Kari's-Yak About Kodiak: 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.