Kodiak’s Brown Bears with Stacey Simmons

Stacey Simmons from Koniag and the Kodiak Brown Bear Center joins Jennie to share about visiting the Kodiak Brown Bear Center to see stunning Brown Bears away from it all. She also shares her favorite things to do in Kodiak. 

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Transcript

 My guest today is Stacey Simmons. Stacey was born and raised on Kodiak Island in the very small rural village of Old Harbor. She grew up living a subsistence lifestyle with, both of her parents and her siblings who are all indigenous and from Kodiak Island as well. Later. Stacey lived in Sitka and then all over the world and traveled all over the place with her husband.

But after that, they settled back in Kodiak where they're raising their own children. Stacey works for Koniag, an Alaskan native regional corporation where she wears a few hats including managing the Kodiak Brown Bear Center and Lodge located on Karluk Lake, and that's what we're gonna be talking about today.

Outside of work, she loves being outdoors, fishing, hiking, hunting, camping, and jet skiing when the weather permits. Her work blends her passion for serving her people with her love of Kodiak's Natural Beauty and Wildlife. Stacey, thank you for being here. Thank you so much for having me today. I am, I am really excited about this conversation, so I know I gave a little bit away in the intro.

I usually ask my guests. How they got to Alaska. And we already know that you got to Alaska by being born there. So tell us a little more about your family, where you're from, um, a little bit of your path to becoming the person you are today. Yeah, I grew up in the village of Old Harbor, like you were talking about.

My dad was a commercial fisherman. He was also an Alutiiq artist. He did a lot of ivory carving and towards the end of his life he did some, um, wood carvings as well. Uh, my mother was, uh, a teacher in Wild Harbor and, she later became a bear guide over in Katmai where her and her current husband Chuck, owned a charter business and they did bear viewing over there.

So I grew up in Old Harbor. And we did a short stint in Anchorage when my mom went to college to become a teacher. And then we went right back down to our village, after that. I was in Old Harbor until I was a, until I moved my junior year. I went to Sitka and spent my last two years of high school in Mount Edgecomb, and I absolutely loved it there.

It was phenomenal. I love the teachers, I love the atmosphere. And, in that time I got to see a program called Up People. It's an international leadership organization that, promotes peace and understanding through, volunteer work and through an off-Broadway musical. So, I traveled for two years and up with people.

Right after high school I did a tour that was all over the US and then over in Alutiiqrope for six months touring. And then I caught onto all the technical aspects of it better. And so I ended up, being a lighting technician, intern, and then going down to Denver after my tour and doing an warehouse internship where IL learned to like rewire and solder all the lighting trusses back together.

And I just loved it. I actually learned, I, the way that they, took me under their wing was, the guy that was in charge of all the production aspects. I was up in the trusses tying a knot and he goes, ah, where did you learn to tie that knot? And I was like, oh, I learned on my dad's fishing boat.

And so he was like, come on, come down here and let me teach you how to do things. And so I just kind of fell into that techie realm. Yeah. And so when I was at coll, I started, I came back, I went to college at UAA for a semester. And then I got a call from this, Jeff Deese from Canada, and he goes, Hey, my, I, my lighting technician had to leave, because of family emergency.

Would you go on tour as a lighting technician? So I was 20 years old when I went back on the road, as a lighting technician. And that tour was a little bit different because it was all of over the US inner city, Mexico for about four months. And then I toured Japan for, or inner city Mexico for two months, and then Japan for four months.

Wow. Yeah, it was amazing. You know, up with people was, a learning opportunity that I, can't even, it's hard to express in words, but the people that you traveled with, it was about 150 people that you traveled with at a time. Ranging between ages of 18 and 27, and, you did volunteer work in every town you went to.

You stayed with host families, so you really learned about each culture and, and about each place. And the, it was an international tour group, so we represented between 20 and 23 different countries in the cast, so Oh, that's so cool. Able to, you know, have, friends all over the world that we're still connected to today, but, it really gave me a base of you know, humanity and, , getting along and understanding that cultural differences can be, you know, music is the common language of, of every, everywhere and Yeah.

It was just a beautiful program that I got to be a part of. And in that same, program is where I met my husband. He was the lead male vocalist and guitar player. Yes. We, ended up being friends for a year and then, he moved with me to Kodiak and, and then we, I told him, you know, I have always wanted to go back home.

After our tour in Japan, we, moved around for a bit. We decided to move back to Kodiak and yeah. And that's when we started our family here. And now I have been back since 2000 and, 2001, sorry. And, yeah, it's just I wanted to raise my family here. So my kids are 16, 17, so, they were able to live around our people and my culture.

They grew up at, cultural camps and programs, traditional dancing and of course living a subsistence lifestyle, which is super important to me. Yeah, that's wonderful. Thank you so much for, for sharing all that. So, so now here you are and, we are talking about the Kodiak Brown Bear Center. Yeah. And.

You know, as you know, Stacey, when I first met you and we started talking about doing this, I really want to help visitors find ways other than Katmai to visit Brown Bears. And Katmai is amazing, and we, we've talked about Katmai, I am sure we will again. Um, but today one of these places that many people have never heard of is the Kodiak Brand Bear Center.

So can you tell us a little bit, Stacey, first of all, where is Kodiak? Mm-hmm. And tell us a little bit about the Kodiak Brand Bear Center. Yeah. , So I have, like you were saying, I have a couple hats at Koniag. I, I manage shareholder benefits. That's, the job that I have. I first started at Koniag.

I've been with Koniag for 10 years. And in 2019 I took over the Kodiak Browner Center. It's a subsidiary company, um, of KO Coag. And so., Kodiak is located, , right below the Kenai Peninsula. So if you look right below Kenai, there's a huge island. I think it's the third largest island.

