"Let go, let go because there is beauty in the breakdown."

Well it's been about 3 weeks since I left Alaska and re-entered the "Real World." I wanted to post some last thoughts and reflections on this summer.

When I decided to go I wanted an escape, a total departure from what had become my norm. I wanted to heal, to explore and to laugh again. Alaska was for me what has been for thousands before me, a challenge. What you discover when you get there is that it's never really the land or the elements that challenge you, it's you.

I went to Alaska to find something, maybe it was myself, or maybe it was hope. Last year was by far the most painful and stressful I've had in a very long time. I fought to save something that I thought I couldn't live without. I have lost that thing twice now and I'm still alive; hell I'm even happy. Last year my abilities were called into question and doubted, in turn I doubted myself. Alaska was God's answer to my doubts. I showed myself what I knew I could do all along. I can go, on my own, to a new place and make friends, have adventures and be whole. Eleanor Roosevelt said, "No one can make you feel inferior without your consent." I allowed someone to make me feel less than worthwhile. Alaska was my choice to remind me of my own worth.

People always talk about a discovery of themselves, as though they suddenly stumbled upon someone they'd never known before. My journey was not one of discovery but of confirmation. My summer in Alaska confirmed for me things I had come to doubt in the past year. The biggest blessing from this summer was I stopped feeling like I had to have a plan. I spent the past year frantic over what was going to come next and feeling desperate that I needed a plan. In Alaska God granted me an amazing peace and I no longer felt desperate over the future. I instead spent my summer saying "yeah I don't know what I'm doing next." It's very freeing to go where the wind takes you and enjoy the ride.

So my permafrost summer has come to an end and I walk away a more complete version of what God made me. I take with me lessons in love, life and how to make great meals with ramen.
Blessings in disguise are still blessings despite the disguise they wear.
Trust your gut, if it's been right before it'll be right again.
The old homage of the sun rising again is true, cliche but true.
What you think you want may not be what you need.
Truth hurts but truthful cuts heal faster than cuts from lies.
I'll always be ok because I'm loved and I have faith.

I miss Alaska, I miss waking up to the Mountains outside my door. I dearly miss my friends that made me laugh and ventured into the great unknown with me. The transition back to California has been rough, I went from kayaking in Seward in 50 degree weather to Los Angeles in 90 degrees. The crowds, traffic, BART and weather are all hard to get used to again. I am back at my old job, working for the retinal doctor. The girl that I trained to replace me is on maternity leave so I am filling for about a month. I look forward to my weekends in Ukiah where Mom and Dad are living now, it's a small town without crowds or traffic. It's easier to adjust to life there than it is to life back in the Bay Area.

Within a few days of returning I had a job offer from Beaver Creek Resort in Colorado which I took. I'll be working for the transportation department as a shuttle driver. There is a large contingent of folks I know from Denali that work there so that's nice. More than anything I am excited to ski as much as humanly possible and ice climb! When I'm not doing that I'll be busy applying to Graduate school. Earlier this year I realized that Architecture is what I want to pursue. I'm really interested in Sustainable Design and now is a great time to be involved in that movement. I'm applying all over the west coast, from Berkeley to Vancouver. I spend my hour long train commutes to work studing for the GRE which I'll take in October. I leave for Colorado the beginning of November and will be there until the end of March.

Finally I have to say Thank You to all of you who followed me on my adventure this summer. I loved reading your comments and I hoped you enjoyed reading this blog. Please make sure you check out the last sets of photos I posted on my Flickr account and feel free to leave comments there as well. If there is anything you love I am selling prints in custom sizes so just pop me a quick email!

PHOTOS

Last Days in Alaska

Ok so I'm finally getting these last entries up.  Well my last days in Alaska were crazy as was the whole summer.  I caught the train on Tuesday and got to Anchorage 8 hours later.  The train ride was great, I couldn't keep in the tears though, I defiantly cried a bit about leaving Denali.  It didn't last long though, feeling the wind in my hair on the train always calms me.  The ride was awesome, I treated myself to lunch and dinner on the train  but mostly I stayed on the balcony and took pictures.  

After getting to Anchorage I made my way to the hostel and checked it for the night.  I had planned on renting a car the next day and driving to Seward but that didn't end up working out.  It was for the best actually, I spent the next day in Anchorage wandering around, mailing things, re-packing and doing last minute souvenir shopping.  The next day I caught the Park Connection Bus to Seward at 7am and enjoyed a beautiful ride down the Seward Highway.  We got really lucky and saw the Bore Tide which is a wave that occurs once every 12 hours in the Turnigan Arm.  It's a wave that is created by the outgoing tide going under the incoming tide.  Our bus driver pulled over and let us listen to the wave go by.  It was amazing how loud it was!  It was only about 6 feet high but it sounded like a freight train.  It was overcast and forecasted to rain in Seward so I was a bit apprehensive about what my kayaking trip would be like.  Fortunately though the clouds broke up and I had sunshine in Seward!

I got to Miller's Landing where I was taking my guided kayak tour.  The guides told us that this was the nicest day they'd seen in a week.  We headed out in the water taxi to Kayakers Cove.  We kayaked for 5 hours in and out of different coves to where we met the Water Taxi again.  Kayaking in Seward was the one thing I promised myself I would do this summer and I finally did it!  We had a great time, we saw huge jelly fish, seastars, urchins, Comerants, Bald Eagles, Golden Eagles, and lots of spawning salmon.  The one thing I really wanted to see was a close up sea otter, I didn't get to see that but the day was so gorgeous and the water so calm I can not complain.  

