Afognak Landscape

 

Not much to write about for this blog post.  Afognak is a beautiful place, and this post is all about the landscape.  

I will say that as part of my job I did a lot of traveling about the island this last summer - Deadman Bay, Aliulik Peninsula, Sitkinak Island, Karluk Lake.  And Afognak has the spruce forest and beaches.  I prefer summer camping on Afognak because the trees provide shelter and shade for the cook tent.  You can cook with a wood stove inside a tent even in summer.

Also the trees make for better hiking.  Most of Kodiak (think Deadmans, Uyak, and Uganik Bays) has dense alder and birch thickets on shore.  In those places below the alpine it is pretty much impossible to hike except along the beach.  That said the coastal tundra at the far south end (Aliulik, Sitkinak) does make for some pretty cushy hiking.  But when I am elsewhere on the archipelago I do miss the spruce trees!

Patrick