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  1. Philip.AK

    yet another Orca attack on the other side of the world

    Here we ran into what I think might be the same family pod a few years ago right in the Kodiak harbor.
  2. Philip.AK

    yet another Orca attack on the other side of the world

    I finally got around to editing some video that our research vessel skipper filmed during the summer. There is a family of transient orcas around here that is occasionally friendly to the point of being frisky.
  3. Philip.AK

    Packrafting the Kodiak Archipelago

    I took the mail plane up to Port William on the south side of Shuyak Island and did a quick loop through the National Wildlife Refuge lands on the north side of Afognak Island last weekend. I awoke the second morning in thick fog and rather than feel my way down the coast to follow the route I...
  4. Philip.AK

    Orcas news, off the Iberian peninsula

    There is a particularly friendly pod that we run into occasionally.
  5. Philip.AK

    InReach Subscription

    Huh. I have frankly never heard of any sort of promo or discount for InReach subscription services, but I guess that does not prove that they don’t exist. For many years now I have simply used their most basic “Safety“ plan. I almost never send messages. I use it to obtain weather forecast via...
  6. Philip.AK

    Victoria to Alaska

    I finally got around to reading this account, and knowing a fair bit of the coastline he described I found it to be accurate and honest. Given the miles he covered and the limited word count in the article, the level of detail is a bit thin and it reads a bit like a series of anecdotes, but he...
  7. Philip.AK

    Victoria to Alaska

    You might be familiar with the ShoreZone project, but if you are not, you can 'fly' the entire coastline of Alaska via geolocated video footage on the Alaska Ocean Observing System website. Head over to AOOS and search for the 'shorezone' data set. Zoom in (more than I have in this screenshot...
  8. Philip.AK

    Victoria to Alaska

    Another variation on the Lost Coast, this time from Yakutat to Glacier Bay, again using fatbikes and packrafts. (See a trend here, lol?) Roman Dial explains in Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 on Eric Parson's blog. And of course there is a video:
  9. Philip.AK

    Victoria to Alaska

    Quite a few years ago Eric Parsons and his friend Dylan fatbiked/packrafted the coast from Yakutat to Cordova. Again, these are largely land-based conveyances, but you can still get a feel for what the coastline is like. https://www.revelatedesigns.com/site/fatbiking-alaskas-gulf-coast-video/
  10. Philip.AK

    Victoria to Alaska

    The David Miller guidebook to Kenai Fjords that Alex linked to is what I took with me when I paddled from Homer to Seward around the Kenai Peninsula. It was an interesting read and quite useful. I recommend it.
  11. Philip.AK

    Victoria to Alaska

    In areas without road access (which is pretty much the entire Alaska coast) I’m pretty sure they were self-supported, picked up supplies along the way, and camped wild (though I did see that they would stop in villages, canneries, or at lodges they passed). But that section from Icy Strait up...
  12. Philip.AK

    Victoria to Alaska

    It looks like Freya Hoffmeister left Victoria on March 27 and then left the south end of the Kenai Peninsula at East Chugach Island (where she would’ve otherwise turned north up Cook Inlet to go to Anchorage, probably about a five-day paddle away) on July 25 and turned south towards Kodiak...
  13. Philip.AK

    2022 Paddling Photo log

    Good question. It's very local-conditions specific. But in general: Hike: When there are headwinds greater than about 10 knots, or sloppy beam seas, or tail winds greater than about 15-20 knots when packrafting gets dicey Making an overland shortcut to avoid a long paddle around a headland...
  14. Philip.AK

    2022 Paddling Photo log

    A little on the water, a little off...
  15. Philip.AK

    Inside Passage Information

    I will let people with personal knowledge about Southeast Alaska weigh in on most of those details. But honestly, when I am paddling AK, I only use United States Geologic Survey (USGS) topographic maps (note that these are scanned raster maps of the original paper charts) for navigation on the...
  16. Philip.AK

    Update about the outage and options for the future.

    I donated yesterday and just received the 'thank you' email. Seems to be working, if a bit delayed.
  17. Philip.AK

    Update about the outage and options for the future.

    The latter. The tip is added on.
  18. Philip.AK

    Fog/no fog

    Paddling through fog can be an otherworldly experience. Sometimes it feels meditative, other times it can be pretty scary. Meditative in that your world is so shrunken and everything beyond 50 m from the boat has no horizon and no direction, and so you are totally focused on your immediate...
  19. Philip.AK

    Shi Shi Beach, Olympic coast, WA 28–29 Jan 2023

    The conditions you described in that trip report that you linked to are fairly extreme. But yes, pogies tend to trap moisture inside, and so it makes sense to periodically slip your hands out of them, push the pogies to the center of the paddle, and allow your hands to experience a less...
  20. Philip.AK

    Shi Shi Beach, Olympic coast, WA 28–29 Jan 2023

    Very nicely done. Excellent adventuring. Do you ever use pogies? They can make a HUGE difference in hand comfort in chilly conditions.
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