At the end of the trip I could barely paddle anymore, my arms were so tired and my back was sore.  I think it took twice as long to cover the same distance at the end.  We had a great group though, there was a couple from Hawaii on vacation and then a female pilot on her vacation too.  Our guide was very knowledgeable and eager to show us neat places.  He took us up into alot of coves and back into streams were you could literally reach down and grab a salmon (seriously a guy next to us did it!).  The neatest part was how many Bald Eagles and Golden Eagles we saw.  We were literally 5 feet from a Golden Eagle, he was just hanging out on a branch over the water checking us out.

After the kayaking trip I got back on the Park Connection Bus back to Anchorage.  I was exhausted and just spent a lot of time watching the scenery go back.  I got to see a group of Beluga whales too!  They were something else, they are really white and when you see them they are hard to miss. The bus dropped me off at the airport and I proceeded to equal out the weights in my two bags and get checked in for my flight.  My sinuses started misbehaving so I took some benadryl and proceed to sleep the entire flight to Seattle.  I also slept most of the flight to Burbank as well which makes for the best way to fly!  

Being back in civilization was very strange and overwhelming.  I was exhausted and had a full blown sinus infection so sleep was the main thing on my mind.  The next day was my cousin Pam's wedding, which was a nice distraction.  It was great to see all my family and celebrate with them.  I missed Alaska and my friends though.  After the weekend I headed up to Ukiah with Mom and Dad, back to the real world I guess.

Make sure to check out the photos from Seward!

PHOTOS

Kantishna

Sorry I didn't get this updated sooner, I've now left Alaska and it's been a whirlwind! Before I post about what I've been doing since I left I have to tell you about my last few days in Alaska. My last full day in Denali was spent on a VTS shuttle headed all the way to the end of the park road. My friendS, Nate, Alexa and I all boarded the bus at 8am. It was a gorgeous day at the park entrance so we hoped that it would be the same throughout the park. Our bus driver was named Chuck and he has worked as a driver in the park for 20+ years. I always love listening to the drivers talk about thier experiences in the park. We were lucky in that the group of people on our bus were very talkative and asked lots of questions. At mile 12 we saw the mountain, it was out clear as a bell! I got so excitied because the skies were clear and it looked like we had a shot at seeing the mountain on our whole ride! Chuck stopped at what he called his "secret stops" to let us take pictures.



This whole summer I've been thwarted by the weather and had never seen the mountain from any further in than mile 15. It figures that on my last day in the park I would finally get to see the mountain from a closer distance. The next thing I was crossing my fingers for was a bear on the road, and what do you know?! I GOT IT! Just after Sable Pass we were all looking at a bear off to the side of the bus and then someone spotted one on the road ahead of us. This Grizzly was just strolling along and we were able to come right up on him and park the bus within a few feet of him. I managed to get a full frame photo of his face looking back at me. We hung out with him for a good half an hour before he left the road and wandered off into the wilderness.

The other amazing thing that was occuring in the park was fall. The tundra had gone from green to red and yellow. It's an amazing thing to behold, for miles and miles ahead of you all you can see is a carpet of red. Many of the birch and aspens had begun to change also and were taking on thier mind blowing yellow glow. Nate and I had gone hiking around Savage River a few nights prior and the mountain had come out then but it was a great chance for us to really see the change of color in the park. As we drove further down the park road you could see that peak had just barely come and gone in some places. But the most amazing part was that the mountain was still out! We pulled over Stony Overlook which is the best place on the park road to view the mountain, at that milepost you can actually see the mountain base to summit in good weather. Oh boy did we have good weather! I think Chuck, our driver, made the best comment about the mountain, and he may have been quoting someone else but I can't remember. He said that Denali is captures your gaze and doesn't let you go but it's not a beautiful mountain. Something that is beautiful comforts you to look at and makes you feel at peace. Denali does not do either of these things. It is rugged and dangerous looking, it doesn't give you peace but it does hold your gaze. I understand now better than ever why this mountain draws so many, not just to climb it but also just to see it. We arrived at Eieleson and the mountain was still there! I am so pleased with all the photos that I got of it, it's going to take me a while to figure out what to post!

I had hoped that the mountain would stay clear all the way to Wonder Lake however the summit started to cloud up after we left Eielson. I was still able to get some nice photos though. Wonder Lake was really neat, it's this long lake 24 miles from the base of the mountain and many Mountaineers starting place for climbing the mountain. During our rest stop there I went and picked blueberries, oh they were so yummy! I'm sorry but nothing compares to a freshly picked wild blueberry, you gotta try it sometime. At this point we'd been on the bus for 6 hours and were starting to get a but drowsy and I definatly feel asleep on the way to Kantishna.

When we arrived in Kantishna we stopped by Fanny Quigley's House, which is a historical site. Fanny Quigley is famous woman in Alaskan history. She left an abusive husband in the dead of night pulling her own dog sled because she didn't want the dogs to wake her husband. She followed the gold rushes and would set up her tent and stove and sell her food to the miners. She came to Kantinshna during the short lived gold rush and fell inlove with it. Kantishna was where she and her husband Joe remained until thier deaths. The dinner theather we had at our hotel was based around her and her husband's lives in Kantishna.

