I've been in my new home for two weeks, and was beginning to go stir-crazy from staying in, away from the unpalatable weather. This weekend, the gods smiled and the sun stirred and shifted the clouds. I changed my plans from a hike to a paddle, and after hurriedly stuffing in breakfast and topping up a thermos of coffee, my kayak received its first introduction to the startlingly clear and teal-colored waters of Kodiak.
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| The Day's Route |
My first strokes felt a bit unbalanced; the boat rocked oddly in the cross-swell I was immediately paddling through. Two months of absence from this wooden cockpit clearly was having an impact, and my boats meager primary stability didn't improve the relearning time. But, within thirty seconds of feeling out of my element, all was well, and I powered off towards the islands.
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| View from Holiday I. towards Woody I., with the blip of Bird I. to the left. |
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| View from the opposite direction on Holiday I., towards Near I. |
The wildlife was everywhere, and abundant. Otters lolled on their backs until I neared, then spun over on their chests and disappeared beneath the surface. Several of these solitary urchin-munchers appeared at first, and then I came upon bunches of them, gathered in groups of two or three. Waterfowl were all about, in great variety. In St. Herman harbor, a colony of sea lions were gathered on a lone dock, grunting and barking, smelling strongly from a hundred feet off. I toured their perimeter, being sure to maintain enough distance that they would not feel threatened and stampede into the water. Also in the back of my mind were encounters Brian Schulz has had with sea lions, which proved them to be frightening and threatening, and I felt comfortable learning from his experiences and had no need to create one of my own on this point. A bald eagle soared overhead when I was nearing the end of my loop, returning to a snag on the mainland behind Mission Beach.
The sea was generally calm, especially considering the openness of most of the route to open ocean swell, with an uninterrupted fetch on which the wind could work its roiling magic starting in Japan. In places I witnessed large, 5-10' waves, breaking against unseen bulwarks beneath the water. Photographing was difficult, due to my non-waterproof camera having to be gently removed from a waterproof bag before photos could be taken, and the clapotis and swell rocking my boat about when I would try to stop and get a shot.
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| A colony of sea lions in St. Herman Harbor |
The route was about 8 miles in distance, and took about 2.5 hours to complete, including a short hike on Holiday Island to see the sea breaking just across a narrow spit. On my way through the channel closest to the "mainland," I paddled past the Wild Alaskan, Kodiak's boat-based strip-club, and the Tustumena, my conveyance here two weeks earlier, docked and waiting for its returning cargo of persons and goods.
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| The Trusty Tusty |
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| The Wild Alaskan |
Slipping under the Near Island bridge, whistling commenced and did not cease until I rolled onto the Mission Beach, and leapt from the boat to pull it from the receding waves. After arriving home, I rinsed gear and boat off with freshwater and then hauled it all in to dry, in preparation for the next journey on these fair waters.
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| End of route, view back towards Woody and Bird Islands. |
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| The author, feeling like a millionaire to be in possession of a boat and able to paddle around this gorgeous waterscape. |
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