Yeah, it's a big island. Yeah, it's a huge island. Yes. Uh, we are, we are known for the Kodiak brown bears, which are the largest bear in the world. There's debate on that, but I think it has to deal with like the, how large the bear is. It becomes because of the fish. We have a lot of fish in our region, which makes them very large.

So Kodiak, uh, the Kodiak Brown Bear Center and Lodge, I would say and lodge, because sometimes when people hear our name, the Kodiak Brown Bear Center, they think it's a sanctuary and it's not. Yeah. Because it's a privately owned lodge, which Koniag owns on Koniag land. And the really cool part about this is that, you know, all the bear viewing that you do is on private land.

And so you won't see you only, I, we only cater up to eight guests at a time. Mm-hmm. And, uh, we are the only lodge located on Karluk Lake. Karluk Lake is located about 45 minutes on a float plane away from Kodiak. So when you get to Kodiak, if you come to the Brown Bear Center, you have to know that you're gonna be getting on a float plane and it's about 45 minutes away.

Yes. I say about, because you could have a tailwind, you might have to go over a different way to go around some, uh, clouds or some weather. But, generally that's, I mean, you have to get there that way. It is, uh, the river actually goes from the lake. So the river is about 22 miles long and it goes out to car, Karluk Lagoon and then the ocean.

But it's actually closer to the village of Larson Bay. Okay. So car, the only other people that I guess you would see on the lake would be potentially maybe hunters in the fall. They also all have to get permitted or, fly fishermen in the fall. They have to get permitted through Koniag. But, and then there's the wildlife refuge and they have buildings there where they do, bear studies and bear studies and fish studies.

So they're able to, you know, keep the pulse on, on, on, all the population and of, of bear and fish around there. And I'd say this, that location is very interesting, Karluk Lake because, the reason, well, it has the highest concentration of bears on Kodiak Island. That's why we're called the Brown Bear Center.

Yes. Because that's where all the, it's less, it's not center as in a building. It's like, I mean, it is a building, but it's like the center of brown bears. Yeah. It, it's, it's, the heart of where they're, they're at, right? Yes. And so I would say, , and most of, like I said, the land around that we're doing a bear viewing at is on COC land, so you won't see anybody else.

Yeah. It's very different from katmai where you could be sitting with 40 other people looking at the same set of bears. Yeah. And it's only my two guides and the ape guests. Yeah. And potentially, or, or waiting in line for quite a long time. Yeah. To go. Yeah. There's no lines. Yeah, no. Uh, there's a 32 foot, or the 30 foot catamaran that we take, people at, around the lake, at different bear viewing locations because the lodge is actually located on an island, on the lake.

So it's kind fun to say. Yeah. So, Stacey, I was just thinking while you were talking that we should probably orient our listeners a little bit here. 'cause they're probably like, yeah. Now wait a minute. We're on an island. On an island, on a lake in the ocean. Yeah, we're by cat mi, we've got brown bears.

Wait. Whoa. Okay. So if you're listening and you're like, ah, this is, this is causing my head to explode. You're not alone there. So we're talking about a lake mm-hmm. With an island that is also on an island in the North Pacific Ocean, south of the Kenai Peninsula. Correct. You've got it. And, and can you say a little more to you, Stacey, about like, I don't know if people are always aware because Kodiak is a place that you have to fly to you and so is Cat.

My. They're actually quite, this is actually quite close to Katmai National Park in Alaska terms. Yes. So can you talk a little bit, I, I know I'm kind of asking a few things here, like a little bit about brown bears as far as like, okay, they're on the ocean, they're on the coast, they're on a lake, they're these, can you say just a little more about what kinds of habitats and environments they like and maybe why Karluk Lake is such an amazing place to see them?

Yeah. So generally, um, brown bears, you know, they're coastal and so grizzlies you'll find inland. And so we have the Kodiak Brown bears, which is a separate subspecies of the brown bears. And, um, Kodiak has, you know, we have the Kodiak Brown bears, largest bears in the world. And it, and the reason they're so big is that they have such an abundant food supply.

Our fish, here in Kodiak, we have the, I believe, the second largest fishing fleet in the world. Yeah. Um, we also have a Coast Guard base here on Kodiak. But , I say that because that's always the, they say it's the largest Coast Guard base in the United States and because of all them. So there's a couple things that Kodiak's known for, I guess is what I'm trying to say.

Yeah. But as far as the Bears considered and, and Kodiak specifically is considered, people come here to see our bears. The funny thing is, Jennie, is they actually come to Kodiak to go to Katmai as well. Yes. They come and, and you can see both here. Yeah. That's the cool thing. If you come to Kodiak, you can go on a day, bear viewing trip to katmai, and then you come back or you can go to the Brown Bear Center and sp spend three days there and, and, and look at Kodiak Brown Bears in their environment without anybody around, basically in a very luxurious lodge where you get, you know.

Amazing meals from our chef Brian. Yeah. And then you could come back home and then jump on a plane and go over to Kam and katmai for the day in Bear View. Yeah. And they do have daily trips to katmai from Kodiak and there's multiple, flight companies that bring people over there. Yep. So the Kodiak brown bears are different from Katmai, brown bears mm-hmm.

Uh, grizzly and the, the inland grizzlies. I would say the big, and I've been over to capm 'cause my mom was bear viewing, she'd bear viewing tours. Yeah. I think hers were up to like nine or 10 people that she would have on their boat that would do, and so they did a lot of photography tours.

Yeah. So very much like they had a very nice boat. We have a very nice lodge. But I've also seen the flip side of it where we were bear viewing and there was, you know. 10 planes that came in. Yeah. And there was multiple groups of people looking at the same sets of bears. Yeah. And so that's, that's the big difference in Kodiak.

There's different locations where you can do bear viewing. Actually, in Kodiak, the, we are the only bear viewing lodge on the island. There are o other lodges, deep sea fishing lodges that have brown bear viewing Yes. That do a lot of great brown bear viewing. And, and I mean, there's some in Old Harbor, uh, Larson Bay has Larson Bay Lodge legends, lodges are all great lodges.