After leaving Kantishna we had a beautiful drive out of the park and back to the WAC. It turns out that is was Chuck's last day driving for the season, he said that it was by far the best day he'd had in the park this summer and made his Top 10 all time drives into the park. I thought it was fitting that on my last trip into the park it was also his.

We were all exhausted when we got back and as much as I want to just sleep I had to start my packing. I had boxed up most of my larger items for mailing but since it was labor day weekend I couldn't mail them until the day I was going to leave.

I left Denali on the train on Tuesday afternoon. My departure was not as releaxed as I had imagined because well if you know me you know I don't pack light and I suffer from procrastination. My last night in Denali my friends and I went to the Crow's Nest to help them celebrate thier closing. It was packed and noisy so we hung out outside. Then my friend Mindy got a call from one of the Jeep Safari guys saying the Northern Lights were out. So we all headed out see them. We were treated to a very fuzzy but unmistakable show of lights. The lights aren't out until about 1:30 in the morning so you can imagine I didn't get up as early as I wanted the next day. But the important thing is that I made the train!

Leaving Denali was so bittersweet. I was happy to be done with the job but hated to leave my wonderful friends. I still have to talk about what I did before I left Alaska so I will save my musings on this summer for the very last post. I will post the photos from my last trip into the park tonight so please look and enjoy!

PHOTOS!

State Fair

Hiddy Ho!

I didn't update this earlier but last weekend I went to the Alaska State Fair with the usual suspects.  We left Saturday afternoon and headed for Hatcher Pass which is by Willow Alaska.  It's an unpaved road similar to the Denali Highway.  It goes through some former gold mining areas and has some amazing views.

We've absolutely lucked out with the weather this August.  The sun's been shining and although the temperatures have been crisp anything beats the rain!  Saturday night we camped along Willow Creek and we were actually awake when it got dark.  It's been getting darker earlier and earlier.  Right now it's 9:40pm and the sun's gone which is by far the strangest feeling.  We have grown so accustomed to the light that you really notice the darkness.  The nice part is that I was able to get off 1 star trail photo before some clouds rolled it.  It's not the greatest one I've ever done but hey at least I got one!

The next day we drove over the summit of Hatcher Pass and stopped at Independence Mine and walked around the complex.  It was a very active mine that is now shut down but had an entire community at the site.  They had housing, a school and shops along with the actual mine itself.  It was a really pretty spot overlooking the valley.  After hanging out there for a while we moved on to the State Fair in Palmer.  On the way there we stopped off at the Musk Ox Farm.  None of us felt rich enough to pay the $8 entrance fee so we just popped our heads over the fence and got a quick gander at the arctic animals.

Then is was Fair time!  We pulled in and the first thing we did was check out the giant vegetables.  These things were HUGE!  Two cabbages at least 2.5 feet in diameter.  I took pictures which hopefully display their size.  I wonder how do you get your vegetables to grow that large?  What do you feed it?  Is it just luck of the draw?  And in Alaska no less!  They have such a short growing season the fact that they have the time to get it so big is impressive.  After that we wandered the booths looking for unique artists and souvenirs.  I was a bit disappointed in the limited number of local artists present.  There were tons of booths but it seemed for every 1 local artist there were 5 cheap import tents.  I still managed to spend all the cash I took out though, I know surprise surprise.  I treated myself to some classic fair food, corn dog, kettle corn, roasted corn on the cob and the most amazing berry lemonade ever!

I ended up walking away with a chinese hat (mostly for rain protection and possible halloween costume!), an alpacha sweater, stones for making necklaces out of and some fudge.  We were all tired and overwhelmed by the crowd.  It's really hard to go from Denali to a large city again.  We're not used to be pushed and stuck in masses of people.  I know that's going to be really hard to get used to again when I leave. 

We headed out of the fair to Knik lake were we camped in front of a bar.  Apparently that's the only public camping on the lake.  For the first part of the night we were treated to cars leaving, drunken karaoke and Harley's revving up.  Then on Monday we wandered around Wasilla for the morning while Steph and Alex's car got an oil change before we headed up the Houston, Alaska.  In Houston Alex fished for Salmon on the Little Susitna River.  He didn't end up catching anything but I enjoyed laying by the river and getting a little sun.  I also enjoyed taking photos next to the large ice cream cone at the general store.

We then headed back for Denali to try and make the Employee Appreciation Dinner which was also celebrating Christmas in the Park.  We arrived 10 minutes before it was over and I learned that I was chosen as Employee of the Month for the front desk!  That was a nice treat and I still have to figure out what I'm going to use my gift certificate for.

I've already posted all the photos for the Hatcher Pass/State Fair trip so you can check those out at this link.

For the last week I've been finishing up work, today was officially my last day of work. I am heading to Kantishna tomorrow on the bus for my last trip into the park.  The colors have just exploded here and I'm eager to get some more photos before I leave.  I'll leave Denali on Tuesday and head to Anchorage where I'll spend the night.  After that I'm going to Seward again for 2 days to kayak and hike before flying from Anchorage to Burbank on Thursday night.

This summer has just been amazing and crazy in so many ways.  I'm happy to be done with my job but so sad to have to say goodbye to these people.  They have been my saviors this summer in more ways than one.  My travel buddies have always kept things interesting and exciting.  My co-workers have done the same for the front desk.

I will post again from Seward and probably from Anchorage as well.  So keep checking out the photos and leaving comments! 

