So I am realizing that I never talked about my trip up to McCarthy! Yoh, what am i thinking. It was amazing... well most of Alaska has been amazing. ( we often use the phrase "pretty great" or "pretty awesome" which translates to it is freaking AWESOME!) But anyway. So i flew up with Gaia one of the owners in a Beaver plane, small seats 6 people... and we flew up the Copper River Valley. Wow once we were out of Rainy/ Cloudy cordova, the clouds broke open and sunny skies for the next 5 days. Ahh. (that is one down side of the rain forest... rain all the time. at first it isnt that bad but after 2.5 months of it a little sun would be super )
The campus at McCarthy is super cool. The town itself is very quaint and St Elias Alpine Guides have a really cool campus. They use an old Power House as the offices/ kitchen/ fridge/ storage of gear and the every cool "penthouse" for sleeping. I stayed up in the Penthouse! This room is up at the top of the building and the room has 3 walls of windows so i was able to wake up to the sound of the rushing window and the mountain range surrounding, not to shabby.
The crew at SEAG we great. I had such fun getting to know all of them/ potlucking/ going to open mic and just hanging out. Everyone was very welcoming and hospitable!
I joined one of the guides on a glacier hike and we had a blast. what a day the sun was out and we had two great clients. We saw ice caves, climbed in them, a bear ran across the glacier in front of us... which rarely is seen. Basically, it was pretty cool! Both Jason and I were freaking out and i think our clients realized if the guides are geeking out.. something big is happening.
Jason and some others were kind enough to cook for me after a great day on the glacier.
I was also there for sauna night! neither our camp or the McCarthy camp have running water. So in McCarthy they have a sweet sauna for bathing! every few days there is a designated night where they literally fire it up! you go in and scrub up... talk about bonding. It is actually realy refreshing, you hang out and chat with whoever is in there, sweat out everything, then bath by pouring hot water over you and your good to go! amazing.
Friday, August 13, 2010
Bears.. oh my!
The fish have started to run, basically they have made their way up the rivers . So as you drive on one of the only roads in Cordova, we pass heaps of fisher people out there shoulder to shoulder fishing right off the side of the road.
But where there is fish there are bears. Oh and the berries are also out. Bears also like berries. Everyone's sighting of bears have gone up. I dont mind bears as long as I am in the car or the bear is far away. The other day I was taking some clients on the rain forest hike, as we were just driving over the hill to the trail head... baby bear run across the road up the trail we were going to use. Going being the operative word.. because where there is baby bear there is a mama bear. So quick change of plans we went to a different trail.
The next day we were having dinner at our friends house and turns out , Dane, was charged twice on the trail! Yikes...and everyone who has been on the trail recently talks about how you can smell the bears etc. So needless to say I wont be taking clients on that trail! I am hoping to not be charged by a bear while I am here.. though I have been told it is inevitable...here is hoping not!
But where there is fish there are bears. Oh and the berries are also out. Bears also like berries. Everyone's sighting of bears have gone up. I dont mind bears as long as I am in the car or the bear is far away. The other day I was taking some clients on the rain forest hike, as we were just driving over the hill to the trail head... baby bear run across the road up the trail we were going to use. Going being the operative word.. because where there is baby bear there is a mama bear. So quick change of plans we went to a different trail.
The next day we were having dinner at our friends house and turns out , Dane, was charged twice on the trail! Yikes...and everyone who has been on the trail recently talks about how you can smell the bears etc. So needless to say I wont be taking clients on that trail! I am hoping to not be charged by a bear while I am here.. though I have been told it is inevitable...here is hoping not!
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Pilot time!
Okay so several weeks ago our bosses came in for a bbq that the old owners threw to welcome them and invited the town to come out to camp and meet them. Love being in a small town. There was even a radio ad on to tell people all about it!
So the really excited part is that they flew down on one of the 6 seat planes with one of our bush pilots. We all had the opportunity to go up with him for a bit and he flew us over all of our glacier and rivers and the area. Amazing. i will tell you what seeing a glacier from above is a whole new experience. especially when it is the one you hike and climb all over and know it from a completely different perspective.
The best part of the story is that i go to fly co-pilot seat and as we turn around to head home the pilot let me fly us back. no it isnt that hard but i had to definately move the plane and adjust to winds etc... and then he of course took over to land. But i was geeking out!!! and now i think i have a new goal.. pilot license some day! yahoo.
So the really excited part is that they flew down on one of the 6 seat planes with one of our bush pilots. We all had the opportunity to go up with him for a bit and he flew us over all of our glacier and rivers and the area. Amazing. i will tell you what seeing a glacier from above is a whole new experience. especially when it is the one you hike and climb all over and know it from a completely different perspective.
