So the journey down to Homer was familiar territory for most of the drive. My motivation for including Homer in our itinerary was based on the things I'd seen and heard about Homer as a cruise and Halibut fishing port. In addition, I should back up a little and tell you that I have been planning a trip to Alaska for over 20 years. One of my life goals was to visit all 50 states and at one time I was on track to get all 50 done by my 50th birthday. Well that didn't happen but now at 67 I have finally completed that goal. Over the years as I prepared myself for this journey I had read tons of information on Alaska and requested all the travel guides and information publications that I ran across. I had purchased the Milepost book and used its maps and information to help in my planning. I had also enjoyed all the reality TV shows on Alaska that have aired over the last 10 years or so.
One of my all time favorites has been "Alaska, the Last Frontier" that is based upon the Kilcher family living on their homestead about 15 miles outside of Homer. This show appeals to me because well first of all it is about Alaska, and secondly the Kilchers life on the homestead reminds me a lot of the life I experienced in Pennsylvania. I feel a connection to their family that resonates with me something like my memories of growing up in rural Pa. Our house in Nanty-Glo had no indoor plumbing; we used an outhouse. We had no indoor water and we had to carry our water from a spring up on the hill. Our home was heated with coal and we spent much of our summer picking coal off the bony dumps and from along the railroad tracks so that we could have enough to survive the winters. The Kilcher men remind me of people I knew and later worked with growing up so I feel kind of a kinship with them when I watch their show.
Based on information that I had learned on the show I knew approximately where the Kilchers homestead was along Kachemak Bay. I also knew that a road called the Kilcher Road existed and that it led from the homestead into Homer. I had thought that the homestead was about 15 miles in on Kilcher Road and although I never expected to be able to drive the road all the way to the homestead I thought it would be really cool if I could at least find the road and have my picture taken there. So we spent our first couple of hours in Homer driving around and looking at all the tourist stuff. We drove out on the Homer Spit and at the end of that road we encountered the Lands End resort where we took a photo turned around and started back.
When we got back to the shoreline I decided to go east in search of a photo opportunity at Kilcher Road. At this point we had no idea if we could find it and we were certain that if we could it would be blocked off and post with no trespassing signs.
It took us only a short while to find a road to take us toward the homestead and a few minutes more on that road to run across Kilcher Road. We took some pictures of me under the road sign and prepared to leave and start back to town. I questioned whether or not we should go down the road and Debra convinced me to go ahead. We thought at the worse case we would soon reach a point where it would be blocked off and we'd be forced to turn around. So we went for it. We went in the road about a quarter of a mile and came around a curve and the road was blocked by some traffic. There was a flatbed trailer on the left side of the road and I looked at the people gathered alongside it and saw Otto Kilcher sitting on the bed of the trailer. I stopped the car and got out and headed for the trailer and along came Eivin Kilcher heading for the trailer to get in the picture. One of the ladies who was trying to organize the photo asked me if I'd take it for them and Otto said to me "Looks like you got here at the wrong time, now you have to take the picture". Atz Lee Kilcher who had been working in a small front end loader joined Otto, Eivin and the family over at the trailer and I took a couple shots of that family with the Kilchers. ( This is Debra posting - My sweet baboo was totally star struck. I so love that guy.)
At that point Debra and I got in the photo and the lady from that family took a couple photos of us. Afterwards I stood there chatting with Otto for a few minutes. I said I didn't expect to be able to come down their road as I thought it would be a long road and probably blocked off. He said the TV show producers make it sound a lot further than it is. But he also pointed out that back in 1952 the road coming out from Homer ended at the entrance to their homestead. So at one time it really was 15 miles out their road to town. I also said they probably got tired of all the fans trying to drop in on them. He said no, the fans enabled the TV show to happen and the TV show helps makes their family happen and he guessed that their family must make something happen for all of us too so it all works out. He then invited us to continue down their road and go up to his house. He said Eivin likes to keep his place private so his lane is posted but if we stayed to the left we could go all the way up to his house. He asked where we were from and we told him about 30 miles south of Salt Lake City and west of I-15. He asked how close that was to Lehi, Utah and we told him it was just west of Lehi. He said he has an old friend in Lehi and the last time he was down there it was a whole lot of nothing west of Lehi. We laughed at how much it has grown and how many people were out there in Eagle Mountain and Saratoga Springs. I said that his area was filling up also and that there were houses all over the place up there. I shook all their hands when we first got there and I shook them all again as we were leaving and they were wrapping up there along the road. Eivin apologized for maybe having a little grease on his hands as he had been working on the front end loader when we pulled up. We left them along the road and continued into the homestead and up towards Otto's house. We didn't get real close to the house as the road narrowed down to the point where I wasn't comfortable driving my car down there. We got a few pictures of the area including one of a house that I think was Yule Kilchers original house there and then we headed out. When we got back to where we had met them the road was clear and they were gone.
Even now days later I am amazed that we found Kilcher Road and actually got to meet three of the Kilcher men. It was an incredible part of this adventure that I will remember fondly for years to come. Homer represented the end of the road for us and the rest of our travels on this trip was heading in the direction of home.
Happy Trails Everyone,
Tom & Debra Stephens
No comments:
Post a Comment