Sportsman's Lodge out of old Harbor's. Awesome. My godson's a charter boat captain on there. Go see ca Oh, fun. Um, but, but, um. The Kodiak Brown Bear Center and lodge it, it centralizes around bears, but we have a lot of other wildlife viewing as well. Yeah. Um, it's just a really unique 'cause it's native corporation owned on corporate issues and Yeah. The cool part about the lodge too, that not a lot of people understand is that if you come to the lodge, you, any revenue that we generate, uh, at the lodge goes to things like youth scholarships. Yeah. It goes to things like elder distributions. Yeah. Elder subsistence care packages. And the reason why I know that was because I run, you know, those programs are run under my department.

Yeah. I get to see on a daily basis though the impact that visitors have on our people in a positive, yeah. And I love that about the lodge. Also. It's a space for education. And the reason, um, when I took it over, um, in 2019, I was able to create an apprentice program. So we're able to train our shareholders and descendants to, to run our boats, to, as bear viewing guides.

We have a hospitality apprentice there that we just trained to do yoga, and she's gonna be teaching at our new, wellness center that, we'll, we're building this next year. So it, it's a training place where we're able to bring, our shareholders to learn different things. We also have a youth training program that we have.

We send in high school students preseason, and they do a lot of the,, the yard work, the prep work for the lodge. So I was able to create an apprentice program. We were also able to start utilizing the, well the, we partnered with the Alutiiq MusAlutiiqm. And Koniag sponsors archeological digs on LIC Lake during our bear viewing season.

Yeah. So our guests get to spend evenings with the archeologists talking about the things that they found that day, and they bring in artifacts so our guests are able to like look at them and touch them and have discussions with archeologists. And I believe that this is gonna be our fourth year that we've done archeological digs at Karluk Lake.

It's just really enhanced the experience because people come for the bears. I mean, the name said itself. They're like, oh, well we wanna see the bears. It's a luxury lodge. You know, they, they, but they come and they, they are surrounded by this beauty, you know, they're surrounded by history that they might not even know about until you know that they're there.

Yeah. And they have discussions with the, the staff and the archeologists and then, you know, that married with the abundance supply of bears all around you , and, the luxury accommodations that you're staying in. And of course the food, I mean, yeah, people I see sometimes people stay for the food.

And Chef Bryant is on point, so Yes, he's amazing. Yes, yes. So I have a deep love. And then another thing is, you know, we have a great relationship with our refuge, and so often we have bear archeologists come over and have discussions with our guests about them. Yeah. We have, you know, people doing studies to come and, you know, they're bear counting.

They're, they're doing studies on the fish, they're doing water sampling, and they're able to talk about like, why they do these studies and how important that is to, you know, the ecosystem there at the, at Karluk Lake. Yeah, absolutely. And we're gonna come back to that in a few minutes. This part about people and archeology, we'll come back to that in a few minutes.

That mirrors my experience to you, Stacey, is that often guests or visitors are. Thinking that they want to learn about wildlife, they do want to learn about, yeah. And see wildlife. But then along the way, when people get the opportunity to have these cool cultural experiences as well, it's like, yeah, oh, I didn't know that this was gonna be such a huge highlight of my trip, but it so often is.

So yeah, we're gonna come back to that one. Okay. But I guess kind of to pull that part together for folks listening, this is a place where when you go to a luxury lodge and have this incredible wildlife experience, it's directly benefiting alu people who are, have stewarded this land literally forever and, are still there now and are providing services for elders and youth.

And so that is just extremely cool. It is, it's fascinating. I mean, I. I know I'm just one story. Many, but like you think about the product of what people are supporting. Yeah. I was able to go to college, um, and, and with the support of our co education foundation. Yeah. Um, I have two other native corporations that are my village corporations, one are my dad's, and one which is Old Harbor and my mom says Afognak.

And both, all three were able to, um, basically supported my entire undergraduate and graduate program. Yeah. So cool. And so, and it was because of the revenue that's generated by our subsidiary companies, that's how we're able to get higher education scholarships. So. You know, it came for full circle where I was able to go to school and then I'm coming back and now, you know, but again, one story of many, there are so many of people that, are supported.

We have over 4,500 shareholders and 3,500 descendants that are all eligible for higher education, scholarship funding and coag. , It has a large influence because we created the ni uh, the nonprofit to hire the, you know, fund higher education. So that's just a portion. I mean, yeah. You know, we talked about subsistence programs.

Coag does a lot of advocacy to make sure that we maintain our subsistence rights. There is so much more to be able to support Koniag and the work that we do that are our, our guests that come in that, um, are a huge part of it. And, you know, I wish I could, I, you know, I could say that I could talk about it all day, right?

'cause that's my life. But yeah, it's so important to be able to, support these programs. And it, it really makes a difference in people's lives. And, and if I can get that across in some way, I, I wish I could explain it better, but it, it's, it's really important and they're doing great work by just visiting us.

Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing. Okay, so Stacey, before we take a break Yeah. Let's talk a little bit about some logistics around the Kodiak Brand Bear Center. Mm-hmm. So, we already talked about how first you have to get to Kodiak Island. Yeah. And you can do that on Alaska Airlines or the Alaska State Ferry if you're very patient.

So once you're in Kodiak and, and then you're gonna take a float plane out to Karluk Lake, is the, is all of that coordinated through you? So if someone books a stay at the Kodiak Bremer Center and Lodge, is the float plane part included in that, or do you have to make separate arrangements for that?

No, the float plane is included. Cool. It is a large part of that too because we logistically it's, it's very, fine tuned, I would say. Yes. I'm sure it is. So it's an all inclusive package. So each package includes the float plane trip over to the lodge and back. Yep. And includes all your accommodations.

