July 15, 2010 - Baby ptarmigans Spotted these ptarmigans on the Saddle trail to Grewingk Glacier on Kachemak Bay. Started the day at Homer Spit, looking for a drop-off to the Kachemak Bay State Park. We spotted Mako Water Taxi, the boat service we had used way back in 2002, on our very first trip to Alaska and the Kachemak. Still going strong! So Mako it was, @$75 RT to Saddle Point. We wanted to do the Glacier Lake Trail, an easy 2.2 mile trail, but chose the Saddle Trail, 3mile loop to the glacier lake but rated moderate. We thought V's parents, both in their mid 70s, could actually manage the 3 mile trail. Boy, we were so wrong! Mako dropped us off at Kachemak around 1pm, the pickup was at 4:30pm. Now, we had plenty of time for a 3 mile trail. But Saddle Trail starts with the hardest part first - a dozen switchbacks on the steepest portion of the trail, rising up 100s of feet straight from the gravel beach. After about 10 minutes coaxing her parents, V took off on her own, leaving K & her parents to work their way up gradually. K now escorted V's parents another hundred feet or so up the hills, but they were quite short of breath and kept stumbling off the rocks. Finally, V's dad threw in the towel. That spurred V's mom to give up too, and K now had the daunting task of leading these seniors back to the gravel beach down a steep slope they had taken about an hour to climb. Another half hour later, with a few more stumbles and hand-holdings thrown in, K finally escorted the two of them to a safe portion of the beach. Now, K had a choice. Either he could stay put with them until V comes back by herself, or he could go after her in the short time left. Not surprisingly, he chose the latter! Oblivious to all this drama, V safely reached the glacier all by herself around 3:30pm, placed the D700 on a rock & managed to shoot herself in focus alongwith the glacier as backdrop, then shot a small video as well, and started the hike back. K meanwhile spotted the ptarmigan babies, which V had previously spotted and taken a picture of, midway through the hike. Around 0.8 miles, K spotted V and they ran towards each other and hugged and traded stories, after which K decided he had to see the glacier as well. V decided to head back to the beach by herself, while K would run up to the glacier, take a picture & then run back. Very ambitious, with less than an hour to go, but why not ? There was plenty of bear scat on the trail, and V sang her way through the trail humming a few bars from the Bollywood hit Kaminey, which, given her musical talents, neither bear nor human has any interest in being within audible range. So she reached the beach safe with no bear sightings, though she did spot bear tracks on the beach. By this time, V's parents had moved to a safer place, since the place where K left them had already been flooded by the high tide! So K reached the glacier dodging a few slow moving groups, at 4pm. He quickly shot a video & turned around & started the jog back to the boat. After another half mile of steep switchbacks and a couple of close calls, K found himself at the ladder which connects the Saddle Point trail to the beach. He climbed down the ladder into the water, as by now the high tide had completely flooded the area. He could spot V & her parents standing on safe grounds with the water levels still steadily climbing towards them. He himself had no chance of reaching them without getting completely wet. There was water all around and the waves were pretty strong. By this time we spotted Mako's taxi as well. K desperately jumped into the water and battled the broken trees that cluttered up the path and finally managed to reach the boat just in time. On the ride back, we had V, her parents, K, and another party of 3, and the boat's captain and his dog, all packed tightly in a boat clearly meant for at most 4 people! The seas were rough and by the time we hit Homer, everybody was in a pretty bad shape, though we did feel victorious about actually making it to the glacier and back. Rushed back to the B&B, a quick shower, and called it a day.

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