Paddling Planet

Pos: 58.8125,-160.7014
Loc: Hagemeister Island east
Acc: Hilleberg Keron 4 tent
Dist: 21,1 km
Start: 07:40 End: 12:20

Who is having a rest day on low wind (and suffers the many flies…), needs to work a bit harder on a crossing the next day with moderate to stronger headwinds We kept at least a decent average pace of 5 km/h, but the waves got pretty choppy in the up to 20 knots westerly wind. Still we arrived at Hagemeister Island in reasonable shape, had a peep on the top and spotted three buildings on the other side – plus endless whitecaps. The eastern side did not look better sheltered, and we stuck to the original plan to go along the western side – tomorrow. We rounded at least the headland to find the building’s beach to check them out, but decided also to stay here and not to keep on crawling with 3-4 km/h against wind and the current running up.

The buildings were one hut in reasonable shape where we spotted some working tools through a hole in the wall, the rest was not visible. It was well locked with a solid new padlock, had two antennas on the roof, but no signs of recent use with the grass high around it. A sign in one window (besides a small glass ball!!!) showed it belonged to the Bristol Bay Native Association....

Pos: 58.7178,-160.4273
Loc: High Island
Acc: Hilleberg Keron 4 tent

no paddling today

We decided to have a physical and mental rest day today on this bear-free High Island. Not that here are much exciting things to do, as hiking up to the top seem inconvenient, to say the least, but it is better to have a rest day before getting too stressed or even sick of the trip. I had a good march along the beach yesterday evening, while Fylkir caught up on sleep. I discoverd two nice streams, so fresh water is not an issue for us.

Fylkir went today fishing and hunting see birds, but both with no luck. I was editing pictures, watched my man on his fishing and hunting trips, made a fire in the evening and was fighting the ever-present flies. An evening dip washed away the sweat of the day. What a relief to be back in the fly-free tent! Thans goodness there are only a few biters in between the flying body mass, but enough to either deploy my natural long-hair bug net, or put one on like Fylkir did. No wonder no bear feels at home here…

Alaska 02
The 17. of June is the national day of Iceland, demanding a shave and baking of pancakes, to make a decent place for all of this. Plus a good portion of fishing and hunting, we decided to take a DAY OFF, the first of it´s kind in on this section. Putting us in a good potion for crossing out to Crooket Island, the day before payed of big time yesterday, as we had a very good conditions for the 24km+ crossing. Coming out to these Islands, totally uninhabited and as undisturbed as nature can be, is breathtaking and impressive experience for body and soul. Makes one think about all the nature, we have in this world for us all to share, as long as people are willing to reach out for it.
Our way along the beaches, and now also the cliff´s have been rather to our favor, during this first week. Without pushing us we have been able to reach our daily goals rather easily, as a fact we have been positively surprised, about how well we have progressed from Naknek. Not that we expect this to be, as easy as it have been for the rest of the trip, we just feel LUCKY in ALASKA.
My duties on the trip, are getting more and more polished – and routine like – which is a positive sign of adjustment. Traveling with Freya is and always will be, a comparison with – THE BEST – sometimes giving one a feeling of being far behind, and sometimes the feeling that you are pretty good at things. Concentrating on the latter one, gives a nice push and a pa...

Pos: 58.7178,-160.4273
Loc: High Island
Acc: Hilleberg Keron 4 tent
Dist: 35,6 km
Start: 08:10 End: 15:30

Fylkir said he has slept only about two hours last night…hmmmm, was he dreaming about Sandy? He seems not yet to be in tune with the nature and wildlife here. It will come. He was unfortunately a bit grumpy all day with that little sleep, although conditions were dead-easy on the crossing to first Crooked island and then High Island. We had low following wind, but some counter current most of the day, so speed was moderate and the surface a bit choppy. We saw our first puffins today, always cute! I still remember the one who let me hold and kiss him last year in Alaska… A lot of seals greeted us around the islands.

We briefly stopped for lunch at Crooked Island, and it did not look like any bear sign nowhere. A BEAR FREE ISLAND? We crossed over to the impressive high-rugged High Island, and on our wide beach spit, there were again no signs of bear traffic – another BEAR FREE ISLAND!? It will give Fylkir some good sleep – hopefully.

I repaired a leak in my day hatch, in a cloud of flies....

