Record Rainfall

I am really really glad we got out for a beautiful hike on Saturday while we were in Kodiak because on Sunday we woke up to rain - heavy rain - the kind of rain you almost never see in Kodiak. And it didn't stop for 2 1/2 days. Kodiak is of course known for rain, but not this kind of rain, more just constant drizzle (Seattle's drizzle is nothing compared to Kodiak). This storm caused more flooding than I've ever seen before.

We were supposed to leave Kodiak on Monday morning and we left the house at 6:15 to head to the airport. There were a couple of places where water was running over the road, and in places where the road is gravel it was eroding along the edges. We were about half way to town when we go the text our flight was canceled so we turned around and headed home. Some of the places had gotten significantly worse, just in 30 minutes, but at least by that time some DOT personnel were in Chiniak and assessing the conditions.

Water flowing across the road near the road maintenance station while DOT was working on clearing debris from the culvert

Water on the road between Myrtle Beach and Myrtle Creek

After noon we headed back to town again to try to catch the afternoon jet (which ended up being canceled). By that time DOT had unclogged some of the culverts and alleviated some of the flooding on the road. When we came home most places had significantly subsided on the road, however, just about a mile past our house (just past the Roslyn River Bridge), the road had washed in a deep little channel and was impassable. I felt bad for people who didn't make it home that night! But, DOT worked on it that evening and by the morning it was repaired with two new culverts, which was still barely enough to drain the water.

Roslyn River, looking upstream, the water was only ~8" from the top of the bridge

Water in the woods near Roslyn River, looking downstream

The wash-out near Roslyn River

Two new culverts barely keeping up with the water at the wash-out

I'm not sure I've ever seen a weather forecast so accurate in Kodiak, but on Tuesday, within 5 minutes of noon, the rain let up and turned to mist exactly as the National Weather Service said. On our final trip to the airport (when we actually made it out), the water had noticeably subsided. I don't know the total rainfall for the whole storm, but in  Tuesday's Kodiak Daily Mirror it said over 3" had fallen on Sunday (a record for that day), and as of 2:00pm on Monday, the record had already been broken with almost 2".

Major new erosion at the Culvert in Chiniak

Kodiak Fishing Pictures

Alex and a little pink

Alex fishing at the mouth of Chiniak Creek at 11:00 at night

Alex and Dad pulling in a 45 lb halibut

9 halibut

Before time gets away from me, here are a few photos from my little fishing vacation to Kodiak over the holiday weekend. We did a little of everything - gillnetting, pole fishing, and halibut fishing from both poles and a long line. We found a sweet spot for halibut and got nine within a few hours - two on poles and seven on the long line.

The day we halibut fished it was HOT (Kodiak hot, of course, meaning warmer than 65F). Usually on the ocean there is at least a little breeze, but there was not much of one that day. If we'd had a ladder to climb back in the skiff I would have gone swimming!

Fishing in Pasagshak

Kelly, not able to control her laughter

Happy to be heading back with a working motor and three reds

I think I just experienced some of the nicest 4th of July weather Kodiak has seen in a long time. And I caught some fish! I even got my first subsistence fishing permit. My parents have one so we have always put our gillnet out for salmon under their permit. On the day I arrived my dad was working and my mom is in a boot cast until a stress fracture in her foot heals. My sister and brother-in-law had nothing but time on our hands, so I got my own permit.

I have never taken the skiff out without my dad (once Ryan and I did take it out, but it didn't exactly go well). Our outboard is a little touchy, and old, and in fact, it's built from parts of two old outboards. It's the kind of motor that no one should take out unless they possess the skills to fix it themselves (which is often necessary). My brother-in-law is a mechanic so I had full faith in his ability to keep get that thing running again if it decided to quit.

We set the net in Pasagshak in what was a bit of a comedy show. It involved a lot of swear words and exclamations of "How does Dad usually do this?" and "How does your dad get this thing to start?" We first had trouble getting the outboard to start while we were getting pounded into the beach by the surf after we had dropped the anchor on the beach. Once Alex figured out the trick that it had to be in neutral to start, we started letting the net out while reversing away from the beach. We ended up with the net in a classy "S" shape. We looked like total professionals. Then we tried to straighten the net, which somewhat worked after some time. I'm sure the boats on either side of us were staring and probably laughing.

