Reflections on Kodiak...

We left Munsey's Bear Camp shortly after noon on Wednesday. We flew from camp to Kodiak via float plane, Kodiak to Anchorage on Alaska Air and then took the red eye home on Frontier Wednesday night arriving in Denver on Thursday around 6 am. I had no access to the internet while in camp but I did jot down a few notes each night. Those notes follow...

kodiak-days 1 and 2
Friday morning we woke up at 3:30 to catch a 4:20 ride to the airport. We got checked in and boarded the plane by 5:45. At 6:10 we were headed for Kodiak. The trip to Kodiak is very short. You fly over some spectacular country along the way. We took the first flight to give ourselves time for any weather delays that may have come up. We were on the ground in Kodiak by 7:15. The Kodiak airport is out of "town" about 10 minutes and resembles a bus depot. There's one baggage area so you can't really miss it. Security only clears passengers immediately prior to their boarding their flight. Its small.
We caught a cab (suburban) into town. The driver took us to our float plane station to dump our luggage and then dropped us back in town by a diner to get some breakfast. He was a really nice guy. Both of the cab drivers on this trip were normal white American men. They spoke perfect English... Amazing. It was just like when you watched an old movie or something...
Anyways, we kicked around town for a few hours killing time. We ended up at a new wildlife conservatory to learn more about Kodiak's history, the people and the bears. A driver from Andrews air service picked us up at 11:00. At Andrews we met a man from Germany named Albrecht. He was joining us at Munsey's. Albrecht is a teacher from Germany. He had flown into Fairbanks and rented a truck with a camper shell and was seeing Alaska by car. He had driven through Denali and the Kenai Peninisula where he caught a ferry to Kodiak. Very nice guy.
We hung out and Andrews until about 12:45 when we finally boarded our float plane and left for Munseys. The pilot's name was Willie. Willie was great. He gave us a tour of the island. Its about 60 miles to Munseys so saw a good portion of the island (kodiak is 40 x100 miles). We saw several herds of mountain goats along the way. Very cool flight. There are 2 small glaciers left on the island.
Once we arrived at Munsey's we met Dick. Dick is a retired gentleman from Maryland. He worked for black and decker. He has been here for a few weeks and will leave with us when we leave camp. Dick has been coming here since 1987 and he likes to fish. We helped unload some supplies that were on our plane, stowed our gear in our assigned cabins and had a bite of lunch. Mike and Robin took us for a 3 hour cruise to the south end of the bay for a look around. We saw tons of birds and a few seals. Bears are to the south end. Whales are to the north. Mike has a degree in zoology and Robin has a degree in wildlife and fisheries. They really know alot about alot.
That night we had an excellent dinner with strawberry shortcake for desert.
The generator runs her from 7 to 10 pm at night and then again in the morning until we leave on the boat. Water comes straight out of the creek. Its rustic but very relaxing. The hosts are very cordial and they know how to treat people. There's lots of snacks and the meals are excellent (made by Marsha from Sedona, AZ)
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Day 2
I slept all night and woke up just before 7am. Breakfast was at 8 and consisted of eggs (sort of poached) and bacon and toast and oatmeal. We then packed our gear and headed for the boat. Today would be about bear photography! It takes about 1.5 hours to get to the south end of the bay. On the boat ride south Mike swung by Seal Island. Seal Island is covered by water at high tide. During the low tide 30-40 seals beach themselves on this stretch of rock to enjoy whatever sun happens to shine. Seals are quite shy but they stayed on the rocks as we cruised by.
We made our way to the lower end of the bay then we took a ride up the river in their boston whaler until we could go no further. We had to put on hip waders to get to the beach. Pam fell once along the way. When we hit the beach we ditched the waders and put on knee boots for the walk in. The walk in is about 2 miles. We walked around 2 large tidal flats. We saw lots of bears on the way in and 3 or 4 eagles. We saw a large male bear on the way in but he winded us and headed for higher ground. The mature males really work hard to avoid humans.
As we continued up river we climbed a bit of the hillside and worked through an alder patch. A lone bear was feeding in the tidal flat below us. As we continued up river a bear stood up on the path in front of us. I wasn't sure that Mike could see the bear so I said, "Mike, there's a bear ahead." When I said that the bear ahead and below us on the flat both heard me and headed for higher new country. I was concerned that I had now scared every bear from the river valley.
We continued on and crossed a creek that fed into a tidal creek. There were several salmon trapped in the tidal creek. They would stay there until the tide moved back in or a bear found them. Salmon have allot of choices to make as they move upstream but the outcome is certain. They can only affect their lifespan by a few days either way...
Just past the trapped salmon we found a brown bear digging into a beaver den. He allowed us to approach to within 30 yards or so. We snapped a few pictures and continued up the creek to our destination. We made our way to a river and setup behind a log. The log was right on the river (5 feet or so). Mike dug into his pack and produced a thermos full of hot bean soup and ham and cheese sandwiches for everyone. He's sort of like superman. As we were finishing lunch a bear made its way down the stream. For 3 hours this bear chased salmon back and forth giving us tons of photo opportunities from 100 yards to 20 feet in front of us. It was amazing. This was what we had made the trip for and it happened right of the bat. Bears don't eat every fish they catch. The sound a bear makes when it eats a fish is impressive as you hear those jaws grinding through bones. Simply amazing.
Close to four o'clock we started out. The tide had come in so our walk out was much shorter. Robin brought the boat in close to the bank so we jumped in and headed back to the big boat.
Dick had a big fish on but couldnt' land it earlier that day.
We got to the cabin about 6:30. Dinner was at 8. It was baked halibut. Quite delicious. Desert was something like a cross between brownies and pecan pie. Tomorrow more bears and some halibut fishing. Generator kicks off in 10 minutes so I'm going to bed.