It includes all of the food. So when you step off the plane, you really don't have to deal with anything. Um, my, my staff staff. Oh, it is amazing. So we have four cabins. Like I said, they're double occupancy. So you get over on the float plane, generally you, you show up at around noon, so you're gonna show up at around lunch.

That's usually, that's a switch out date. So you might say you might be waving goodbye to and watching all the hugs and the lifelong friendships that have just like bonded in three days. It's kind of crazy. That's so amazing. Yeah, my staff are amazing there. They've been with me for three years, almost all of them.

We've got a new, uh, lodge manager this year, but he's also indigenous from the island and he's a shareholder and I've known him for years. So I'm, I'm very confident he's gonna have an excellent time with our guest. But anyway, so you get there around noon, you have lunch, my staff, grab your luggage and bring it up to your cabin.

Each cabin, is named in tic one's Chama. One's Kuana. So, we, we incorporate the language into, into the lodge. , The first thing you do is go up to the gathering room and it's this beautiful space with a gourmet like our kitchen. And where we eat. And then this basically a living room.

And the whole front of the lodge is like windows that face car look like breathtaking views. Amazing. And so you get in there, you have your bear orientation, we hand you your hat because your bug neck goes over your hat and you don't want it to hit your face. Yes. It's so important. It's, and you eat and you get ready for the day.

So we orient you, we talk about being bear aware on the island. So the island's about a mile long. There's distance between where the bears are, but bears are often on the island. Yeah. So understanding that you could be walking back to your cabin and there could be a bear and how to, how to handle that.

Right? Yeah. So you get oriented. Yep. That's important. Yeah. And then you talk, and again, so just for folks listening, yeah. We are talking about the little island that the lodge is on. Camp Island. I should probably in the middle of the lake Camp Island. Yes. On Kodiak Island. Yeah, on Kowi Kodiak Island. So Kodiak Island.

Fly to Karluk Lake and your land gun Camp Island. Yes. And that's where the lodge is located? Yeah. And so, um, camp Island, it's like I said there, it's very small, it's mile long, and there's, uh, refuge cabins on the island with us. So there are people, sometimes there will be people on the island. So you get there, you get oriented, you know where your cabins are, you eat a delicious launch.

We do talk about the other things that we offer. We have kayaks. We actually purchase the crystal clear kayaks, the see-through kayaks that you can go. Nice. And taking those over one of our rivers is kind of an experience in Excel when there's thousands of reds under you. Yeah, I bett it. Is that, that's awesome.

Watching them by your feet. Right. We also have a sauna, which we, it's a bonia , a traditional steam bath of our people. Love it. And, it is one of the nicest bonia I've ever been in. It was put together or it was built by one of our shareholders as well. And, you can go steam in there. And this year I talked about we're building a wellness center.

One of the things about our guests is they're very health conscious, is if you can imagine, you know, they're, they wanna go see wildlife. They're health conscious. They wanna go running. I don't know how many of my clients, I told them they can't run on the island. No, that would not be a good idea in that, of a bear environment.

Yeah. So we created, we're creating a space for them to do more exercise. Okay. The rounds look like a golf course. It takes two days to mow the lawn, if that helps. And that's, that's a lot of work. Yeah, it is. But it's fun. Those riding lawnmowers are like the best they are. . So basically, we have lawn games.

We have hor horseshoes. We have cornhole. We, are trying to put together an archery thing this year. I requested that they create one of those, those , the hatchet throwing stations. We're working on it. That's what I want, those two things to be built preseason. But then we also have, like I said, the crystal clear kayaks.

We have, we have paddleboards , and then we have a bear P paw fire pit. It's beautiful. It's this enormous fire pit that looks like a bear paw that they, when we built that. And so there's all these things that you can do on the island, when you have time in between bear viewing. So usually, you have the afternoon to go bear viewing, jump on the road, jump on the boat, and there's usually like three different bear viewing, locations and then going for ride on along the lake that we go to.

Our closest one, our most familiar one, I would say is only five minutes away, so it's easiest to get to. It's the first place we go. It's also where we talk about like, it's where the mamas and the Cubs are the kind ofs, like a nursery. Oh. And that's all the mamas like, they kind of group together and they keep all the boars away and they, they make it a safe space.

So you could be walking along the trail and we have Geoblock trail on that, on that trail. Um. Anyway, you could be walking along the trail and see like three sets of mamas with cubs and they could almost be intermingling. Yeah. The cool part about like how comfortable they get with us and, and really just because they get to know our guides, they're, they know their voices.

They know, you know, our, we go in those locations every single time, right? So we're not deviating and going different places. The bears know where we're gonna be. One, we get to name them. They're super fun to name. And then, yeah, I mean, our, our first bear last year was we named George because he was so curious, right?

Aw. There was, Selma and Louise we're twins. There was a set of quads, and I can't remember their names, but, we get to name them, but we get to know the mannerisms of the bears, so the guides really get to know them. And in that space, on Thumb River, it's not a very long river, but it's so much, you know, there's a large concentration of moms with cubs , is there, is, and there's, you know, they're very close to you.

But also, they, they, the mamas do this weird thing where sometimes they'll drop the cops off to you and then they'll just go fishing. So these cubs could be sitting like 20 feet away from you munching on fists, just watching you, and the mom is just going up back and forth by you. Because, and that, the bear biologist was telling us about this behavior before, and I got to see it.

, I've seen it a lot, but it's just a cool space to be in where you're like babysitting cubs. You didn't sign up for it, but you're doing it. It's happening. Yeah. Yeah. You've been chosen. Yeah. So that's one location that we go. There's different, like I said, there's different places on the lake. It's a very large lake.

And it's absolutely beautiful. So, yeah, bear viewing is fantastic, but also there's foxes and there's deer everywhere. And the amount of birds that you see is crazy. Like I,, I floated the river once and I was. What struck me the first time was the amount of different types of birds that we see.

