Abercrombie Pictograph

 Stuey and I kayaked along the shores of Mill Bay out to Fort Abercrombie on Sunday, and we found a pictograph.  Nothing too exciting, and clearly not Alutiiq in origin.  But I loved seeing it from the kayak.  It reminded me that this is the way that petroglyphs are supposed to be viewed - from the water.

Most of the Alutiiq petroglyphs I've seen are on outcrops overlooking the water.  They are there to be seen by waterborne visitors.  They tell the visitor that the place belongs to whoever pecked the glyph and that the owner possesses some serious magic.

Funnily enough,  I think the graffiti artist who painted the pictograph that we saw was thinking along the same lines.

Patrick

Inflatable kayaks as a survey platform

We surveyed as far as you can see and a bit further - and behind the camera as well!

While on recent survey to Malina Bay I did some thinking about better ways to survey Kodiak's coastline for archaeological sites, and I decided that for what Michael and I were doing the inflatable Innova 2 man kayak is about perfect (click here for a similar post).  It fit in the plane, handled rough seas, and carried all our gear with room to spare. And, best of all, we were seeing the coastline from the same perspective as the Alutiiq peoples who created the sites.

The inflatables are also fast and we were able to cover a lot of coastline quickly.  Our kayaks only felt slightly slower than a hardshell kayak.  And while not as fast as a motorboat, we were able to get into shallow rocky areas where motorboats would fear to tread.

But what I really like about the inflatables is how easy they are to pack with gear and how easy it is to jump in and out of them.  There are no hatches or spray skirts.  On survey we were constantly going to the beach and leaping out to check out potential sites.  If this had been at all difficult I doubt we would have gone to shore all that much.  Patrick

Michael added an elk horn to the front of his ride

A tidal lagoon reversible rapids - not a great place for motorboats

Michael took care of the boats while I walked extended lengths of beach

Good winter for growing glaciers

Koniag Glacier from Koniag Peak looking toward Mount Glotof

As I discussed in the last blog post below the last three winters in Alaska have been abnormally warm. And yet each has been different in terms of moisture and extreme events etc due to the moving position of the warm 'blob' of water in the North Pacific - the cause of the warm winters.  Two winters ago the weather was warm, wet and extreme; last winter was warm and dry; and this winter is warm, wet but stable.  What's interesting is that each of these winters has had a different effect on Kodiak's glaciers.

In general Kodiak's glaciers have been rapidly shrinking over the last 50 years or so.  In the above photo from 2004 the darker colored granite is where rock has been exposed above snow every summer and lichen has had a chance to grow.  The light colored rock represents rock that has never been exposed in the summer - the rock had been covered by a glacier.  As you can see there is a lot of light colored rock with no lichen growing on it.  That's because with 'global warming' the glacier is disappearing at a rapid rate.

However, I think this year the glacier will gain 'snow'.  Let me explain why.

Last year when it was warm and dry Kodiak's glaciers did not add a lot of snow.  And the winter before when it was warm, wet and extreme it often rained to the very tops of the mountains, and again the glaciers probably did not add mass.  But this year with the stable warm weather the snowline is sharp and all the extra moisture above about 2000 feet has mostly fallen as snow.  I gather in town we have had the third wettest winter on record.  So for alpine, interior Kodiak that translates to a top 3 snowiest winter.  We are getting a LOT of snow in Kodiak's alpine.

Now whether or not the glaciers grow because of the extra snow depends on how hot and rainy it gets next summer.  If the summer weather does not melt all the new snow the glaciers will grow - at least for one year.

It's ironic that a warmer climate does not necessarily mean retreating glaciers.  This winter despite super warm temperatures and practically no snow at sea level the snow pack is still super deep up high. So maybe if the weather stays warm, wet and stable there is still hope for Kodiak's glaciers.

Patrick

The South Bowl of Pyramid Mountain this afternoon

Interesting Weather Article

Alaska has had 3 extremely warm winters in a row, and this has had me worried that 'no winter' is the new normal.  So I was heartened to see this opinion column in the Anchorage Daily News that basically says that even with climate change these have been abnormal winters.

http://www.adn.com/article/20160305/weird-winter-isnt-new-normal-thats-its-way

But it is a 'cup-half-full' kind of thing because it also talks about how this sort of thing is going to happen far more commonly in the future, and that sometime in our children's lifetime it will be the new normal - Just not yet.

