Our trip to Kodiak was made possible by Brenda and Dave’s generosity. They drove us to the Anchorage airport, almost an hour away from our camp and picked us up on our return. Tks D&B!
My cousin Paul, picked us up at the airport. Kodiak is a small island of about 14,000 people. 7k of which are in the town, 2.5k are at the largest Coast Guard base in the country. The rest are scattered around the island in native villages. Most of the island is a wildlife refuge set aside to protect the Kodiak brown bear. There are only 43 miles of road.
My cousin is a brown bear hunting guide and has exclusive hunting rights in three bear management areas. He charges about $35K for a hunt. He also guides for mountain goats, sea ducks and the occasional fishing charter. He is 67 years old and active in the extreme. His wife Angie is a retired school principle and is known by many people in the community.
After going for a 3 mile hike in the rain forest Angie made a wonderful dinner. We had mountain goat sticks and smoked salmon spread appetizer and halibut tacos. Needless to say, much of their diet is from the natural bounty all around them.
Paul wanted to show us some of the islands name sake brown bears. We took his boat about 25 miles to Afognak Island, part of the Kodiak archipelago, to a fish hatchery. The chum salmon were returning to the hatchery. Most are caught out in the bay in commercial fishery. Some are allowed to move up a small stream and then up a fish ladder into the hatchery where the eggs and sperm are harvested to start the process again. The brown bears come for the unlimited bounty. We saw a total of 7 bears feeding on the salmon. They were mostly young bears plus a couple of large sows. The bears focus on eating the highest calorie parts of the fish, the eggs and skin. They would pin a fish against on leg with a paw and smell it. Males they let go. Females they squished so that the eggs squirted out into their mouths. Then the would pull off and eat the skin. We got as close as 75’ from the bears. It was an awe inspiring experience.
The next day we went King salmon fishing on Paul’s boat. Helen caught the first, the most and the largest, a 20lb king. At least until I caught a 25lb king! We were trolling using downriggers. These are large weights that keep your lure at a desired depth. When a fish hits the lure, the line is released from the weight. We were fishing between 55 and 70 feet deep. We had steady action and caught rock fish, pink salmon, silver salmon, dolly varden and of course, kings. In the afternoon we went on a hike up Old Women Mountain. It was a 1000’ climb to a Coast Guard maintained US flag. Oofta!
Kodiak has a maritime climate. It rains on average 205 days per year. Our final day was socked in with fog and low clouds. Our plane flew down from Anchorage but could not land. It went back and our flight was cancelled. We were lucky to get a seat on the next flight of the day in about 5 hrs. Paul came back and picked us up. We used Angie’s car and had a nice lunch and explored the Wildlife Refuge’s visitor center. Our next flight got out and Dave and Brenda picked us up. Thanks again B&D!
Beautiful island – Greg; Great people – Helen; Those bears are big! – Slinky (our sloth)
So happy for you that you were able to fit that amazing side trip into your schedule!
Oh, those are some INCREDIBLE pictures, Greg. Such a fabulous adventure. I so glad you were able to visit Kodiak Island and the surrounding area and then share some of the details of your special excursion. Amazing!
Will you share your cousin Paul’s contact info? 😊