Going on a bear ‘hunt’ on Kodiak Island, Alaska
On the lookout for Kodiak Island’s fierce and furry residents.
When I first see a Kodiak brown bear, it towers like a skyscraper. Some people say they’re the world’s largest bears while others plump for their polar cousins. I’m so close to this bear, standing on its hind legs, that I won’t argue the point. Instead, I inspect its snout that houses millions of scent receptors in a honeycomb-like maze, the waterproof shag-pile fur and the dinner plate-sized paws radiating non-retractable claws. My pulse remains steady. I’m inspecting a taxidermist’s handiwork, one of many frozen-in-time animals populating Anchorage’s airport.
In the late summer of 2019, I spent way more time in that airport than expected. Alaska felt apocalyptic (little did I know what was coming) with wildfires cruelling plans to take a scenic train from Anchorage to Fairbanks. So I flew there to walk with reindeer through a birch forest before returning to Alaska’s largest city to connect through to Homer.
Yes, it would have been easier to fly straight to Kodiak but I was hungry for adventure. In Homer, I boarded an overnight ferry to cruise the Alaska Marine Highway to the US’s second-largest island. Thanks to six Southern Baptists heading the same way to fish, the ride was full of banter. After breakfast, we slid into the city of Kodiak, home to more than 6000 people.
To be on an island so vast without wheels is limiting, even if there are only 140km of roads. Stacey Simmons from the Kodiak Brown Bear Centre and Lodge offers to show me around. We summit Pillar Mountain crowned with wind turbines (the islanders’ micro-grid runs on fully renewable power). After soaking up a deceptively calm view of the Gulf of Alaska, the cradle of wild winter storms that later lash the Lower 48, we pass the nation’s largest Coast Guard base and peer into fish-rich Salonie Creek – the bear equivalent of a supermarket. Fresh paw prints pock its muddy banks.
My heart leaps. These oversized bears are the reason I’m here, and I’ve clearly just missed one. Simmons has squeezed me in for a night at the lodge on Camp Island in Karluk Lake, 165km away in the island’s National Wildlife Refuge. At the refuge’s Visitor Centre in town, I’m entranced by a photo snapped above Karluk Lake. It shows a bear trail formed by generations of bears placing their paws into the exact same set of prints. I also learn that millions of salmon and steelhead trout swarm into the lake and its river system each year to spawn at different times. No wonder the bears grow bigger here.
Lodge guests usually stay at least four nights so I’m pushing my luck with such a quick visit. Kodiak’s vastness dawns when I fly to the lodge in a float plane that skitters off from Near Island’s shoreline. We splash down in front of the lodge, owned by the Alutiiq people who arrived on Kodiak more than 7500 years ago after setting off from the mainland in skin-covered boats.
You could have a wonderful time absorbing the lake views from your cabin, eating up a storm or steaming yourself in the banya, a sauna that nods to the island’s intriguing history. Kodiak was an 18th-century hub for Russia’s fur trade with Alaska, which is why there’s an onion-domed Russian Orthodox Cathedral on Kashevaroff Avenue and a cafe on Rezanof Drive that doles out borscht for lunch. But I’m focused on bears. The lodge tries hard, popping me on to every bear-viewing session and even offering a later flight so I can head out one last time. We sit and wait overlooking a stream connecting Karluk and Thumb lakes. A Sitka black-tailed deer ventures into the water where a maroon coho salmon flails in the shallows. No bear comes along to gobble it up. Back at the boat, the driver asks: “Enjoy your meditation session?”
Other guests will have more chances but for me that’s it. At least, I think that’s it. When Deckload Aviation’s Keller Wattum turns up to fetch me, he can’t believe my bad luck. After all, the Karluk Lake area houses North America’s highest density of brown bears. “Let me show you bears,” he says, flying low over a river speckled with dozens of the super-sized beasts. I don’t reach for my camera, preferring to unblinkingly imprint the sight so it becomes an abiding memory.
That’s not the final revelation. Wattum detours to a salmon fishing boat to drop off supplies and pick up fisherman Nate Rose’s four-year-old son to return him to his mother waiting at Near Island. As the boy is buckled into his seat and a headset clamped over his ears, it’s an insight into Kodiak’s true nature. Locals here trust each other in ways mainlanders couldn’t understand. They will also, given half a chance, shower you with kindness. Rose laments that I won’t be around for the community’s end-of-season Salmon Life festival and, by the time we land, Wattum offers me his pick-up to explore the rest of Kodiak.
Turns out I don’t need his wheels. After exploring downtown, I return to Near Island to join a National Audubon Society hike through a moss-carpeted forest. There’s also a farmers’ market to enjoy at the Baptist Mission’s Heritage Farm & Ranch. While queuing for goat milk ice cream, I bump into a couple from the hike. They’re exploring the island; I’m welcome to join them.
At Fort Abercrombie State Historical Park we stand at cliff’s edge, marvelling at puffins zipping about like oversized bees. We find the Kodiak Military History Museum inside an ammunition bunker and learn more about the World War II fortifications scattered through the park. Finally, we come to road’s end at White Sands Beach. The sand is grey rather than white but everyone’s frolicking as though it’s the Riviera. There are no bears here either but it turns out that getting to know the real Kodiak is in itself a profound adventure.
More to the story
Kodiak Island is occasionally included on Alaska cruise itineraries. In 2022, Aurora Expeditions will call at Kodiak as part of a 17-day journey from Anchorage to Tokyo (June 22-July 8). Scenic will visit Kodiak as part of a 21-day land/sea tour departing Anchorage August 30 – it includes cruising from Nome to the Aleutian Islands and onwards to Vancouver. Ponant also cruises from far-flung Nome, cruising through the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea before reaching the Aleutian Islands and Geographic Harbor near Kodiak. Norwegian Cruise Line (pictured) has five ships sailing Alaska on itineraries ranging from seven to 16 days. A popular stop is Icy Strait Point, home to a historic salmon cannery, near Hoonah, Alaska’s largest native Tlingit village. With the recent opening of a new pier here, passengers will have more excursion options. An Alaska cruise aboard Norwegian Jewel is included in an epic 26-day My Cruises tour departing September 26, 2022, with aurora viewing from heated teepees near Yellowknife and ends in Los Angeles. Viking Cruises operates 11-day voyages between Seward, near Anchorage, and Vancouver from May to September. Princess Cruises takes more passengers to Alaska’s World Heritage-listed Glacier Bay National Park than any other cruise line. Its Alaskan shore excursions range from dog-sledding and fishing trips to a wacky lumberjack show.
In the know
Five-day guided bear-viewing packages at Kodiak Brown Bear Centre and Lodge start from $US6535 ($8940) a person (the 2022 season runs July to October). The 38-room Kodiak Compass Suites offers large rooms with kitchenettes and a central downtown location.
Katrina Lobley was a guest of Brand USA, Kodiak Compass Suites and Kodiak Brown Bear Centre and Lodge.