And I know birding has become a, a, you know, a larger tourism attraction. So yeah, we see Brown Bear Center, but there are so many other things around that that you're gonna be seeing Land daughters, um, eagles are everywhere. , I would say that it's just, your eyes are open, there's wildlife surrounding you and there's nothing else.

It's like you in the middle of nowhere. Yeah. And. And then you get back to your lodge and you still feel like, like you're in the middle of nowhere. But we have wifi. Yeah. So, um, right. Middle of nowhere with a very comfy bed. Yeah. And delicious food. Oh my gosh, chef. Brian's desserts are ridiculous. And that's why I don't go as often as I should because I am probably need to add weight to the, the old manifest on the plane.

Right. Because you have to get, the plane has to fly safely back. Oh yeah. Back up. Oh yeah. And they weigh you. You have to I know, have to prepare yourself for that. Yeah. Um, just, you have to get weighed because it's a safety precaution and I would make everybody jump on at the same time. That's so, pro tip, when you're getting weighed for the plane, have everybody else jump on with you.

Yeah. So it's a group project. Yeah. Yes, yes. That's, that's something we've talked about on the podcast a few times and is like what to expect with flight scene and Yes. Or any kind of small plane transportation and a weigh in is one of the things to expect. Oh, super fun. Yeah, super fun. Oh, fun. That's awesome.

Okay, so one other question just about the logistics. Mm-hmm. Stacey, so how are, are all of your packages like the same amount of time, or do people have options Yeah. For different amounts of time that they want be out there with you? Yes. So we have three different packages. We have a three nights, four day stay.

Okay. We have a four night, five day stay, and then we have a seven night, eight day stay. Got it. Cool. So I would say typically though, people generally come for the Fortnight package. Yeah, that makes sense. And that's, that's a really good amount of time. Yeah. To be able to be there. The seven night stays, I, I love it when people stay, because by the end of it, they are family.

Like, they're like, you know, and, and oftentimes those seven nighters, they will come back year after year. Yeah. They're just, you know, they become a fixture. I've named like a cabin after one. Aw, that's so fun. Yeah. No, it's, and they become family. So I would say, um, yeah, I, Fortnite I would recommend. And they're, like I said, they're all inclusive packages for those nights as well.

Yeah. And then one other logistical thing. So we're talking about a very small number of rooms there. Yes. You know, so how far ahead of time, and I assume a pretty short season. Yes. Just the summer. Yes. Yeah, so our, our our, um. Our season begins at, right af Well, July 10th is our first date. It's usually that second week in July.

Yep. And the reason then it ends at the end of September. Yeah. And I know that's a very short season. Yeah. But we try to, pretty much optimize the, it's the best times to view the bears. Yes. That makes sense. Now if somebody came, people don't know this, but like October bear viewing is probably the best bear viewing ever.

Yeah. I love it. That change of season is gorgeous. The bears are just fat and happy and rolly ply. Yeah. Yeah. They just sit and watch you. And then another reason why I love the fall so much is there's fly fishing and I love Yeah. Head fishing on the Karluk. So fishing is amazing. Yeah. I would say my, the best time I would love, you know, if somebody came and said, Hey, we can only come in October.

I can extend seasons and Gotcha. You know, bring Yep. Yep. So we have the ability to extend the season, into October. We just generally find that people book to the end of September. Yeah. And, but we've had like, you know, different production companies come through in October where, where there's like heavy bear viewing.

And I remember fly fishing, it was the first week in October, we saw 80 bears in one day. That's. Bananas. It was phenomenal. That's awesome. And it was gorgeous that day. And you know, we took the boat around, so we were going all around the lake, and we did the count that day and it was 80 bears.

That's amazing. Wow. Okay, so we've got four double occupancy cabins. Yes. Each cabin, four cabin, basically 10 weeks. Yes. Cabin. So where I was going with that is how far ahead mm-hmm. Do people need to book? So if I'm like, oh, I gotta do this, do I need to plan? Three months ahead. Three years ahead. Mm-hmm.

Where, when do you recommend people, get booked? Well, you know, if people are interested in, now we do have openings this, this season, towards the latter half. We have a lot of different, like in September, we do have some, openings. I would say just call us. Okay. You know, we're always, we would tell you what dates are available.

You know, we don't always have, if there's an opening, we'd be like, okay, well this is full, but what about this? So we, we definitely work with people. Yeah. Logistically though, being, I would say three months is a good timeframe. Okay. But we do have, sometimes, sometimes people you know are, I've had it where.

People will call the week ahead and we just happen to have an opening. I'm like, let's do this. Right? Yeah. So we often, so I would say just give us a call. Okay. But if you're planning ahead, plan planned a year in advance because we love, helping people. You know, oftentimes people will call us and be like, I've always went to Kodiak.

Come to Kodiak and see the Bears. And I'm like, well, have you gone deep sea fishing? Can I, can I talk to you about, you know, surfers Beach, where people go surfing here in Kodiak? I mean the World War ii, um, bunkers that you can go see when you're walking through a park here in Kodiak. There's a lot of cool stuff in Kodiak to come see.

So yeah, I would say come spend a little time in Kodiak. Yeah, come out to the Brown Bear Center, enjoy your stay. But on either end, you know, spend some time in Kodiak and, you know, plan a year in advance if you want. But give us a call. We could probably fit you in somewhere. Cool. That's great to know.

I'm just gonna say again, since I don't work there, I'll just observe that if you want to stay at the, at Brooks camp, you have to plan, you have to win a lottery two years ahead of time. Yeah. For the lodge. Not for camping, but any who? I'll just throw that in there. Thank you for that. Prerogative to add in a little comment here and there.

Yeah. There's no lotto system. It is first come, first serve, but we do have availability. The cabins are really cool though. I'll just say something about them too. They, they have a queen and a twin bed in 'em, so you can, bring a friend if it's not your spouse or your significant other. Yeah. And then they each have their own bathroom, shower, you know, anything you'd find in a hotel.

