BLOG 19 - The Bears of KODIAK

Early morning transfer to Ted Stevens Airport in Anchorage. Departure is delayed by 1 ½ hours due to fog in Kodiak - each passenger is happy that it is finally taking off. Kodiak Airport is extremely foggy at this time of year, and the Alaska Airlines Boeing 737s often have to return to Anchorage without being able to land. Upon arrival over Kodiak, the fog has become denser again, so we circle for 45 minutes until the captain manages to bring the plane safely to the ground despite minimal visibility and the extremely short runway for a 737. Cheers and applause from the cabin are guaranteed.

With a few problems - the pick-up doesn't work - we still manage to get to the water airport, only to find out that zero visibility prevails here as well. We meet people who have been waiting for their flights to remote areas of Kodiak Island for two days. Our mood is heading towards zero, also because of the pouring rain, when suddenly the lady from Island Air storms into the "lounge" and orders us to the seaplane because a gap in the fog has opened and the conditions at our destination are OK. We take off - according to our feeling, the visibility is no more than zero meters, but the pilot flies just a few meters above the sea, probably following the buoys for the ships. It doesn't go directly south, but along the coast north, west and then south, always about 10-20 m above the sea and close to trees and cliffs. As the homepage of our destination, the Brown Bear Center, says - just getting to the lodge is an adventure. But we also survive this one-hour, sometimes quite stubborn flight, and on the final approach to Karluk Lake and the lodge, we can already see the first grizzly bear catching salmon.

The Kodiak Brown Bear Center (KBBC) on Camp Island in Karluk Lake and a large area of the surrounding land is owned by the Koniag, which is the Alaska Native Regional Corporation representing the Alutiiq people who have inhabited Kodiak Island for over 7000 years. The camp also follows the values of the Alutiiq:

· Unguwacirpet or 'our way of living' is based on the idea that our lives are sustained by the natural world."

· This is the land that we belong to, not the land that belongs to us.

These principles might not be so bad for the "West" either.....

The next 3 days are mainly dedicated to the Kodiak brown bears - the grizzlies. We take the lodge's boat along the coast and also go ashore. The observation path to Thumb River guarantees that you will actually see bears, and on a "great afternoon" we see 12 different bears - a mother bear with three little cubs, another with two already "half-grown" cubs (3 years old), and of course "Lazy Larry" - the king of the Thumb River. In the blog you will find a small selection of the several hundred bear pictures we have taken.

But there are also other animals to see - water birds, red deer, a young fox that lets us come quite close quite innocently, only to then look far away and bald eagles.

The weather is not that great, but we learn the approach of the local residents - for them, rain is "liquid sunshine". 😊

After these exciting days, spent very comfortably in the lodge, we are to return to Kodiak City for the onward flight to Anchorage. However, the weather is OK at Karluk Lake, but in Kodiak it is "Visibility Zero" again - after 3 hours, the fog and clouds lift, and on the return flight with a small Cessna 206, the pilot can take the direct route over the interior and the mountains. Although there is not much space between the mountains and the base of the clouds at times, we still get to enjoy a "Kodiak scenic flight" and arrive at Kodiak Airport in good time. The afternoon flight from Anchorage even arrives 20 minutes early - all travelers are already glad that everything is going smoothly. Until the message comes - "departure is delayed due to technical problems with one of the engines". The information that they are already "trying to reach their contract mechanic" is also very "reassuring"... After waiting for more than an hour, the captain finally announces that there was a small oil leak, but that it is now OK and we can take off shortly. We land in Anchorage an hour late - our travel plan is still valid.

Let's get started