This week I got the chance to explore Kodiak Island. There was some quality father-daughter bonding time during the first couple days and Miss Valaas served as my partner in crime for the second part of the trip.
The pinks were in and were making their way up the rivers to their spawning grounds. We made a stop off the side of the road to check out the fishing when we saw two fisherman casting their lines. Within 5 minutes of casting in the Old's River a fish engulfed my lure and 10 minutes later the salmon was gutted and grilling on Dad's fire. Getting fish from the river to our stomachs so quickly had nothing to do with my fishing abilities, but rather the abundance of hungry fish that swarmed the river. If there are any homeless people living on Kodiak I am not worried about them, because I think it would be nearly impossible to go hungry on this island.
I absolutely loved the small town atmosphere on Kodiak. The moment we walked into the fishing store two customers at the check-out started conversing with my Dad and before we knew it we had a phone number of someone who wanted to take us deer hunting. I got a kick out of the small town radio which made reports such as "Jane Smith, you left your fishing boots on our boat yesterday, please call us at 345-8778 so we can get them back to you". Every local I met was very friendly and there seemed to be a quite a bit of cultural diversity on the island, with Alutiq (Russian-Aleut), Filipino, and Russian Orthodox influence.
On Monday night Dad and I came across a buffalo herd nonchalantly crossing the road. We decided to pitch our tent soon after (first pic was from the tent's vestibule) since a Kodiak brown bear would probably find baby buffalo more appetizing than us!
We checked out on Fossil Beach and watched a pod of barnacle-covered gray whales feed along the coast of Surfer's Beach.
Valaas brought the rain when she came on Tuesday...so we took the chance to visit Alaska's oldest building (now a museum), and play with the sea creatures in the touch tanks at the Kodiak Fisheries Research Center.
We couldn't let the torrential downpour slow us down too much, after all we were getting to see the reason why Kodiak is so lush! We checked out the left-over WW2 cannons and bunkers at Ft. Abercrombie and fueled up on salmon-berries and some blueberries too. Valaas and I hiked up Pyramid Peak on our way over to Larson Bay. There was no heart rate monitoring, pain, or training plan involved; we just hiked because it was the best way to explore the mountains in the area.
We were expecting to find at least a few houses at the end of the road since the man from the fishing store was from Larson Bay. All we found were some pick-up trucks and a loading dock that would allow people to boat to their homes. We tried our luck at fishing, but only Laura was semi-successful by bringing in a bottom feeder.
Laura had the brilliant idea of camping out in an abandoned boat, but after checking them out more closely we opted for a spot in the trees. Swarms of fish were teasing us in the adjacent river so we tried our luck again. Valaas caught a feisty hunchbacked pink. By the time I made it over to help her whack its brains it leaped from the grass to the river, taking the lure in it's mouth. I splashed in after it, but all I ended up with was a water-logged Polar watch.
On our way back to the airport we made a quick stop at the Old's River where I began and I caught a fish on the first cast. As if the trip couldn't get any better, Valaas hooked us up with a ride home in a four-seated plane with her pilot friends, Nico and Craig, who were leaving Kodiak on business. We cooked up the fish back in Anchorage, and with the help of Mom's home-grown potatoes and greens, nothing was store-bought. What a way to spend this week!
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