Updating the Update

Ok so I caught up on my photos, so please check them out and leave comments if you like anything.  It boosts my ego and I can never get enough of that! 

George's Visit

Dad's Visit

Denali Highway

Chena Hot Springs

Updates

Howdy Everyone!

Well i've got just two weeks left in Alaska and as much as I have loved this summer I'm getting ready to be done.  I think I've reached the end of my enjoyment of community living.  I'm so ready to not have to walk outside to go to the bathroom or worry about waking up the person sleeping below me.  I've gotten so much out of this summer and I still have a couple adventures left before I leave.

My visitor's have come to an end and I loved having both of them here.  We had great times and saw some great stuff.  I've uploaded some photos, I'm a bit behind right now but hopefully will be all caught up by this Saturday.  We're heading to the State Fair on Saturday afternoon and will be gone til Monday.  Monday the 25th will be Christmas in the Park which sounds like a lot of fun.  Here are the links to the latest photo uploads, I hope you enjoy!

Driving in the Park

Go to the last part of the set to see the latest uploads

Chena Hot Springs

George's Visit

What do you want out of life?

Well today brought an end to Dad's visit in Denali.  We had a great time together.  He arrived on the train on Thursday and as soon as I saw him I was in tears.  I can't help it, I'm Daddy's Little Girl through and through.  We had a great 4 days together, relaxing talking, getting out into the park and fishing.  It was raining the first full day he was here but then by God's grace Saturday cleared up and we had a GORGEOUS day in the park.  We saw lots of animals and hiked around the Eielson Visitor center in 4 inches of snow!  Dad got to see bears, moose, caribou, dall sheep, foxes and even 2 wolves!  Sunday the rain was back but it was perfect for fly fishing.  We both imporved our techniques and got a couple of strikes.  I think Dad enjoyed smoking his cigar with a fly rod in his hand more than anything else.  We also went to the dinner theater show here which was a lot of fun.  Earlier today we did the dog sled demo in the park and checked out the visitor's center before he got on the bus at 2:30 to head back to Anchorage.

It was so sad to see him leave.  I can't even tell you how nice it was to have a familiar face around.  We spent a lot of time discussing the next upcoming event, a visit from my ex-boyfriend.  He arrives on Wednesday and to be honest I'm completely conflicted about how I feel about it.  I know we'll have fun, cause we always do, I just don't know if I will get what I need out of it.  I've spent this summer trying to sort through the happenings and feelings of this past year.  Now I'm left knowing what I want and need but not sure I can get it from this relationship. 

The one thing I have wanted more than anything else in my life has been to fall in love with my best friend and find my partner in life.  I have been blessed to have been raised in a house with two people who still can't keep their hands off of each other.  They've showed both my brother and I how to be partners in life.  I guess I've been a late bloomer compared to most and have ended the most significant relationship of my life.  I don't know what the future holds for me, I wish I had some glimpse of what God wants for me, it would make this part so much easier.  I have faith that all will be for the best I just want to be done with the painful part.  I have learned how to laugh again and not take life too seriously this summer.  This past year has by far been the most painful and stressful I've endured since we moved to Minnesota in 6th grade. My sense of self and sense of humor are still intact and know they will remain so.

Life always throws you curve balls and never turns out how you planned it which is probably why you shouldn't plan your life to throughly.

Denali Highway

Howdy folks! I'm sitting here at the bike shed with it raining outside so I thought I could spare a few minutes to update my blog. Last weekend I went on a road trip up to Fairbanks and back across the Denali Highway. The Denali Highway is a 130 mile section of road that is only paved for about 25 miles. It used to be the only road that got you to Denali National Park before th George Parks Highway was built. It's supposed to offer some of the most amazing views and chances for wildlife.

We started the trip by heading north to Fairbanks, we stopped and checked out the Museum of the North at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. It's a recent building that is very abstract in it's design. The design is said to reflect the apline shapes of Alaska's scenary. It's an all white building kind of similar in effect to the Guggenhiem in Spain. After that we headed back to Value Village to try and discover more thrift shop treasures but alas I found none which is probably for the best as we all know I have enough crap already! It was Alex's birthday as well so we stopped by Wal-mart and picked up some party supplies. Since he was the token boy I didn't want to get girly stuff so I picked up THE bluest cupcakes I've ever seen and some Transformer masks. In the parking lot of the Wal-mart we sang happy birthday in our masks. Only Ashley and Alex ate cupcakes right away and thier mouths and teeths were completey blue for a solid hour!

Per Ashley's request we made a stop off in the town of North Pole, Alaska. This town IS Christmas 365 days a year. The street lamps are white wrapped in red stripes and it hosts the largest Santa in the world! It's main attraction though is none other than the Santa Claus House. Think of it as Wal-mart but just with Christmas stuff. We went in hoping to have our picture taken with Santa but as it turns out Santa's days off were the same as ours! We wandered around and took some pictures and each bought souviners. It was hard not to be happy once you started looking around because it felt like Christmas inside. I learned that when children write to Santa at the North Pole this is where they deliever the mail! And apparently they have people who answer many of the letters. We of course took lots of pictures and then headed on our way.

