Visiting Adak Island

Alina & Jackson Morawski

Jan 10, 2024

Adak Island: Where the Winds Blow and the Friendships Grow

As part of our mission to explore as much of Alaska as possible in our first year, we kept an eye on locations that we could get to relatively easily. Adak doesn't sound like it should be "easy" to get to–sitting 1,200 miles southwest of Anchorage, further west than Hawaii– but thanks to some quirks of history and geography, Alaska Airlines flies a 737 to Adak twice a week. These flights rarely have more than a few dozen people on them, so you can count on having a whole row (or two) to yourself. The trick to making the journey cost-effective is to book with miles instead of dollars. At the time of writing this, a round trip flight would cost you $1138 or just 12.5K miles. If you bought those miles from Alaska Airlines at the going rate (currently 2.96 cents per mile), booking with miles would cost you only $370. When Jackson first discovered this, we thought it was a pricing error. He called me from work in January and we excitedly booked flights for July on the spot, worried that we'd miss out on a rare deal. We later discovered that this mileage pricing is standard and available year-round. There are only two flights a week, on Wednesday and Saturday. We initially planned to stay on Adak for a full week, but by the end of our trip we were happy we shortened our trip to five days.

The town and military bases are largely abandoned now. You can explore neighborhoods of abandoned homes, and a number of other buildings like a theater, and underground pool, and a hospital. Our group was not all that enticed by the creepy abandoned buildings and kept to the lush hills instead. One great reason to make a pit stop in town is to meet the locals that are willing to share some island knowledge. We met one local who whore several different hats: clerk at the town's sporadically-open grocery store, TSA agent for a few hours twice a week when the flights come in, and part-time librarian. They told us that although the last census said 80 people lived on Adak, really only 20-30 people live here year-round. We got to hear about their adventures, how they ended up on Adak, and some of the gossip you might expect from a town where everyone knows everyone and there's less than 30 people to know. There's something special about going somewhere very remote or very different and getting to know someone who lives there. You learn about the place in a deeper way than you could just by inhabiting it for a few days, then leaving. Not all locals were eager for conversation. Perhaps a windswept rock in the Bering Sea halfway between Tokyo and Seattle and inaccesible from either tends to attract people who prefer solitude. The island was home to the Unangax̂ (Aleut) people until the 1830s, when permanent villages on the island were abandoned. The population of the Island peaked at more than 6,000 inhabitants during the height of its cold-war era development as a naval air station and submarine surveillance center. When the military installations were decommissioned in the mid-1990s, the population dropped precipitously. In 2004, the Aleut Corporation, an Alaska Native Regional Corporation established under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, received nearly 50,000 acres of land on Adak, including many of the Island's buildings, as part of a land transfer agreement with the United States Government. The Aleut Corporation manages much of the land on Adak, and if you plan on doing any backcountry travel on Aleut Corporation land, you must obtain a land use permit. Don't worry, there will be some at the airport when the flight lands. If you look like a backpacker or hunter, they'll say hello out and help you get your permit.

We landed on July 22nd, 2023. The views at 30,000 feet were incredible. As we decended into the grey of Adak below the clouds, I wondered for a split second what I had gotten myself into. My optimism prevailed after seeing the lush green below the clouds. Stepping off the plane we were ready to get our hike started, but ended up waiting at least an hour for our bags. Don't expect the usual 20-minute Alaska Airlines baggage guarantee to carry any force here—remember, only 30 people live here, and apparently they don't all work at the airport. You can use your ample extra time to strike up a conversation with the other folks that just arrived. You'll most likely get a mix of people that once lived on Adak, hunters, biologists, and other wanderers.

