Atka Island

 Tuesday August 25

Atka, Andreanof Islands

Today we stopped at two bays on the north side of Atka. Atka is the largest island in the Andreanof chain, about midway along the Aleutian archipelago. The island is about 50 miles long and ranges from 2 to 20 miles across. 

Our first stop was Bechevin Bay. This is one of nine locations included in the World War II Valor in the Pacific monument. It is the location of the (successful) emergency landing of a B24 Liberator weather reconnaissance plane in 1943. We hiked through really beautiful bogs to the plane remains. The sea was calm, the sun came out, the landscape was beautiful, and we got to watch an Arctic Fox on the beach. A great morning. 

In the afternoon we moored in Wall Bay. Some of our colleagues kayaked in the bay while we went on another marsh grass hike, admiring caribou as we went. The caribou were introduced from Siberia in the nineteenth century, but still play an important role in the food supply for the 100 people who live in the town of Atka on the far eastern end of the island. A few of us walked further along the bluffs and were rewarded with several kinds of ducks and songbirds. It is also important to say that the landscape today, grassy treeless slopes with volcanic highlands behind, were really beautiful and a great contrast from the windswept black sands of yesterday. 

Pictured: Arctic Fox, Caribou, B24 Liberator, landscapes, Lapland Longspur in breeding colors with his dinner