We sat out there for 5 hours and only caught 3 reds. But, we had nothing better to be doing than be bobbing around in the sun. Three reds is nothing to complain about.

Alex did learn something about our outboard, and I think we all learned that my dad makes setting the net look easy.

Hiking in Kodiak

This weekend Molly and I joined our friends John and Katelyn for some Kodiak backpacking.  We had originally planed on exploring Ugak Bay in John's skiff but the weather didn't look favorable.  We opted instead to hike from Sequel Point (out past Cape Chiniak) to Narrow Cape. We camped one night in a place named Sacramento valley.   Molly did this hike in one day with her family when she was 13 so we were confident that an overnight trip would be casual.  There is no hiking trail along this coast line but four wheeler trails and game trails made the traveling fairly easy on the first day. The second day was mostly beach walking.   

It did rain on and off both days but it was never too heavy and it certainly wasn't cold for Kodiak.  We saw plenty of wildlife along the way including two curious mountain goats that wandered down to the beach.  At Narrow Cape there is a rancher that has buffalo.  The buffalo have wandered down the beach to Sacramento Valley and beyond.  Late in the evening I went over to the river to take a photo of the Buffalo grazing in an open meadow.  I was holding the camera up when I noticed something about a hundred yards up the river.  I stood there and looked at the dark figure and thought "that doesn't look like a buffalo." It stood up on its hind legs and looked about 10ft tall.  "Oh SH*!, that's definitely not a buffalo" I thought to myself.  Luckily the Kodiak brown bear then decided to high tail it up the river and I quickly returned to our camp fire to report the news.

The rest of the evening around a campfire was uneventful and we didn't see any more wildlife besides some foxes, seals, and sea otters.  The next morning we walked to the ranch in Narrow Cape where Betty picked us up.

First Salmonberries

Russianberry and Salmonberry

We picked our first salmonberries this weekend! They're not as tasty as they will be in a week, but it was still fun to eat a few and make a crisp with the rest. Here on Kodiak we call the yellow ones Russianberries. Does anybody else call them that? Do other areas have different names for them? I'd be interested to know!

When I was hiking on the Eagle Creek Trail in Oregon last month we hiked through quite a few good patches of salmonberries (the nicest ones I've ever encountered off of Kodiak Island) and they had the highest ratio of Russian to salmonberries I've ever seen. Here, the Russianberries are fairly rare.

Caitlin and Katelyn

Fising for Greenling and Rockfish

Anybody know what this fish is?

Courtney and a little black rockfish

Nicole catching another rockfish

Don't let anybody at the dock see this catch (it's a little embarrassing to come home with a red irish lord)

Yesterday I went out in John's skiff with some friends to go fishing in the name of research. They are studying modern and ancient near-shore food webs and needed samples of fish that live in kelp forests. They particularly wanted greenling and black rockfish. All seven of us got in the skiff in the morning and quickly realized non of us really had much of an idea about how to fish for these things. Luckily catching near-shore fish isn't particularly difficult and we started pulling fish up right away. Unfortunately none of us really knows much about identifying rockfish and greenlings either (at least not with flesh on them!). It would have been helpful to have a Field Guide to Common Marine Fishes and Invertebrates of Alaska, but my copy is in Seattle and it is now out of print. But we caught quite a few things that should be useful for their research.

In between fishing spots we stopped on Long Island to walk around the WWII ruins and check out the sea lions.

Otters and Orcas

mother and baby sea otter

sea otters

Yesterday John took me out in his skiff. We zipped over to Afognak, then went around Whale Island, in to Port Bailey, and back to Anton Larsen. It's nice to have a friend with a fast boat! When we were in checking out Port Bailey, we saw bunches of sea otters with babies. The babies are pretty big this time of year, but they still cling onto their mothers. The one in the top photo was trying to climb onto its mother's head as we went by.