The best part of the story is that i go to fly co-pilot seat and as we turn around to head home the pilot let me fly us back. no it isnt that hard but i had to definately move the plane and adjust to winds etc... and then he of course took over to land. But i was geeking out!!! and now i think i have a new goal.. pilot license some day! yahoo.
McCarthy here i come
Well another fabulous day in the rainy paradise. So some of the perks of having your owners own more than on guiding business is that you get to go to the others for free. Today i am off to McCarthy.
It is NE of us and is an old mining town. I will be flying up to McCarthy, drive with 2 raft guide to the put in help them unload etc. leave the van at the airport fly back to McCarthy. Hang out there for 3 days and play with the people up there then fly back to the van, drive 3 hours to Valdez maybe go sea kayaking and then take the ferry back here to Cordova! yahoo.
I am so excited to see another portion of the state. and plan ferry planes and automobiles!
It is NE of us and is an old mining town. I will be flying up to McCarthy, drive with 2 raft guide to the put in help them unload etc. leave the van at the airport fly back to McCarthy. Hang out there for 3 days and play with the people up there then fly back to the van, drive 3 hours to Valdez maybe go sea kayaking and then take the ferry back here to Cordova! yahoo.
I am so excited to see another portion of the state. and plan ferry planes and automobiles!
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Ewok Village
Okay so I have just received my computer thanks to the Little's thank you! so i plan to make more blog entries now that i have a means and not clogging up the company's computer.
With that said I have lots to update you all on. Being that i have been here a month and only posted once! yoh.
Okay well first off camp. Sometimes i laugh to myself b/c it is as minimalistic or more so that my Africa conditions. We have no running water. fill up several large water jugs in the glacier water every few days and then pour them in to a large water jug we have up on massive spindles which has a hose that connects to our sink in our kitchen.
Oh the kitchen, ha also the living room, game room, dinning room and often the drying rack for our clothes. Is a plastic car port, about large enough for a suburban... and we store 6 peoples food/ cook etc all in here. Oh it does have a great wood burning stove. But let me remind you that i am in a RAIN forest and the wood is WET!!! building and starting a fire with wet wood is awful. but we have it down to an art to rotate wood on the store to dry it out then burn it. i think we have managed to create a system for just about everything... nothing is as simple as it should be :)
One perk those is all of us are great cooks and great at cooking with canned goods etc. So communal meals are very popular. We all pitch in ingredients and we rotate who cooks and then cleans. Works out great especially since we have such a massive cooking space to work with.
Oh we also have a very lovely outhouse. mens and womens sides. but all goes to the same pit so really it doesnt matter. I dont mind except when i have to go to the bathroom at 3 am and it is cold, rainy and there might be a bear hanging out near it...
Since we are in the rain forest the area around camp looks like the ewok village and it has affectionately been named so. Massive big evergreen trees with lichen hanging from the branches and lush lush green moss covering the ground. it truly is magnificent and never gets old.
Oh yes we have bears there are lots and lots of bears around here. I have been pretty much guaranteed that a bear will charge me at some point this summer. Super is all i have to say to that. so once i soil myself in front of the clients i will then regain composure and guide them to safety. B/c it turns out the proper way to handle a bear if you see one is... 1 . DONT RUN! if they charge you stand your ground and DONT RUN! (awesome) then make yourself look big and tell the bear to go away.. then slowly move away. sweet this sounds just lovely and i cant wait to experience this.
Oh also at camp we have our massive collections of vehicles, functioning and not. It resembles a junk yard more than anything else. We have our awesome green bus! two 4-wheelers, 2 vans, on which reaks of mildew and the other which we have a camp car in the back so we can all fit, 2 trailors, a broken red dump truck, a partially working old nissan pickup and another not functioning dilapidated pick up...
Or vehicles are always an adventure, i am told things come to AK to die...well we are pushing that to the limit. I have changed more tires, jumped more batteries, forced a tire on a rim, basically jimmy rigged more mechanical equipment in a month than my entire life and i know there is plenty more to be done.
But it is great, for some reason i love sleeping outside in the cold and wet, where my clothes are perpetually damp, cook over a camp stove etc. It is all great!
With that said I have lots to update you all on. Being that i have been here a month and only posted once! yoh.
Okay well first off camp. Sometimes i laugh to myself b/c it is as minimalistic or more so that my Africa conditions. We have no running water. fill up several large water jugs in the glacier water every few days and then pour them in to a large water jug we have up on massive spindles which has a hose that connects to our sink in our kitchen.
Oh the kitchen, ha also the living room, game room, dinning room and often the drying rack for our clothes. Is a plastic car port, about large enough for a suburban... and we store 6 peoples food/ cook etc all in here. Oh it does have a great wood burning stove. But let me remind you that i am in a RAIN forest and the wood is WET!!! building and starting a fire with wet wood is awful. but we have it down to an art to rotate wood on the store to dry it out then burn it. i think we have managed to create a system for just about everything... nothing is as simple as it should be :)
One perk those is all of us are great cooks and great at cooking with canned goods etc. So communal meals are very popular. We all pitch in ingredients and we rotate who cooks and then cleans. Works out great especially since we have such a massive cooking space to work with.
