KLC Fox: Patch

Well, we saw the friendly fox Patch again the other day. This time I had a camera with me. He was laying on the road (probably because it was warm). Since he is pretty used to people, we drove right up across the road from him, and I took some pictures. We weren't even 20 feet away from it. Anyway, here are the pictures:
























I don't have any new mileage additions, so I won't post a new set.

4th of July

Well, up here they have fireworks for the 4th of July, too. Except that they start the 4th off with a bang...

They have the fireworks at midnight beginning the day of the 4th (because it doesn't get really dark). They launch them from the gravel flats on Near Island, and everybody lines the streets, including the bridge to Near Island, as well as on top of Pillar Mountain. I biked the 6 miles to the bridge to Near Island, and set up my cameras there.

People are setting off fireworks and stuff all over the place on their own. They also sent up flares as substitute fireworks (probably because they go much higher).

Anyway, I was hoping to get some nice snowy mountains in the background of my pictures, but it was a little too cloudy, and actually too dark. The first picture shows how dark it is around 11:45 PM (sunset 11:15 PM). The picture shows the commercial boat harbor and a mountain in the background. The following pictures show some of the fireworks, as taken with my digital camera. You can see I caught one of the smiley face fireworks :)

The people sitting next to me when I was taking pictures were laughing at me because I was switching back and forth between my two cameras. I took about a roll of film of the fireworks, so we will see how they came out after I get back from Alaska and send them in to be developed. The show was about 20 minutes long.






















Well, here are my new mileage totals as of noon today:

Foot: ~30 miles
Bike: ~28 miles
Car: ~1200 miles (It is 95.6 miles roundtrip to the range. I haven't driven any of these miles!)
Boat: ~6 miles
Plane: ~3450 miles

KLC Open House

Well, Kodiak Launch Complex is having an open house this summer. So, if you have nothing to do around July 21st and want to come see the place I am working at (and beautiful Kodiak in person), let me know. Here is the link to more information: KLC Open House. If you still want more information, just email me.

Misc

Here are some miscellaneous pictures I have taken.

This is a picture of the clouds at sunrise one morning this last week. I woke up, saw the clouds out my bedroom window, and grabbed the digital camera. Of course, the batteries were dead, so I quickly changed them and snapped this pic.

Later that morning when I got out to work, the clouds were coming in over the cape. The sun was making a neat reflection on the ocean, so I took this pic.

Here is a picture of one of the mountains on the way to work (nearly to the range). You can see how rainy it looks. The weather at the range is often different from what is in town 30-something miles away.

Here is a picture of the mountains at the range. The low-level clouds that are often seen out at the range make great pictures.

Here, the buffalo are crossing the road (and obviously the cars must stop!). The buffalo have been moving quite a bit lately.

Here is a small part of the herd of buffalo. There are a lot more in the valley behind the buffalo you can see, but I couldn't get a pic of them all.

Here is a pic of the mountains on my way to church this morning. They were reflecting the sunlight quite brightly, but the digital camera couldn't capture the full effect.

Church here in Kodiak is a little different. Last weekend, I went to the published location for the WELS Lutheran church here in Kodiak, but there was nobody there. I went to a different church with one of my friends here (it was a community church). Well, apparently the WELS church here meets in one of the member's homes because the pastor is here only about once per month and there are a total of about 19 members. So, it was about a 7 mile bike ride round trip to their house, where 6 of us were there listening to the service being broadcasted from Anchorage over the phone.

Well, I think I am going to start documenting my total travel mileages now:
Foot: ~30 miles
Bike: ~19 miles
Car: ~1000 miles (It is 95.6 miles roundtrip to the range. I haven't driven any of these miles!)
Boat: ~6 miles
Plane: ~3450 miles

(Here is a better map of the part of the island I will be in probably all summer.)

2nd half of Saturday: Part 2

Here are the pictures taken from the top of Pillar Mountain facing away from Chiniak Bay and the city of Kodiak.

Here is the panorama showing the landscape, pieced together from 4 pics. You can see it bigger by clicking on it (1 meg, 5000 x 2000, it will ask you to download it).

Here I zoomed in on some of the remaining snow. The peak with the snow is about 1800 feet tall.

Here are the three mountains known as the Three Sisters. The left peak is about 2000 feet tall and is called Devil's Prongs. The middle peak is about 1800 feet tall, and the right peak is about 1900 feet tall. Monashka Mountain (1800 feet) can be seen in the background off to the right.

