Moose Scat Scoot

Greetings!  This has been an interesting week.  Admittedly I've been pretty down for most of it.  Homesickness set in and a longing for being around familiar people was hard to shake.  I've also spent most of the week working by myself around the property.  I've either been in our second lodge or off property renting out bikes.  It gave me a lot of time to read though I managed to get through Pride and Prejudice in about 4 days.  I highly recommend reading it if you haven't yet it's a great book.  I couldn't tell you why it hooked me like it did but after the first 3 chapters I didn't want to put it down!

My schedule also changed this week so I'm working 7 days straight before my 2 days off which means that all of my friends are out backpacking right now while I'm at work, that was a bummer but I've made other plans.  Myself and 3 others are going to head to Seward tomorrow.  Seward is south of Anchorage right on the water.  We're going to camp on the water's edge and do some kayaking!  Two of our co-workers just got back and said it was great, they got to see a lot of marine life so I'm looking forward to that.  We'll be back Thursday afternoon before our afternoon shifts.

Yesterday I ran the 5K in the Moose Scat Scoot, it's a race put on by our activities coordinators.  There was a 1.5 mile fun/run/walk, a 5K and a half marathon.  I am working towards the half in August and after seeing the course feel confident that in another month and a half I can run it.  I'd like to finish right around 2 hours.  I finished yesterday's race in my fastest 5k time ever, 30 mins flat.  It helps that the course was mostly downhill too :-). I have some pictures from last monday when Steph, Alex and I went out to Eielson that I will post tonight.  Keep leaving comments I love getting to read them! Take care

Mental Vacation

Last week I had 3 days and wanted to go backpacking inside the park but I wasn't able to get a trip coordinated so I relaxed for the first 2 days, got some laundry done, put my feet up and cleaned up my room.   On the third full day off I was itching to get out of the canyon and opted to hop on one of the VTS (visitor transportation shuttles) inside the park.  Denali National Park is unique in that it only has 1 road running through it and that road can only be traveled by permitted vehicles.  Public cars can drive the first 15 miles of road which are the only paved miles on the 100 mile long road.  After the first 15 miles which ends at Savage River the road is hard packed dirt.  There are large green school bus like shuttles that take you to different points inside the park.  I opted to jump on the Eielson Visitor's Center Shuttle.  This is a small visitor's center 66 miles into the park that just opened about a week ago. It takes 4 hours to get out to the visitor's center and another 4 to return.  

This was my first time going deeper into the park and I was really excited to see more of the park. The VTS system is really a well run system and the bus drivers are very knowledgeable about the park.  They aren't certified guides but still have a lot of great information and stories to share with their riders.  On our way out we ran into a moose snacking at a pond just off the road.  All buses stop for wildlife and will remain stopped for upwards of 15 minutes so everyone can take pictures.  The fun part is that the driver watches the road while we all look out the windows for animals.  It's the rider's job to find the animals and when you do so you're supposed to yell, "STOP!" They are not joking either when they tell you to yell loudly, as soon as you hear one person say it the whole bus joins in with a loud, "STOP!!!" All told I saw 6 grizzly bears, 2 moose, 3 caribou, a bunch of snowshoe hares and lots of birds.

When we got out to Eielson the weather was pretty cold and drizzly so I opted not to spend a few hours hiking around because I wasn't properly dressed for the cold.  Instead I used the 45 minutes to walk around the nearby trails and photograph flowers and mountains.  

After getting back on the bus it dawned me just what I was doing this summer. I've spent the last year in constant transition, graduating from college, moving away from friends, getting my first real job, losing an important relationship and trying to find my way in the world. I came to Alaska for a change of scenery, to do something that was all about me and what I wanted. When I left to fly to Anchorage what I was really doing hit for a moment but it wasn't until I was on that shuttle in the park that the reality set it.  I've really come to Alaska, the distance, and the remoteness of where I am finally set in.  The people I work with everyday who come and stay at the hotel are retirees, this is there chance to see Alaska before they can no longer travel.  Here I am at 25, I packed a couple suitcases, bought a plane ticket and ended up in Denali for 4 months.  I sat on the bus thinking of how unique this experience really is.  My life has never really felt extraordinary to me in anyway, in fact I've spent too much time wishing I had experiences that others have had. I never studied abroad, I haven't dated a lot I haven't traveled to far out places, other than this!  Maybe it's being 25, maybe it's what I've gone through this last year, or maybe it's Alaska but sitting on that bus, for the first time I thought, "Lydia, you have an extraordinary life!"

