This short backpacking trip is a brief but intense foray in the Alaskan backcountry. Because of its location across the bay from the end of the road in Homer, Kachemak Bay State Park can only be accessed by boat or plane.

The trip starts with a short boat ride across the bay to the Glacier Spit beach. You'll need to arrange transit, we used Mako's Water Taxi who were friendly, fast and reliable. Cost is ~$80/person round trip as of 2022. Not sure why the rate is per person, but very cheap for solo trips!

After a short walk along the rocky beach, the trail cuts inland through a forested area. We were warned by our boat captain as well as numerous caution signs that there were recent aggressive black bear encounters in the area so we proceeded quite cautiously! Not that we needed the warning signs, there was fresh bear poop literally everywhere. Anna's brother was with us and had never hiked in bear country and later shared this was his favorite part given the fear made him hyper present.

Soon after entering the woods, you come to a fork in the trail where the route to the glacial lake diverges from the spur which goes out-and-back to the glacier itself. Sadly, locals informed us that the blue ice trail which apparently leads to an overlook of the glacier is completely overgrown and apparently impassible. For those who haven't hiked in Alaska, take this advice seriously! There are numerous plants like devil's club that are extremely thorny and grow extremely densely. Given this, we still wanted to check out the famous cable car over Grewingk Creek but were limited to just a few miles out and back on the spur before the trail turned into the woods. The cable car itself is in pristine condition and a blast (but hard work) to navigate across. Definitely worth checking out and bring gloves to avoid hurting your hands on the cold steel cables.

After circling back, we continued the hike to the glacier lake where we set up camp. Our conditions were predictably rainy and foggy, but thankfully the rain was intermittent enough to pitch our tent without getting everything too soaked. The lake is incredibly beautiful and thankfully there were very few people around. Icebergs lazily float around and you can see up the glacier into the imposing ice field behind. The next morning we watched the sunrise over the lake which was breathtaking.

The other possible spur is the Alpine Ridge Trail which leads about 2,000 feet up from the lake to a prominent ridge you can see from the campsite. Given we wanted to get a better view of the ice field, we decided to check it out. This was true Alaska hiking: driving rain, dense vegetation which was barely passible and uber fresh bear poop every few feet. Unless trail conditions have improved, we would not recommend this section as we had to turn back as the vegetation got too thick. Perhaps in better conditions things would have turned out differently!

The next morning we packed up, had a lazy breakfast laying on our sleeping pads by the lake side and headed for our boat pickup at the bottom of a steep descent of the saddle. On our way out, we finally saw the elusive black bear whose scat we had been tracking. 

Overall until trail conditions on one or both spurs improve, we would recommend this hike only to those who are spending quite a long time in Alaska as there are more accessible areas with more hikeable routes. That said, if you're in Homer and want to get out on the water this is a really interesting hike with some great views and a wonderful camping spot.

In terms of the setting, Homer is a really cool fishing town on a very, very long natural spit. If you're into wine, Bear Creek Winery is a nice post-trip place to unwind with a tasting flight. Because Alaska has too short a season to grow grapes (allegedly, anyway), they mix imported grapes with Alaskan-grown fruit like rhubarb into generally sweet wines which while not usually our favorite can hit the spot after a tough couple of rainy days.