I'm a Salmon!

So I just finished two more great sessions with Salmon Camp for grades 4, 5, & 6. They were both great but very different. The first week had a lot of boys and a lot of energy.... but we had fun for sure! The boys just kept us on our toes. Lol. The second week had an art camp focus and happened to mainly consist of girls. We still had a blast and had an art show this past weekend displaying all the campers' art work at the refuge's Visitor Center. It turned out so great, plus we received a lot of great feedback! It's hard to believe I've been here for 3 months already!!! Time is flying by and I am loving every minute of it! In addition the weather has been just lovely here... sun shining and in the 60s! Here are some of the highlight pics from the last two weeks at camp:

By far my favorite pic... this camper was posing with a huge smile then freaked out when the crab started moving!

 We took a hike to the top of Old Womens

Fishing!

Blood star I found!

My group from Session 5... Salmon Camp took a tour of a Russian ship that was visiting.

Bear Face!

This week I'll be taking another village trip to Karluk! Can't wait to tell you about it. Also, hopefully I'll catch my first salmon! Sorry this is short and sweet... I'll have more soon! :)





Alaskan Heat Wave...

I wanted to tell you about my wonderful weekend I had (which was last weekend). Well I started off the Saturday right by sleeping in a bit and then meeting up with a family here that Liz & I are going to house sit for. Then we picked up Elsa to go for a hike on Old Women's... which is one of the easier mountains to hike up here since it's only 1,400 ft. It was such a gorgeous day & it got up to 66 degrees! That is the warmest the temperature I have experienced here in Kodiak. I wore shorts and it was awesome. Something even more awesome is that up at the top of Old Women's is a lake... so naturally we went swimming and did some sunbathing. It was such a wonderful day with the sun shining and the skies blue...

This was my view while laying out

The lake on top of Old Women's

Liz & Elsa

The view of Barometer from the top... we already conquered that one and once was enough. Lol

On the way down

View of some of the bays

The view on the way up... pretty spectacular!

So that was only my Saturday.... Sunday was a whole new experience. The sweet Kinman family picked me up and took me to breakfast and church, as they always do. Then they dropped me off at the harbor because Karen and Robin (my boss and her husband who also works for the refuge) wanted to take us fishing! They have a friend Wes who had a helper named Caleb with a boat he used to do charter fishing on and we went out with them. This was Liz's & mine first time to go halibut fishing! Elsa went along as well to hang out and she took pics. It was such a great time, altogether we caught 11 halibut and 3 codfish. I was definitely sore the next day since you have to reel in for so long and those fish get heavy! Plus it's interesting to go fishing with such huge hooks and have decently sized fish as bait... but it was all good. The first thing Liz caught was a spiny dog fish which is in the shark family. It was hilarious... but she eventually caught some halibut. It was a wonderful time and I am super thankful that Karen and Robin invited us. Here is my proof of our catchings...

I just had to do a kiss the fish pic!

Liz ready to catch some fish!



My first halibut!

As you can see it was a weekend filled of new experiences. I had a great time, as all my time has been here in Kodiak. God made it so gorgeous here and I am blessed to be here. I've also had a lot of family been calling me this week and checking on me which I love as well! I miss everyone back home but I'm in good hands here. Hope everyone has a great rest of the weekend! =)

Oh The Places We'll Go... In A Float Plane!

Well I'm going to warn you about this blog... 1.) it's going to be lengthy, mainly with pics though & 2.) it's going to be awesome! This past Tuesday morning I left for a village trip to Larsen Bay with my good friend Liz. There we put on a mini version of Salmon Camp for the kids in this community. It went really well and the kids were super! We had 12 kids on Tuesday and 10 kids on Wednesday and their ages were ranging from 3 to 11. The community put us up in an extra room attached to the clinic, it was really nice. It was like we had our own apartment with a full kitchen, bathroom, and two bedrooms furnished. Oh and my favorite part... there was a TV in the kitchen that had a VHS player with it and there were a few videocassettes to choose from. Well Liz and I watched Aladdin on Tuesday night and started Lion King... we were tired so we decided to finish the rest of the movie in the morning. So while eating/getting ready in the morning we turned on Lion King... then a little bit later the mayor of the town who works in the attached clinic asked us to turn our movie down because it sounded loud in the clinic. Haha... Liz & I died... it was so ridiculous.



