Kodiak Island

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Arrived on Kodiak Island via ferry on Saturday, May 5. Had camped at Homer and were ready to embark at 8 in the morning. Homer is a small town with a MacDonalds and a Wal-mart. The truck stopped at the beach. Warm bathrooms with flush toilets and hot water were available. Only thing ....you had to know well in advance of a bathroom performance of either kind because it took a trek to get there and there was no cover on the beach to do a "thing". Of course during the night I just had to do the thing beside the truck tire!

Along the beach were small shops jst like the Popeye movie. None were open because the season had not yet started. Met a halibut fisher. He had just gutted and filleted a 50 pound halibut. He threw the skeleton behind himself in a flash a bald eagle stole the remains. When I and a whole lot of other eagle watchers arrived there were five eagles clawing at the meat remaining. There had been about thirty a short time before. The proud eagle, once a fierce raptor and in danger of becoming extinct has now stooped to being a scavenger.

The talons are the size of a four year olds hands. The beak looks like the jaws of a giant wrench. Once locked on to a piece of meat or bone the eagle uses his own weight to pull against and rips off a piece and swallows it whole. One
greedy fiend pulled apart the back bone and was swallowing one vertebrae after the other. Whole!

Back at the camp it was my turn to cook with Paul and Sue. Zane the chef started us off because Karen the cook had not returned from shopping. In the end it turned out to be a great feast of fish soup with halibut, smoked salmon, oysters, potatoes , frozen veg all mixed together and served with french bread. Very good.... but it was so darn cold. My hands may never be the same again. So much for the lousy manicure!

The cook team has first dibs on sleeping on the truck. Who knew it was going to be so freeziing cold. Won't do that again.

On the ferry after an absolutely wonderful shower I sat and worked on my photos because as soon as the ferry left the dock the connection was lost.

Lunch and dinner were eaten on the ferry because we would arrive too late to cook at the camp and there is the ever present fear of bears. Once off the ferry we went in search of a camping spot. Two were looked at. The second was chosen....by the sea beside an airfield.


Sunday May 6

The wake up was pleasant as the sleep had been . We are in a camp site that has a huge snow covered peak in the backround the ocean surf in front of us and an airport beside us.

The tents are stung out in a line along the drive into the park. Two brown toilets are at the end of this space as long as amedium sized strip mall.

The truck is parked across from the tents and we cook our breakfast and dinner outside on an open fire in huge soot covered heavy metal pots. We have a dutch oven and two water kettles. Everything is covered in soot! After kitchen duty ones hands are also covered greasy soot hard to get off with cold water.
The truck is self sufficient. If you want a shower the shower tent has to be erected and a pump brought out, connected and then a COLD shower follows. Better to wet a face clothand go over the vital areas. Have already washed in lake water once. Will forgo washing in sea water.

Am at the moment sitting in the truck out of the wind. The wind is deadly straight of the water. The whole island of Kodiak does not get much warmer than 63 F; this according to a local who was today wearing shorts. The lady at the laundry said that we cannot be in possession of an eagle feather or hunt for polar bear. The polar bear she feels will not be missed if it becomes extinct because it is a vicious bear …more vicious than the brown bear. The woman also said that packets of polar bear hais are sold for $20-$25 to fishermen who make flies for fish bait.

All who wanted to go went to 'town'on the truck.
At the Laundromat we washed our clothes, worked on the internet for five dollars,dried our clothes and went for a great stong capuccino.I shared my laptop with three others. Will set up a separate user for other such situations. The owner of the laundry place:
* runs the laundry with only huge machines for $3.75 each and drying for $2 for the time needed to dry a smalll load.
*sells internet time for $5 a day
*does the laundry for the ferry… with an irononing girl dragging the bed sheets on the floor while smoothing out the article
*showers are available for $9
*I brought the laptop to her so that she could type in the password for the laundry and when I brought it back to the desk forgot to plug in the power line. This will be a good test to see how long the battery will last.
For some reason the screen is hard to read.... but Merrick is an IT guy and this is really good news.

While Min worked on the laptop Iwent to the warf to get some good shots of the fishing ships.
I found one that was called Alaska and was grungy enough to make for interesting shots. Saw a sea lion basking in the marina beside boats big and small. A man sitting in the laundry spoke of his eight foot brown bear he had shot in twodays of hunting. I spoke o him and he told us we could see the pelt if we came to his boat, The Diana. Found the man before the boat. Paul found the boat. WE took some pictures of the dead

Min and Paul waited for me. We went to the Subway together to get lunch. We had to go back to the laundry to pick up the laptop that had been plugged in while we had a wander around town.

Once back at the camp site we ate dinner ...today it was stew again with mashed potatoes...good thing I prefer that to spaghetti.

Put the tarp I bought at the hardware store in Kodiak under my tent. It seems to have made a difference. Slept well.

In the morning went on the hunt for wood ate a hearty breakfast of reconstituted hashbrowns and eggs with coffeee and a toasted peanut butter and lime jam sandwich.

Did some tent cleaning and then went on a ramble allong the beach after doing some pushups and stretches within view of snowcapped peaks and running surf.

Allof piled into the truck and drove soth as far as the road would let us.

Saw horses, long haired cows, bison and little calves, sprouts of whales, one dead bison being eaten by an eagle and one lone pig on a very messy farm.

All came back to town by 3:00. Had a second lunch of seafood and crab at the Subway and am once again in the laundromat nursing a coffee from next door and typing away until six when we all get back on the truck,drive out to the campground, cook dinner and eat, and then come back to town to get stinking drunk before we get on the ferry at 2AM for a shower and a return to Homer.

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Photos

Halibut Fisherman
Caught a fifty Pounder. Allowed two fish per day. Keeps the biggest of all caught.

Waiting for Lunch

Comments

[Sandra]

You're more of a traveller than I am!
Just reading about the fish stew put my stomach in motion! Love the pix of the wild life. The way we were told to find bald eagles was to look for "golf balls" in the trees. The weather here is great...we are golfing. I await the next installment with bated breath!