Pos: 58.7729,-159.90755
Loc: Right Hand Point
Acc: Hilleberg Keron 4 tent
Dist: 21,6 km
Start: 11:15 End: 15:00

We saw our first bear today! High time, it is already day 6 on this section!

But at first, we were contemplating to have a rest day after a five-day’s work week, as the forecast was up to 22 knots. We were thinking of a wonderful hike in strong winds in the mountain area we have just reached. But as much today was strong 22 knots forecasted and it stayed well under ten knots all day, as much was yesterday’s evening having not forecasted strong 30-knots gusts and our tent blew almost away. Alaska has his own weather.

This morning’s low tide stayed also well close to the beach compared to yesterday’s 500 m hike with gear and kayaks to the dry camp site. So it was just too tempting to go and we changed our off-day to an unknown other time.

It was a pleasant paddle with low following wind and funny criss-cross seas to the other side of a small 10 km bay, and then we followed mostly a nice rocky coast line. Our goal was the hammerhead-shaped headland of Right-Hand Point, before we had to make up our minds to cross vi Summit or Crooked Island to Hagemeister Island, ot to keep on following the coastline north to Togiak Bay. We like to do the crossing via the islands tomorrow.

And we liked to do our planned hike this afternoon! The...

Pos: 58.8360,-159.6187
Loc: Kulukak Point
Acc: Hilleberg Keron 4 tent
Dist: 39,7 km
Start: 09:45 End: 16:45

Fylkir had a bit of a motivational crisis this morning, as it was raining and not looking extremely inviting outside. He grumbled something like “What am I doing here…?” and complained about everything ahead… We turned around in our cozy bedding once more, but when he needed to go outside as nature called, he pondered to either get wet clothing in the rain or wet bare skin…he opted for the latter. The butt naked man in gum boots doing his business in the rain overlooking the dead calm sea woke up to his Icelandic genes, and came smiling back into the tent, happy to keep on going. This was a clear case of “reconnecting to nature”…and I happily dried his wet back with his towel as a luxury service. Life is not too bad!

Forecasted was strong easterly wind, and we only gave it a quick thought to cross 45 km straight over to the Round or Black Island, as this would be quite boring. We were quite sheltered on our coast going north west, and better a quite monotonous beach than no land to watch. The sea was calm, and the wind pushed us offshore along. Like yesterday evening, we saw another whale spout of a rather smaller guy very close to the coast. He did his business without being bothered by us, about ten meters off the quite ste...

Pos: 58.5793,-159.2090
Loc: Black Beach
Acc: Hilleberg Keron 4 tent
Dist: 38,6 km
Start: 08:35 End: 17:00

It came to me later, when a blue and white small plane flew low over our heads in the evening, that the wheel tracks from the last beach were from a plane and not from a motorbike. Sure we are in Alaska! Later when we landed for exploring we saw many more, it seems like small planes, most likely from the fish and game department, hit the beach frequently. We also saw more human paw tracks than bear tracks, and not a single bear (yet…).
Other finds at the beaches were two very dead walrus, one on the eastern side, one on the western side of Cape Constantine. Wheeltracks around, bear poop heaps around, but no precious tusks any more at the animals. One had the head cut completely off, at the other we found a small stump left on one side. Not sure who is harvesting these…the locals or the authorities…also not sure what would the situation be if we would find a freshly stranded dead walrus who has still the tusks on…it is a treasure, walrus ivory!
On a small stream, we decided to refill our water bags. The water is tanned, but clean and fresh. In the distance, we saw a large gray wolf running along the dunes. We found some fresh moose and reindeer tracks, also some older bear tracks, but none of the matching animals. I also found a huge bone, likely...

Fylkir is writing:

Arriving in time to Alaska, vent much better, than when we last time went to Mexico. Our trip started in a train, and after that we were taken care of, by ICELANDAIR which brought us safely to Anchorage. The two days spent there, in the good company of our host Jutta Dimke. We used to by supplies for our trip, shopping in the land of plenty, is always an adventure of its own. At least for me, this time I was not so worried about the amount we bought, and if all of it would fit in our kayaks. For me noticing improvements, big or small in this league of world class expeditioning, is very important even though it only has to do with shopping. Like always time flies fast, when you are on the run with Freya, and we left Anchorage, in a small plain that flew us to Naknek. Being picked up at the airport by Trident Seafood representative Fernando, was of a great help as he drove us to our now new home for the days up until our departure. The time we spent at Trident´s factory, were used to restore our kayak´s – which was really needed – for Freya´s kayak. Since the one that I am using is brand new, not all that much was needed to be taken care of on that one. During these days our main host Randy, was of an immense help, and for me talking to him about what kind of a factory Trident has at Naknek. Was very interesting, Randy has been at this factory for 26 years, and knows every little corner of it. Finding out how short the salmon run is, only 3-4 weeks...