Here is the road that ends just before reaching Monashka Mountain. It ends about 8 miles out of town. Amazingly, this road is paved.

Here is a picture of the gravel road I walked up to reach the top of Pillar Mountain. You can see the city of Kodiak in the background. I am living somewhere behind the bunch of pine trees.

So, overall, I put on about 21 miles on Saturday - all by my own power - no cars or motorbikes or ATV's. Now, Sunday evening, I am really starting to feel it...

2nd half of Saturday: Part 1

Well, I decided to go do something else since I wasn't tired enough yet. So I hiked to the top of Pillar Mountain from where I am living. In total, it was about 11 miles roundtrip. I took city streets and then the gravel road to get to the top and back down, so I wasn't hiking up the side of the mountain (where it is really steep). My feet started hurting when I got to the top - it felt like I had a blister. But I still had to hike the 5 and a half miles back home! I made it, but I was getting really sore. Amazingly I didn't have any blisters - my feet were just sore. I was definitely tired when I got back down, after a total of about 3.5 hours of hiking and half an hour of picture-taking.

Anyway, I took both of my cameras to the top (my hiking backpack contents: digital camera, SLR camera, tripod, telephoto lens, SLR camera accessories, water bottle, extra film, jackets). It was really windy at the top, so I had a tough time taking pictures (this also made it quite cool). Anyway, here are some pictures:

The first picture is a panorama I pieced together from 7 pictures taken at the top of Pillar Mountain, looking out over town and Chiniak Bay. You can see a map of Kodiak Island here. Kodiak is labeled in red, just south of 58 degrees, and just west of 152 degrees. You can view the panorama in much more detail by clicking on it (about 1 meg, 6500 x 1200, it will ask you to download it).

This picture is a much closer view of the airport. They actually have 3 runways, but only the really long one can be used for the commercial jets.

Here is a closer view of the commercial boat harbor where I have gone multiple times. I go out to the end of the dock furthest to the right. The little float in the middle of the picture and below the docks is where the sea lions like to lay in the sun.

Here is a picture showing the islands just offshore from town. Woody Island is the second one from the top, with the big deforested beach. The dining hall is the white building on Woody Island.

Here is a picture of Pillar Mountain that I took from the dock on Saturday morning. I think I was off the picture to the right when I was at the top of Pillar Mountain.

Well, I will put the other half of the view from Pillar Mountain in a separate post next.


Also, if you want to see any of the pictures larger than the thumbnails shown in this blog, just click on the picture. They are being stored online as part of Google's Photo Album thing. Howev er, a warning: most are around half a meg.

1st bike ride across town

I went for my first bike ride across town today. I went to the commercial boat docks to go take some pictures with my SLR camera (real pictures - not digital!). I also stopped at the library on the way. Riding a bike here is really hard. There is nothing about the bike that makes it hard. Just guess what is up here but not in Indiana - hills. It is really easy to ride a bike at 15 mph for 8 or 10 miles (no stops) in flat Indiana, but up here, you will probably need to stop once a mile unless you are in really good shape. Some of the hills are steep enough that I had to walk up them (partially because the bike won't shift into first gear, but also because I am not used to the hills!). And I was riding on sidewalks most of the time (some gravel roads, too), so nearly everything was paved. However, even though going up the hills is horrible, going down is a lot of fun - you don't have to pedal. You just have to hit the brakes every 3 seconds so you don't go too fast!

I stopped at the library to get a temporary library card so I could get some books to keep me awake during the long van ride between here and work everyday. Unfortunately, the temporary library card is only good for one book at a time. I guess I will be going to the library at least once a week. However, they do have a lot of books I want to read, so I shouldn't run out this summer.

Since today is nice and sunny with only a few clouds in the sky, I stopped at the docks to take some pictures of the mountains outside of town with my good camera. I took almost a whole roll of film, since the mountains were nice and green (except for the rocks and snow) and the sky was nice and blue. Apparently, everything started turning green for the first time this year about a week before I arrived (June 10 or so). It has been continually getting greener, and the snow on the mountains is melting more. There were also a few sea lions out on the float near the docks, but they were still too far away for my good camera.

In total, the trip was about 10 miles. I was pretty tired after it, but I think I might still go do something else today.

Also, I have enabled "anonymous comments." Therefore, you can leave comments without logging in to blogger, but I get to see them before they show up with the posts. I will check each day to see if there are any anonymous comments and approve them.