I can feel a difference in my mental attitude and outlook up here.  I don't know exactly what's brought it about, again it could be Alaska, being 25 but I'm inclined to think that more than anything else it's the fact that in the last 2 months I have faced my biggest fears and survived. I lost something that I would sacrificed everything for and thought it was gone forever. I lost myself in the fight to save something I believed I couldn't live without.  There is a bittersweet peace in letting go and surviving.  I felt a sense of calm and relief but also deep sadness.  Striking out on my own into the last frontier was never high on my list of things to do. I wanted to visit Alaska, with my friends, or my partner but never by myself.  Now I see in many ways I had to.  I needed a chance to be the girl I never wanted to have to be and yet still come out the girl I always wanted to be.  I see her now too, she's hard to suppress and everyday I learn more and like her more. 

New Photos

Hey everyone!

So I've finally gotten around to posting a bunch of photos. They cover my visit to the Denali National Park Dog Kennel, my ATV trip, hike out to Savage River and my shuttle ride to the Eielson Visitor's center.  I'll post more tomorrow when I get done with work about what's been going on but check out the photos and enjoy!

Lydia's Flickr Page

15 Minutes

Ok this will be my first and hopefully only post in which I vent about something.  For anyone who's seen the news over the last week and heard about the lost hikers in Denali National Park let me get something off my chest.  These two girls were found alive and well and 15 miles outside of the search area for one reason, they never stopped moving!  Rule number 1 in Backpacking, if you get lost, turned around, injured etc you STOP you make  camp, ration out your food and wait for help to arrive.  These girls decided to add a side trip to their overnight backpacking which is what got them in trouble.  There is a bus north of the park in which Chris McCandless (Into the Wild) lived.  It's a big topic around here and getting out to it is on everyone's To Do list.  However there is no map which tells you exactly where it is.  These girls decided to start from at least 50 miles away and hope to find it.  I'm sorry but up here the wilderness is not forgiving and you'd better have a damn good idea of where you're going before you go.  

They were supposed to be at work on Friday and instead blew off work to find the bus and got themselves lost.  They walked until they got into cell service and called to announce they were lost.  This was 4 days after they were supposed to be back and 3 days after a massive search had been organized.  They said in their tv interview that they didn't know people were out looking for them.  Believe me everyone here was so thankful that they were found alive and well but that same night theses two girls were out at the local bar sharing their tales.  I'm sorry but you're parents were flown up here in hopes that they wouldn't have to identify your bodies and now you're going to out to the bar to drink big blue margaritas and share your story of stupidity?

On the way out of the bar one of the rescuers told me that the Today Show was coming up here to interview the two girls.  That for me is that dumbest thing I've ever heard.  Why why are we rewarding people's stupid with 15 minutes of fame?  The guy that went out hiking in Utah, fell and got his arm stuck in between a rock and had to cut it off, he got a book deal and worked the tv circuit for breaking every outdoor rule there is!  He didn't have food or extra water with him, he didn't tell anyone where he was going or when he would be back so no one went to look for him and he had to drink his own urine to survive.  I'm sorry but you should NOT be rewarded with a book deal for that.  It's the same story with these two girls, they were called "experienced backpackers" pfft please if that were true they would have found them Saturday on the edge of the park and taken home no questions asked.  Instead they walked ignored all helicopters flying over and made it impossible for the rescuers to find them.  I think I'm going to have to give the Today Show a piece of my mind about how rewarding people's ignorance is what creates more incidents like this.  Because believe me the Today Show's not going to sit there and say, "So at what point did you realize you should have stopped walking and just waited for help to come instead of walking to a potential death?"  

