Alaska Road Trip: Kodiak!

I missed the best photo op of our travels the other day…… Let me lay out the scenario. When I was at the cleaning table the other day filleting the halibut, a guy walks up and asks who owns the truck and boat over there by the RV dump station. The guy next to me says it was his and the other guy asks him if he is going to move soon. The guy cleaning the fish says give me 5 minutes, I am almost done. The RV guy does not reply but just stands there and stares at him. Fish cleaning guy puts down his knife and goes and moves his truck and boat. Granted he should not have parked there but the RV guy was a little rude.

We finished cleaning our fish and as we were pulling out I look over and the RV guy is filling his fresh water tank with the sewer water hose! You know the one with the long pole that sticks straight up with a spring on the bottom of it and a permanent hose on the end? He has that hose buried down his fresh water tank! I wanted so bad to stop and say “Dude, do you have any idea where that hose has been?” But instead we just looked in disbelief as we drove by.

Our ferry ride over to Kodiak Island was interesting. The ferry was scheduled to leave at 4:45am with boarding starting at 2:45am. We arrived about 10:00pm and parked in line as others were starting to show up and we wanted to be first in line to board (I will let you know how that worked out in a minute). The ferry terminal opened at11:00 and they told us to go to the front of line #2 (Woo hoo,
we are first in line!).

First in line!

At 11:30pm they started loading the people that were going beyond Kodiak (Dutch Harbor, Cold Bay….). About 12:30am the guy walks over to us and says they are shutting down until 2:30am to give the others who are going beyond Kodiak time to get here and load. 2:30am rolls around and they start loading again. Finally they start loading the Kodiak vehicles. They load every row except ours (so much for being first in line). Finally with no other vehicles left in sight they give us the okay.
 

As you drive up the ferry ramp you are guided onto a large platform. The attendant tells you to stop at a certain point and then the entire platform is lowered into the cargo hold like a giant elevator. Once you reach the bottom the platform turns like a Lazy Susan and you back off at the position they stop it at. They guide you to your parking area, have you stop, set your brake and get out. Then they chain your vehicle to the decking.

 

 

At this point we put Daisy in back as she is not allowed outside the truck for the entire 9 ½ trip. Nor can we get back down to the truck once the ship is underway. Yikes, that is a long time for Daisy not to have an accident!

It is now 4:30am and we have not slept a wink so we grab a blanket, our books and snacks and head up to the passenger area to find a place to crash. Well you know what happens when you are the last to board? All of the good spots are taken. There were people spread out everywhere! In chairs, booths, on the floors, on the benches and some people even set up tents!

 

Oh, there were seats available but there were people laying on the floor right in front of them. We finally found a spot with 3 chairs together in the theater area and settled in. We tried to sleep but there was snoring and other noises sleeping people make all around us. A very interesting experience indeed!

About 10:00am the Captain announced that they were going to allow pet owners 10 minutes to walk their pets since the seas were somewhat calm. Barb and I discussed the fact that they would probably never know if one of us did not return from this little “pet walk” and spent the rest of the voyage in the camper below deck. I am not going to say that this happened but I will say that one of us was well rested by the time we hit port!

Kodiak Boat Harbor

Arriving in Kodiak is was the reverse of Homer, we were the first off!



Here comes the Lazy Susan!

Elevator up!

On our way up

The ferry terminal is a little out of town and as we pulled up to the highway we no idea way to go. We guessed right and soon found ourselves at the Visitors Center in town where we got a map to learn the lay of the land. Then it was off to our campground in Buskin River State Rec. Area where we just chilled the rest of the day going to bed early to catch up on our sleep.

Our Buskin Site

The next morning we got our fishing gear out and headed to the river to see if the salmon were running. There were about a half a dozen other anglers there, several of them with side arms or shotguns. This is said to be a very beary section of the river.