Day 3
Blueberry pancakes for breakfast with Sausage and oatmeal. The food here is amazing.
After breakfast we made our way to the boat and we headed south for bear viewing but stayed on the east side of the river today and watched 2 HUGE tidal flats. As the tide recedes salmon get caught in these flats and the bears and gulls have a feast. It was great viewing but probably not great photographing. The light was coming in from a bad direction and most of the bears stayed a ways off shore. We watched for a few hours, at lunch (chicken and rice soup, halibut salad sandwiches) and then headed to the north and up a small creek. We were on a very steep hillside and the salmon carcasses scattered around indicated that there was lots of bear activity. After we set there for a good while I slipped down the hill to sit by Pam. As I did a bear made its way down stream. I think he saw me move and shied away. After about 20 minutes he came back down the stream chasing salmon. He caught 1 in front of us and ate it and then he kept heading down stream. He caught and ate another salmon and then a slightly larger bear came out and he ran off a short distance. A few minutes later a mature male came down and chased everything away. We watched him feed for about 20 minutes and then he bolted. I hope the pictures turned out well.
When we got back to the boat we met Mike's brother Bob and his wife. They had their boat out with some friends and were fishing. After they left we purchased a 3 day fishing license and started fishing for halibut. Albrecht caught a sea anemone. Pam caught a sea anemone and 2 small flounders. I caught a cod and a 25 lb halibut! It was like pulling up a sheet of plywood! I can't wait to go fishing again.
I think Bob's crew is coming in for dinner with us.
Tomorrow weather permitting we'll head north to the mouth of the bay and look for whales and fish for silver salmon. Tomorrow is Albrecht's last full day with us. He's a good guy. I'm glad we got a chance to meet him.
Time to get ready for dinner...
Bob kept his company on the boat until after we finished dinner. Mike and Albrecht talked it over and Albrecht decided to stay for another day. The weather the next day would be bad for whale watching so we planned on heading south up the river to see bears again.
I was asleep well before lights out at 10:00.

Day 4
After another great breakfast we boarded the boat and headed south once more. On the trip down we saw a horned puffin feeding with some tufted puffins close to camp. Later that morning I saw a bear, a fox, and several herds of deer along the bank. The trip up river seemed allot quicker today. On the way around the first tidal flat Mike showed us an ancient camp that the native people used for fishing when the salmon were in. He said that when a native died the others made little of the circumstance. They dug a hole next to the corpse and buried them in a shallow grave. Mike showed us a place where the weather and tides had unearthed part of a skull from one of these graves. There was a skull upside down with the lower jaw gone. Very interesting to see...
We made the same trip in that we did on day 2. The sun was out and it was quite warm. We walked up on a bear on the trail on the way out of the alders. The bear saw us and eased off into the brush. Mike carries a .375 rifle. He's had to use it 1 time in 20 years. Basically if a bear sees you coming they will move of and leave the area.
We made it back to the beach with the log by the river. There were 2 bears in the area but nothing fed by us. We ate lunch and moved further up river. We had a few bears work by but nothing stayed in close. We were able to see a school of salmon in the river maybe 30 yards long. There had to have been close to 10,000 fish in that one bunch! This wasn't a great day photographically but still an awesome day in the alaskan outback. We left early so we could get in an hour or so of halibut fishing. Albrecht caught a nice 20-30 lb fish. We had it for dinner the next evening. Beer battered yet very light. it was delicious!

