Agripina Bay AKA Butt Cheek Beach

After camping near Becherof Lake the night before (read about it here), we had a leisurely morning packing up, and by midday, we were on our way toward Sand Point. Since this was our first time flying this coastline, we opted to stay low and take in the scenery. The Pacific coast of the Aleutians is rugged with steep cliffs, rocky beaches, and small islands dotting the landscape, and each new bay brings a beautiful new view.

We managed to take off early enough in the day from Becherof Lake that we weren’t in a rush to get to Sand Point. Woodsen and I never want to get so focused on reaching our destination that we don’t fully enjoy the journey, but with so many viable places to land and not enough time to explore them all, sometimes the hardest part is deciding where to stop.

As we approached Agripina Bay, the landscape unfolded. Mountains dropped into rocky cliffs, which abruptly turned into large sandy beaches with a river flowing through it. The low tide revealed a sandy isthmus that extended out where two curved beaches met and led to a rocky Island rising out of the water.

Taking in the landscape, this was clearly a place I wanted to experience from the ground. I asked Woodsen if we could land, so he turned towards the bay to look the beach over for landing.

My first goal once on the ground was to walk out to the rocky island before the tide came in and covered the isthmus connecting it to the beach. Eska, who had fallen asleep during our well-timed mid-day flight, slept as we headed towards the isthmus.

The waves lapped on both sides of the thin stretch of beach as we walked toward the rocky cliffs ahead.

As we neared the cliffs, we heard an eagle calling, which drew our attention to an eagle sitting on a nest on a nearby cliff, along with another eagle circling overhead. Feeling successful in making it across the isthmus to the other side, and not wanting to make the eagle angry, we headed back to the sandy beach to play and check on Eska, who was still sound asleep. One perk of airplane naps is that once on the ground, the headset helps keep the noise out and ensures a longer nap.

With spectacular weather, no bugs, and minimal wind, we busied ourselves dipping our toes in the ocean, searching for washed-up treasure, and playing in the sand. There were so many live sand dollars you could hardly take a step without spotting another dark disc. We also found a couple of starfish washed up on the beach.

Eska finally woke up from her nap, so we took advantage of the bluebird day for a family photo. Every year, I enjoy sending out a family Christmas card, and I’ve simplified the design by sticking to a black card and choosing photos with blue skies behind our smiling faces. Well, mostly smiling faces, it’s hard to catch everyone at a good moment when there’s six of us. We will see if this photo makes the cut for christmas card.

We spent a couple of hours exploring the beach before we decided it was time to load up and continue to Sand Point.

Woodsen tries to mark spots that we enjoyed and would want to return to in his GPS, and we’ve made a tradition of giving these waypoints personalized names based on our own experiences there. Before we landed, the girls noticed that two curved beaches that met in the middle at the Isthmus made the vague outline of a butt. You would think we’ve moved on from the poop, pee, butt phase of our lives, but alas, we haven’t. So it wasn’t too surprising that when asked what name we should pick for this beach, they quickly and confidently dubbed it “Butt Cheek Beach”.

I encouraged them to come up with some sort of name that Anne of Green Gables would be proud of. A dramatic name that praised the qualities of the beautiful spot instead of likening it to a fleshy body part, but they quickly vetoed my suggestion.

Fine, Butt Cheek Beach it is, shortened to BUTCHK for the GPS.

We took off from the soft, firm sand surrounding that right beautiful butt cheek, and headed down the coast.

Shortly after getting back in the air Woodsen showed me we were approaching the Aniakchak crater and asked if we should divert from the coast and head a bit more inland to fly over the crater. I gave a confident “yes” and we headed inland. A long time ago, our dear friend Amy had talked to us about a float trip she hoped to take that started at Surprise Lake inside the Aniakchak crater, then floated down the Aniakchak River to the ocean. Sadly, we lost Amy in a tragic skiing accident before she was able to take the trip, but hearing her describe the bright green lake in the crater had continued to capture my imagination.

After my conversations with Amy, I had imagined Surprise Lake as a tiny lake that filled up most of the caldera, and when she had mentioned being dropped off by plane by the lake, I had a hard time wrapping my head around a plane landing inside a crater. Now, with size in perspective, it all made sense. The crater was massive. Besides Surprise Lake, the other prominent feature in the crater was a massive lava cone I later learned was called Vent Mountain.

The kids were already getting a little squirmy and ready to be done for the day, so we decided not to land, but I put it on my list of places to return to on a future trip.

As we continued on our way, we passed Chignik, Chignik Lagoon, and the beautifully situated Perryville. Three small Alaskan communities with fewer than 100 year-round residents.

As we approached our destination for the day, we flew south over the water towards Popof Island and Sand Point. We landed and were soon greeted by our friends Kyle, Morgan, Bethany, and Maggie. Finding friends in the middle of the wilds of Alaska quickly pushes away any sense of being vulnerable and small, and replaces it with familiarity and warmth.

We piled in the truck and headed towards their house, excited to spend time with our friends and explore Popof Island together.