The article correlated the recent warm winters with a 'blob' of warm water in the North Pacific that has been slowly moving from west to east.  I had heard about the 'blob' before, but what I found interesting is that the changing position of the blob has made each winter's weather different. When it was furthest west 2 winters ago it pushed warm and wet weather directly up into Alaska.  Then last winter, having moved further east, the warm air hit the west coast mountains before deflecting back into Alaska - this made for warm and dry.  And finally this winter, with the blob the furthest to the east, the warm air has set up an 'el nino' pattern and coupled with unusual warmth in the high arctic the weather has been warm but stable.  This means that there is a sharp snowline on the mountains - with lots of snow up high and no snow down low.  And that is exactly what I have noticed on Kodiak.  Only, it-has-to-be-said, Kodiak seems to have been warm and extremely wet of late whereas Anchorage has been warm and dry.

It's an interesting article and well worth the read - I only hope it is right and that the 'new normal' has not already arrived.

And yet another blast of warm weather headed our way from the North Pacific

Hospice and Doula work

MOUNTAIN VIEWS

by Zoya Saltonstall

In the past months there have been several well-known celebrity deaths including  David Bowie and Alan Rickman, both of whom leave artistic legacies in their musical and cinematic talents. Here in Alaska, we said goodbye to Eva Saulitis. Eva was  scientist, teacher, writer who lived in Homer and passed away at her home after a long bout of cancer. Eva shared her journey of preparing for death in her writing; her friends and family were there with her as she physically and emotionally prepared for her death. The close timing of these deaths  bring our own immorality to the forefront of our minds, as we think about how we live, how we want to live and how we want to die. 

How these these final days, hours, and moments of life unfold  are crucial for the dying and the living as well. On February 13th is the 5th Annual Heart for Hospice Ball, a major fundraiser for our Kodiak Hospice Organization.  Hospice is a group which supports families during the time of death and dying. Kodiak Hospice offers in-home support, palliative care as well as bereavement classes/groups. People can be supported by nurses, volunteers and community support in their final days. 

It was in my  living room, at the age of 16, when I learned about the importance of the journey of death.  I sat with my dad during his last breaths. 

My dad  suffered from a six month bout of cancer and 3 rounds of unsuccessful chemotherapy in San Diego. When it became evident that the treatment wasn't working, he was encouraged to return home soon so he could die in Kodiak.  

During those final days before dad's death, we watched him slowly pass from this world to the next. He spoke of seeing people around him, of a feast. Of strawberries. Of an elevator which went somewhere. He wanted us to take the elevator, to get the food. In a span of several days we saw him get ready for the next life. 

Dads agonal, final gasps of air scared me. Even though I knew they were coming, it was something one can never be fully prepared for. "We should call the ambulance" I cried to my family near me. It wasn't a rational response. He was prepared to die. We knew this was coming. 

My family shared that space with him, as he  passed from this world to the next. He didn't seem scared. By the end, he seemed ready.  I wasn't ready and never would be ready. I was 16 and just starting life with him.

Our family was supported by the community in his decision to die at home. I remember a doctor home visit and little need for dad to leave the house for palliative care. There was no hospice at the time, but yet an overall feeling of support of dad being at home. 

On the day of dads death, I witnessed how powerful and important this time and space is. Honoring  the sacred passage of life. We're never fully prepared for these life changes. No class or book can fully prepare us. Which is why that support nearby matters so much. 

As one of my life callings, I am a doula-a support person for women in labor giving birth. I  am with women and their families at the time of birth. It was many years into my doula work before I realized how similar this presence is at birth and death. 

As a doula I  honor the moment as well as the overall  journey. 

As a doula I hold hands, comfort, encourage, smile, cry, laugh, listen.  

Birth and death jolt us out of our existence and make us question all we've ever known about living. Birth and death take our breath away and knock us off our feet-in good ways and hard ways. They are times when a loving presence and kindness can be even more important than words. 

Whether it be first breaths, or final breaths, these are the  times when we need our hand held with caring support in more ways than one. 

Thanks to the dreams and amazing hard work of many local citizens, Kodiak now has a Hospice Program. They are here to support us, to help normalize the death and dying process. To acknowledge a more comfortable, quieter, calmer way of approaching death. 

Thank you, Kodiak Hospice.

