Kodiak - First Look

We managed to drop the car off at the shipping terminal in Anchorage without too much drama, and then caught a taxi over to the airport for the flight to Kodiak. Everything went smoothly until just before landing - the pilot was forced to wave off the first approach due to high winds and poor visibility, but after a 10 minute delay and a bit of bouncing around in a holding pattern we tried it again and eventually managed to touch down more or less on time. Was raining buckets as we taxied to parking, and it continued to come down in sheets as we wandered around the parking lot trying to find our rental car (not the most organized rental agency I've ever dealt with). Finally pulled into our B&B a little after 5:30 PM...much relieved to be off the road, checked in and out of the rain.




The view from our apartment looking out over the Channel. Turns out that our host is the local Harbormaster, and the house (as you can see) is right on the edge of the waterway. We can watch the fishing boats come and go, as well as the float planes on final approach for landing in the harbor. It was pretty dramatic last night with the storm raging.


The storm blew itself out over night and we actually woke to blue skies, so after breakfast we jumped back in the car to do some exploring. Initially drove around the downtown area to get our bearings and generally get oriented. It's another pretty little place - in fact I'd have to say after a quick look around that it rivals Sitka as the absolute prettiest place we've seen in Alaska.




Holy Resurrection Church is the oldest of all the Russian Orthodox churches in Alaska - still serving the needs of the local Alutiiq native population after more than 220 years.




This one also had a Seminary adjacent to it. The sight of the characteristic onion domes against the backdrop of the bay and the mountains really makes for a pretty scene.


After a couple of circuits around town we headed up to Fort Abercrombie State Park, located about 7 miles northeast of town on a picturesque point of land with a commanding view of the straits leading into Kodiak harbor. It was an old WWII artillery fortification that was established (in a hurry) after the Japanese attacked and later occupied a couple of the islands at the far end of the Aleutian chain in the days after Pearl Harbor. There was a real concern that they would island-hop their way towards Anchorage and mainland Alaska, so the Army beefed up the local defenses to thwart the Japanese strategy. Never saw any action, and the big guns are long gone, but there are still some reminders of those days in the form of some old block houses and gun emplacements that dot the landscape in and around some of the prettiest hiking trails you could ever hope to see. Here are some photos:



The trails wound their way along a coastline that looks like something out of Northern California - or maybe the coast of Maine - beautiful on a sunny day.













One of the old gun pits, located right next to one of the campgrounds in the park.
















There was also a pretty little lake in the center of the park - Lake Gertrude I think it was - and well-maintained trails that meandered all over the place. It was one of the prettiest State Parks we've ever seen anywhere.







Checking for Salmon in the lake. A little too late in the season apparently - the run had already finished.

Our hosts mentioned that the area was a good place to hike when it was stormy too - guess the crashing surf and the rain whistling thru the spruce trees are especially dramatic when it's blowing a gale. Looks like we may get to find out for ourselves if that's true...the rains are forecast to move back into the area tomorrow, and there's a sizeable Pacific storm scheduled to arrive on Monday.

We actually explored more of the area south and west of town later in the day, but I'll save that discussion for the next post.