Just as we were in the back of that cove, two orcas surfaced in front of us. John shut off the engine and we watched them surface four more times as they went by us and then disappeared. The were in the far back of that little bay and seemed to be on their way out. They didn't seem like they were hunting, but the sea otters scattered nonetheless. I think orcas eat sea otters, which seems a little crazy to me - they can't be much more than fur balls!

I've seen tons of orcas (as has John), but I'm pretty sure I've never been this close to one before. As we watched them, I remember that some of the marine biologists who study whales in Kodiak like to get photos of their dorsal fins because individuals with distinctive fins can be easily identified and the whales and pods can be tracked. I was lucky to get some decent photos as they went by. The one has a pretty distinctive jagged dorsal fin, so I hope it will be useful to the whale biologists.

two orcas passing by

Kodiak Skiing and Dynafit Binding Review

It's still a little early for good back-country downhill skiing in Kodiak, but on the first day of winter we were out making the most of it.  My friend John took me to one of the taller mountains that you can ski to in a day.  We started near sea level so it was a bit brushy down low, but at 1500 to 2000ft there were nice pockets of new snow.  The sun stayed low on the horizon but the fact that it was out made it an outstanding day to be in the mountains.

Another friend of ours let me borrow the skis, boots and skins (thanks Patrick).  This allowed me to avoid hauling my skis to Kodiak and back.  Patrick's ski setup was very light weight and uses dynafit bindings.  This was my first time skiing with dynafit bindings, I really enjoyed them but am still skeptical about there durability and the durability of the boots that are required to use them.  Dynafit bindings are very light because they are use a very small about of material to hold the boot in place.  Just about every time John visits me in Seattle he ends up breaking some part of his dynafit bindings. The other downside is that the brakes for these bindings are basically useless, which means you are stuck using leashes which in my opinion are annoying and potentially dangerous.

I could go on, but I will wrap it up by saying I think these bindings are a great revolutionary design, but there downsides are often overlooked by skiers far too excited by the two pounds of  weight saving.

Kodiak Dawn

I took these photos early one morning this summer on my way to the airport in Kodiak to meet Ryan. There are some beautiful sunrises in Kodiak, but I rarely see them in the summer because they happen so early. As I ran out of the door that morning, I glanced at my camera, considered taking it, but then thought "I'm just driving (30 miles) to the airport and back, why would I need to take any photos?" I regretted that decision as soon as I came out into the flat stretch in Middle Bay and saw this view. As I rounded the corner near Salt Creek, I remembered I had Patrick's camera! I'd taken it home for the weekend to post some of the photos on my blog while he was out deer hunting. I backed up and snapped these photos (which made me late to pick up Ryan - for which he was very understanding!) It turned out to be awesome that I had Patrick's camera because it is a very nice SLR camera - way better than the point and shoot I had. I thought they were worthy of sharing, but had forgotten them on a CD in Kodiak until my mom sent them last week (thanks Mom!).

Dad's first halibut

Dad and his halibut

Ryan halibut fishing

A sea otter near Roslyn

Dad recently learned that one can get a free sport fishing license in Alaska after age 60. He wasted no time at all and went to get his on his birthday last week. He had his eye on halibut fishing - something we've never done ourselves. Mom called the Hotline (the small town radio-version of Craig's List) and found some used halibut poles.

Mom, Dad, Ryan, and I went out in the skiff today to test-out our new set-up. Dad caught a nice little halibut right away - his first ever. It made a tasty dinner. There should be many more halibut to come now that we have the poles and dad has his free license.

Just another day in Kodiak: Firewood

On Sunday, after a little hike to check out some potential firewood, Dad, Michael, and I went out in the skiff at high tide to collect said wood. This particular firewood adventure was much more pleasant than most of my childhood experiences. We usually got wood in the winter when the beaches were frozen (so we could drive on them) and when my dad was laid off and had unlimited free time. It was also usually cold and windy, thus my general dislike of collecting firewood. Now that I don't live in Kodiak and don't HAVE to get firewood, I find it much more enjoyable. And I always like an excuse to go out in the skiff.