Oh we also have a very lovely outhouse. mens and womens sides. but all goes to the same pit so really it doesnt matter. I dont mind except when i have to go to the bathroom at 3 am and it is cold, rainy and there might be a bear hanging out near it...
Since we are in the rain forest the area around camp looks like the ewok village and it has affectionately been named so. Massive big evergreen trees with lichen hanging from the branches and lush lush green moss covering the ground. it truly is magnificent and never gets old.
Oh yes we have bears there are lots and lots of bears around here. I have been pretty much guaranteed that a bear will charge me at some point this summer. Super is all i have to say to that. so once i soil myself in front of the clients i will then regain composure and guide them to safety. B/c it turns out the proper way to handle a bear if you see one is... 1 . DONT RUN! if they charge you stand your ground and DONT RUN! (awesome) then make yourself look big and tell the bear to go away.. then slowly move away. sweet this sounds just lovely and i cant wait to experience this.
Oh also at camp we have our massive collections of vehicles, functioning and not. It resembles a junk yard more than anything else. We have our awesome green bus! two 4-wheelers, 2 vans, on which reaks of mildew and the other which we have a camp car in the back so we can all fit, 2 trailors, a broken red dump truck, a partially working old nissan pickup and another not functioning dilapidated pick up...
Or vehicles are always an adventure, i am told things come to AK to die...well we are pushing that to the limit. I have changed more tires, jumped more batteries, forced a tire on a rim, basically jimmy rigged more mechanical equipment in a month than my entire life and i know there is plenty more to be done.
But it is great, for some reason i love sleeping outside in the cold and wet, where my clothes are perpetually damp, cook over a camp stove etc. It is all great!
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Cordova!
Well i have officially been here almost a week now and loving it here. Cordova itself is a small 2,000 or so people fishing town. The harbor is really pretty amazing. All these boat parked. People in rubber overall and tall Rubber boots is a common site around town. I have actually picked up some of my own rubber boots because let me tell you when it is raining they are a must!
So i will back up. Last Thursday after succesfully passing my CDL test I flew out to Anchorage. Once we were over AK i was like a 5 year old plastered to the window. The mountains are unbelivable. They just keep going on and on as if they dont stop. YOu can see glaciers and the ocean. Really breath taking. These mountains put the Rockies to shame. I was telling my mom that i was shocked that people in the late 1800 were determined to climb over them... b/c I would have stopped long before these. But as she pointed out gold has a strong alure. boy does it.
So after sleeping in the Anchorage Airport... which has an automated woman's voice come over the loud speaker every hour to let you know what time it was. "The current time in Anchorage is 2 am" Yes thankyou I was sleeping glad to know. I checked in my luggage and grabbed a cup of tea, which i quickly regretted b/c i realized i would have to go through security again to get on my flight. Well not in AK.. and the small airline i was on b/c i just kept on walking and turns out no security just walk up to the gate! loving the small town.
Once arriving to camp around 8 am ish. I through my stuff in my 7' x 9' canvas tent, for which i will call home for the next 3 months! One of my co-workers helped me to build a wood platform for my bed aka thermarest and sleeping bag. Ahhh home sweet home. Each of us has our own tent and we also have a large tent with a wood burning stove and gas stove for our kitchen/ living room.
We are still waiting for the last crew member but the rest of us (5) have been having a great time getting to know each other through community dinners, trivial pursuit games and just general story telling. Oh Ben our last team memeber arrives tomorrow and we have already giving a nick name of Benny- boo boo. I am sure he will love it.
Oh the seanery, well it is plain ridiculous. We have already been out on the glacier and down the Sheridan River a few times. I do have to say the first time you see a glacier is pretty spectacular. And getting to go out and through on crampons to play on it is even better. We found these amazing azure blue pools and drink the water straigh out of it! We are all planning to cliff jump off into the pool. Which is goign to be fridged.
The people in this town are incredibly nice. Every person we talk with just loves to hear about what we are doing and are excited to have us here, recommend places for us to eat, etc. Just really welcoming. The last owners of the opperation we are takign over, have been great at showing us the ropes and sharing their knowledge of flora, fauna and history. They even had us over the other night for fresh Red Copper salmon. So good by the way. That frozen shipped over stuff just isnt quite the same.
I did manage to get a "shower" in the other day. we do have a camp shower, which is basically a plastic bag we fill up with h2o and hang from a tree which has a nozzle on it. so i waited for a day that was sunny and warm... hiked into the woods and had myself a shower. really pretty nice.
these cold rainy days will be a bit more creative but i think we have a system we are coming up with. Between all of us we are comign up with all sort of creative problem solving techniques.
