My Beautiful Island

In the past month or so I've been privileged to take a few trips around the island. I've said it plenty of times but I'm going to say it again, I am so blessed to be able to fly and see the many different places on the island with my job. Many people who live in town hardly ever, if at all, get to see the wonderful place they live due to the remoteness. Two of my trips I helped spray areas with invasive plants that are in or near the refuge. The third trip was out to Frazer Lake, a popular bear viewing area, with my amazing crew and boss.

Cape Alitak.



So I didn't make it quite to the Cape Alitak but I was pretty dang close. Nearby is the Alitak Cannery and that's where I went to spray some wicked weeds. This cannery is so amazing. It's been running since 1917 and is in a nice remote location. The cannery runs about 6 months out of the year and the people who work here are incredibly hard workers. There's about 200 people who work there and when we got a tour with the humorous guy who runs it, Woody, he told us that the workers work about 16-19 hours a day, 7 days a week. Absolutely crazy. One of the ladies I talked to has been coming every summer from California since 1996 to work there. It's a pretty nice facility for being so remote and old but they do incredible work out there. Another cool thing is that they purchase some produce from a guy who lives up the bay from the cannery so their employees are served fresh produce. The cannery is 96 miles away from the town of Kodiak therefore if people would need to get to town they would have to go by float plane or take a 2.5 mile skiff ride to Akhiok, a native village, and catch the mail plane back to town. Here are a couple of shots I took on my phone while I was out there.

 The throne of Alitak

 

 

The prayer chapel at the cannery

 

 

 

 

Camp Island.

Camp Island is probably the most popular island on this island. Camp Island is located in the Refuge in the middle of Karluk Lake. There's a few cabins and facilities owned by other organizations but the Wildlife Refuge has some cabins here as well. During the summer this is headquarters for some of the research crews and it has pretty nice living conditions. This was my first time out to Camp Island and it was a great trip. I was killing some more of those wicked weeds of course.

The hawkweed killing crew before takeoff

 

 

"Don't mess with me silly weeds."

 Sunset on Karluk Lake

 

 

 

 

 

Frazer Lake.

Frazer Lake is also out in the Refuge and is a popular bear viewing site in the summer. This is also a site where Alaska Department of Fish & Game has a weir set up and has a small crew out there monitoring it in the summer. Their crew was so nice to us, they had us over for dinner and dessert which was delicious. The Salmon Camp crew went out here for an overnighter and it was an awesome time. We saw nine different bears while we were out there. It really is quite the experience to just watch and observe these marvelous animals. 

 A shot I took from the plane on our way out to Frazer

 

 

 Sleepy bear, she just woke up from her nap

 

 

My crew & I observing the bears

 

 

Ruby, the coolest fox ever.

 These 3 cubs were my absolute favorite, obviously

 

 

 

I'm glad I could get this short blog in and I have many more I need to do when time allows.



I'm so blessed.