So anyways about Larsen Bay... it's on the opposite side of the island compared to Kodiak (as you can see up above on the map). There are about 80 ppl who live there all year around but about 250 ppl come in the summer to work at the cannery or do fishing. It is also home of a handful of fishing and bear hunting lodges. Plus when I was here I saw my first Kodiak Brown Bear! I saw it moving through the brush and then peek it's head up for like a second then back down. So it wasn't the best viewing but it kind of counts. Larsen Bay was so gorgeous and I had a great time... the only downfall were the bugs. They were miserable.. our bug spray didn't work and sadly we didn't bring bug nets with us. But we survived and have great pics to show from our time...

Here I am out & about at Larsen Bay

Here's Liz, my partner in crime... love this crazy lady!

 The view from the beach.

So funny story, Liz and I went out for a walk on Tuesday evening and for some reason the door to the place we were staying at locked randomly. We did not have a key. So Liz found her inner Detroit-ness and broke into the window after attempting to open the locked door with a postcard. Just so you know, I gave her a leg up and while she was stuck dangling in the window and asking for help... I took a pic. And what a great pic it is! =)

Down at the cannery



Liz & some of the campers out at the beach.

A camper who was encouraged by Liz to use the patch of bear fur we brought as a goatee.

Larsen Bay



A camper showing off her bear painting!

My favorite pic of Larsen Bay... that's the cannery in the background.

So my blog has a second part... on the way to Larsen Bay we rode on a six-passenger plane like the last village trip. However on the way back we were picked up my the refuge's float plane! My first float plane ride... yay!! It was so amazing and we were able to see quite a bit of the refuge's land. On my flight I saw camp island (the cabin in the middle of the refuge used by their biologists & where the bear crew currently use as headquarters), a bear, mountain goats, and the wonderful Alaskan landscape....

I have so many pics but this is one of my favorites. So Isaac, one of the pilots, picked Liz & I up at Larsen Bay and then we flew over to Old Harbor to pick up Karen & Mike then headed back to Kodiak. Below is a shot of Old Harbor before we landed.





Taking off at Larsen Bay



 I got to ride shotgun

 Liz ready for take-off!

Here's a pic of camp island! The refuge's cabin that is on an island on Karluk lake in the middle of Kodiak Island... if that isn't confusing.

 Deadman's Bay

Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge

We flew over a frozen lake...

I absolutely love Kodiak!

After we picked up Karen & Mike at Old Harbor and about to head back to Kodiak...

A fishing boat with it's net out...

Karluk Lake on refuge land

So gorgeous...

After we landed in Kodiak... Karen, Liz, myself, Isaac, and Mike. Life is good =)







Kashevaroff...... Check!

I realize that I just posted a blog yesterday but I'm a bit behind so I'm posting another one... which means you're excited! Yayyy!

So this past Saturday I went on a hike with Liz & Elsa and I wanted to share my experience with you. We hiked up Kashevaroff Mountain which is 2,300 ft high (not quite as high as Barometer or thankfully as steep). It was 6 miles round trip but sadly the clouds were covering up the peak therefore we couldn't see the view from the top but I still got some great shots. Actually we kept having these moments where we thought we made it to the very top but then once we got there we realized that the clouds had just been covering up another peak.. we finally made it though and it was a great time! =)

If you look carefully you can see the trail leading up, however you can't see the peak due to the clouds...



Womens Bay with the Coast Guard base in the background.

The best shot I could get of the overall view of below.. it's pretty specatular.

 Liz leading us up through the clouds.

A river runs through it.... or a stream, whatever. 

Liz & Elsa hiking up the ridge.

Elsa & Liz chilling on the top.

Here's Liz & myself on the peak of Kashevaroff... soaking wet and surrounding by clouds.

Liz snapped this shot of me coming up along the ridge.

Here's Liz with the magnificant background while on our way hiking down.



Here we are resting while all wet & muddy up at the top. The cloudy mist shows where the drop off is at.

Here's my favorite pic from the hike. It has turned so green & gorgeous since I got here... I absolutely love it!