Puffin Island

 

Sunday morning it was practically flat calm.  A perfect day for exploring coastal Kodiak by kayak and paddle board.  So the kids and I called Uncle Dicky and suggested a trip to Puffin Island, he liked the idea, and away we went. 

I had not been to Puffin Island since my first kayak trip way back in 1996.  But I have always wanted to go back and explore the uplands.  When landing in a plane on Kodiak you usually fly right over the island, and I had looked down and noticed all the old WWII bunkers.  It looked pretty intact and worthy of exploration.

Puffin Island is about a mile and a half offshore, and when we launched it was pretty foggy and we could not see the island, or even more than a couple of hundred yards - if that.  We almost quit on the trip, but decided to go for it and our use our electronic devices for navigation.  Also if we did get lost or somehow split up the plan was to go dead downwind and hence back to shore near where we had started.

And so off we went into the fog.  It was a long way, but we could look at our iPhones and knew exactly where we were in relation to the island.  Later, on the way home when the fog had cleared, I was sort of happy that we had started in the fog.  It looked so far that I might not have wanted to paddle over if I could have actually seen the island.

We finally did land on the island at a glorious beach.  Nesting puffins flew close over our head to their nesting burrows above the cliffs.  The island is covered in sea grass and very lush with tall vegetation.  There was no way to see anything and we used aerial imagery on our iPhones to figure out where the bunkers were located. 

We found one underground bunker - it looked like it was an ammunition bunker - and it even still had intact wooden doors.  This is sort of rare on Kodiak.  Most WWII bunkers are pretty heavily visited and covered in graffiti. Exploring the island and looking for other bunkers was a little scary because the vegetation was so thick we could not see our feet.  So we walked in a line and the first person went very carefully.  Later on we did encounter an open hatch to a fuel bunker and Stuey actually almost fell down into the hole.  So it was good that we were careful.

While we were there the fog burned off and before we paddled back we had sandwiches on the beach.  A spectacular place for a picnic.  And then it was time for the slog across open water back to the 'mainland'.

Patrick

Kayaking and paddle boarding to the island in the fog

navigating in the fog with the iPhones

arrival at Puffin Island

Note the concrete bunker sticking up out of the fireweed and pushki

Entering an underground bunker

looking for bunkers using Stuey's iPhone

nesting seagulls

It looks like a 'spotlight' bunker falling off the cliff

More June Flowers

Rose Orchid

Here are some of the flower pictures I took this week.  The wildflowers this year are amazing and I can't seem to stop taking pictures of them.  This will probably not be the last wild flower post!

Patrick
 

Moss Campion

This Rose Orchid has a fly on it - reminds me of the 'memento mori' symbolism in 17th century Dutch still life paintings

Nagoonberry

Dwarf Dogwood

Sitka Alder

forget-me-not

fleabane

Lupine

Sky Lanterns

 

On the 4rth of July we did the usual fireworks thing on the front lawn and out over Mill Bay. Mill Bay is local hot spot for fireworks and on the 4rth and New Years the bay resounds with blasts and retorts.  By the evening's end a hazy layer of smoke lies over the water.  

But I think our favorite firework does not explode or make any noise at all - the sky lantern.  It just slowly floats up into the sky and glows.  It is a hot air balloon that rises from the heat of a small paraffin fire suspended at the opening in the bottom. 

This 4rth of July the winds were practically calm, and we'd watch the lantern go up, up up way into the sky.  And then the fire would use up all the fuel. the balloon would lose its loft, and we'd watch it descend. We watched them as they came back down to earth or into the bay.  Very mesmerizing to watch.

Patrick

Landscapes with Wildflowers

 

The dogs and I went for our last ski on the 1rst of July, and since then we have climbed a different mountain or hill every day.  

This year the wildflowers seem a little more bright and abundant than usual.  In particular, the lupine and rose orchids.  I wonder if the fog and cool days kept the flowers from drying out? In any case, on the last couple of days we have had some sunshine and the flowers have been impressive.

Unlike on Pyramid the mountains we have been climbing have lacked water for the dogs.  When we get to the top and they are all panting.  Then on the way down they all rush to the first free water source we come to and lap up water and lie in it to cool off.  Yesterday Rey was panting along behind me and we we almost to the bottom.  I could hear Bode in the distance splashing in a puddle - Rey instantly perked up and raced off to join the puddle party.  Heaven for a dog is a mud puddle when you are thirsty and hot.

Patrick

silver and green

 

A couple of days ago I took my wide angle lens back into the park again to catch the fog.  And yet again the fog disappeared. So I wandered around the park and took more wide angle pictures without any fog in them.

There was not any fog, but it was still pretty wet under the trees.  All the blueberry bushes have silver water droplets on their leaves.  I noticed that they are only silver if you look from the side.  They are just water drops when you look at them from the top. I spent a lot of time trying to take pictures of the drops and make them look silver.  I think I got my best result when I used a 'color select filter' and had the camera only see green.  That made all the drops pure white and accentuated their 'color'.

Patrick

Last Ski of Season

 

Yesterday the doggies and I climbed up Pyramid and got in what I think will probably be the last ski of the 2023/24 season. The snow is actually still pretty good.  If it was November and there was a ski run this good on the mountain I would be up there every day.  But it is July, the mountain is getting crowded with hikers, and it is time to move on to other things - like mountain biking or long hikes at sea level or on other mountains.

The doggies and I will miss the snow, but it was just too much of a hike for a not very long ski.  Once the middle of the North Bowl melted out - I was mostly doing the ski as a dog and wild flower hike anyway. Now I will take the dogs for wild flower hikes somewhere else!

Still - in about 4 months we will be back!

Patrick