We headed south on the Richardson Highway which is east of Denali. After about 30 miles or so we were treated to our first viewing of the Trans-Alaskan Pipeline. It really is an amaznig thing to see. This pipe is 1,500 miles long and about 4 feet in diameter. The pipeline has it's own suspension bridge at our first viewing site. It popped up along the way for the remainder of the day and each time it seemed to be in a new configuration. We saw a Bald Eagle sitting in a tree near a rivier which is always awesome to see. We finally set up camp around 8:30 at a pullout called Flood Creek. We stayed right next to the creek which was really loud. With all the rain we've had all the creeks and rivers are higher. I got some great long exposures of the water and rocks which I'm really excitied to get edited and posted.

I managed to get too close for comfort with the creek though. After dinner I went to pump some water with my new filter that Dad gave me. I was walking along an edge that was eroded away and it went out from under me. I ended up in the dirt on my elbows but then I got on a rock where I was going to sit and pump the water. I manged to slip drop my filter and tubes. The filter went into the river but was caught by a current that brought it back under the very rock I was standing on. I bent down trying to find it but I couldn't then it popped out in the middle of the river! I stuck my foot all the way into the FREEZING water so I could grab it before it went down stream. I walked back to the campfire with no water and sopping foot. Needles to say my friends found it pretty funny as did I. We had just been talking about how nice it was to have dry feet on our days off, well it was nice for them at least!

The next day we drove down to Paxson which is where the Denali Highway begins. We didn't know what to expect for road conditions with all the rain and people's stories of flat tires. Basically everyone that we'd talked to had gotten a flat tire on the Denali Highway. The Denali Highway was really neat but the weather didn't do as we'd hoped. The previous day had been partly cloudy with broken clouds which we had hoped would happen the next day as well. Unfortunatly we got low clouds and drizzle for most of it. A lot of the awesome views were hidden by the clouds but we still got to see some neat stuff. We encountered our first porcupines! I'm sorry I didn't videotape this but if you've ever seen one run it's just about the funniest thing ever. The waddle when they walk and they just can't run, they try bless thier hearts but it's more like 3 legged trott waddle than anything else. We also saw a beaver right next to the road hanging out on a rock next to some water. I wish I could tell you what the last part of the road was like but unfortunatly Steph, Ashley and myself all managed to pass out and leave Alex to the driving (Sorry Alex!).

We were really proud of the fact that we survived teh Denali Highway with no flat tires! We figured that people were probably getting flats from not driving slow enough on the road. The conditions were a lot better than we expected. If you're ever in Alaska and have a car you should take a drive down the Denali Highway.

In just a few hours Dad will be arriving on train and I can not wait to see him! I can't believe I've almost been here 3 months. There are rumors of snow everyday but I'm mostly looking forward to seeing the colors change and a possible viewing of the Northern Lights! Hopefully I'll get the photos from last weekend and the Denali Highway posted soon I'm going to edit them today and then upload them. Keep leaving comments and make sure you're checking out the photos!

Ahhh Hot Springs, Burr Tors!

Another two days off brought another adventure!  This past weekend there was a Bluegrass Festival in the small town of Anderson Alaska.  Steph, Alex and I headed up on Saturday afternoon after work to meet up with friends and check out the music.  We were just at the festival over night and part of Sunday morning before heading to our next location.  We had opted not to spend the whole weekend at the festival and instead make our way north to Fairbanks.  None of us had been north of Denali Park yet so it was a new adventure for us.  We Passed Fairbanks and headed towards Chena Hot Springs which is Northeast of Fairbanks.  

It's been at least 3 months since I have sat in a hot body of water and could not wait to slip my body into the hot spring.  Driving down Chena Hot Springs Rd we passed at least 4 moose right off the road with their heads deep in the water eating the grass. I got a picture of the first one we saw.  We pulled into the Hot Springs Resort around 3 and went immediately to the rock pool.  After surviving probably the smallest changing room ever we got into the pool.  An amazing 107 degree sodium and bicarbonate water heaven greeted us.  This was my first time in a hot spring and I loved it!  The water was really hot and in spots it got even hotter.  There was a neat fountain in the middle that rained cool water on you so you could stay in longer.  Even with the fountain though I had to get at least 3/4 of my body out every 10 minutes.  After relaxing for a couple of hours we headed out to make dinner and find a camp spot.  We all agreed that we wanted to come back later on so we found a dinner spot nearby.  

Steph, Alex and I have started inventing our own backpacking food creations.  Usually consisting of some kind of flavored rice mix, ramen and whatever else we have in our packs.  That night we came up with chicken rice + oriental hot and spicy ramen noodles = goodness!  I had also bought a loaf of bread and so yummy dipping oil at the festival so we had that too along with some white wine.  We were sitting on rocks on the side of a pullout keeping away the mosquitos but still managed to have a classy meal! After dinner we went back to the hot springs for a few more hours.  Then we drove back down the road and made camp near the Chena River.  

We had decided earlier that day to spend all day Monday hiking on a trail to see some large Granite rocks called Tors.  It's a 15 mile round trip hike so we packed up enough food and water and headed out.  Unfortunately the rain came in about 4 miles into our trip.  Like all the weather we've experienced so far we figured it would blow over and possibly come back.  As we continued to hike and gain in elevation the weather worsened to full out downpour.  All of our jackets were saturated with rain.  We felt as though we were making good progress towards the halfway make were there was a shelter so we continued on.  Then we saw the mile markers which were always a good mile shy of where we thought we'd be.  By milepost 6.2 instead of saying "hey bear" we started saying "hey shelter!"  Finally Alex spotted it and to our delight it was completely enclosed and had a wood-burning stove with wood!!!!! 

