These are the Chronicles of Famous Surf Writer Ben Marcus and his trip into the Wilds of the Alaskan Frontier.
Latest Update: October 6, 2000

OCTOBER 5, 2000 18:34 (COMPUTER TIME) TV ROOM OF THE DRIFTWOOD INN, HOMER, ALASKA.

The Giants are playing the Mets. It's the bottom of the fourth, and the Giants are coughing up blood a little. Pitcher Shawn Estes had a bad game, starting strong then giving up a couple of runs. He walked for his at-bat, then screwed up running to second, went in standing up, sprained his ankle, got tagged out and broke up a good rally. Now it's 2-1 Mets. Estes is out of the game, and maybe out of the series.

Kind of a nothing day today, although it was scenic. I drove out of Homer and well into Kachemak Bay, taking the East End Road all the way to the end of the road. The scenery on the left looked like fall in northern California. Same colors, same trees, same sky. The scenery on the right looked like Alaska, a long bay, with snow-covered mountains and glaciers on the other side. There's a lot of glaciers up around here. Why don't they melt?

That road was long, and passed a lot of houses and businesses. I also saw another moose on the side of the road. It wasn't a big moose, and it looked like it was tied up to a post or something, like a pet moose. I just caught a glance of moose while driving by, a typical Alaska experience. Just when you think you aren't far from home, you see something like that. A pet moose by the side of the road.

Drove all the way out to the end, where a sign said:

End of East End Road. ATV's Horses and Pedestrians only past this point.

I was almost at the very end of Kachemak Bay. The tide was way out and there were a few boats left high and dry on the beach. There were cars parked all around, and a few people going by on ATV's. I saw a tight, winding road leading down to the beach, where there were boats and lots of tire tracks. Something was going on somewhere, but I couldn't tell what. There are a couple of Russian fishing villages hidden away beyond the End of the Road, and maybe I was seeing the cars and ATV's of those citizens.

I asked later, and that's what it was. There are a couple of secluded villages populated by Russian-speaking fishermen, who apparently have been there a long, long time. They speak only Russian, and their kids speak only Russian when they start going to school. I assume they are American citizens. Just another Alaska mystery, hidden away in the fjords.

Anyway, it was nice back ther at the end of the East End Road: quiet, secluded. There really is a lot of room in Alaska, more than enough to go around, which is probably why people come here.

I then drove back into Homer, and stopped in a boatyard loaded with good-sized fishing boats, hauled out and on blocks. The Kachemak Gear Store looked like the kind of place that might have waders and possibly an electric heater, and I was right on both counts. The Kachemak Gear Store was a serious store for serious commercial fishermen. This was a place that sold quality gear for people who not only use it in rough conditions, but whose lives may depend on it. From boots and clothes to nets and refrigerators and navigation ads.

They also had a whole bunch of different kinds of portable, electric heaters.

Jackpot.

I bought a good electric heater for $70, and also an Alaska gazeeter, which details all the nooks and crannies of Alaska, which are endless.

I wanted to buy some new boots and waders and a bunch of other stuff in there, but I controlled myself. That was a dangerous store, but a serious store. Homer may be a bit of a hippy, oddball town in some ways, but in others it is a serious, Alaskan commercial fishing town. The Kachemak Gear Store and all the hauled-out boats around it were the serious side.

That was pretty much my day: A drive to the End of the Road, a trip to the gear store, now I'm back in the Driftwood Inn, watching the Giants. It's the bottom of the fifth, and the angels who were on the shoulders of the Giants yesterday seemed to be flaking out a little. The Shawn Estes thing was a bad break. Enough of those, and you're doomed.

OCTOBER 6 9:12 ALASKA TIME THE DRIFTWOOD INN

Wow, I got so absorbed in the game yesterday, I couldn't finish that dispatch. The Giants/Mets game was a heart-attack, heart-breaker.

The Giants were down 4-1 in the bottom of the ninth, when J.T. Snow came on to pinch-hit with two on and one out. I'd seen so many miracles from the Giants this season, I half-expected Snow to crank one out and tie the game. It was the same feeling I had with Armando Rios earlier in the year. "Wouldn't it be nice."

Well imagine my surprise when Snow did just that: belted a home run into the right-field stands, to tie the game in the bottom of the ninth.

Good Lord, Pac Bell Park must have gone absolutely bonkers.

But it was all for naught. The Giants ended up losing 5-4. If they had won that game, the momentum alone would have taken them all the way. Shoot.

I still want to buy J.T. Snow a Cadillac, though. That was pure heroism, that home run. But a waste of heroism. If anyone sees him, ask him what color he wants.

So now it's Friday, and I am taking my leave of Homer. Slept in the van last night with the electric heater, which helped. But it didn't help that uncomfortable mattress.

I'm going to drive slowly out of Homer, maybe fish those steelhead rivers on the way out, and make way to Anchorage, hopefully in time to see the Turnagain Arm tidal bore again.

And then I'm on and up to Denali, to see what that is like.

Not sure how much longer I'll stay in Alaska. I'm just waiting for the weather to drive me out.

Hope all is well.