Kodiak, Alaska

I recently had the opportunity to work in and visit a part of Alaska that I have never been to and as the title of this post suggests, it was the small city and island named Kodiak.  The island of Kodiak lies just east of the base of the Alaska Peninsula which eventually fragments into the Aleutian Island chain and is the second largest island in the U.S.  The city of Kodiak, seen in the above photo, is on the east side of Kodiak Island and looks out into the open ocean of the Gulf of Alaska.  The city must be the fourth largest in Alaska with a population of 12,000 to 13,000 people making only Anchorage, Fairbanks, and Juneau larger.  Ketchikan is probably somewhere close to Kodiak in population but I think Kodiak is larger.  The largest U.S. Coast Guard base in the country is in Kodiak as well so seeing MH 60 Jayhawk helicopters and HC 130 Hercules planes with their distinctive Coast Guard colors are not uncommon to see in the surrounding airspace.  

Another view of the city from a mountain that lies right behind the runway at the airport that I hiked up one evening after work.  The first photo was from the jet as I was leaving to return to Anchorage.  If you look on the left side of this photo you will see a slightly snowy ridge with 6 windmills lining it.  I don't know the details of those windmills but it seems like a safe assumption that they generate some of Kodiak's electricity.  They also provide an interesting and cool characteristic to the town.  The bridge in the center of the photo links Kodiak Island with a much smaller island called Near Island where there is a floatplane base, some nice hiking trails, the city's boat yard and boat hoist, and a large harbor where many of the Bering Sea fishing boats seen in the show Deadliest Catch are moored.

My first morning in Kodiak as seen from the harbor just across the street from the hotel I stayed in.  My first two days there were beautiful sunny days which deteriorated immediately when I had 2 days off of course.  Good ol' springtime in Alaska, it can make you think it is a sentient time of year with a mean sense of humor giving you beautiful days when you are stuck at work and then immediately changing them to cold, wet days when you have free days.

The view from the Near Island bridge looking south toward the airport.  The airport is below and to the left of the snowy mountain in the center distance of the photo.  That mountain is Mt Barometer and is the one I hiked up after work on my last full day there.  More photos of it in a bit.

A couple more pictures from the same spot on the bridge on some days of differing weather.

The Kodiak airport and the pieced together crew I worked with with Mt Barometer in the background.  When I first saw that mountain I knew I would leave Kodiak a little disappointed if I didn't get to the top of it and the weather did its best to keep me from it giving me only 2 windows of opportunity.  The crew I worked with consisted of AK airlines people mostly from Anchorage but also a couple from Juneau and then me from Wrangell.  They were fun people to work with and get to know and I learned quite a bit from them while I was there.  I hope to have an opportunity to work with or at least run into them again in the future.  Some of these guys got to Kodiak the day before I did on the first flight into or out of Kodiak in 4 days.  They landed in a snowstorm and had to immediately get off the plane, try to familiarize themselves with the station and the equipment enough to work the flight and then de-ice the plane before it could leave!  This is an impressive feat and speaks to the experience and professionalism of this crew.  It was good to be a part of it.

One of the most interesting things about Kodiak that I was previously unaware of is that there is a rocket launching facility on the island!!  Whoda thunk?  It is called the Pacific Spaceport Complex and is a corporation started by the state of Alaska and operated on state owned land south of the city of Kodiak.  It was the first commercial spaceport in the country not on a federally owned range.  I won't spend much time talking about it here as you can just as easily go to www.akaerospace.com and learn as much about it as I know.  One thing I found interesting is that they have an office in Anchorage, AK and Huntsville, AL.  I enjoy finding Alabama and Alaska connections of which I am aware of quite a few.  Maybe I'll do a post about that in the future.  Some of the Alaska-Alabama connections start as far back as the Civil War when Confederate Navy ships hunted down Yankee whaling ships in the Northern Pacific to damage the Union economically.  

Back to the spaceport and the present.  We all had Saturday and Sunday off so a few of us used one of the company cars to do some sightseeing and drove the road leading south of Kodiak to the spaceport and one of the beaches where people surf, Fossil Beach.  Are there fossils on Fossil Beach?  I really don't know but I am assuming so.   I was told that there are old military bunkers on the cliffs near Fossil Beach though but did not have an opportunity to go explore them unfortunately.