We were able to get a fire going and make some lunch.  Then out of nowhere the Tors appeared through the mist just ahead of us.  It was really neat seeing them and finally getting to the main attraction of the hike.  I got some pictures of them through the mist which was probably cooler than seeing them in the sunshine.  They have a very erie quality about them, the shapes and color and rough edges poking out of the mist.  After getting our jackets "dry" we headed back out again to finish the hike.  Our feet were soaked instantly but we were in much better spirits.  We hiked towards the Tors and were yelled about by a pair of Voles protecting their home in a crack on the rock.  

We finished out the remaining 7 miles of our hike in good spirits, and not quite as wet as we started!  The hike was really pretty for many different reasons.  In 2002 a wildfire went through the area and we were actually hiking through the burned sections.  It was really awesome to see how it was recovering and the process of a forest's recovery.  When you see the pictures you'll see a lot of black trees which are all burned from the fire.

After our hike we headed back to Fairbanks for the night to treat ourselves to something none of us had had in several months, fast food!  I know it's the not the best reward but let me tell you when you're hiking 15 miles in the rain uphill a Western Bacon Cheeseburger from Carl's Jr sounds like heaven!  After enjoying our meal we went to Wal-Mart to do some shopping.  I really don't know how I'm going to adjust after this summer is over to normal life.  Wal-mart was incredibly overwhelming to me and I found myself completely lost as to where to go or what I needed to get.  When you're so far away from things like that for an extended period it's hard to remember how to manage them!   After the shopping trip we headed for the campground in the middle of Fairbanks.  It was still raining so at 1am, in relative darkness and pouring rain we had to set up our tents.  It was really more of a speed challenge than anything.  My tent was still soaked within 30 seconds but hey I was speedy!  

The next morning we headed out to find some thrift shops Alex and Steph had researched.  We found Value Village close by and for the first time since May I actually went clothes shopping!  The selection as we suspected was interesting, here we are in the middle of the largest states and almost one of the most remote, the clothes were all over the place.  I found a couple of things I really liked, one of which is a Military sweater I purchased for $5!  

Arriving back in Denali we discovered that they had received just as much if not more rain than we did over the weekend.  This week has been a little crazy as a result.  Until yesterday it rained for 4 days straight!  The river rose about 20 ft and was surging so we stopped running one of our rafting trips for safety reasons.  Then the northbound train to Fairbanks was shut down because of a landslide on the tracks.  It's still shutdown because the tracks are flooded about an hour north of us.  There were also some rock slides on the park road at Polychrome Pass as well.  Needless to say the front desk has been busy correcting rumors.  We've been under a flood watch for the last week now but yesterday the weather cleared up and we're all crossing our fingers it stays that way for awhile!  This summer has been one of the coldest and rainiest on record.  I've done my best not to let the weather stop me but I would really enjoy hiking without my feet soaking wet for a change.

This weekend Steph, Alex, Ashley and I are going to try and do the Denali Hwy.  It's a stretch of unpaved road south of us that's supposed to be amazingly beautiful and full of wildlife.  I'm pretty excited about that. Also yesterday there was a job fair with other seasonal employers looking for winter workers.  Both Sugar Bowl and Northstar at Tahoe were there.  I put in applications for Ski Instructor positions as well as Ski Patrol.  I really don't know where I'll be or what I will be doing after September but if it includes skiing on a regular basis I will not complain!

I can't believe that it's already August too.  My summer is half over and it's becoming clear here that summer's on it's way out.  The nights are getting significantly darker, last night we saw our first stars!  The colors are getting ready to change too.  I can't wait for Dad to get here on Thursday and show him everything!  Keep leaving comments I love reading them!

Backcountry

Well I finally did it! I went backpacking in the park! It's taken 2 months for me to get a trip orgranized but I finally went. It was a great trip, unlike any backpacking I've ever done. In Denali there are no trails so where you backpack you are making your own trail. It's hard to get used to because you're not supposed to walk in a straight line because that will eventually create a trail. The rangers work very hard to keep this park as wild and pristine as possible. We started out in Section 34 just past the Eielson Visitor's Center at mile 66. We hiked along Moose Creek to the edge of Section 33 where we had reserved our camping permit for. It took us 4 long hours to get to the ridge but we were rewarded with an awesome camp spot. We had also been really lucky on the bus out too, the wolves here are very hard to see because there are not a lot of them. Alex had been talking all morning about just wanting to see a wolf and the mountain and he'd be happy. About 2 hours into our ride a woman spotted a wolf in the woods and we were able to watch it for awhile. We were all really excitied and happy about that spotting until an hour later when we saw another wolf walking down the road!!! It came within 5 feet of our bus at a nice trot and I got a great picture of it. That by far made the trip a success before we even broke trail.

We rode the camper bus out which is specifically for people heading out to camp, it will drop you off at any location along the road. Our driver has been driving in Denali for 31 years and was a wealth of knowledge. The bus system in Denali is probably one of the coolest thigns I've been able to experience here. If you ever come to Denali make sure you ride a VTS shuttle and talk to the drivers they are amazing people with a lot of information to share.

