Public use cabins across the Kodiak archipelago are getting lots of use this summer, especially the one located at Pasagshak State Recreation site, near the end of the island’s road system. Now the nonprofit Friends of Kodiak State Parks is raising money to build a second cabin in the area later this year.
Brian Himelbloom is the chair of the group, which was created in the 1990s to support the island’s six state parks and recreation sites. He said during KMXT's Talk of the Rock program on July 2 that the bookings this summer have been almost nonstop at the roughly two-year-old Pasersaq or Pasagshak cabin. The public use cabin is located less than ten miles down the Pasagshak Road, north of the state rec site, and is ADA compliant.
“This year has been incredible. It’s very difficult to get a summer reservation and I believe, I’ve been informed, that the Pasagshak cabin is the number one cabin in the entire state [in terms of bookings]," Himelbloom said.
Alaska State Parks lists 29 public use cabins currently available across the state. Six of those are located on the Kodiak archipelago alone, which includes Afognak Island, Shuyak Island, Fort Abercrombie State Historic Park, Buskin River State Recreation site, Woody Island State Recreation site and the Pasagshak State Recreation site. But this does not include several more that are owned and operated by the federal government in the Kodiak National Wildlife Refuge, spread across 1.9 million acres.
Himelbloom said his group is holding a raffle for a free four-day stay at the Pasagshak cabin. The proceeds from this fundraiser will go towards adding a second cabin at the area’s most popular site, along with a banya or sauna at the Woody Island cabin.
“And so there is more state land available. They secured a site and started to break ground for that," Himelbloom explained. "And the funds that we raise from this raffle and other ways of raising money; we’re going to have that hopefully operational, maybe in the fall.”
It is unclear exactly when Alaska State Parks, in conjunction with Friends of Kodiak State Parks, will begin construction on the second cabin.
The nonprofit will hold its raffle ticket drawing on July 5 at 6 p.m. at Fort Abercrombie State Park. For more information about Friends of Kodiak State Parks and how to purchase tickets, email the group at friendsofkodiakstateparks@gmail.com.