The two girls work next door to us at a competing property and no one was happier than we were to hear they were found but we have NO sympathy for them.  If my parents had been flown up here I wouldn't have left them a few hours later to get a beer and a free T-shirt.  I have to wonder if they are just in shock about what they've been through or whether or not they actually grasp how much danger they were in.  I'm inclined to believe it's the latter of the two. 

Ok so that's my peace comment away I'm open to other view points but this is how I feel about that! 

Work, hike, rinse, repeat as needed

This past week has been really busy, well it's felt really busy.  We got 3 days off and all I wanted to do was get into the park and hike/backpack.  Unfortunately it doesn't look like that's going to happen.  I moved rooms on Friday and then worked all day so I didn't have time to get things organized to camp.  I also couldn't find anyone with the same days off that wanted to go and backpack.  Everyone that I talked was either leaving Saturday morning while I had to work or not off until Monday.  Saturday after work I met up with one of the bus drivers and another Holland America employee and we decided to go into the park to Savage River and hike around.  So far this is the farthest into the park I've been, which is 15 miles.  That may not sound like much but it takes an hour to get that far.  The park road is only paved out to that point and it continues for another 83 miles past that!  The speed limit is only 35mph and every bus stops for wildlife so needless to say it takes a while to get from point A to point B.  Saturday was a beautiful day in the park though, the clouds were big and puffy and the sun was shining.  We had planned on trying to hike up Mt. Margret but then decided to follow the river south instead. 

The hard part about Denali is that you look out at these valleys and think, "Wow that looks great a nice grassy flat valley." However what you're looking at is actually 5-6 foot tall brush with spongy Tundra below it.  When we got down to the river the nice "grass" was actually a stiff filed of bushes that more often then most was over our heads.  When you get into brush like that it's really important to remember that it is prime bear land so we walked around yelling "Hey bear!"  

We walked about maybe a mile and a half but it took use well over an hour because of how hard it is to bushwhack.  The views were gorgeous though and hopefully today I'll have the photos posted for everyone to enjoy.  

Yesterday I relaxed because my feet were killing me from standing at work the past few days.  I did laundry and cleaned up my new room.  Then Steph and Alex came back last night from the most intense sounding hike ever.  They had hiked out to the bus that Chris McCandless(Into the Wild)  lived and died in during the summer of 1992.  I'm hoping to get out there this summer before I leave but it's defiantly going to be a rough hike so I want to be prepared for that. Keep checking out the photos and I'll be posting more soon.

Matchbox

Greetings everyone!  It's been a while since I've posted so I need to get caught up.  Last week was my birthday and in honor of being 25 I rented a car.  Well actually I went on a Jeep Safari, but I got to drive since I was 25.  It's a local company that has Wranglers and they take groups of them out to the Stampede trail and go off-roading.  I was really excited because I've never been off-roading.  I've also always had a love for Jeep Wranglers so getting to drive one was even better.  Steph, Alex, Crystal and I all got into one Jeep while 4 other co-workers got in another one.  Each Jeep has a CB radio in to so we stay in touch with the guide. During the Safari the guide shares information about the area, the history of the Stampede trail and so on.  Our first task in the Jeep was to come up with a handle for each Jeep.  We all went, "oh cool!" then immediate silence took over as we tried to come up with something fun.  Alex's suggestion was luscious lollipop, that was veto because it was too long for the guide to say quickly. We ran through a bunch of other names, like Supertramp (from the book/movie "Into the Wild") and Ruby, we were in a red jeep, until we came up with Matchbox.  Everyone liked it so that stuck.  I've posted a video of different parts of the trip so when you here Matchbox that's me on the radio.