They're like, you know, luxury shampoos and conditioners. We have a tv . And desk area. I mean, but the view is kind of ridiculous of just going out on your own patio and sitting there and sipping your coffee in the morning. Yeah. It's about, 30 feet away from our sauna. So you can just grab your robe from in your, closet.

Go over to the sauna. Sauna, and then go jump in the, lake. Yes. And then back in the sauna, which happens all the time. And then just throw your robe on and go right back into your room. Love it. We have everything covered. We also, have we rain gear? We have rain boots, so you don't have to Oh, that's great.

Yeah. We have a small, swag room where you could purchase hoodies or t-shirts if you needed. And then we have, we have all the other amenities that we have at the lodge to try to make your, your trip as enjoyable as possible. But I'll be honest, like. What usually happens and what I, I tend, the, the people love gathering.

They love visiting. They love the ambiance of it all. So they'll do things together as a group. Um, we do have, we built a trail around the island, so sometimes they'll be like, I'm like, you guys wanna go for a walk after lunch before we have our next bear viewing tour. And we'll walk the entire island, which is about a mile.

You can see bears there. You can also see how big the island is. And the wildlife refuge, we could walk right by there and if we, they're there, we'll stop in and say hello to them and ask them what they're working on. So we try to like, the cool thing about having such a small group is that you can do what you guys wanted to.

There's no regimen. Yeah. Like we have a plan. Right. But see the plan, like. We wanna go back over to a location where we just saw this cute bear and we wanna, you know, we wanna go back to the same place. We have the ability. And, it just, it gives us more opportunity to just be flexible with what our guests want.

Love it. Okay. We're gonna take a short break and when we come back, we're gonna talk more with Stacey about some other things beyond just the bears.



 📍 .

Hey everyone. Jennie here. I hope you're enjoying the episode so far. Just wanted to remind you that you can save 10% in my online shop with the Code podcast because you're one of my podcast listeners and you can pick up my done for You itineraries,  my on demand workshops, and also. My travel planners, so feel free to head on over there.

It's shop ordinary adventures.com. The link is also in the show notes. Alright, back to the show. I. 



We are back with Stacey Simmons from the Kodiak Brown Bear Center, and we have been talking about the center, the lodge, all of these amazing things about this place. So we're going to transition a little bit because, we started getting into this a few minutes ago.

But one of the things that is amazing about any visit to Alaska is the cultural experiences that you can have there, and also the history and archeology that's in Alaska. So if you listen to our other episode two years ago about Kodiak with my friend Molly, who also grew up there like you did Stacey, not in the same area, but, she's an archeologist and so is my husband, and that's how Molly and I know each other is because she went to school.

Twice with Jay, both undergrad and grad school. Yeah. So I love talking with people about, you know, getting be the wildlife and scenery is incredible, but like the people are just as amazing. So, Stacey, I know you talked a little bit about the archeology work mm-hmm. That happens at Karluk Lake already, but can you share a little bit more about, what's been discovered there and why it's important?

Yeah. So, , one of the things, well, first of all, I love Molly. She's so smart. So she's so fun. I know. And she's amazing. She's sweet and funny and smart. She's just, and we're so lucky to have her at the Alutiiq MusAlutiiqm. We really are. Yeah. Yeah. Such a dedicated person. So, so thankful. When I talk about how great the archeologists are at the Alutiiq Tech MusAlutiiqm, I am not fluffing it up.

They are phenomenal humans. And we learned so much. And the really interesting thing about the Karluk, Karluk Lake and the archeology, um, program that we started is that it was the, like the first excavation in that area. So up that far inland, I would say. Right. So they had never done an archeological dig on Karluk Lake, which is super important because with all those early and late run salmons, that's why we have that abundance supply of salmons and that's why we have Yep.

All the bears there. Well, what comes with salmon for our p our people is yeah, that's where we, we got a large portion of our resources in that region. Right? Yeah. So, and pro tip, even though I am not an archeologist, you do learn some things being married to an archeologist, and one of them is that in a river with salmon, there's a pretty good chance that people are gonna have been there also forever.

Not forever, but as long as a long time. A very long time. So, yeah. So that right there, one of the cool things on the Karluk River, when you fly over it and then also you could walk on them, you could see it from, but when you talk about where the fish are, there is actually thousand year old fish traps in the river.

And the way you can recognize them, they're huge vs. So you're flying over and there are big vs in the river along Karlukck and there are a thousand year old fish traps. And so our, the archeologists said that they either are POed them at the pinnacle where they con, you know, where they funneled into or they used, they be basically scooped them up.

I've been on the river when it was kind of low, it was kind of a, a drought year or when the river gets low. When we hadn't had rain. So much rain, which is, doesn't happen often. Not often. Yeah. But I've walked upon those, fish weirs, fish traps, the big vs. The rocks. And those rocks are enormous. The amount of energy it took to grab those rocks and put those in a different location and extend them almost the entire length of the river.

Talk about ingenuity, right? You've, they had to have been very calculated of where they were having them. So you can see those fish weirs, they're a thousand year old fish traps. Um. So when we brought the archeologist in, that's one of the first things I learned about was the fish traps. And they were, we were flying over and they were talking.

I remember the first year that we did the archeological dig, I went down there and I, I was visiting with Molly and, they had found, and it was the first dig that they had on the, Karluk Lake like I was talking about. So we were able to learn about this abundant resource that our people had, what our people were doing there, whether they were, you know, left and came back.

I'll No problem. So, anyway, we, I went there and they had, activated this location, this house, this Barbra Wick, I believe it's called. And they ended up, , finding this guy mass produced, tools. And then he must have had a smoke stand in business because there was a big pile of fishbone underneath.

But, and I think the second year they found a small, um, a small ivory hook. And that was really cool because when the archeologist talked about what they did with that tiny little hook was, it was probably much like fly fishing where it would float along the top and then the fish would come grab it. So learning about what our people were doing a thousand years, a 4,000 years ago, that's amazing.

