I did find out what the two crosses on top of Mt Barometer are for, the one with the mountaineer's axe on it is a memorial to a Coast Guard guy who died climbing the mountain one winter. It is a very steep and sustained mountain that I am sure gets very treacherous when the snow is hard and icy from being packed down by the wind making it a technical endever requiring more gear than just hiking boots and a camera. . The other cross memorializes the pilot of an F-15 who crashed into the mountain shortly after taking off from the airport fully loaded with fuel and ordinance. From what I was told, he was attempting to a take off going toward the mountain which requires a high degree of skill and experience that this pilot may have yet to have gained.
In the above picture, you are looking at Mt Barometer from the ramp as the recently arrived Alaska Airlines 737 taxis in. The runway is to the left and ends not very far from the base of the mountain leaving very little wiggle room for a pilot trying to get his airplane into the air and safely avoid this terrestrial obstacle.
Another interesting thing about Kodiak that I learned on this trip had to do with the 6 windmills located on the ridge above the town. The ridge the windmills are on is called Pillar Mountain and there are several trails on it as well as a gravel road to the top to allow for work and maintenance on the windmills and the many communication towers found there.
These windmills provide 5% of Kodiak's electricity with the remaining 95% being supplied by a hydropower plant somewhere relatively close on the island although I never saw it or any evidence of it. I have to admit that this fact hurt my logical brain a bit as I have heard repeatedly that windpower is one of the alternative energies that will save the planet. Maybe in other places this makes more sense but for 5%, this windmill project seems like an incredible expense to build and maintain with very little benefit. It also requires changing the character of this entire ridgetop as well as building these huge structures that alter the viewshed of the area. The windmills weren;t offensive to see and in my opinion were actually kind of a cool feature of Kodiak, but considering that Kodiak already had a hydro plant, this expense and intrusion on the natural landscape seemed unnecessary.
I spent at least an hour, many times two hours, in the mornings before work walking around the "downtown" area and across the bridge to Near Island to hike the many trails and to become familiar with Kodiak. These morning walks/hikes led to the discovery of several interesting features and attractions of Kodiak. I think I am at my best in places where I do not know anyone, it makes me get out and search out the details of a place.
Like this salmon sculpture that I didn't think very highly of the first few times I saw it until one morning I got close to it and really looked at it. From afar it wasn't very impressive to me but upon closer inspection I found it to be truly a work of art. It is made from plastic pieces and scraps cleaned from beaches in the area. Bits of garbage from who knows where in the world gathered from local beaches all consolidated and arranged here to make an interesting and poignant physical statement. Chunks of plastic buckets, barrels, buoys, rubber gloves, tubes, pipes, crates all went in to creating this interesting fish. I was glad to have taken the time to look at this salmon more closely and appreciate what it is. I like the "make something ugly beautiful" theme.
Some other pretty discoveries made on one of many morning walks. Some graffiti art under a bridge that I found particularly fetching, one of many dumpsters in town with some sort of beautification on it, interesting silver salmon on the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge visitor center, and a dense school of smaller silver salmon on a memorial in town. The visitor center was closed as were all other government facilities. Government workers are loving this unplanned paid vacation I'm sure. Most government workers I know don't seem to be in much of a rush to get back to work.
The beautiful weather presented the opportunity to do some more hiking and exploring of the many trails and mountains. There is a really good network of trails just across the bridge on Near Island that were an easy walking distance from my hotel so my morning routine was typically a one to two hour walk before work and walking through the drive through at the Near Island Coffee Shop. The simple pleasures of forest, ocean, birdsongs, and a 16 oz mocha are hard to beat! The weekend gave me an opportunity to go further afield and hike one of the other prominent mountains as well as another trip out to the space port complex where the buffalo roam. Yes, buffalo!!
First, to give some perspective, here are a couple pictures of the island of Kodiak. The first one is of the whole island where you can see the city of Kodiak in the middle right of the photo. The smaller islands of Afognak and Raspberry are to the north with the base of the Alaska Peninsula to the northwest and west. The bottom photo is a close up of the area near the city of Kodiak and the areas accessible by road. The space port complex is near Pasagshak in the lower right and is also where the road ends at Fossil Beach where there are fossils and surfing beaches. This is also where the buffalo roam. Chiniak to the northeast of Pasagshak is also accessible by road and is a very small community without much of interest other than many, many nice black sand beaches.
Okay, now that there is an idea of the island and just how big and inaccessible it is, on to some of the more easily accessible parts.
Some of the rugged coastlines on the way out the road to Fossil Beach.
Give me a home where the buffalo roam, where the deer and the giant Kodiak brown bears play.
So I don't exactly know the story of the Kodiak buffalo. I'm fairly certain that they were originally brought here as ranch animals but as many a buffalo rancher has discovered, they ain't cows. They are not docile and domesticated and they are strong beyond belief so I think they eventually just became a wild herd. I have no idea if they can be hunted or if they are "owned" by anyone or if they are herded up and butchered for commercial purposes. I did not see or hear about any local bison meat for sale in Kodiak but maybe I just didn't go to the right places. There were at least a couple hundred of them with numerous small calves leisurely roaming and grazing without a care in the world.
Not the best picture I know but getting bison and whales in the same frame was pretty cool I thought. Give me a home where the buffalo roam and the deer and the humpback whales play!
This area around Fossil Beach also has numerous old military bunkers perched on the sea cliffs overlooking the Pacific making a person wonder what it would have been like to sit there in those concrete holes above a wild ocean while the world was at war. When an enemy navy was a legitimate threat and foreign boots on our soil was taken seriously enough to guard this wild place. Seems like something to have been truly concerned about and take action against rather than cowering in our houses while politicians take away our civil liberties.
Moving back closer to town, I did a really fun hike up a prominent mountain called Pyramid Mountain. From the right perspective, it is pretty obvious why it is called Pyramid Mountain.
I actually hiked this mountain twice while I was in Kodiak this time, once by myself up and down the same route and the other time with 2 of my coworkers. The second time we went up the popular trail and then over the top and down this side seen in the picture. That was a fun hike with beautiful views, warm sun, and a mountain goat sighting above the deep ravine at the bottom right of this picture.
This is the view of the mountain from the parking area at the trailhead. The trail is seen to the left.
Some views from the top. In the middle photo you can see the airport in the distance and Mt Barometer on the right margin of the photo.
Pyramid Mountain in the rearview after a great hike.
See the mountain goat? This was actually a different sighting of the same goat when I was scouting where the other trail ends. When we hiked over Pyramid Mountain and saw this same goat, he was at the top of this ravine.
The snow patterns looked like some good black and white opportunities.
There is a good possibility that I will be back in Kodiak in the next month to work again. Kodiak was about a month behind Wrangell as far as springtime so if I get to go back it will be cool to see these places again when leaves are out, flowers are blooming, and things are green. Maybe I could get a glimpse of one of those legendary Kodiak bears or even better - a Puffin!