Hiking to our site was rough because it was through wet tundra which soaked all of our feet within 15 minutes. Also going uphill on tundra is exhausting because it's like walking on a sponge. You go to step up and instead all of your energy is absorbed into the ground. Once we got to our campsite we spotted 4 bears in the area. They all were pretty far off and didn't come towards us so we ate dinner and watched them graze for a bit. We were all pretty exhausted so after a couple of card games we called it a night. We woke up to rain and clouds which was too bad because Sunday had been a really pretty day with broken clouds and sunshine. As we made breakfast I spotted 3 bears, a mother and 2 cubs, we had watched them last night but this time they were much closer. We cooked and watched them for a bit. Then 2 Caribou crossed the cubs path and startled them which was really fun to watch. Then the bears started to move towards us and we retreated to our tent site. The seemed aware of us but after about 30 minutes it was clear they weren't going to come and shake our hands any time soon. We packed up and headed out but it was a tad nerve racking to be as close as we were to them and try not to cross thier path on the way out. The hike out was nice, mostly downhill and on a river bed. We were acutely aware of potential bear areas and doing our best to avoid them. After having lunch we had to cross a river and ended up stumbling upon a bear carcass. That was by far the most unsettling experience of the trip. The bear's skull and claws where laying ontop of a pile of skin and fur which was on a strange pile of branches. We opted not to exlpore too long because the site looked more like a kill site than a place where the animal laid down and never got back up again. We hustled out of there and hiked along a canyon river to an opening where we met up with the park road again. The next day we returned our bear can and told the ranger about what we found. She said it looked like the bear had been dead for awhile but if anything killed it it would have been another bear and then they would have stashed the meat under the branches.

All in all the trip was awesome, I got close enough to bears but not too close. The Denali bears as Alex puts it, "are really friendly." Which they are because the rangers work so hard at keeping them wild and not exposed to human food.

I hope you all enjoy the photos of the trip. I've changed how I am posting the photos, I am now making each trip a set so you can view them in order if you'd like. Once the photos are posted I will add a direct link at the bottom of this post that you can follow to see the photos of just this trip. Hopefully tonight I will have those photos posted for you all to enjoy!

Click here to see the photos from Backpacking!

Talkeetna

Last weekend my friends, Steph, Alex, Ashley, Mindy and I all decided to go and check out Denali State Park which is south of here.  Alex had heard about a couple of cool hikes to waterfalls and a lake called Byers Lake where you can kayak.  So we headed out Saturday afternoon and drove from beautiful sunshine straight into a thunderstorm.  That's the thing about Alaska and the mountains the weather is really unpredictable and changes very quickly.  After driving for about an hour or so we crossed into Denali State Park and found a pull out where a trail started.  This trail was supposed to lead us to a really neat waterfall and provide some bear sightings.  Well it was drizzling down rain and I was in shorts and the trail was lined with alder bushes.  These aren't your regular brush by bushes these are the snap back and bite kind.  Needless to say after hiking for a long time and finding no waterfall we were getting a bit discouraged.  However Mindy started to hear water so we pressed on.  I ended up leading and managed to come across bear scat which completely freaked me out and I insisted that someone else lead.  While I've seen plenty of bears from the bus I am yet to encounter 1 with nothing but distance between us.  Unfortunately, or fortunately we did not run into any bears.  We did finally find the waterfall however we weren't able to find a way down to the pools just overlooks or a trail to the river.

After that we were soaking wet and had been pretty well chewed up by the mosquitos so we headed down the road to Byers Lake to find a campground.  We pulled in and set up camp and tried to dry out a bit while keeping the mosquitos at bay which let me tell you is a challenge up here.  These arctic mosquitoes are determined and abundant.  We tried to dry our shoes and pants by the fire but it was pretty cold so we were mostly just making them steam alot.  

In the morning we woke up and rented kayaks for 4 hours.  We kayaked around the lake and then headed up the inlet river against the current to try and find a suspension bridge Alex had heard about.  It was a beautiful river but at times it was exhausting to kayak.  I was in a single while Steph, Alex, Ashley and Mindy were in doubles.  If I took a break I ended up losing ground so I was getting pretty tired but I was constantly entertained by Ashley and Mindy's attempts to get up river.  It was their first times kayaking and the steering nuances were becoming problematic for them.  We were all getting pretty tired  and decided to push forward for 30 more minutes and try to find this bridge.  We rounded a few more bends before coming upon the bridge which felt like a huge success.  We took some pictures and then headed back with the current and enjoyed the easy part of the ride until having to cross the lake against the wind.  

After eating lunch we decided to hike to the waterfall that the suspension bridge led to.  The hike was really pretty and short to the waterfall so we opted to continue and circle the entire lake.  The day had started out cold and cloudy but ended up being warm and sunny.  We stopped on the other side of the lake and tried to see the mountain.  On a clear day Denali would stand directly above this lake.  It wasn't clear enough to see the entire mountain but we're pretty sure we saw some it through the clouds. After our hike we were all exhausted and ready for a good dinner.  We hopped in the car and headed to Talkeetna.  Talkeetna is the climbers town, that is where all the climbers doing Denali start from.  It is a cute little mountain town with 1 main road.  We pulled in and set up our tents at the end of the main road in the campground.  We had thought about camping for free on the river but decided that being 10 feet from the bathroom and running water sounded better than trying to figure out a safe place by the river.  We went and got dinner at the West Rib, named for a section of the mountain and enjoyed a cold beer.  After that we walked down to the river and set off our fireworks since we didn't get to see any on the 4th of July.  Being next to a National Park fireworks were strictly forrbidden and anyone seen with them was going to be fired on the spot.  After about 20 minutes of "ooo" "ahhh" we  headed back to our campsite and got some beauty sleep. 

