Welcome to...MOOSE COUNTRY

Back to Black (I mean...Blogging)

2011-05-21T10:24:00.000-07:00

Hey family and friends! So this post is a bit delayed and unannounced, but after a lot of hemming and hawing, I decided to blog again and share with you my experiences in Wyoming this summer. I think the original title of my blog ("Welcome to Moose Country") has been a bit off the last two years, as I don't think there was any chance of seeing a moose on Assateague Island -- but I think it rings true yet again for this summer.

Swainson's hawk
turbine galore

So, for those that don't know, I just graduated from the University of Florida (whoopee!) and left the sunshine state the first week of May. I am working as a field technician for a masters student at the University of Wyoming - Anika Mahoney. Anika's project is looking at the impacts of wind energy development (i.e. turbines) on grassland bird species. So essentially, I am working under massive wind turbines every day of the week.

American Avocet

Here are some interesting turbine tidbits:

-each turbine is about 70 m, or 230 feet tall

-each blade of the turbine is 140 feet long (a single turbine has 3 blades total)

-the speed at which each blade travels is 120 mph

-each blade can change the angle at which it faces the wind, and changes according to wind direction

-the entire head of the turbine can swivel according to wind direction

When I went to my safety training (mandatory if you are to set foot onto a wind farm site), I learned some more cool facts about wind turbines:

-when it snows or sleets, the blades can become iced over. Since the majority of the time the blades continue to turn as long as there's wind, there's always the possibility that literal chunks of ice can be thrown thousands of feet. The site supervisor at the Seven Mile Wind Farm site we're working at told us that a wind turbine in Texas had thrown a single, massive chunk of ice over 600 m into the kitchen window of a rather unfortunate neighboring house. Fortunately, nobody was harmed.

-an unlucky worker at the Seven Mile site had regrettably parked his work truck facing WITH the wind. When he proceeded to open his car door, he, along with the car door, were ripped off the truck and traveled a good 200 feet. Again, nobody was harmed (but apparently the worker was a tad embarassed).

In addition to our safety training, we were told to wear protective equipment whenever we were present at the site. This entails wearing hard hats, safety goggles, steel-toed boots, and fluorescent vests. We are the hardest-core bird crew badasses I've ever seen.

So, for the first two weeks, I've been the only field tech -- but a second tech, Jon, came yesterday. We're hoping this week to really get cracking on all of the bird surveys, although we are still waiting for the third (and last) field tech, Brian to come the last day of May.

These past two weeks Anika and I have already been doing bird surveys, but have been interrupted by snow several times. Snow is all fun and games to play in - but not so much when you're dealing with 230-foot behemoths that could throw 80-pound chunks of ice at a whim. Additionally, it's not good to disturb the birds when conditions are less than ideal - especially with incubating mommas trying to keep their babies (i.e. eggs) warm.

As this is merely an introductory post, I will now shower you with pretty snow photos:

On Thursday, Anika and I hiked the trail near our cabin. Apparently this is a trail that is often used by hunters to find big game (e.g., elk, pronghorn, and moose). The trail, in some parts, is probably covered in over 4-8 feet of snow - so it will look completely different after snowmelt.

There's me (below) and Anika (above), reveling in the winter wonderland that is our backyard.

MOOSE!!! See? This place IS moose country. This momma was with her young'in (not pictured) just behind our cabin.

I love all the fir and spruce trees here.

Anyway, that's all for now! At the cabin, I don't have cell service or internet, so hopefully I will be able to update every other weekend or so, when I'm back into civilization. Miss you all and hope you are enjoying a summer! It still seems like winter here!

More than just berries

2010-07-19T13:34:00.000-07:00

This week, I finally fulfilled my duties as a true biological technician and conducted work all by myself. Kathy and Eric conducted baywater sampling out on the boat each day, which meant all the normal activities that must be completed each week were left to me. In addition to mosquito trapping and marsh sampling, I ate my heart out calibrating equipment and creating dilutions in the lab. I also had to drive to Cambridge (about 1.5 hour drive each way) to drop off samples at a University of Maryland lab.

Working diligently in the lab, processing the catch from mosquito trapping.

Mosquitoes in the state I prefer them in: dead.

Sorting the mosquitoes by species.

So the mosquito trapping is divided up in between 3 parts: the fan, which is what I'm attaching to the tree branch (above), the battery, and the cooler. This fan is powered by a battery that I'm setting up (below). Beside the branch containing the fan (not pictured), I also set up a water cooler containing dry ice. I make sure to open the drinking spout of the cooler so that the dry ice seeps out of the opening. The mosquitoes are then attracted by the cool air, unsuspectingly fly over near the cooler, and are then "sucked" into the trap by the fan. Underneath the fan is a bag that empties out into a plastic cup - perfect for catching bugs.After setting up the traps every Monday afternoon, I then check them the following morning on Tuesday.

