The Traveling Widower

Tag: nature

  • Kodiak Alaska – First Impressions

    View of a white wooden church with a blue dome and crosses on top, featuring a set of stairs leading to the entrance, surrounded by a white picket fence and green grass.

    26th Aug, 2026

    My trip out to Kodiak was uneventful for a change. No giant spiders in the SeaTac Hilton, no lost luggage, no drunks in first class, and no worries about customs not letting me into Alaska. Phew. That was a relief. This was my first time in the Anchorage airport – it was strange to see most everyone wearing hiking gear, and a vast majority of passengers carrying fishing gear. You have to be careful walking around not to get impaled. 

    The weather in Anchorage was ominous, possibly an omen for the trip. It was pouring. I’ve got a week before I’m back there, so hopefully, this weather system will move out. 

    The flight to Kodiak from Anchorage is very short – less than an hour. It was a pleasant flight, sitting next to a Kodiak resident, chatting the entire way about life in that small town. He did mention that they just had their first ever bear mauling of a resident. She survived with a few puncture wounds – she was walking her dog and spooked a mama bear with her cubs. Not a good thing to do apparently. I’m glad that Aperture is not along on this trip.

    A golden retriever stands in a shallow stream, barking at a mother bear and her two cubs on the riverbank surrounded by lush greenery.
    Down Aperture, down boy!

    Thankfully, the clouds parted as we approached Kodiak and I could see the town and bay as we landed – absolutely stunning. The airport is tiny of course, and shared with the Coast Guard. No jetways to the terminal as expected. I’m glad it was not raining. 

    A Boeing airplane at an airport, with a loading ramp attached for boarding passengers. Staff members are seen near the entrance, and green hills are visible in the background under a cloudy sky.

    I was surprised when I walked into the very small terminal building, to see someone from Natural Habitat standing there with a sign with my name – it was the trip lead, who came to drive me back to the hotel. That was nice – I was expecting to call the hotel, and stand around waiting for a while. He gave me a tour of the town, which was fast since there are only a few streets and buildings. By the time we were at the hotel, the skies had cleared a bit,and there was even a bit of sun. Time for a photo walk!

    Kodiak is a commercial fishing town – not exactly photogenic. The harbor is crammed with fishing boats, and with a large salmon cannery along the water, the place looks like an industrial park. There are a handful of restaurants, a bar or two, a couple of coffee shops and that’s about it except for a few small museums. People do not come to Kodiak as a destination point – it’s a jump off for fishing trips, hunting and photo expeditions. The town has some interesting history. Aside from starting out as a Russian outpost in the 1800’s, it’s probably best known for the tragic tsunamis that pretty much destroyed the town from the 1964 earthquake. That quake registered a 9.2 on the Richter scale, and displaced a huge amount of the sea floor – the town dropped 6 feet, while just offshore, the sea floor on the other side of the fault raised 30 feet. Multiple waves hit the town, pretty much destroying the place. Fishing boats were washed up far inland. Complete devastation.

    But they rebuilt the place, and it is a haven once again for commercial and recreational fishing. From talking with the resident on the plane, it is kind of a weird place to live in – you always have to be careful about bears since they wander into town, earthquakes are common, you have to go back to the mainland for just about anything, and then there is that long winter/long daylight thing you get in the far North. But, if you like fish and getting away from everything, this is one of those places to go. Hey, it’s got the smallest Walmart in the US, a McDonalds, and a Subway Sandwich. What more could you want?

    My first walk around town was fun – I managed to walk by pretty much everything of interest in a little over an hour. The harbor is absolutely packed with all sizes of fishing boats. Some are large commercial trawlers, with seine nets, and quite a few smaller boats for recreational fishing Some in good shape, others not quite as much. It’s fun just wandering around on the long docks, watching the crews prep the boats. The town also has a large fish cannery, which was once upon a time, a WWII Liberty Ship – one of those big merchant ships that were built in mass quantities during the war (I have a post on the one in San Francisco). This one was gutted, set in concrete, and turned into a factory. It would probably do OK with another tsunami.

    I was told that there was usually a lot of wildlife around the harbor, including otters, sealions, harbor seals, and the ever present bald eagles. Sure enough, I spotted a pair about 5 minutes into my walk.

    A sign with a speed limit of 5 mph and the words 'SLOW NO WAKE', positioned near rocky terrain, with two birds perched on top and mountains in the background.

    I also visited one of the well known tourist sites, the Russian Orthoox Church with the big, blue onion domes. Most of the former Russian towns have one. 

    My second day in Kodiak was mostly a free day – the remaining seven adventurers, including my mystery room mate for the boat, arrive on Wednesday, so I have until the evening get-together to do whatever I please. Being a glutton for punishment, I decided to wander around again, visit the museums, and maybe take a walk across the bridge to the neighboring island – there was a nice park with hiking trails. After all, there are no risks to solo hiking in grizzly bear country.

    I started off wandering the docks again – there was a lot of activity, so I just wanted to watch the crews prepping the boats for a while. I managed to not trip over anything and fall in water. There were some eagles flying around, but never in range even for the big lens I was lugging around. Good practice for our upcoming bear hikes. I next went off to a vantage point along the main channel and sat on a bench for a while, watching the boats sail off. And then I noticed a spout. And then another one! A whale??? I never saw much other than the back of something – they do get Orcas, Grey Whales and Humpbacks in the area. Probably a grey whale. 