Pos: 58.4208,-158.7830
Loc: Cape Constanine
Acc: Hilleberg Keron 4 tent
Dist: 42,9 km
Start: 08:35 End: 16:40

I was so dead tired yesterday when I wanted to write, I barely could keep my eyes open. I need to start earlier writing…
We planned a crossing of Nushagak Bay today, and felt it was a much better choice than in yesterday’s dense fog, after already 25 km of paddling. Freshly slept, and with a relaxed packing for Fylkir after yesterday’s practise with my help. He suddenly even had space for two more bags, if needed!

Fylkir’s adaption to the trip on the Alaska end goes well, as it is more like his homecountry Iceland than Mexico, but we still haven’t seen any bear yet. We had bought the bear fence for polar bear country, but Fylkir feels he already likes to put it up every night now…oh well, another half an hour work in the evening, and ten minutes more in the morning for a peaceful night’s sleep. No problem, and good practice for the nasty white buggers later. And I have a happy man.

Our gun also sleeps loaded besides him, on my end it did and does the bear spray. But also good practise.

Our bear fence is a model with trip wire igniting 12-gauge blank cartridges to scare the possible intruder away – or at least to wake us up if one is sniffing up to our tent. Different to the electrical fence, it doesnR...

Pos: 58.6147,-158.2077
Loc: East Point Nushagak Bay
Acc: Hilleberg Keron 4 tent
Dist: 26,1 km
Start: 08:15 End: 13:05

A good quiet night in our tent, we woke both a bit sore in the bones from the unusual work. Packing was chased by the running up tide, and Fylkir go stressed not to fit all into his boat before the water caught his kayak. He had to drag it up a couple of times. Tomorrow morning, I’ll help him packing…it had all fit in Naknek!

We paddled long steep mud cliffs, where on highest tide was not much space for a tent. Few spots were sandy, or a river mouth broke the cliff line. We stared wit bright sunshine like yesterday, but soon at 9 am, thick fog fell down and stayed all day until 6 pm. Not really exciting to paddle, despite the tide ran out now which would be just right for the crossing of 30 km. But we chose to cross the big Nushagak Bay tomorrow when we are fresh, hopefully without fog. We are still a bit in jet lag, but it’s getting better by the day.

We had to lift again our kayaks up a rocky beach and found a sandy spot to camp upfront the cliffs. Not much to see here in the fog, besides the magically disappearing water which came back with might late afternoon. Power of nature!

we were working on a few gear adjustments, and I feel sorry for my dry suit being messed up allover the bottom with white gel coat. I gave a shot with p...

Pos: 58.6970,-157.7961
Loc:
Acc: Hilleberg Keron 4 tent
Dist: 52,1 km
Start: 09:10 End: 18:40

We’re off!!! Another section of my North American circumnavigation began today.

Our Odyssey started by driving at 4 am with Fylkir’s car to Sonderburg where Fylkir’s daughter Anna Jona will take care of his car during the next three months. We jumped in the train to Copenhagen airport, there on our plane to anchorage via Iceland. It felt very strange to Fylkir to land in his homeland and to stay those few hours on the airport without meeting any of his people!
All flight fine with a bit of delay, and all luggage arrived in Anchorage ok where Jutta picked us up and gave us a home for two nights in her apartment. Thanks so much for that! It is so much nicer when a (kind of) familiar face is expecting us at the airport!. We “met” Jutta just online looking for contacts.
We went food shopping, the usual heap loaded shopping cart, and already started in front of the supermarket to unbox most of the products while waiting for Jutta to pick us up.
We met my sister Charlotte, who is an US-citizen, for dinner, and found a willing helper in her to purchase a shotgun. US-regulations are a foreign person is not allowed to buy a gun from a shop, but to buy or borrow it from a private US-person if the foreigner has purchased a hunting license. Fylkir has...