In an oddly strong way, Kodiak Island reminded me a lot of the big island of Hawaii, albeit a much colder and less colorful Hawaii.  The surf, the rolling grassy hills going to the sea, the seemingly endless views along the beach cliffs, the many black sand beaches, the cows, and the ethnic diversity have some distinct parallels.  There were quite a few cows and ranches on the island and it was cool to see cows with their long shaggy winter coats.  The last picture above is of one of the two surfers we saw at Fossil Beach actually out on the water.  I suppose it is fun but the brief moments of actually surfing didn't seem worth the much longer moments of being cold and wet.  Maybe that is why there were more cars parked at the beach with surfboards on their roofs or leaning against them than there were surfers surfing.  

Let's go back to the town of Kodiak again.  These two Russian Orthodox churches were a couple blocks apart and remind us of the Russian history and heritage of Alaska.  I've always really liked this style of architecture and Russian Orthodox styling generally.  

A local cafe named Monk's Rock was one of the establishments that I visited several times while I was there for coffee in the morning and take out lunch at lunch.  The cafe sold a lot of religious iconography like these above and also many figurines, ceramics, and artwork in the colorful styles of Slavic cultures.  My people!  This cafe had very good, simple food including some of the best borscht, chicken noodle, and butternut squash soup I have ever had.  There is also a sushi restaurant in Kodiak called Kodiak Hana that had some of the best sushi I have ever had,  I got take out sushi there 3 times and would have been satisfied eating there everyday.  The manager of the AK airlines station there told me that this sushi restaurant was owned and run by members of the Moonies cult?  Religion?  She also said that Kodiak was the spiritual center for the Moonies or the Unification Church as they are officially known.  

An immature Bald Eagle on a perfect perch for some rising sunshine.

Now back to Mt Barometer.   This mountain is 2500' tall and the hike to the top and back is about 4 miles round trip.  Other than that, that's really about all I know about it.  Well, and also it was a pleasure to look at when the weather allowed for it to be visible.  There are a couple of aluminum crosses on the summit, one has a man's name and a mountaineering axe on it but I don't know the stories behind their presence on the mountain.

Some views on the way to the top.

Some of the views from the top 

And finally a couple of selfies to prove that I did get to the top.  I didn't linger long up there as it was very windy and a bit cold and I was also a little concerned about the hike down so wanted to have plenty of time to take my time without having to worry about it getting dark.  The descent was very steep with a few snowfields to recross and then one section of class 3 rock climbing that seemed like it would be a little sketchy to climb down when I was climbing up but it turned out that it wasn't a big deal.  Nevertheless, I'm glad I gave myself the time to have a relatively stress free descent but as always, I was prepared with some extra warm clothes, water, and a headlamp just to be safe.  It took me 1 hour and 15 minutes to go from the car to the summit with the round trip taking 2 hours and 52 minutes.  I had estimated it taking at least 3 hours so I was pretty spot on.  I will freely admit I was a bit worn out afterward and my legs were sore for a couple days after but for my first hard hike of 2020 and being almost 49, I was pretty happy.

A couple of photos on the descent.  Looking back up at the top and looking down at the airport below.  You can see the white speck of the company car I was using on the road in the lower right corner.  A Coast Guard HC 130 airplane was flying beneath me just  before I took this picture but I didn't have time to pull out my camera before it left the area, this was taken with my phone.  

A picture looking back up at Mt Barometer and one of it the next morning.  I'm very thankful that I got the opportunity to explore a small part of this very scenic mountain.

A final picture from my Kodiak experience looking out of the airplane window on the final approach in to Wrangell over the Stikine river delta and looking at Wrangell Mountain in the distance.

I look forward to the coming year and have at least a couple trips planned that may be worthwhile and interesting coronavirus be damned!!  I'm looking forward to seeing some of our local whales again, hoping to see some new ones to document and name, have at least one mountain I have to get to the top of before it makes me crazy, and just all of the other unexpected and unplanned encounters and experiences this amazing place brings.

Stay healthy and safe, turn off the corporate media occasionally (ideally permanently), keep a skeptical but open mind, prepare for the worst but hope for the best, and most importantly -Enjoy Life, don't let fear take that away.  Fear is the mind killer.

Love