And how they were living was pretty cool. I think they actually, and they did, they, they wrote a children's book about that little hook that they found through the Alutiiq MusAlutiiqm. So if you ever read of it, it is the book at the musAlutiiqm. It is. And it's online. Okay, cool. So you can order it online. Okay. And it's all about the, that, I think it was the second year that they did it and they found that hook.

It was really cool discovery. Recently they, found a location or they. I think it was last year that they did, there was a, the home had fallen in on itself and it must have been like, like after like a fire or something. But the way that it fallen, it had impacted and kept a piece of woven grass basket fully intact, which is not something you would normally find because it would've deteriorated and fallen apart because of, but because it was impacted so heavily, it kept it.

Now it's important to understand this. You say, oh, well it's a basket, right? No, we don't know what it was like to we weave baskets a thousand years ago. What were those baskets? How did they weave? Like what was their way that they, found that was the best way to keep food together? Water. So understanding how and why our people did what they did a thousand years ago is super, it's important to understand and learn, to understand how they thrived and, how they live down there.

So. We're finding out all of these really interesting things about our people in that region , and, you know, go into the Alutiiq MusAlutiiqm. There's, a lot of videos that they've created about Karluk Lake and the archeological digs, and they'd find, oil lamps that you'd find normally, they'd find, cutting.

Recently, it's kind of crazy, a invasive species crew through the wildlife refuge went onto Camp Island. 'cause they go there and were, they're, they found a 4,000 year old Arrowhead. That's wild. 4,000 year olds. It was 10 feet away from the kitchen. And it just, it's just there. Just chilling.

It's just sitting there. It actually probably got heaved up from the freezing and thawing it. Like pushed it up. Yeah. But it was just sitting there on the lawn. They picked it up. I actually have it. In my office and, I've talked to Molly about it. We are actually gonna get it. We're getting it mounted and put into the lodge, but Oh, cool.

And it's a perfectly preserved, Arrowhead amazing. And the cool thing about it is it was probably, it was so big, it's not, it wasn't used for anything other than probably bears or self-defense. , Can you think about what our people were doing at that time? , And learning so much about it.

It's just fascinating. This year's dig though. Normally we would have a dig closer to the Karluk River, which is about 20 minutes away on the boat, away from the lodge. Mm-hmm. This year's dig is going to almost be directly across from the lodge over in the Oh wow. Cool. Like a little bit on the left, I would say about a hundred yards away on the left hand side.

Nice. So it's this, this little point. We've al always wanted to know about what, what happened across the lodge, from the lodge. 'cause you can see where the old sites were. There's certainly vegetation that grow in different archeological sites. Yes. And so you can be going around the lake and, you know, our, our guides will point out, well that was a village site.

There would've been like 20 houses right there. Yeah. And there's that village. There would've been, 50 houses on this side and 20 hou, there's, there's certain locations where they would be at centralizing where fish were taken. That's so cool. Yeah, it's really fascinating.

I wish. It is absolutely fascinating. Love it. Okay, so Stacey, as we move kind of towards wrapping up today mm-hmm. Going back, backing out from Karluk out to Kodiak Island overall. Mm-hmm. You talked about some of the other cool things that people can do on Kodiak, like Surfers Beach and, and things like that.

If you had to pick like, just a couple of things that you were like, if you come to Kodiak Island, you have to have this experience other, obviously other than the Brown Bear Center. Yeah. So beyond that, what are, just maybe things in town or other parts of the island that you think people should make sure to see or experience?

Yeah, I would say. Rent a car or a truck, something that you can go off road. Yep. Drive out to Sag Shack. There's surfer speeches on that, on that side, but there's also a, there's also, um. Fossil beach where you can see fossils on the side of the rock face. It's just super cool and it's beautiful. So just the drive out there is phenomenal, right?

Yeah. So you take a right to go passag check. You could take a left and go to Chik, right? There's this tea that you go Yeah. Um, and Chik, , there's actually a shareholder who is creating a spa out in Chik. What?. Brenda friend, she owns Friend Construction. It's a women owned construction business and I love strong women.

She's an amazing person. She's building a spa out there, so definitely stop in the spa. There's different cabins you can rent. They're looking at , they're looking at, building out the winery again out there. So that's exciting stuff. Wow, that's cool. Cool stuff, right? You can drive to different places.

Anton Larson Bay's got beautiful spaces. A woman's bay is, you often find bears and Women's Bay, which is. About 15 minutes outside of Kodiak. And then you could go to White Sand Beach and you can go on a hike determination point, which takes is about an hour. There's such phenomenal hiking here in Kodiak.

Yeah. We have a hiking challenge through our Discover Kodiak, which is our visitor center. And it is of seven summits that you hike and then you could take pictures on at the tops. So the trails, the Kodiak Island Trail Network has done a phenomenal job of creating trail spaces that are both accessible to people that, you know, youth, even younger kids, but also for the hiker extraordinaire who wants to go for, you know, a day or two.

So there's different abilities to go hiking. So definitely check out the hiking here in Kodiak. Yep. Go out, drive out the road. There's also really cool stuff to, you know, if you can go on a kayaking tour, check those things out. Yep. There. Has Harbor Tours. And Harbor Tours are, tours are really fun.

And you could go whale watching Harbor, sea Lion, otters, puffins, they're all out there. Yeah. So check out the harbor tours, go fishing, you know. Yeah. If you're go fishing and take home your box of fish, right? Yes. And then we also have, we have the Cery here. We have a, a brewery here. One of my friends, Melissa Burns, she owns Nunc, which is, she's from Old Harbor and she's a shareholder of Koniag and she owns a restaurant right downtown in Kodiak.