We drove north from Denali into Healy and then took a left on the Stampede Trail.  The Stampede Trail is a long established road that was used for mining about 100 years ago. The mine was so important to the economy that when the National Park was established in 1917 the Stampede Trail was annexed in order to allow the mine to continue.  Now the land is public access, but because it is surrounded on 3 sides by the national park is just like being inside the park.  The wildlife in the area can be hunted and vehicles can be driven around in it.  When I went ATVing it was in the same area of Stampede Trail because that is the only place you can take vehicles like ATV's, Jeeps or snowmobiles.  The first 8 miles of the road is paved but residential so the speed limit is only 35mph.  We drove along and then stopped when we encountered a mother moose and her 2 calves.  The calves weren't more than a week, week and a half old.  They had stopped for a water break in a little pond.  They weren't more than 50 feet from our Jeep.  The two calves were playing in the water while the mom snacked on some leaves.  The Mom moose was HUGE!  You see them in pictures but believe me you can  not imagine how large they are until you see it in person.

After the first 6 miles the road is no longer paved and a little bumpy but beautiful land to look around at.  We got to 8 mile lake, which believe it or not is 8 miles down Stampede Trail!  There is a public use cabin there on the other side of the lake.  If you go out there and the row boat is there you can go across and use the cabin.  However if the row boat is on the other side of the lake it means the cabin is being used.  We all agreed that we wanted to come back and check that out later this summer.  

Before continuing past 8 mile lake we had to put our Jeeps into 4 wheel drive.  It wasn't long after we had done that then we put it to good use.  It'd rained a few days before we went so the rutts in the roads had filled with water, a lot of water.  Watch the video and you'll get an idea of what we went through.  Driving was awesome!  It was so bumpy and muddy but sooooo much fun!  It was really nice to be dry the whole time while knowing the ATV's behind us were going to be soaked.  We drove out just another 2 miles but it took a solid hour to cover that ground.  We we got to the farthest point we pulled into their camp where we ate beef stew and fry bread.  The mosquitos were enjoying their snack as well which made it less than relaxing. The camp cook was an interesting character.  He is originally from Wisconsin but has been in Alaska for 20 years.  During the summer he lives in this camp, 10 miles down Stampede in a tent by himself cooking for the 3 trips that come through.  Then during the winter he has a tent he lives in in Anchorage.  Yeah that's right a tent.  He's someone who enjoys being off the grid and refuses to use electricity unless it's battery operated.  We called him the mountain man, slightly crazy but isn't that what this summer is about?

On the way back our guide had a cat pop in front of his Jeep which none of us saw which was really too bad because the only cats here are Lynx!  Anyways the 2 paying customers got to see it while the 8 freeloaders didn't so I think that's sweet justice.  We played a trivia game on the way back and needless to say Matchbox reigned supreme!  It's amazing how much information you pick up around here in a short amount of time.  Make sure to check out the video so you can get a better idea of what the Jeep Safari was like!

Happy Quarter of a Century!

Well yesterday was my birthday and now I am officially 25 years of age.  Yesterday was a great birthday all in all.  I worked at 5am so that I would be done early and get to enjoy my day.  The morning shifts are hard to wake up for but once you're up they're really a lot of fun.  Unfortunately yesterday we had half of our co-workers come late.  One tried to get out of it by claiming to be "sick." He tried to garner sympathy from me but I wasn't dishing it out that morning. I told him that Steph and I had been there on time and it was my birthday and we had managed all the phones and guests by our selves so he could manage a few hours too.

After that my manager got me a big box of brownies and put two candles in them and sang Happy Birthday to me.  The brownies were yummy!  Then a few hours later just before a large group of guests were set to depart from the lobby to the train depot Steph managed to get them all coordinated to sing.  So I'm doing something else when I hear this loud hum then I realize then ENTIRE lobby is singing me Happy Birthday!  It was by far the most enjoyable embarrassing moment I've had thus far. After work I went back to my room to open a few packages that had arrived.  I got a pair of shoes from my parents (THANK YOU!), a jacket from George (THANK YOU!) and 3 Jane Austin books from Grandma Jane (THANK YOU!).  My backpacking pack, tent, sleeping bag and sleeping pad all showed up too so now I'm ready to get out into the wilderness!

I waited until around 8pm to have dinner at the Salmon Bake with some friends.  We stayed there until around 1am having some drinks and celebrating til my birthday was over.  Overall my 25th was a great day!  Now I have two days off and am trying to figure out what I want to do.  Today I'm thinking about going into the park and taking pictures then tomorrow maybe getting a nice long hike in before doing a Jeep Safari Monday evening.  I'll post more on my activities tomorrow night.  Hope all is well in the lower 48 and thank you for the birthday wishes!