BAcially, we have just been getting ready, practicing backing up trailers, driving the bus, setting up camp/ home and getting ready for the summer! and having a blast doing it.
So i will back up. Last Thursday after succesfully passing my CDL test I flew out to Anchorage. Once we were over AK i was like a 5 year old plastered to the window. The mountains are unbelivable. They just keep going on and on as if they dont stop. YOu can see glaciers and the ocean. Really breath taking. These mountains put the Rockies to shame. I was telling my mom that i was shocked that people in the late 1800 were determined to climb over them... b/c I would have stopped long before these. But as she pointed out gold has a strong alure. boy does it.
So after sleeping in the Anchorage Airport... which has an automated woman's voice come over the loud speaker every hour to let you know what time it was. "The current time in Anchorage is 2 am" Yes thankyou I was sleeping glad to know. I checked in my luggage and grabbed a cup of tea, which i quickly regretted b/c i realized i would have to go through security again to get on my flight. Well not in AK.. and the small airline i was on b/c i just kept on walking and turns out no security just walk up to the gate! loving the small town.
Once arriving to camp around 8 am ish. I through my stuff in my 7' x 9' canvas tent, for which i will call home for the next 3 months! One of my co-workers helped me to build a wood platform for my bed aka thermarest and sleeping bag. Ahhh home sweet home. Each of us has our own tent and we also have a large tent with a wood burning stove and gas stove for our kitchen/ living room.
We are still waiting for the last crew member but the rest of us (5) have been having a great time getting to know each other through community dinners, trivial pursuit games and just general story telling. Oh Ben our last team memeber arrives tomorrow and we have already giving a nick name of Benny- boo boo. I am sure he will love it.
Oh the seanery, well it is plain ridiculous. We have already been out on the glacier and down the Sheridan River a few times. I do have to say the first time you see a glacier is pretty spectacular. And getting to go out and through on crampons to play on it is even better. We found these amazing azure blue pools and drink the water straigh out of it! We are all planning to cliff jump off into the pool. Which is goign to be fridged.
The people in this town are incredibly nice. Every person we talk with just loves to hear about what we are doing and are excited to have us here, recommend places for us to eat, etc. Just really welcoming. The last owners of the opperation we are takign over, have been great at showing us the ropes and sharing their knowledge of flora, fauna and history. They even had us over the other night for fresh Red Copper salmon. So good by the way. That frozen shipped over stuff just isnt quite the same.
I did manage to get a "shower" in the other day. we do have a camp shower, which is basically a plastic bag we fill up with h2o and hang from a tree which has a nozzle on it. so i waited for a day that was sunny and warm... hiked into the woods and had myself a shower. really pretty nice.
these cold rainy days will be a bit more creative but i think we have a system we are coming up with. Between all of us we are comign up with all sort of creative problem solving techniques.
BAcially, we have just been getting ready, practicing backing up trailers, driving the bus, setting up camp/ home and getting ready for the summer! and having a blast doing it.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Onward and Upward... literally, AK here I come
Well, after several great months in Chicago, reconnecting with High school friends, meet great new ones and being closer to family... I got the itch again, I had to take off. As most of you know, I am off to Cordova, Alaska for 3 months of living in a tent, using a pit toilet and having a shower some where in town... oh and getting to take tourist around on a glacier ! ( I am pretty sure I might have a rougher living situation than what i had in S africa.., ha)
I will be working as a glacier hike guide along with 5 other guides who are also raft guides. I also just received my Commercial Vehicle Drivers License (CDL) so that i can drive the bus, yes I will be sure to get a picture of me with my hot ride!
I dont believe I will have much phone access but I will try and keep you all up to date on stories from the summer. I am sure plenty of entertaining things will happen for me to write about. So enjoy feel free to comment those were my favorite last summer! and as always please please pardon my poor spelling, casual writing style and overall lack of care given to typos and grammar!
PS- thanks to Patagonia for hiring me so that I could A. hear about this gig and B. supply me with 90% of my clothing.
Cheers!
I will be working as a glacier hike guide along with 5 other guides who are also raft guides. I also just received my Commercial Vehicle Drivers License (CDL) so that i can drive the bus, yes I will be sure to get a picture of me with my hot ride!
I dont believe I will have much phone access but I will try and keep you all up to date on stories from the summer. I am sure plenty of entertaining things will happen for me to write about. So enjoy feel free to comment those were my favorite last summer! and as always please please pardon my poor spelling, casual writing style and overall lack of care given to typos and grammar!
PS- thanks to Patagonia for hiring me so that I could A. hear about this gig and B. supply me with 90% of my clothing.
Cheers!
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