
Right.
There were eight bears converging on the creek mouth as we left. It was an experience
like no other I have ever had, and I wouldn't have missed it for anything, but I wasn't
sorry to go. Lessons learned young are the ones that stick. Stay away from bears, Mom
said.
Okay, Mom.
You'll be in Homer at least two nights, as the trip to Katmai is an all-dayer. Stay at the
Driftwood Inn, the closest thing Homer has to an historical building. A one-room school
house in the thirties, it has since been reincarnated as a hotel. Some of the rooms have
baths, some you go down the hall. Every room is scrupulously clean, and you can't beat
the location, on Bishop's Beach where you can walk for miles and there is always enough
driftwood to build a fire. Owner Merlin Cordes and his roommate, Carol, a UAF class-
mate of mine, set up a table next to the fireplace in winter and invite guests to play board
and card games. Careful, Carol and I used to win all our beer money at school playing
pinochle.
And as long as you're there, there are two things in town you shouldn't miss. One is the
Facing the Elements forest trail in back of the Pratt Museum. I can't tell you what you'll
see there because it changes every year, a show of work by local artists in accordance with
a common theme. This year my favorite was the McDonald's sign mounted on spruce
bark beetle-killed stumps, accompanied by a poem which began “In this hollowgraphic
age…” Homer artists have few opinions, and are very shy about expressing those they do
have.
And then there is the sperm whale exhibit at the Homer High School. A local fisherman
found a dead sperm whale washed up on one of the Barren Islands in 1988, and with the