The Boneyard

Doggy and Elk Bone Taphonomy in action

As an archaeologist I love watching what our dogs do to the bones in our yard.  Archaeology is all about learning about people's past behavior by studying what they left behind.  And a big part of that is studying food bones in trash heaps.  By studying the bones archaeologists can learn what people were hunting, and even a lot about how they were doing it.  For instance, were they bringing the whole animal back to camp?  Did they focus on hunting a particular age class of animal?  Did certain people in a village eat higher quality food than others etc?

However, archaeologists also have to be aware of what happened to the bones they study after they were thrown away but before they were dug up in an archaeological excavation.  What processes might be skewing the patterns archaeologists see when they analyze the bones? Taphonomy is originally a term used by paleontologists to describe the process an organism goes through before its bones ended up in the fossil record.  Archaeologists have borrowed this term to describe the processes occurring to animal bones before they are discovered in an excavation.

So to get back to my yard - what would an archaeologist 200 years in the future make of the trash in my yard?  Just judging by what is shown in the picture above the archaeologist would think the inhabitants drank soda, beer, and soup purchased from a store (the cans blew out of the recycle bin), and ate a lot of elk and a little deer (I see 4 large elk and 3 possible deer and or goat/reindeer bones).  If they were really good they would also notice that there are no axial skeleton bones in my yard.  This would indicate that the animals were butchered in the field and only the 'bone in meat' was carried back to the house.  But I wonder if they would be able to account for what the dogs do to the bones in my yard?

Each year I butcher quite a few deer, and their bones along with a few from various other animals such as reindeer, mountain goat and elk make it into my yard.  And I'll add that fish bones go straight back into the ocean!  What's amazing is that year after year all that remains in my yard by spring is the elk bones.  The bones from the smaller animals all get totally crunched and eaten up by the dogs. But not the elk bones - it seems they are too big and robust for my doggie's teeth and jaw muscles.

So if you were to excavate my yard and did not consider the doggy taphonomic processes going on you would get a skewed picture of the animal bones that originally ended up in my yard.

Patrick 

There but for the grace of a bad call.... ..

As a family we generally don't do blogposts about sports, but as a sometime fan of NFL football I feel compelled to report on something I noticed that the national sports media seems to have overlooked. 

The sports media is all super excited by last year's Superbowl runner up the Seattle Seahawks who have finished their season on a strong note after a slow start.  Yet I'd like to point out that but for the grace of a few bad calls they would not even be in the playoffs.  The team no one is talking about - the Detroit Lions - and not the Seahawks should be in the playoffs.   And to set the record straight as a Washington 'Pigskin' fan (rather not use the official name) I could really could care less about whether Detroit or Seattle made the playoffs - I am unbiased between the two.

My insight and the reason for this post is how capricious is the difference between the 'team of the moment' and the 'team that went home'.

Seattle ended the season with 10 wins and 6 defeats.  Detroit ended up with 7 wins and 9 defeats.  And yet but for a bad call Detroit should have beaten Seattle (click here for story).  Detroit also later lost a game due to a Hail Mary (click here for story), and possible bad call to the Green Bay Packers.  With those victories Detroit would be 9-7 and Seattle (on the other side of the bad call) would be 9-7 too (as would Green Bay too).  And in that scenario Detroit with the head-to-head wins over both would own the tie breakers and be in the playoffs.

Just food for thought - and go Pigskins!

Patrick

My Favorite Photos of 2015

My favorite photo of the year - the composition is well balanced

It's late December and time to pick my favorite pictures of 2015.  This year I had a very hard time editing my choices.  I realized that I liked some because of their content, or just because I remembered how beautiful it had been in 'real life'.  For instance, I really wanted to include one of the panoramics from my fall float hunt through the Refugium just because the colors had been so fantastic. It was without a doubt the prettiest place I was all year.  However, all of the photos I took were flawed for one reason or another.  Another picture that I still included but do not really like compositionally is the one of Nora on Afognak.  It's a great moment but somehow I did not really capture it perfectly.

To narrow down my options I decided to include pictures that 'told the story' or captured the moment.  Hence I include a float hunt picture with people in it - you can see that we are looking for animals and there are the canoes on the river.  Also Stuey playing hide in seek in the snowy woods with beautiful light - I like the photo because the viewer should know exactly what was going on.