 A few were catching salmon and releasing them. Upon closer inspection we saw that they were snagging them so any fish not hooked in the mouth had to be released. As we were standing amongst the fisherman tossing our flies, everyone once in a while one would say “There goes some” or “Here come some”. For the life of us we could not see these fish moving upstream in the rushing water until one guy showed us what to look for. You just look for a discolored “blob” moving slowly up river. They were very hard to see but soon we too were pointing out when fish were moving through.

Barb and I each hooked a few fish that day as well as the following days. Between the halibut we brought along and these salmon we are eating pretty good!

We did check out the Fish Weir on the Buskin River. This is where they put up a blockade so the fish cannot swim upriver any further. Biologists count the fish several times each day and open the blockade to let the fish through.

See all the fish?

Unfortunately you cannot fish within 1/4 mile of either side of the weir!

But Kodiak Island has more to explore than just fishing. For example, there is a brewery! The Kodiak Brewing Company is right in the middle of town and has 10 different taps that they brew on site. They don’t serve flights but they will let you taste any brew you are interested in until you find the one you want for your pint. After Barb and I tested 6 brews each the bartender said that he would have to charge us if we tested any more. Then he said he was kidding (I think). There just weren’t any brews that we liked! In the end we each settled on the one we disliked the least.

 

What we really wanted to see the most while on the island was the infamous Kodiak Brown Bear! Weighing as much as 1,000#’s and some exceeding 9 feet tall, these are the biggest bears we will probably ever see.

There are ~14,000 fulltime residents on Kodiak along with 3,500 brown bears meaning for every 4 people we see we should see 1 bear right? Well we saw thousands of people and not one bear, nary a hair of a bear! We stayed in the most bear populated campground, fished the most bear populated river and nothing. We were stopped by a warden one day and as she checked out licenses she said that there was a bear harassing the fishermen just the other day and that if he shows up to throw our fish in the river and don’t let him get them. Even after I covered Barb with peanut butter the bear did not show! Oh well, we should have more bear viewing opportunities throughout the late summer and fall.

This is as close as we came to a bear attack

Did you know that Kodiak is also home to the largest Coast Guard Station? Well it is. They have 2 Cutters, a Buoy Tender and 7 Helicopters along with a variety of other aircraft.

 

 

During our week’s stay on the island we drove from tip to tip exploring the sights. There are several areas where the military had bunkers and guns during WWII. We walked Fort Abercrombie State Park to see some of the bunkers and museums.

 

 But to us the most interesting thing about the island was the terrain. We have never seen anything quite like it. Rugged coastlines, rugged mountains, lots of waterfalls, few trees and very green. Very very green, it was almost Tropical Island like.

 

 

 For as pretty as Kodiak was, we found most of the locals not so friendly. The sporting good store employees were less than helpful, the brewery guy was kinda grumpy, several other locals we talked to were less than talkative. We did run into a few very friendly folk (Kodiak Wildlife Visitors Center) but for the most part we did not get that "warm and fuzzy" feeling.

The one great exception to this came randomly on our last afternoon in town. It was 4th of July and most of the businesses in town were closed. We happened to drive by a place called Pickled Willys where the open sign was illuminated. We pulled in to check it out. We were greeted by the owner Bill Alwert who talked our ears off the better part of an hour. I think we sampled everything he sells in his shop AND gave us a tour of his pickling and smoke shop. We bought some smoked salmon and black cod cheeks. Bill is quite the character and it is definitely worth the stop if you come to the island.

They have a huge walk in smoker

Automated smoke chip system

 

Salmon brining ready for the smoker

 

Bill showing off some of his Black Cod cheeks

And let’s not forget the geocaching! Over the past winter Barb has been hoarding (aka McCormack’ing) trackables to bring to Alaska and leave up here. What better place to leave a trackable than Kodiak Island?

 

All in all it was a good week. Definitely not cheap (ferry $1,082 round trip) but we are glad we went. It was a unique experience that we will never forget but now that we have done it we don’t see ourselves going back. There are just too many other places to explore!