Oct 1988 Travel in the Kodiak Archipelago - Plans

The purpose of our expedition explained

The rest of that afternoon spent on arranging sleeping bags and discussing the planned work. We find that we are not the first crew to conduct the surveys here, explaining the lack of our transporting survey equipment this time around. It was stashed in the storage igloo awaiting our arrival. Harry has hired others crews previously. Quickly adding that he hopes we will be the last. He adds that he has a trusty crew this time, implying nefarious activities with the others.
When were they here? Sometime in July. Why did the hob service not tell us about this? This was the first time he hired out of Kodiak city.

What happened and why take all of these months to return to complete? The obvious question asked. Harry eventually responds, with fluttering eyes, weather mostly and some unforeseen circumstances. These previous expeditions cursed by misfortune. Some fatalities we would later find out. But at the time we took his word as a victim of circumstance and were satisfied with his responses.
The advantage here is that because of some plots already surveyed out so our work minimal, hence the two weeks contract. As well as plenty of supplies left scattered out at the site that we did not have to transport much on our hikes. Just essentials like food and our personal items mostly.
Waterfield and Associates, whose offices were located in Anchorage, would scour government agencies in search of purchased lots of lands and would the contact registrants of said properties to offer the survey services needed to finalize the purchase. They have done this all along the Kenai Peninsula and now expanded to the eastern coast of Kodiak Island. At a 50% upfront fee the remainder to be paid upon completion they would hire crews to conduct the work. Some competing survey companies would fold before completing their contracted job and Harry’s company would pick these up at an added fee as well and add the lots to our workload. The landowners having no choice because the final measurements were a prerequisite to finalize the land purchase were forced to agree. Business, apparently, was booming.  
In our two weeks there we were to re-measure the abandoned surveys and document them for final submission as well as full payment. Quite a workload now for the brief time allotted. Harry was certain we would complete.
We did not consider at that time how fortuitous it was that these five tracts of land were so close together in this vast reserve that we were able to survey them all without major relocation. Or the fact that Harry’s misfortunes with previous crews led to our hiring. We only considered that the two thousand would cover a lot in this expensive land. Being an island everything was imported and thus expensive. I was paying five dollars for a gallon of milk in 1988, a price unheard of then. So maybe the need blinded us of the obvious gaps in logic from Harry’s accounts.
It was a profitable job and we did not expect complications. We would return home in two weeks without a second thought.