Phoenix Bay, Afognak July 31, 2012 20:31 58N524 1532W19
Our Kodiak time has been a world apart from the Aleutians. Our hikes have been limited, not just by the bear fear factor, but on closer inspection those rolling green grassy hills with shrubbery we saw from the boat when we arrived, turned out to be rolling green shrubbery with small groves of alder – a terrain exceedingly difficult to make way in without trails or a machete. The Aleutian tundra we’d been enjoying had begun to grow to a height and density that was increasingly difficult to traverse as a pedestrian, but Kodiak’s southeastern fjords were far more seasonally advanced. Putchki was shoulder height to the Aleutian Putchki’s waist height. The many white white blossoms scattered across the hillsides here were not White Anemone as I thought but giant Putchki flowers. On arrival, my entire sense of scale was way off from our boat perspective. Interestingly the rare lupine here looked dwarf compared to the fields of Aleutian lupine with their giant blossoms and leaves (at the nature center in Kodiak we learned that lupine roots are a bear delicacy, a likely cause of their reduced stature here).
As we worked our way north the landscape changed even more. First the groves of trees grew bigger, with more spruce added to the mix. Then the Alders disappeared altogether and the spruce dominated the hillsides. A short visit to the town of Kodiak shook our brains a bit more with lots of boats, cars, buildings and people. We escaped quickly, scuttling across to Afognak Island for some calm, but yesterday’s cove smelled like Home Depot, and the hillsides had been stripped of trees, a healthy logging operation. Today we’re on the very north end of Afognak in a cove with an old familiar feel of the Pacific Northwet. Dense forests, driftwood beaches lined with ochre kelp at low tide, and lots of rocks ready to trip up any unsuspecting boater (we’re always suspecting).
Our bear count is up to about 10, all at a nice safe distance, most on the beach, one mom and her two cubs up on a mountainside. The cubs were great fun to watch in the binoculars, romping and playing. We were perfectly happy not to be any closer. We’re seeing a lot more sea otters now, but not quite so many stellar sea lions. Today a huge pod of humpbacks had gathered in the bay as we sailed in. It’s not easy to count whales, but at a single moment I counted 10 puffs from blows. How many were diving while those ten were blowing? Eagles, puffins, kittiwakes, loons cormorants and fulmars are still abundant. We have not seen any albatross in awhile, but we did spot a parasitic jaeger, a new bird for us. Maybe they had them further west and we just didn’t notice in the black masses of birds there. The wildlife is wild and full of life, constant entertainment.
Tomorrow’s predicted 20plus knots of SE wind should make short work of the passage across Cook Inlet to the Kenai peninsula. We have not really done Kodiak justice. The real action is apparently on the west side, but for now we’ve seen enough action, our brains are filled with some incredible images and memories. Everyone is now distracted by thoughts of an upcoming “real” school year and lots of “what’s next” questions. So we’re making lots of short hops, and we’re now 2-3 short hops away from Homer, our new hometown for awhile. Everywhere we go people ask where we’re from, that’s gotten harder and harder to answer. I guess we get to say we’re from Homer now – we’re Alaskans.
xoxomo