    Next on my list for the morning was the Kodiak History Museum. This turned out much better than expected. The building is the oldest original log structure along the West coast, built by the Russians in 1847. Whoever built it knew what they were doing – it is still the original structure of logs, two stories worth, with the original moss insulations. It will probably outlast most of the homes in my neighborhood.

    That chewed up most of the morning, so I stopped for a real breakfast with real coffee, and headed back to the hotel to reset for a while. 

    After a recharge (myself, not a car), I decided to try for the Northend Park on Near Island, a short 1 mile walk across a bridge. I thought I might get some nice shots of the town from there. The road leading up to the bridge is mostly uphill, and cuts through a residential area. One house had a puffin mural….cute. The weather was absolutely perfect by then – blue skies, light breeze, temperatures in the high 60’s. Absolutely not what I was expecting. I could have worn shorts. Really. A cruise ship had offloaded hundreds of tourists, all of whom seemed to be from Europe. Lots of Norwegians. So I had a lot of company walking around. The view from the bridge was great, but they had a chain link fence along the entire length. Probably to ward off jumpers during the long winter nights. 

    Scenic view of a harbor through a chain-link fence, featuring boats and mountains under a clear blue sky.

    The park entrance was right off the end of the bridge – nothing there other than a trail map and some benches. The trial was so inviting, that I could not resist wandering down into the forest for a ways. Absolutely beautiful….maybe a bit creepy too, with filter sunlight, moss covered trees that looked like something out of a witchcraft type of film. No bears though, but I did not go too far and headed back into town.

    Close-up view of a tree trunk with thick, moss-covered branches extending outward in a lush forest setting.

    My last stop for the day was the wildlife museum, which had displays of bears (of course), and a complete grey whale skeleton. They had a dead whale wash up on shore, and buried it for a few years to decompose naturally. When they dug it up, they had an articulated clean skeleton. Better than what they did in Iceland, carving up a dead Blue Whale. Yuck.

    So, I had a pretty good start to this trip but I’ve seen enough of Kodiak. Tomorrow we go off on a wildlife cruise, and the next day, off to the Ursus to photograph the bears. 

    Oh, and there are no ice cream or gelato shops in Kodiak. But I did find a good coffee shop that sold some really good Frappuccino type drinks.  You can’t always get what you want. 

    A Sony camera with a large lens resting on a wooden table beside a backpack, and a milkshake with whipped cream in a cup positioned nearby.

    Peace

    A metal mask sculpture mounted on a rough stone surface, featuring a stylized human face with raised eyebrows and small holes for eyes and mouth.
    Colorful mural featuring puffins swimming in blue waves on a concrete wall, with a residential building and hillside in the background.
    A bustling harbor filled with various fishing boats and yachts, reflecting on calm water under a cloudy sky with distant hills.
    Fishing boat named 'Alchemist' docked at a marina, reflecting in calm water under a clear blue sky.

  • Overpacking For Alaska

    21st August, 2026

    My upcoming Grizzly Bear/Kodiak trip has been the most difficult to pack so far, which I find surprising given the activities I’ve had to cover for some of the earlier trips. This one is only 13 days total and theoretically, there is only one activity – photographing grizzly bears. but somehow or another, I’ve wound up almost at the weight limit (50lbs) for my checked-in bag, have to bring my largest camera bag (I have five), and had to pack/re-pack four times until today. What the heck!

    From a clothing perspective, the problem is the four days on the fishing boat – the trip starts out in the town of Kodiak. I’m there a day early to do some local photography (bald eagles I hope), and stay in a hotel for three nights. No problems so far. I can even do some laundry at the hotel. On the second day of the trip, we will do a cruise around the coast close to Kodiak, in search of ocean critters – warm clothing required but that’s expected. It’s Alaska, so you have to expect rain and cool weather in late summer. On the third day, we have to fly out on a small float plane to the Ursus, a converted fishing boat, where we spend the next four days looking for bears (and other beasties). There’s a limit on the size and weight of luggage we can take along, so I had to bring a water-resistant duffel bag along, packed in my suitcase. And, I needed to bring a water resistant backpack along as well, for my camera gear. That takes up a lot of space and extra weight in the suitcase. And then there are some extra gear requirements for the shore excursions – they provide chest wades and special boots, but you have to bring thermals, fleece pants and boot socks to wear under the waders. That’s a lot of extra gear to fit into a small duffel bag.

    This is a photo excursion, so scrimping on camera gear would not make a lot of sense. I participated in a zoom call with the lead for this trip, and he recommended just a reasonably sized zoom, no longer than 100MM. But when you see all the videos from this and other Kodiak bear trips, most of the photographers have 400-600MM lenses. Plus, there are opportunities for photographing otters, whales and PUFFINS!. And when I get to Anchorage, I’m hoping for moose and bald eagles. So, I’m packing 3 lenses, 2 camera bodies, and all the other odds and ends you need for serious photography, including a monopod. And I’m packing all of this in a real camera backpack, and bringing along a brand new, smaller, mostly waterproof pack that I just bought at REI. Where else would I shop?

    I did manage to fit everything into the two bags (see below), and used vacuum bags to organize all the clothing based on segments of the trip (I’m way too organized). I’m all set to go with three days to spare. Phew. 

    The three remaining trips for 2026 should be less complicated – Yosemite is a car trip, Patagonia is mostly on a Lindblad ship (laundry!!), and Baja is relatively short, on a ship with laundry service and mostly warm weather (although I’ll need snorkel gear). I’m not thinking about 2027 yet. 

    I should do advertising for luggage manufacturers.

    Peace