More from Kodiak...

Hey Everybody!

I'm gonna be in Kodiak for awhile, so I hope you like the post title :-). I could have titled it: What to do when you can't find bears or bear mace! But it wouldn't be exactly true since these are from the past few days.

Apparently, one thing I do is take pics of flowers. No idea what it is, but it looks like tissue paper & grows down by the seaplane docks.

On the subject of plants: according to the native people this cotton-like stuff means winter arrives in 6 weeks. I've asked around & it seems to be an accurate observation.

This is part of Near Island at low tide. A bridge was built across the harbor from Kodiak to Near Island - built as payment from the Valdez oil spill. I'm told that it was good for the fishermen because they could leave their boats on one side & just drive back and forth. The area is popular for dog walkers & hikers.

This is the local rocket launch complex. It is currently expanding so that it can launch larger rockets. Unfortunately, that means I won't get to watch any launches.

I've heard there are tons of Sitka Black-Tailed Deer here, but until today hadn't seen any. So, Capt. Heidi....there is no sign of Santa this far south, but his little deer are here! :-)

There is a beach on the US Coast Guard base called Jewel Beach. Turns out if you ask nicely & show ID and car registration you can visit it to collect authentic sea glass. This is the OLD sea glass & not so easy to find in the Lower 48. Broken Miller bottles don't count - well, maybe in 100yrs or so they will. Easy to tell what colors were cheap or not...blue pieces were hard to find! No purple or red - heard purple is most rare.

Two Eagles....no nest in sight. Thus, my scalp is intact!

This wreck is just a few miles outside the city limits. Very sad story... The crew perished after abandoning ship when they thought it was sinking. They reacted hastily....it never sunk. Kodiak is full of life lessons!

Proof that even bears like to have options! This bear added a fork to his route....

There's a sign for Fossil Beach as you near the edge of the rocket launch complex. The gravel road goes from decent to BAD, which just means I park at the top & hike the last mile. On a warm (60*!) Sunday morning I head out to hunt for fossils. There aren't many anymore. People have taken them & they get washed out to sea. But I found a few. And I like to think I did my part to help preserve them - buried them so nobody would find/take them at least for a few days. I think my approach is better than some locals who have started hammering chunks out of the sea cliffs to "save" the fossils. When the cliffs collapse....it wasn't me!

I guess that's it for tonight...Hope everyone is well. I'll be touch soon. Thanks for stopping by!

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