Journey to the Far North

Bears, bison and baffling behemoths on Kodiak Island

Small commercial fishermen rule Kodiak waters

September 19, 2000
Web posted at: 12:55 p.m. EDT (1655 GMT)

By Jack Hamann
Special to CNN.com

In this story: Storied past Alaska -- or Hawaii? Far North 'Cape Canaveral' RELATED STORIES, SITES

Editor's note: Correspondent Jack Hamann and his wife Leslie spent several weeks exploring some of the breathtaking boundaries of the Far North, including the Bering Sea, the Aleutian Islands and the Arctic Ocean. This is the second story in a four-part series.

KODIAK, Alaska (CNN) -- If you visit Kodiak, you want to see bears.

FAR NORTH SERIES Monday - Bering Sea Tuesday - Kodiak Island Wednesday - Top of the World Highway Thursday- Arctic Ocean     RELATED STORY The pitfalls of Internet bookings     TRAVEL TIPS Click for practical information for visiting Kodiak Island     MESSAGE BOARD Where in the world would you like to travel?

Not just any bears, mind you, but Kodiak brown bears -- the largest land carnivores in the world. The biggest males hit the scales at 1,500 pounds, three-quarters of a ton, and tower 11 feet when they stand on their tree-trunk-sized rear legs.

In three days on Kodiak Island, we never saw a live version of one of those monsters, but we saw plenty of other things.

This huge Alaskan isle -- in the United States, only Hawaii's Big Island is larger -- is home to 14,000 people and more than 2,500 bears. Most of the island is roadless, and bears tend to gather as far from people as they reasonably can. Because we stuck to roads and nearby trails, we greatly reduced the odds of stumbling across a big bruin.

Holy Resurrection Russian Orthodox Church

Most Kodiak visitors know that seeing bears is not cheap. A typical tour company charges $400 per person (two-person minimum) for a four-hour float-plane trip to remote streams where bears feast on salmon. On our budget, a four-hour tour for three ($1,200) just wasn't in the cards.

So we dealt ourselves a different hand, and headed to the beach.

First, some history is in order. Kodiak is a fishing town, located in close proximity to the island's 117 streams where salmon return each year to spawn. The second-largest fishing port in the United States, Kodiak hosts a fleet of small, independent fishing boats.

Kodiak has a storied past, including the Good Friday earthquake of 1964. It created a tsunami that leveled downtown, washed away the harbor and obliterated dozens of buildings that dated back to the 18th century, when Kodiak was the capital of Russian-America. Still standing are the Holy Resurrection Russian Orthodox Church and nearby St. Herman's Chapel, a wooden building where Russian fur traders once stacked sea-otter pelts.

A new museum houses artifacts from several recent archeological digs, most tracing the 8,000-year history of the Native Aluttiqs. Much of the rest of Kodiak is square and spare, serving the needs of fishermen and the town's 14 fish processing plants.

That's why we headed for Narrow Cape.

Narrow Cape is 40 miles south of the town of Kodiak, much of it by gravel road. Our rental car, a pile of junk that had obviously been down a lot of lousy roads, carried us first past Women's Bay, home to the largest U.S. Coast Guard base in the nation. After winding over a number of creeks, we reached picturesque Kalsin Bay, the turnoff for Pasagshak Bay.

A narrow road climbs up the Marine Range, a spine of mountains that look amazingly out of place. Tall volcanoes with steep flanks covered with lush vegetation swept down to crashing surf. We were further confused when the road curved past Pasagshak Bay, revealing a man standing in swim trunks staring out at the breakers, arm cradled around a surfboard. This was Alaska? It felt more like Hawaii.

Final resting place

By the time we parked our rented heap, the mysterious surfer had disappeared -- spooked, perhaps, by a giant lump on the beach, sprinkled with sand and covered with flies: a dead whale, probably a humpback, likely a juvenile. We approached it slowly, revulsion giving way to sadness and curiosity: Did this sleek-skinned animal die of natural causes, or had humans hastened its death?

Still a few miles from Narrow Cape, the road turned east, climbing to a broad plateau high above the surf. A smattering of ranch outbuildings gave way to clusters of new buildings, each crowned with spiky hairdos of antennas, satellite dishes and microwave towers. The dusty gravel road suddenly switched to new asphalt pavement.

Cresting a dip, we slammed the brakes and did a double-take. Sauntering along the road was a small herd of bison.

Here, in a windswept corner of Alaska, ranchers had been trying to breed bison with domestic cattle to produce "beefalo," touted as a leaner alternative to beef. For those who just can't wait for their steak to be bred, birthed and brought to the table, local ranchers offer guided bison hunts. Where were we now, we wondered: Alaska or Montana?

Our geographic confusion wasn't over. After shrugging off the sight of buffalo in bear country, we readjusted our eyes to the road. The sun reflecting off the waters beyond Narrow Cape made us squint in disbelief: What was that giant 170-foot tower shimmering above the cliffs? It looked like a launch pad for rocket ships.

Bison "guard" Alaskan rockets

And, in fact, it was.

Alaska chose Narrow Cape to build Kodiak Launch Complex, the nation's first remote commercial rocket range. It has sunk $11 million in taxpayer money into a $40 million complex where entrepreneurs are invited to send their private spaceships into the heavens. Two minor test launches have had modest success; NASA hopes to send the first commercial satellite into orbit from the site before year's end.

The pad's developer, Alaska Aerospace Development, is under pressure from environmentalists who worry about the launchings' effect on bears and whales. Some taxpayers also are baffled by a far north version Cape Canaveral. But the state hopes to tap into what is touted to be a potential $60 billion market, as media organizations race to launch enough satellites to keep up with demand for satellite phones, modems and TVs.

Kodiak is not, of course, Hawaii or Montana or Florida; it's a destination that seems happily indifferent to whether it ever becomes a Major Tourist Attraction. Kodiak's sheer size and wildness invite exploration by car, by foot or by sea kayak. If you have the money, you'll fly in to see the bears. If not, there's still a pretty good chance you'll run across something big or shaggy or explosive. Or, if you're lucky like us, all three.

If you'd like to ask Jack Hamann a question about his trip, send him an email at cnnjack@aol.com

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