The next morning we woke up and wandered the gift shops.  Talkeetna has great little shops full of local artist's work.  There were beautiful photographs, clothing, jewelry and other items.  I ended up buying a really pretty scarf and the cutest hat for a friend's baby, it looks like an acorn.  I also purchase the most unusual candy, Jalapeno Habenro Pistacho Brittle.  I had to try it because my motto this summer has been to experience as much as possible, including the flat out weird.  It starts out sweet then warms up to the point of a strong burn.  Can't say I'd eat a lot of but I defiantly craved Mexican food for the rest of the day!  We didn't get to hang out too long because Mindy needed to be back for work.  The weekend was a nice break and great distraction.  The work week went by pretty quickly and I actually went back to Talkeetna yesterday for a music festival which was fun. I'm also off today and got a last minute offer to go to Fairbanks but declined so I could get caught up on my blog and photos.  I hope you are all well and enjoying my stories and photos!

Byers Lake Photos

Seward

So it's been awhile since I've updated this so let me start with my first adventure. I got to take a trip down to Seward Alaska. It's 3 hours south of Anchorage on the water, it's a place I've been wanting to visit long before the summer job idea came around. I went down with 3 other co-workers and spent a night in Anchorage at the Backpacker's Inn. We went out and hung out at a bar called Humpy's, in reference to the pink salmon that are called Humpy's. The next morning we caught out bus down to Seward. We slept most of the way but while I was awake the views of the Seward Highway were amazing. You travel next to waterways the entire time. The mountains shoot straight out of the water too which makes it all the more gorgeous.

Arrving in Seward we wandered around to find a campground. Admittedly I got us a bit turned around but we found a great spot and set up camp. We ate some lunch and discussed our plans. We had been told that the Kenia Fjords tour was a must so we arraged tickets for that then checked out the downtown. The crusie was amazing! It was a 6hr water tour through the fjords. Anyone finding themselves in Seward this is a MUST activity! We saw a lot of marine wildlife, several humpback whales, sea lions, seal, Puffins, lots of other diving birds, an otter with her pup and the most elusive of all we say Orcas!!!! Aka Killer Whales!  Please be sure to check my flickr account for the Seward set and see all the animals.

After the cruise we headed back to our campsite and enjoyed smores and the first gorgeous sunset all summer.  In Seward it actually got dark enough to use my headlamp for the first time this summer outside!  That was a little strange but made sleeping very easy.  We woke up the next morning and made our way to the Alaska Sealife Center which was established after the Exxon Valdez spill to research and rehabilitate marine wildlife.  We got to see a lot of really neat fish that inhabit the bering sea.  I never realized how colorful many of the creatures are!  We also got to touch sea anemies, sea cucumbers, starfish and eels in their tide-pool exhibit.  The water is pumped in directly from the bay and after touching about 2 things I had to give my hand a break! After that we walked into the marine bird area which includes a large tank of water that extends down at least 40 feet.  While you're standing just below the water level you can watch the birds fly off the rocks and dive down into the water.  Then you can see them swimming around under the water grabbing kelp and other items.  It was really neat because there were many nesting Puffins close to the edge that we could look at.  We then headed downstairs to see the sea lions and seals swimming around their tanks.  I got some great photos of them as well as an octopus that decided to climbing the glass.  

After the Sealife Center we got lunch and discovered that we had missed all the kayaking opportunities earlier that morning and made new plans as to how to spend our time before our bus at 6:30.  Friends had told us about Exit Glacier and how you could actually walk up and touch the glacier.  So we headed back and packed up camp then called for a taxi to take us the few miles to the glacier.  On the way to the glacier there are sign posts with years on them at different points along the road.  Each sign post delineates where the glacier was during that year.  It was really cool to see how far it had retreated during different periods.  The signs continue up the trail also.  It's a short hike the edge of the glacier but then a slightly more interesting hike to be able to touch the glacier.  We had to cross a braided river and one of our friends decided not to join us.  This glacier was very different than the one we saw on the cruise because it didn't say much and wasn't dropping ice like the other one.  It was still really neat to see it and see how compressed the ice was, it looks very different than the ice that comes out of your freezer. After touching and licking the glacier we headed back and caught our taxi.  Our taxi driver ignored our requests to go straight to the small boat harbor and catch our bus.  Instead she insisted on showing up spawning salmon which was interesting but we just barely caught our bus.  Oh well alls well that ends well especially since she made $60 off of us for a 20 minute round trip ride.  

In Anchorage we went to Wal-Mart and picked up supplies.  After being in Denali for 2 months being back in civilization was very overwhelming.  I'm not used to lots of cars or having whatever I need just an aisle away.  I defiantly wandered around Wal-Mart for at least 15 minutes trying to get my brain around it. We all slept most of the way back to Anchorage the next day and I had to head to work but the trip to Seward was worth every penny and all the time. I really needed that trip to remind me just why I'd come up here in the first place.  I came to see Alaska and do things I could only do here.  Seward renewed my excitement to be here and now I have even more fire to get out there and see Alaska!

More to come...

Hi folks, so it's been a while since I've posted.  Life's been really crazy, I went to Seward came back and then went to Talkeetna a few days later.  I will post about both of those trips tomorrow but the photos from the Talkeetna trip are up on flickr as well as photos from my last Eielson trip with Steph and Alex.  Enjoy! 

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!