Day 5
This is the last full day at the lodge. We ate breakfast and headed to the mouth of the bay for whale watching and silver salmon fishing. It was VERY foggy this morning but we broke through the fog at the head of the pass. Fishing for silvers and halibut is the exact same technique. You jig a long shiny bait with a large trebble hook at the end. The lure is bigger for halibut and you jig right on the bottom. For silvers the lure is about half the weight and you jig it just out of site below the boat. You bait the treble hook with a piece of herring.
We set up to fish on the east edge of the bay. Dick caught a fish pretty quickly. The bay was dead calm and you could hear fin whales blowing in the distance. After a while of no action we moved up the bay to check out a haul out rock next to the bank. A haul out rock is where stellar sea lions sun themselves. The sea lions where in the water when we arrived. Just as we pulled up a fin whale appeared in front of the boat. Fin's aren't terribly impressive but they are quite large. We cruised around the straight for a while looking at sea otters and fin whales. You could see about a dozens fins spouting off all across the bay. It was a cool site to see.
We returned to our fishing spot and began fishing again. It was slow but still a beautiful day. I caught several small halibut. Robin caught a silver, then albrecht caught one then Pam caught one and then finally I caught 1. Pam's was the largest of the day at 14 lbs. Mine was 11. I caught several more halibut but released all but one of them. This may have been the most relaxing day of the trip. I look forward to more silver salmon fishing in the future.
As we cruised back to camp the realization that this was our last day was really working on me. The Munsey's have this thing down. After a day in camp you know the schedule so you don't think about it. You awake each morning with tremendous anticipation for what the day may hold in store and you go to bed each night reveling in the amazing day that you had. You don't think about work, the economy, the mortgage or any of the everyday stresses that we tend to burden ourselves with in day to day life. Some how you manage to check that in with the luggage on the flight down to Kodiak and it arrives back home about three days after you do. We met folks on this trip that I'll remember until the day I die from the float plane pilot (Willy with the big mustache) to the other camp guest that have made Munsey's a regular part of their life (Dick, retired, from Maryland). I'll go back to this place (hopefully numerous times) not so much for the experiences themselves but more for the feeling I got just being there.
That night we had fresh halibut (the one Albrecht caught) for dinner with Creme Broulee for desert. We had to pack for the flight out and then I was asleep by 9.

Day 6
Woke up at 7 and finished packing. We ate quickly so we could fish before the plane arrived after lunch. We fished hard at an old gold mine but nobody caught anything to keep. The water was slick as glass. It was a beautiful last morning in camp. We returned to camp, finished packing and ate lunch. We moved our gear down to the dock as the first float plane arrived. 2 planes were coming with a total of 6 campers. These guys were regulars for silver salmon fishing. Nice guys. Pam and I took the first flight back to kodiak and Dick and Albrecht were on the second. We flew back mostly up the coast due to the 1000 foot ceiling. We saw several deer, a bear and a whale on the way back to town. Willy set up down in a small lake that they use for refueling and a van took us back to Andrews. We said farewell to Albrecht, picked up Dick and headed to the airport. We had a box with about 30 lbs of halibut and silver fillets so I re-packed the box at the airport and we checked our gear.
Around 4:50 we loaded into a plane and headed back to Anchorage on alaskan air. We retreived our luggage and stored our fish in cold storage until about 9:00 pm. We ate dinner at Chlis in the restaurant at the airport. We met a nice couple from Connecticut that had taken a cruise up from Vancouver. I hope they had a great trip. I know we did. We left anchorage at 11:00pm alaska time. I slept the whole way home thanks to exhaustion and science...
The fish made it home still nice and cold. I expect we'll try some next weekend. Rebekah picked us up a the airport and dropped us at the house. What a trip.

A few notes about the trip...
It was the most amazing trip I've ever had (and I've had some great trips). We'll do it again. There's allot to see and do in this world but I know that I liked (read, "LOVED") what we did on this trip. I've never been able to unplug so completely. I'm not sure why we have a tv in the house after that trip.
Things to remember.
The Anchorage airport has cold storage available for a fee. See baggage storage.
When you land at Kodiak your air charter leaves from a different location but they will pick you up.
Don't pack many pairs of pants. 1 pair for dinner and breakfast at camp and 1 for the boat. You'll wear an outer layer of rain gear on the boat anyways.
If you have comfortable rubber boots you don't need hiking boots.
They will supply the hip boots.
Fish! You'll like it more than you think. Its very easy to get lost in the concentration of jigging the lure waiting on the strike.
I'm sure there's more but I'm late and its tired...