It's called Nunc and Her Food's amazing. There is the, Kodiak History MusAlutiiqm, but there's also so go to the Alutiiq MusAlutiiqm, you know, if you're gonna into purchasing, authentic gifts. The Alutiiq MusAlutiiqm has authentic gifts by sukuk BAK artists locally and even sukuk bak artists that don't live in Kodiak, but it supports, all of of those, traditional artists.

Yep. And then we have the, the, one of the big cool things too is we have the, um, Russian Orthodox Church here in downtown Kodiak, where people come from all over the world to do pilgrimage, in August. Yeah. And then it has a reliquary of a saint in there, which was a huge, he was a Saint Herman of Cody of Alaska and mm-hmm.

I grew up thinking he was alive because we talked about him in church so much. Yeah. Funny story and I'll, I'll, this is the last story I'll tell them. Funny story. When I was a kid, I, I was in Old Harbor and there was a priest there that, was teaching at a church camp. And I would go to the church camp every day.

And I remember looking down, from my house, 'cause I, our house was kind of a Bonna hill and I watched the, this priest, this elderly man, and he has his cassocks, you know, the long black robes that the orthodox priests were. And he was sitting on the back of a three wheeler and his cassocks were blowing in the, in, in the wind.

And it was dirt flying up. And I was like, mom And I must've been like seven, six. Yeah. And look at the Saint Mom. Look at the saint. And she looked out and his name was Father Innocent. He was not a saint, he was a father. And he was an actual living person. A living person that looked just like Saint Herman.

And so I thought that's who he was. So anyway, my mom always tells the story and I remember her going to church that night and telling father about it, and father goes, oh, sweetheart, not yet. Oh. He was a lovely, that's adorable. Was that adorable? That is hilarious. Yeah. I love it. He was a lovely man. But the Orthodox Church here, they actually have a, a new Father Edison, who's a really good friend of mine.

Oh, that's awesome. He runs the church here and he's, he's an amazing person, but coming to experience everything in Kodiak is awesome. And, you know, downtown Kodiak is all within, you know, you walking. Yeah. So you can go to the refuge, you could go to the Lu MusAlutiiqm, the history musAlutiiqm, the church, all within, walking downtown.

Yeah. So it's, it's really easy to get to, and, you know, just, you know, get on Discover Kodiak's website and check out what's to offer. Call 'em up and ask them, you know, who's, who's running a charter that day. Yeah. Jump on a charter. Check it out. There's a, any history buffs if they wanna walk through the bunkers at Fort Abercrombie for mm-hmm.

World War II bunkers, it's mm-hmm. Kind of fascinating. Mm-hmm. And you're on a cliff side and you're in a. Cement bunker on the side of a cliff watching the ocean. You can, it's just beautiful. And there's just, you know, the co the great thing about Kodiak is our people here. Yeah. Just they're kind, they, they're helpful.

They wanna make you feel welcome. Yeah. And they're always, something to do. It does rain here. We are a temperate rainforest, so bring your rain gear, like at least a rain jacket if you're gonna spend any time in Kodiak. But don't let that stop you. 'cause yeah, Kodiak's a cool place.

And you could just, you know, you could just find a lot of unique things all over. Yeah. You know, it's funny that you said that, Stacey, because people, I feel like the number one thing people ask me when they like book planning sessions with me or they email me or their guests on my tour, wherever it is in Alaska, people are very, very worried about the weather.

Yeah. And I always just tell them like, first of all, the weather is different in different parts of Alaska we're talking about like, if you think the weather in Florida will be similar to the weather in Arizona, like, you know, those are like the kind of distances we're talking about. But also even in one place, it changes all the time and whatever.

So I'm like, yeah, it'll probably rain. Just like, don't worry about it. Like you know it, maybe it won't, but like you can't let that. You can't let the weather matter for your trip. I wanna stop you. That's not, Alaska's not the right place for you. If you can't just be like, I'm gonna be ready for anything.

Yeah. Be ready for adventure. 'Cause you can find it no matter where, you know, in Kodiak you can find it no matter what the weather is. Yeah. What time of year it is. But you know the reason why it rains, it's, you know, it's a temperate rainforest, but that's what makes us. That's what makes it so beautiful. Yeah, it is. Yep. Beautifully gr It's just stunning. Green mountains with ocean. Yeah. And we have an abundant food supply because of the rain. Yeah. And our bears are here and they're so big because we're, they have this food supply. So Yeah. I mean, it's a full circle and Yeah.

But again, like I have people come on the rainiest of days and I've had groups come where, you know, I had the state chamber board come here one time and it was just rained on 'em, but they had the best time. Yeah. And they're like, I am coming back. Yeah. This was fun. I wanna see more. So, I think that's what you'd leave Kodiak thinking is that you, you've spent and, you know, spent time here Yeah.

Wanna come back because it's, there's so much more to explore. Yeah, absolutely. And I haven't even talked, I hate to say this, I haven't even talked very much about the villages. I know there are six outlining villages in Kodiak. There are so much cool things about each one of 'em. Um, you know, I'm, I'm. And I get to travel to, to all, all of them because of my job.

But if you can get a chance to go out to OC or to visit an old cannery that shut down or , go to Larson Bay and check out the old, you know, this village sites, there is so many cool things. So yeah, get on, discover Kodiak, do a little research, find your perfect, trip, and then book it and then love it.

You know, go out to the villages if you can, if you, you know, come to see us at the center, but there's also so much to do and have fun in Kodiak and you'll wanna come back. I love that. You know what? That is the perfect. To our conversation, even though I never want it to end. But that is a great note to end on.

Stacey, thank you so much for coming and sharing all these wonderful things about the Kodiak Brown Bear Center, about the Alutiiq people, about  📍 Kodiak, all of it. Thank you so much. Uh, well, Kuana, Chinook, that means thank you very much.   Thank you for listening to this episode of Alaska Uncovered. If you've enjoyed this episode, please leave us a rating or a review that really helps us out. Thanks for listening and see you next week.