Life in Kodiak

It is 9:24 PM right now in Kodiak. Amazingly, it is sunny with very few clouds in a blue sky (usually it is cloudy/foggy and rainy). It is 50 degrees out right now. In the mornings, it is typically around 45 degrees (maybe 50 on a good day), and temperatures will rise to a high of 55 or 60 on average (we almost hit 80 one day!). If it is cloudy, the clouds usually sink during the night to cover the mountains so the ceiling is only a few hundred feet. As the day progresses, the clouds often rise again so that we can almost see the tops of the mountains. It is usually drizzly or raining, so rain gear is a must. It is also very windy most of the time, especially out on Narrow Cape at KLC.

Right now, sunset is around 11:15 PM and sunrise is around 5:00 AM. That is about 18 hours of sunlight! Actually, it really never gets super dark. It is typically still partially light out at 2 AM. This makes for plenty of time to be outside, however, I think I still need my 7 or 8 hours of sleep even though it is light when I get up at 5:15 AM and when I go to bed around 10 or 11 PM.

Kodiak is mainly a blue-collar town. There are not a lot of white-collar jobs here. Even at KLC, our jobs are definitely not sit-at-a-desk jobs. We are often outside working on the range equipment. In Kodiak, the primary industry is fishing so there are many boats in the harbor and there are also canneries that are supposed to be very hard work. Most of the people here are used to being outside and doing hard work such as hunting, fishing, boating, hiking, backpacking, four-wheeling, dirt-biking, snow-mobiling, kayaking, etc.

There are not a whole lot of restaurants to choose from in town either, probably because of the small population. There is a Subway, McDonald's, and Pizza Hut and there used to be a KFC and Burger King. Amazingly there is a Wal-Mart here in Kodiak, which was a apparently a big deal because the town didn't want it because it would put many businesses out of business. There is a not a lot of competition between businesses here, as there is often only one business serving a market area.

There is a local newspaper that publishes an evening paper on weekdays (not weekends). It typically contains about 12 pages, so it does not have a wide range of news. There is cable or satellite TV, broadband internet (very expensive for slow speeds - 384 kbps for like $115 per month), and cell phones so it is not much different from the lower 48 in this respect.

There is a wide range of nationalities that live here in Kodiak. Wikipedia states the percentages as "The racial makeup of the city was 46.40% White, 0.69% Black or African Americans, 29.1% Native American, 31.73% Asian, 0.93% Pacific Islander, 4.36% from other races, and 5.42% from two or more races. 8.54% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race." (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kodiak%2C_AK)


As for random news for today, we saw a fox out at the range. It was somewhat tame, as one of the former KLC guards was probably feeding it, as was explained to me. Therefore, it was curious about us and actually approached to within 10 feet of us. Unfortunately, I didn't have a camera with me.

Also, originally I had planned to try to walk or bike everywhere in town. Well, I had to walk to the grocery store today to get some food for lunches, which is about 1 mile from where I am living this summer. I am starting to doubt my motivation and determination to maintain this stance. It was really tiring walking back with the groceries (getting there wasn't that bad - it was better than the 2.5 mile one-way walk to the grocery store from the hotel I was in last week!).

Related to food, finding good fruit is rather difficult up here. Bananas, peaches, nectarines, and cherries are not usually very good. And to top it off, it is often really expensive. For example, white grapes were $4.29 a pound (my mom said they are usually like $1-2 per pound at home). So, I guess I will have to rely on the grapes and apples most of the time, and sometimes the strawberries or other fruits as they are on sale or in better condition. I am waiting for the berries to start ripening out in the woods so that I can go berry-picking (raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries are just as expensive if not more expensive than in the lower 48). I will recommend salmonberry syrup, as I had that on my waffles at Curtis's house on Sunday, and it was very good (the berries must be picked by hand and syrup made by hand - it is not in stores).

Well I think that is enough for now. Sorry, no pictures this time. Again, if you have any questions feel free to email me or post them as comments, and I will try to get them answered. You can also send a link to this blog to anybody you think might be interested.