On the flip side I also cut a bunch of really pretty pictures that somehow felt like cliches.  A lot of landscapes at dawn while on hunting trips had brilliant colors and showed spectacular views, but it felt like they were somehow all the same - cliches.   Same goes for mountains and spruce trees covered in snow - they reminded me of 'Hallmark Christmas cards'.

Anyway these are the ones I came up with along with a critique of each in the captions - enjoy!
Patrick

This one tells a story of a family hike through the woods and the exposure on Zoya just seems so perfect that I had to keep it

Green, green green and lots of details - I kept it because I seem to have caught everything in focus

A balanced and dramatic landscape that just happens to show the archaeological site where I excavated last summer

The composition is flawed but it is such a perfect moment that I had to keep it

Father and son meeting in the backcountry - good composition and a nice story

Whole lot of story to this one and a beautiful moment

Is this a cliche?  I like it and don't know why

This one might be cliche too - but I love the pink with yellow dots thing

My best artifact picture - this is a tiny microblade and they are very difficult to show off, and guess who found it?

This one captures hanging out by the stove on a hunting trip perfectly

Seeking out animals while floating through a spectacular place - one photo tells the whole story

Peekaboo - this is my second favorite photo

Another snow photo - ughhhh cliche (I dumped a bunch of mountains and snow) -  but I kept this one because you can feel the wind and approaching storm - something I rarely capture

Family Photo Rejects

Squint, Squint

Thanksgiving is past and it is time to send out the annual Holiday card with the family photo on it.  This is a stressful process.  Getting a decent family photo is just one step in the process.  You also have to get the cards printed, addressed, written, and mailed off before Christmas.  I will freely admit that most of the latter is up to Zoya.  My job is getting a decent family photo.

And for some reason this year I totally failed.  We had numerous opportunities in gorgeous places, but something is wrong with every photo.  In the end Zoya had to create a 'composite' Christmas card - one of those cards with multiple family activity pictures.

Seeking out this year's family photo got me thinking back to simpler days.  Back to the days when I printed out the card myself on heavy paper from the home printer.  I'd put 2 pictures side by side so that I could get 2 cards per sheet.  I always left half the page blank and measured it so that it would fold into a card correctly.  I remember the hard part was printing the 'Merry Christmas' or 'Happy Holidays' on the inside.  You had to put the paper thru the printer a second time for this with the proper orientation. Almost inevitably the 'Happy Holidays' would be printed on top of the photos (put in tray upside down) or upside down to the fold (wrong direction in tray).

In those days it was simpler to find a photo.  Pre Zoya I was only mailing cards to my guy friends, maybe 15 tops, and only cared about showing them what I was up to - I also always wanted to make it funny and to shock a bit.  So the cards tended to portray dead things.  I remember I titled the card that went with the bottom photo something like 'Santa's going to have a hard time finding someone to pull his sled - Merry Christmas'.

Post Zoya there was a change to the more traditional card photo.  Also Zoya wanted the cards to be more inclusive; so instead of 'Merry Christmas' we went to 'Happy Holidays'.  Zoya also took over the mailing and writing aspects. Still with only 2 of us and a dog, taking the happy family photo was not all that difficult - although since it was the pre digital era we did have to send the pictures off to get them developed and then scan them to print.

With kids things got much more difficult.  More people and animals in the photo made it harder to catch everyone looking good and with their eyes open.  I think this is the reason we stopped trying to include the dogs in the photo.  One year we took the photo with a tripod and in the best picture my eyes were closed.  I fixed it by taking my head with eyes open from one of the other pictures and then stitching it over the eyes closed image (see bottom photo).  I remember that getting the background to align was the most difficult part of the process.

Happy Holidays!

Patrick

No we don't own a plane

Boring, grainy and washed out - same card as last year anyway

Pre Zoya Christmas Card - for real

Post Zoya Christmas Card - our first one together

2008 family photo - we went out in the new snow to capture the 'White Christmas' feeling

RATS!

Smaller rats from later in the week

'And that's a Norway Rat', Mike S proclaimed.  Mike was pointing out the window with his knife, and we all looked out to see a brown animal with tail chewing on one of the elk leg bones we had thrown out on the lawn earlier in the afternoon.  Everyone but me laughed as it hopped around from bone to bone and then disappeared around the corner of the house.  The elk hunt crew was butchering and packaging the elk from the hunt, and I had come to the realization that the Saltonstall household had a rat problem.

