Another day, another hike

On Saturday, the sunrise once again revealed blue skies, so we hopped in the car and headed for a trail. This one was technically in town, on fenced-in military-owned land with a walking trail to which the public is allowed access. The trail follows the water with a view of Mill Bay and leads to Spruce Cape and a quiet rocky beach protected from the wind.

Please to enjoy.

Cormorants--either red-faced or double-crested

Common mergansers

Harlequin ducks

Spruce Cape

 

When the sun finally comes out again

There are some legitimate reasons for my lack of posts lately. Besides the fact that I was trying desperately to prepare for my big exam, the weather has been--to put it mildly--uninspiring. The sun came out briefly on Wednesday, four days ago, for the first time in about two weeks, and it didn't stay for long. So when the sun came up today--that was around 9:15 this morning--and revealed relatively clear skies, we knew we had to get out for a bit.

It felt luxurious to go on a hike without rain gear on. 

 

Anywhere you go on a hike, there are bunkers. Always bunkers.

Our walking destination was, as usual, a beach. 

While T and Rainbow were busy playing tag with the waves, I noticed something tiny and pure white hop-running from the beach to beneath a tree. My brain simply couldn't process what my eyes had just seen--until I noticed a little white head peaking curiously at me from under the tree. An ermine! What a delightful and unexpected wildlife sighting.

We needed a day like this. Kodiak is still beautiful, but I'm not yet used to so much rain. Additionally, we're losing about five minutes of daylight each day now, and the upcoming holiday of Thanksgiving, while a lovely holiday, is also a time to reflect on the distance between us and many family members and friends. 

Walking on a trail we'd never taken before, and seeing a little creature I didn't expect to see, helped me remember why we're here, and that even though the town of Kodiak is small, there will always be new things to see on the island. I just have to get out there and look for them.

Taking the ferry

Alaska is big. Like, BIG. Sometimes I forget this because I live in a small town and can't drive much longer than an hour in any direction before I run out of road. But even the island on which I live is one of the biggest in the country, and the town of Kodiak is really just a little pinpoint in one corner of this vast island.

One's sense of space and distance changes when one lives in a state with a relatively low population. When we lived in Powell, Wyoming, we joked that people would drive for four hours just to have lunch in Bozeman. Well, in Alaska, sometimes you have to take an airplane just to visit another town. Any town.

Or you might be able to take the ferry.

That's one of two ways to get to any other town or city from Kodiak, and I needed to get to either Anchorage (by plane) or Homer (by ferry) to take a national certification exam as part of completing my degree in speech-language pathology. I chose Homer because I could visit T's parents and give them a chance to spend a little bit of time with Rainbow.

T was already out of town for a conference, so alone with baby and her teddy bear stuffed into a baby carrier, I boarded the Tustumena last Saturday night. 

Did I mention that I hate boats and tend to get motion sick? And that I had to spend eight hours on the ferry?

Well, I got off the ferry in Homer the next morning with stomach contents and sanity intact, thinking to myself, "That wasn't so bad." I took my exam two days later, passed it by a good margin, and got back on the Tustumena in Homer that same night feeling pretty positive about the whole experience.

And then the things that had caused me to be apprehensive about taking the ferry in the first place happened. I boarded the ferry oblivious to the fact that bad weather was in the forecast, and also oblivious to the fact that the ferry crew already knew that the ferry would get into Kodiak four hours later than scheduled (making for a 14 hour ferry ride). 

I don't know if this will mean anything to you, readers, but that night we had 19 foot seas rocking and rolling that vessel. I found out the next morning--after a long, wakeful, and queasy night--about the arrival delay. No, I didn't vomit, but neither was I interested in eating or drinking much, so by the time we docked in Kodiak, poor Rainbow had a sleep-deprived, dehydrated, low-blood-sugar mama on her hands. 

She, of course, handled it all quite well. She's a great traveler. Dare I say that she actually enjoys it. I, on the other hand, found myself swearing that I'll not set foot off dry land again for quite a while.

Berry picking on Pillar Mountain

I missed the entire summer here in Kodiak, but it turns out that autumn isn't so bad. The rainy weather has been punctuated by many sunny and relatively warm days. The landscape is still beautiful, with lots of green highlighted by warm golden and brown hues. Although daylight hours are decreasing noticeably each day, the sun is still out until almost 9pm.

Oh, and there's berry picking!

Yesterday, we drove to the top of Pillar Mountain to pick

wild berries. Pillar "Mountain" is really more of a tall hill on the west side of town. At the summit are about six wind turbines (98% of Kodiak's electricity comes from alternative/renewable energy sources) as well as several roads and trails perfect for exploration by ATV or foot. 

