This morning we got ready to leave Pete’s RV Resort when a man came over and introduce himself. He was Pete! We shook hands and talked for quite a while and he said y’all come back anytime that you want, and stay here as long as you want. He said it would do him good if he saw Bigfoot and Elkhorn there, with our chairs in front looking at this amazing view. We thanked him for his generosity and asked him where the Kodiak Bears are? He said bears have came through this property, and said if you’re here long enough you’ll see him. 14 days here on the island, no problem, we will see bears… (I hope it is not like fishing for us, where we are too early and the fish are too late, well lets hope not.)
So we loaded up Bigfoot and Elkhorn and about a mile down the road, we made a left turn and what did we see? …..HOLY COW!!! A sow and three cubs walking down the road just minding her own business. As Elkhorn approached “Kodie and her Kubbies” (not an official name, this is Ann Marie’s doing) Kodie kept looking over her shoulder due to the sound of Elkhorn’s purring engine. She wanted to cross the street but just kept her kubbies in her lane, waiting to make her move. Then after a couple of hundred feet of Elkhorn and Bigfoot idling behind these beautiful animals, Kodie and her kubbies crossed in front of Elkhorn and off they went into the woods next to a house. Of course we were taking pictures and going crazy because we are watching the Kodiak bears in the wild, well okay, but there were trees lining the street.
We continue driving up to Pillar Mountain where the six electric generating windmills are. The view from on top of the mountain was spectacular, we saw four black tailed deer on the way up to the top.
Now for some geek stuff about how Kodiak manages it electricity, it gets a little sci-fi and cool. Kodiak decided to try a flywheel – a six and a half ton spinning mass. It’s a frictionless vacuum chamber hovered by magnets. The flywheel stores energy as motion. When there’s a surge of energy onto the grid, it spins the flywheel…and it keeps spinning, until that energy is needed again. Altogether, it’s like a dance, or an orchestra: each piece is watching the rest, and responding second by second, millisecond by millisecond. The wind drops suddenly and the flywheels kick in. As the flywheels fade, the batteries step in, and behind it all, the hydro ramps up. Even Matson, who operates the largest oversea shipping container crane on the dock changed their crane motor power from diesel generators to electricity. This crane serves the nation’s second largest fishing port, loading freezer containers full of salmon and halibut and cod onto ships. Plus it handles just about anything else that needs to come in and out of Kodiak. Their crane takes a lot of electricity and it operates much like an electric car whereas when the winch is lifting a container up it is using a lot of power but when it is lowering the container down it is actually charging the battery banks, pretty cool.
Okay sorry about that, while I’m a fossil fuel lover, I think we should also use renewable energy. We have had solar on our fifth wheel for years and dig having the flexibility of going anywhere we want. In fact, both Bigfoot and Elkhorn have solar are well. We have been on this journey for 110 days, and only 7 days have we camped at an rv park with electricity.
With the windmills in our rear view mirror, Elkhorn led the way to the most northern point on the road system of Kodiak, Anton Larsen Bay. We really don’t know what’s there (much like most of our journey) and we don’t care too much about the destination but it’s all about getting there and this drive was no exception. BTW, there are only 87 miles of roads on Kodiak. The island is separated between their road system and the remote area. Bush planes, boats, and atvs are required to explore the national wildlife refuge remote areas.
The first five or six miles was a paved road and then the last seven or eight miles it was a dirt, rocky, muddy pothole road that ended up at a trail head deep into the woods. As we were traveling down this dirt, rocky, muddy pothole, road we saw many signs of bear scat that were quite fresh and oh by the way the bear love eating berries, and the berries are in season. There are salmon berries, blueberries, elderberries, some sort of cranberries and berry berries. Lots of berries and we can see the berry seeds in the bear scat. The bear is waiting on the fish to run for more protein, but oh by the way, we are a week early for the fish run, poor bear.
Bigfoot in Elkhorn spent the night tucked into a small pull off on the side of the dirt, rocky, muddy pothole road. Much different location for us, as we are surrounded by trees and have no view, but we are out in the middle of no where, got to love it. Before we called it good night, we had happy hour, with the four of us sitting around the table with meat, cheese and crackers and our favorite beverage. What is the only thing different between happy hour here and in Key West? Being in Alaska means having bear spray available on the table.
We SP about 10 o’clock the next morning heading south, it was 40° but clear and not rainy, so a good start of the day. We went into town to refill propane, diesel fuel, fresh water, empty gray and black water and now we’re good for another week or less.
So we decide to start heading to the other side of the Coast Guard base but we only made it to the Buskin River Recreation area which borders the base. A few dry campsites that too far away from the river, so we decided just to spend the five bucks for a day pass, fish and then go somewhere else. As we were driving in the park, there were about few Alaska State Troopers and state park cars blocking the road. There were a few people picking up trash and the Troopers had their rifles out standing lookout. The Trooper told us a male brown bear just got through tearing up a bear proof trash container and made a mess. The trooper told us that he’s a three-year-old bear that’s just acting like a jerk, but to watch out. Okay we will.
So we park Bigfoot and Elkhorn in a nice spot, we grab our fishing gear and before we get to the river the game warden stopped us and we talked for a while. And of course he told us that the pink salmon were coming in but we’re still a little early. Who would’ve guessed we’re early and the fish are late? Jimeney Christmas, really? What the hell?
We walk down to the river, we are at high tide which helps push the fish up the river so they can do their spawning business. After a couple hours we where ready to give up. I changed my lure to a salmon colored spoon then I saw a few salmon jump, I got a bite and yelled “Fish ON” and looked around me and Ann Marie was now beach combing, and Virgil had just packed up, and I finally landed my first one, hallelujah praise the Jesus, thank goodness the curse is over. But no one saw it happen, but there is a picture.
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