I should also note that we very nearly landed without our backpacking stove. We had carefully done our research and planned to bring a specific type of stove that we could easily purchase fuel for on the island. Our Alaska Airlines approved stove. However, the Alaska staff working at the airport either don't always know or don't understand this policy. You're allowed to travel with a camp stove based on their policy, but you may not want to be too loud about it with the other staff at the airport. The TSA agents don't care and agree you are able to fly with stoves. I even chatted with an Alaska staff member on their chat platform trying to figure out how I'm supposed to bring a stove, and they told me their policy is that I can bring it, but they have no way to override any statement made by a local staff member. We begrudgingly complied with the baggage agent's direction and removed the stove from our checked bag... then we moved it to our carry-on and took it through TSA, where nobody batted an eye at it. Next time we won't be having unnecessary conversations with staff. You never know who you'll get on their bad day.

After getting our backpacks, we walked straight out the airport past the Adak Island sign, took a group selfie, and continued on foot towards the only gas station on the island. The station is self-serve with one pump. Jackson filled our fuel canister with gas for the stove we definitely did not bring. and we continued on toward Finger Bay. A couple miles in, three men in a rented pick up stopped to see if we needed a ride. Buka, a military pilot, the talkative one, another pilot, and their local guide. They had been on Adak for a few weeks waiting for a weather window to continue their journey flying to Japan. They have been on a mission to bring a plane from Japan to Texas and back that required maintenance. We tossed our bags into their pickup and all crammed into the cab for a lift toward Finger Bay. These men had deeply enjoyed their stay and were also dying to leave. There's only so much you can do stuck on Adak. We said goodbye and selfishly hoped we would run into them again at the one and only local bar in town when we're done backpacking, but hoped for their sake that they would get the weather window they've been waiting for. Moments like this always warm any city heart. The kindness of strangers in a far off land and their stories.

From left to right: 1. The Welcome to Adak sign just outside of the airport. 2. The only gas station in tow. 3. Jackson, Alina, Kate, Adam, photo taken by our new frined Buka.

A couple miles in, we noticed a group backpacking a few miles behind us. At the airport a woman did ask Adam if we were backpacking, seemingly very concerned that we may be going the same way. We kept our pace and were determined to stay out of their way. There's enough wilderness here for all of us. We contemplate which little knoll protects our tents from the wind marginally better, and made our dinners over jetboil stoves.

We woke up Sunday morning to the sound of a light rain. We had suspected and planned for rain, however now that we were about to pack up camp, I wondered how all of our gear would feel at our next campsite if it completely soaked through. A problem for future me. We set out for our hike out to Exploration Cove. The views were partially obscured by fog, and little by little the fog would roll away, revealing floating islands in the distance. The ground was coverd by lush, mushy, wet beautiful grass. Accented by an incredible variety of wildflowers. I started collecting a bouquet. One stem of every type of flower.

We were excited for a green backcountry, backpacking adventure and boy did we get that. We weren't 100% ready for how wet everything was going to be. I started keeping a mental note of the exact time each of our shoes finally soaked through on Sunday. Our group have full representation from trail running shoes to knee high rubber xtratuffs. We thought the xratuffs would be the only shoes that made it through the trip, but at 1:23 pm even those were no match for the Adak disguised bogs. The surface looked like a shallow creek, however as soon as we stepped onto it, we discovered the solid surface was a foot below, creek water flowing straight over the rim of the xtratuffs. We didn't put waders to the test out here, but I wondered how well they might have done. As we hiked, we all discussed how long we thought it took to get trench foot.

As we arrived in Exploration Cove, we had a difficult time finding any dry spot for camping, or even a wind-protected spot to eat some food. We plopped our sleeping pads down on the least wet spot we could find, took our shoes and socks off and tried to dry our feet in the humid air. Looking up, we noticed a few moving figures in the distance. Finally an animal! Caribou, visibly cautiously and jumpy, quickly ran over the ridge after noticing us. We were soaked and newly invested in finding higher, drier ground. We packed up and hiked up to Lake Bonnie Rose, barely making a peep about the elevation we had to regain. Anything was better than the bogs.

At Lake Bonnie Rose we were welcomed by sunshine and the infamous winds of Adak. Later in town we met a man building up the store front for the liquor store and mentioned that we had experienced the winds of Adak. He chuckled and said "oh you have not experienced the winds of Adak yet."