Rats are only funny when they are someone else's problem.

They are also a problem that on Kodiak eventually happens to pretty much everybody.  And for which everybody has an opinion. 'Use poison', 'traps are best', 'you must have chickens or a bird feeder', and 'I bet they are raiding your compost heap' are some of the more common opinions that I heard.

I don't like poison because I worry that our dogs will find it.  Also we used poison when we last had a serious problem about 10 years ago, and had a rat die under the kitchen.  It smelled for months.

So no poison - I bought rat traps.  Rat traps make mouse traps seem like miniature toys in comparison, and are scary to set. I was worried about breaking a finger, and would jump in shock every time I inadvertently set off the hare-trigger.  SNAP!  Setting the traps was like playing with dynamite.

The traps worked and for a week I tended my trapline. I checked the traps 3 times a day, and caught an unbelievable number of rats.  For the first couple of days I caught one in every trap twice a day.  Then the numbers started to drop off and the rats got smaller and smaller.  After about a week I stopped catching rats.  Worried that the rats had just gotten smart I also set out bait with no trap and had no takers.  It seems the rats are gone - I really, really hope so.  Patrick

One of the first rats I trapped - he's a big guy!

Some that got away

Trick or treat on Cliffside costumes

Our family takes a lot of photos and it is a lot of work editing and backing them up.  Maintaining a blog helps us a lot with this process.

At our house once we put the pictures into iphoto on the computer we erase the pictures off of the card that goes back into the camera.  That way there is less confusion when we down load at a later date about whether a picture has been saved or not.  Once the images are on the computer I do an initial edit - getting rid of all the really bad photos.  Then all these photos are put onto an external hard drive (that is backed up itself by another hard drive).

The pictures that remain on iphoto are fixed up - colors adjusted, cropped, tones fixed etc. - and the best ones usually go here onto the blog.  All pictures that go onto the blog are put into their own file (by date) and backed up on hard drives separately.  Sadly enough, it turns out that these are generally the only photos I ever go back to look at - I mean who wants to look at thousands of unedited photos?

We do not use iphoto as a backup, and every few weeks I go back and delete most of the recent images.  The iphoto on our computer contains only the best of the best from the last few years.

Anyway, yesterday morning I was deleting photos from the past few weeks on iphoto, and found a few that never made it onto the blog.  And now they have!  Patrick

Packaged deer meat - I try to match the terrain on the package with where the meat was harvested

Teaching Stuey cribbage

Zoya's St Mary's Halloween costume

The pack watches Monday night football

Left to right - Bruno, Tank and Sheba

Halloween 2015

It sure was fun joining in on Nora and Stuey's class halloween party. I dressed up like Kelly Mcguillis from Top Gun, thoroughly embarrassed Nora with my big blond wig, but hopefully made up for it with a  bowl of freshly popped popcorn. 

Nora didn't want her picture taken with me. I didn't take it personally. On the car ride home I asked why. Was it my outfit? The aviator sunglasses?

"Its the wig mom. I would have been fine if you hadn't worn the wig." She explained. 

Now I know. Next year I'll get pre-approval on a costume before wearing it to the party. 

On the back of STuey's jail suit it read "Busted Bad Boy". On the front it said, "Crime don't pay". Lots of chuckles from his costume!

On Hallween night, several girlfriends and myself went to the Chart room to catch up and listen to live music. It was a very quiet halloween scene there, which we appreciated.

It was fun to get out a little and see a few other adult costumes. Marias was a butterfly. :)

Zoya

Dribblers a family, community tradition

MOUNTAIN VIEWS
by Zoya Saltonstall
Published in Kodiak Daily Mirror on October 29th, 2015


The sharp whistle stopped every one in action. You could almost hear a pin drop in the gym. The small mob of basketball-playing elementary boys convened in the center by the adults. The unknowns were hanging in the air. For the players, the parents and the coaches. This was the start of  Little dribbler basketball tryouts.

With paper numbers pinned on their chests, the boys were split into three groups and sent off to various parts of the gym for  drills. They took turns doing layups. Passing drills. Dribbling skills. 

I have to play my cards well so Stuey doesn’t know just how excited I am for him to finally be playing organized basketball. I hear the stories of sports pressure gone bad. Parents who so desperately want their child to play a certain sport and in the end it pushes them away from it.

