Hiking across Kodiak Island, Alaska

Thanks for the great video. Looks like a beautiful trip.
Can't help but be curious about how close those bear were to you. We're you concerned at anytime about them?
What about those holes in the ground; not the one with the eggs….the ones that seemed spaced a couple of feet apart, what were they?

On this particular trip, I never got especially close to any bears. The one fairly early in the video was behind a ridge and smelled me before we saw each other, and proceeded straight up the slope after that. He was maybe 75 yards away. All the rest were well over 100 yards away. Kodiak bears are hunted pretty regularly and have a healthy fear of humans. They will generally clear out given the chance. Many of the bears never saw me as I passed through, or figured I was too far away to react to. This is in stark contrast to mainland coastal brown bears in Katmai NP which are not hunted and are by and large totally used to having humans around and basically ignore you as if you were an inanimate object. That's great for bear watching, but also pretty weird. Kodiak is statistically speaking a very safe place to be around bears. I still carry bear spray and take the normal precautions.

The holes in the tundra are bear tracks that have been established by the passing of thousands of bears over the course of thousands of years. Along ridges or over passes, the bears somehow all assume the same gait and will step directly into the same paw holes, establishing deep divots in the ground. It must be awkward for especially small or large bears to adhere to this odd behavior and step into holes that don't match their normal strides, and I have never heard an explanation for what purpose it serves. Most low spots on ridges will have just such a bear trail running perpendicular to the ridge over its top, often crossing at right angles to another bear trail running parallel along the ridge top. I have even seen this phenomenon in the spruce forests along heavily traveled trails.

Thanks Philip!
Looking forward to following more of your adventures.

Welcome aboard Philip.

Great trip, great video. And nice use of some Dntel!

Thanks!

Well, I finally finished one of my dream trips here on Kodiak. I hiked from the village of Old Harbor, half way down the east side of the island, back to where I live in the town of Kodiak on the northeast corner. I followed the spine of the island northward, staying above the brush as often as the mountain terrain would allow. It was a spectacular trip. Take a look:

Crossing Kodiak Island: Old Harbor to Kodiak

Another gem!

Outstanding! I can't believe you did those bushwhacking scenes twice. The snow bridge made me nervous.

I REALLY look forward to seeing your trip reports. Words could not make your adventures nearly as interesting… thank you!

Inspiring! Thank you for sharing them!

+1 I enjoy all your videos.

Meh, it was okay. Apart from the stunning scenary in HD and sheer jealousy on my part for not being there with you, what do you have here? Really.

; )

Fantastic!!

I usually put a map in my movies for reference, but I haven’t done that in this video yet. If anyone cares, here is a jpeg of my route. Click the image to see a bigger version:

What about those holes in the ground; not the one with the eggs….the ones that seemed spaced a couple of feet apart, what were they?

You may notice that the first bear (the absolute freaking monster-bruiser) in my Old Harbor to Kodiak video is indeed walking in just such a deeply worn bear trail (1:15). It's actually the first time I have seen a bear in the act. Kinda cool. :^). A few scenes later in the video I show a good example again of such a trail as I walk along it (1:35)

I just used my splitboard to travel the same route shown in the earlier Old Harbor video and map above. I made it in 3 days rather than 4 this time as skiing was a little faster and I negotiated some of the brushy sections smarter. Take a peek if you have 9 minutes to waste:

Snowboarding over Kodiak Island: Old Harbor to Kodiak

Very nice.

Great scenery. Which capacity of HMG pack was that?

The Porter is a 4400 with the HMG front pocket and a pair of Zimmerbuilt side pockets. I added a longer frame and load lifters to the Porter. It carried well despite dragging a somewhat ample 'winter' load with me.

Outfreakingstanding!

Edit: to both trips.

Rad.

Bad ass video footage, excellent scenery and LCD Soundsystem to boot. I loved it. Thank you for sharing.

Phillip,

Thank you for sharing your trip video! It was an awesome trip and very professional video.

Always impressed as hell at your dedication to videoing all aspects of the trip. Well done.

Cheers, guys.

My interest in videoing is not just in sharing the trip with others, but also because I like to re-live the trip myself. I used to shoot a lot of stills and realized I was more likely to go back and reminisce about the adventure by watching my own video as I feel it better conveys a wider range of sensory experiences from the time like bird songs, water flowing, the whack of an alder, and even wind noise. The act of thinking about and collecting the footage can be a mild distraction from the immediate experience of the trip at the time, but I am pretty efficient at it now and think the tradeoff is worth it in my ability to re-experience it many times after the trip is over.

Thanks for all the kind words.

-P