View from Pillar Mountain of the Coast Guard base south(ish) of town.

We took a short walk on one such trail and stopped at a patch of wild bog blueberries and lowbush cranberries (a.k.a. lingonberries). 

Rainbow loved the cranberries.

It took a while, but we collected enough berries to make a large batch of muffins with a couple of big  handfuls leftover for use in yogurt or on waffles or pancakes. Rainbow can't get enough of the berries despite their significant tartness.

What a great way to celebrate fall.

 

There's no place like home

The S family is about to be on the move again. We'll be relocating to Omaha, Nebraska (T for about six weeks, Rainbow and me for about two months) in a couple of days so that I can complete my third and final externship in speech-language pathology. And despite the fact that Kodiak's June weather has been disappointingly (if not surprisingly) cold, I'm going to miss my new home. 

Somewhere over the rainbow...my degree lies.

I was really looking forward to summer on Alaska's emerald isle, to possible bear sightings, salmon berries, blueberries, wildflowers, puffins, and the like. I've had to remind myself that Nebraska summers have their own charm. Rainbow will get to experience fireflies, summer thunderstorms, locally grown watermelon, and outdoor swimming. She'll get to spend time with my parents. She'll get more socialization with other kids and adults.

For me, the benefits are a little less...fun. Completing this externship will move me considerably closer to my degree. But gosh darn it, it's going to be really hard! And that's even without the sudden change of going from being with my baby all the time to only seeing her for a couple of hours a day. 

Well, Nebraska, ready or not, here I come.
 

Father's Day

June's weather thus far has not been able to hold a candle to the numerous warm and sunny days we had here in Kodiak in May. I have to wear a coat or jacket when I go outside, and I've even had to turn on the heat a few times.

Luckily, the rain tends to give us a reprieve at least one day each weekend, and this past weekend the sun came out for Father's Day. So after a leisurely breakfast of coffee, scrambled eggs, and vegan waffles and sausage, we went for a walk at Fort Abercrombie State Park. We decided to follow the aptly named "Moss Trail."

We didn't see puffins as we'd hoped we would, but we did get to see several pigeon guillemots in the water.

Wild iris

We just had to take some photos sitting in the soft moss.

Low tide

More sunny days

We've been spending every minute we can outside lately so that we can enjoy the sunshine and warm weather. Observe.

I need to identify these birds. Anybody care to help? Fox sparrows?

These salmonberry bushes are absolutely everywhere, both in and out of town. I had better start looking up recipes now.

At the beach in Fort Abercrombie State Historical Park

Rainbow is eating an apple, not a rock...in case you're wondering.

Capturing a quiet father-daughter moment

Whale watching at Narrow Cape

Whale watching, take two. This was one of those very rare situations in which the sequel was better than the original.

This time, we went in the opposite direction, toward Narrow Cape and Fossil Beach. We didn't dawdle on the beach but instead followed a bison trail (yes, there were bison out there) up a bluff with excellent views of the open ocean. The water was calm, and the dazzling sunshine didn't interfere with us seeing whale spout after whale spout. Each tell-tale spout of water was followed by the slick black arch of a humpback whale. We camped out for quite a while in the grass right above a large group of seals and also watched the smaller arches of their backs as they swam back and forth in the clear water.

We saw multiple whales between the cape and Ugak Island, which you can see in the background.

Just about every "natural" place we've been to has had several old military bunkers. They make good focal points for photographs.

Violets--the first blooming wildflowers of the year that I've seen.

I never expected to see bison on Kodiak Island!

Chiniak

If you look at a map showing the entirety of Kodiak Island, you'll notice that very, very little of it has roads. I have been told there are less than 100 miles of road. And yet it seems impossible to explore all of them. 

So we thought we'd better get going.

Proper whale-watching attire

Yesterday we drove out to Cape Chiniak on the Chiniak Highway. It's only about 45 miles from town, but it took over an hour to drive on the winding and sometimes pot-holed road. We were rewarded with spectacular views most of the way.

Once at our destination, we sauntered along a path running on a thin strip of land between the ocean and Chiniak Lake. The path led up and down hills providing views of the ocean and surrounding area. 

Great place to nurse a baby

 Alas, only T saw a whale, but it was still a fine way to spend an afternoon.

The hilltops had old military bunkers on them. No, we couldn't see Russia from there.

Picnic on top of a bunker

Small man, big ocean

Chiniak Lake

Oystercatchers

I think these were Eider Geese (as T said, "They're Eider Geese, or they're ducks!" Ha, ha.