A Bump on de head

Well after an exciting week at work I finally feel like I know what's going on and not like the new kid anymore which is great!  However on Friday I went did something that only a spaz of my caliber could do.  I was at the train depot welcoming our new wave of guests and placing their bags in the under bus storage.  Sure enough after I put the last bag on I stood up too soon and did not clear the metal door. WHACK!  Yup that's the sound the back of my skull made on the metal door cover.  By far one of the most painful head hitting experiences I've had to date.  I managed to get through my greeter speech and the train rush back at the front desk ok then when I went to dinner I started to not feel ok.  I started to feel like I'd had one too many beers at the bar and dinner stopped sounding good.  My managers sent me to the Nurse and the nurse examined me, at one point I was near tears I felt so not like myself.  As it turns out I gave myself a nice little concussion.  I was sent home from work and told to check in before my 5am shift the next day.  At 4am the next morning I still felt drunk and my stomach was not happy.  I called in sick and called the nurse.  He told me to check in at 9am and we'd go from there.  At 9am I made my way up to the nurses station where I was examined again.  The nurse wasn't happy with what he saw so we went to the urgent care clinic next door.  Thankfully the Physician Assistant at the urgent care clinic didn't think a cat scan was needed, just that I had mild concussion and needed to rest more.  So I've been ordered off work until monday and told to lay low.  For those of you who know me, laying low is not my idea of fun and yesterday was rough on me. I spent most of the day working on photos or sleeping.  Thankfully today I am no longer feeling nauseous, which was getting really old yesterday and not as drunk as I was yesterday!  I appear to be on the mend and headed back to work tomorrow!

For my first concussion I couldn't have asked for a better story cause at least I can say I did it in Alaska! Unfortunately I picked the nicest days of the season thus far on which to sideline myself :-( I'm sure I'll make up for it soon though.  

Vroom Vroom!

On Wednesday I had the chance to go ATVing!  I went with two guys that I work with at the front desk.  I'd heard from co-workers that it was a lot of fun and really muddy which as many you know I like the mud!  We headed out on the shuttle to the property and started to wonder if maybe I hadn't dressed warm enough.  It'd been pretty cold the past few days and Wednesday is was cloudy and looking like rain.  By the time we got their and got orientated to our machines I was pretty sure I was going to be cold on the ride.  They gave use helmets and gloves so I figured I'd be ok.  Sure enough as soon as we started to ride the ice came, yes freezing rain in all it's glory came pelting down on our faces.  Thankfully like most weather around here it didn't last too long!  However by the time we got to our first look out point my hand had past the point of being numb  and went to achy.  The guide was nice enough to swap gloves with me and I was able to feel my hand for the rest of the trip.  It was important to have feeling in my right hand too since that was the thumb I was using for the gas!

My co-workers laughed when the guide asked if any of us had been on an ATV before and I said, "No but I have a Vespa."  Surprisingly the guide said, "Nice yeah this will be pretty similar."  The biggest difference between the two was the turning, my Vespa is pretty nimble but the ATV is four wheel drive and you gotta work to get it to turn.  The ride was gorgeous we had beautiful lookouts and even bigger mud puddles to drive through!  Towards the end of the ride they took us down into dry creek, which is just at the name says, a dry creek bed.  Since we were all handling our machines well and keeping up they let us free to drive around and go over big bumps on our own.  I of course would drive, stop, take a picture and then move to a new location to do that all over again.  After about 10-15 minutes of play time we headed back to the company headquarters.  The ATV ride was a lot of fun and great way to get out and see the area, we rode along a northern edge of the park near Stampede road.  For anyone who has read or seen the movie Into the Wild we were near the area where he hiked into the park.  I highly recommend getting out on an ATV if you're in this area, it's a great change from hiking but also a great way to feel 5 years old again!

I will have photos posted from ATVing soon but in the mean time I've posted the photos from the Helicopter Ride, Husky Homestead and our climb on Sugar Loaf!