I’m taking the opposite approach. I’ve tried to be completely chill with how much I love basketball. 

My love for basketball began 30 years ago, as a little dribbler myself. Sweaty, hot games in the middle school. Enthusiastic parents sitting on the bleachers up high, screaming out during games. Cheering. Sometimes yelling at us or the coaches or the refs. T-shirts with awful contrasting colors and team photos where the coaches stand behind us with ’80s hairdos. Painfully learning how to play the game.

I remember it feeling so good to win. And so good to make a basket. 

Then middle school basketball where I have zero memories. Perhaps there is a picture in a photo album somewhere that could jog my memory. Those years are in many ways a memory void. If my middle school basketball coach is reading this, I’m truly sorry. I just don’t remember. Perhaps  we really do spend the rest of our lives trying to recover from or forget what happens in middle school. 

“Do you want to coach?” I  was asked by city Parks and Rec when I signed Stuey up for dribblers. “Oh, no! You don’t want me coaching!” I chuckled. I would have to get Cliff Notes for basketball coaching and it wouldn’t be pretty. 

I prayed to my lucky stars that they found enough coaches so I wouldn’t have to. 

At tryouts, I was glad to see five coaches milling around the gym. My stars came through for me. With clipboards and pens in their hands, the coaches had semipensive looks on their faces as they watched the boys play. They intermingled some, took notes on their papers, and watched some more.    

Three of the five coaches are familiar to me. One was a Kodiak High School classmate back in the 1990s. One was a prior coworker who has a great sense of humor. One was an old boyfriend.

I am curious who will end up being Stuey’s first basketball coach. In real estate they say “location, location, location.” In sports, it’s really all about the coach. The coach is the one who instills confidence, gives the framework, and yet pushes just the right amount. It truly is an art. 

The next 45 minutes were awash with ball handling drills. Chest passes. Bounce passes. Stop-pivots. Dribbling around cones. Layups on the left. Then on the right. Moves that will become so practiced, and so routine for these boys as they learn the art of basketball. These skills that will build their foundation. And becomes threads of their existence and beings. 

Before I know it, tryouts end. The hour flew by. We learn that we’ll find out team assignments at next practice

As we leave the gym, Stuey runs ahead of me to the car.

“I’m glad I knew two people from my class!” Stuey yells. 

“Yes! That was really fun, Stuey! I reply. 

My heart thumps with basketball joy. 



Kodiak resident Zoya Saltonstall is a mother of two and a physical therapist. She loves black labs and chocolate.

Politics take back seat to night drive

MOUNTAIN VIEWS
By Zoya Saltonstall
Published in Kodiak Daily Mirror on October 22nd, 2015

Mom, wait. I’m confused.  I thought our mayor is a girl, not a guy” my daughter, Nora questioned me. 

It was a rainy windy Thursday evening. Nora and I were getting settled into our chairs at the toasty borough assembly chambers. 

We arrived 25 minutes before the borough assembly meeting started and sat in the front left row by the window. The assembly members trickled in, conversed with each other and sat in their executive assembly chairs. Nora asked who everyone was and what their jobs were. 

I explained how we have two mayors in Kodiak: a borough mayor and city mayor. Jerrol Friend is our borough mayor. Pat Branson is the city mayor and that was who she was thinking of. I explained the difference between city and borough and how our family lives in the borough. 

This was Nora’s first time being at such a public meeting. She was curious about what a public meeting is like and since she cares about the future of Termination Point, I figured this would be a good one for us  to go to together.   

I remember my fascination with elected public officials as a child. My very young self saw it all as a little king-queen-ish. My late father, Dave Herrnsteen, was on the Kodiak school board for several terms and borough mayor for a term back in the 1980s. I don’t remember his time as borough mayor, I was too young. On the school board I remember him coming home with super-thick meeting packets he would read through. And he would frequently get pulled aside at the post office to talk with neighbors and friends about school board subjects. 

Half an hour into Thursday’s meeting, Nora started showing signs of fading — slumping over tired and sending me looks of disgust for still being there. Her eyebrows were furrowing at me. The clock was approaching 8. It was a school night and she (thankfully) relishes her 8 p.m. bedtime. 

On the drive home, Nora was very much convinced that borough assembly meetings were the most boring things on earth. What was exciting to her was that it was her first “night drive” this fall. Seeing the street lights and oncoming headlights of traffic was a novelty. Simple joys for 10-year-olds. 

I tuned into the meeting on public radio KMXT as we drove home. By the time we left the meeting, the Termination Point testimony hadn’t yet started; there were several awards and reports presented. Not terribly exciting. But important, yes.   

After Nora was tucked into bed and as the rain hammered against my kitchen window, I  followed the assembly votes on the Termination Point negotiations as they rolled in. The next morning when Nora woke up, she was curious what the outcome was. 

I explained how the four votes in favor of negotiations were reflections of the people who filled the borough assembly chambers two weeks in a row. The two votes opposing the negotiations left many puzzled. 

That rainy Thursday night was an eye-opening borough assembly meeting for Nora and me, but for different reasons. 

For Nora, she learned about the difference between the borough and city mayor. She saw first-hand how meetings can be boring.  

For me, I became even more grateful for engaged, responsive borough assembly members. These elected officials who can look constituents in the eye, email back and have dialogue and interaction. 

And most importantly, assembly members who vote on behalf of the  wishes of the community. 




Kodiak resident Zoya Saltonstall is a mother of two and a physical therapist. She loves black labs and chocolate.

An Ode to Inflatable Kayaks and Canoes

I do a lot of rafting, kayaking and canoeing here on Kodiak, and I generally use inflatable boats.  Other options include 'hard shell' (i.e. the traditional sea kayak or canoe), heavy inflatable rafts, or even the super light-weight alpacka type inflatables.  So which is best? Is there small boat that does it all?  I'd answer the question with an emphatic 'NO'.

There are a wide variety of paddling opportunites here on Kodiak.  We have white water paddling, flat-water lakes and rivers, remote fly-out hunting trips, remote fly-out camping trips, there are trips where you combine hiking with paddling, and there is sea kayaking close to town.  There is not a boat that is perfect for everything.  But there are boats that are perfect for particular activities.

If you only do white water kayaking near town then get a hard shell 'creek boat'.  If you only sea kayak near town then get a hard shell sea kayak.  But if you want a boat that packs up easily and fits in a floatplane or packs away easily in a skiff then inflatable boats are a better option.  And if you really want to go lightweight and carry your boat on your back then the alpaca type raft is what you want.

Each particular type of boat has its downsides.  Hard shells are bulky and difficult to transport.  Inflatables are not as fast as hardshells, and do not track as well in the wind.  Alpacka type rafts are an extreme version of the inflatable type - they are super lightweight and packable, but are also very slow and the least 'water-worthy'.  Full on inflatable rafts are very heavy, draw more water, and pretty much only good for floating the bigger rivers or for use on flatwater with an engine mounted on the back.

I personally like mid range inflatables because they are very versatile.  I can pretty much do everything in them except go on long, extended hiking trips (the sole domain of the alpacka).  Furthermore my inflatables are very tough.  I can drag loaded boats down shallow rivers, and grind against barnacle covered rocks without fear of damaging the bottom.  Try that in a fiberglass or thin skinned boat!

Inflatables are also very easy to get in and out of and carry a LOT of gear.  My family much prefers the open cockpit of our inflatables to the closed holes of hard shell kayaks.  I have gone on extended archaeological surveys where we fit 4 people and all the gear into 2 inflatables - and, better yet, we also still fit into one floatplane.  Inflatables are also about 1/2 the cost of a comparable hardshell.

I do own different types of inflatable rafts (my choices are all made by Innova).  I have inflatable sea kayaks, canoes, and even a self-bailing river kayak.  I have found that each of these is a little better than the others at doing something.  The sea kayaks are better on flat water while the canoes do better in rivers.  However, I have also done everything with all of them.  I even did white water in the inflatable sea kayaks, and did an archaeological survey along the coast of North Afognak in the inflatable canoes.

So if you are looking for something versatile for exploring Kodiak - an inflatable is not a bad way to go (click here for an interesting site that compares different inflatable kayaks and canoes).  Patrick

Family sea kayaking on a day trip along the coast of South Afognak

Moving an archaeological field camp across a lake

Extended archaeological survey on a river

Extended archaeological survey by inflatable sea kayak

Whitewater fun near town

More whitewater fun

Float hunt trip - carrying the meat and gear downriver