This weekend, Kathy and I have enjoyed lazy mornings sleeping in, sipping much missed Starbucks coffee, and painting shells. On Saturday, we visited the town of Chincoteague (finally, after having driven through it each Monday when we conduct our beachwater survey) and explored its many charming used bookstores, coffee shops, and art boutiques. We also indulged in homemade ice cream waffle cones at the local creamery. Afterwards, we stopped at the Chincoteague NWR headquarters and learned all there is to know about its birds, the endangered Delmarva squirrel, and the Assateague lighthouse.

This weekend, we have also dabbled in the culinary arts, cooking Chicken parmigiana, banana bread, sweet potato fries, banana and chocolate chip pancakes (mouth-watering), and ham, spinach, and cheese quiche.

On Friday evening, Kathy and I combed the beach for more shells to paint. While walking back to the car at dusk, we spotted this (what I think) juvenile Common Loon at the top of the beach, near the dunes. It looked very out of place (being that loons frequent freshwater lakes) and should have been with its brethen in the upper reaches of Canada and Alaska at this point in the summer. Of course, I was very worried for its well-being. We realized that it must have been injured, as it didn't fly off when we approached it. Very pitifully, it scooted down the beach (upon our coaxing) with its legs (designed for swimming, not walking) and reached the surf. I was glad it was in the water, as it's a more familiar environment for them (albeit salt water). Unfortunately, I don't think that little loon will make it - but I was excited nonetheless to see one of my favorite birds! (something I wouldn't have expected, being in Maryland)

Sunday evening, we went berry picking on the island, in the hopes of gathering enough to make a couple of pies. We discovered that there are several patches of blackberry, high bush blueberry, and black cherry in the scrub bordering the oceanside dunes. In preparation for the mosquitoes and flies, we wore our bug suits and doused ourselves in 30% deet bug spray. Suited up with buckets in tow, we disappeared into the mosquito-ridden jungle of overgrown vines, scrub oaks, phragmites (an invasive that runs rampant all over the island), and wax myrtle.

After picking berries and swatting flies away for about an hour or so, we headed back to the car. Not even five seconds after sitting down in the car seat, we both simultaneously happened to look down to find thousands of tiny red things crawling all over our legs. I immediately shouted, “Get out of the car!” and jumped out of the vehicle. Upon closer inspection, I realized that these nearly microscopic creepy crawlies were ticks, crawling on every inch of our bugsuits (and underneath them). We both feverishly attempted to brush them off, but ticks have an uncanny ability to stick to anything they attach themselves to.

Being close to the beach, we decided to walk down the dunes and dunk ourselves in the water. Hoping that salt water would do the trick, we waded out into the surf, completely clothed and covered head to toe in our bug suits – amidst several confused
(and frightened) stares. Sadly enough, this would be the first time both Kathy and I have gone into the ocean this summer – only this time, with all our clothes on (socks and all).

After about 40 minutes of ensuring total submersion, we headed back up the dunes and drove home. Upon arrival, we both ran to our bathrooms, stripped down, and took a shower. At this point, I had placed the faucet at an unbearably hot temperature – so hot I could only stick a body part underneath the stream for a few seconds before feeling as if I were getting second-degree burns. I had put the water at this temperature in hopes it would kill the ticks. To continue the tick killing spree regimen, I scrubbed my body down with every kind of shower toiletry to my name. I’m pretty sure I succeeded in removing the outermost layer of skin. After washing my skin raw, I dried off, lotioned up, and got dressed. Unfortunately (and unbelievably enough), my obsessive paranoic efforts were to no avail. Once Kathy got out of the shower, we both did a tick check on each other’s backs and Kathy found two ticks still chilling on my lower back. Regrettably, such an experience has guaranteed unnecessary paranoia. Whenever Kathy and I get an itch, we’ll be worried it’s a tick trying to give us Lyme disease.

And to top it off: we didn't even find enough blackberries to make a full pie. We'll have to make a combination of mini pies...

However, this is definitely an experience to tell the grandkids.

On to other news: this coming week marks a 3-day work week (YES!), as we’re road-trippin’ it to Kathy’s house just outside of Roanoke, VA. We plan on stopping in historic Williamsburg, the cities of Richmond and Charlottesville, home of Jefferson’s Monticello. A music festival, water-skiing on a lake, and a much sought after day of hiking will also be included within the weekend festivities.

More details are soon to follow!

Oh Sun, how I hate you sometimes

2010-07-10T14:55:00.000-07:00

The heat this week was a bugger. On Tuesday, the high was at 100 and the heat index was between 105-110 degrees. To top if off, Buffy the human slayer (or sweat inducer) decided to stop her AC from working, so we’ve been sweating bullets every time we use the government vehicle.

Daisy, holding up one of the many sponges we caught on our trawling day.

Since we had Monday off on account of the holiday, we started our beachwater survey the following morning, on Tuesday. On a related note, I have this theory that when you hear cicadas, it’s probably unbearably hot – or will be soon. As I was getting ready for work at 5:15 AM in the bathroom that morning, the cicadas were at a deafening roar. Needless to say, as I walked from the house to the office that morning, I was already drenched in a sheen of sweat and not looking forward to being in an un-air-conditioned car all day.

There you have it! An Assateague sunrise! This was taken at 5:30 in the morning the day we did our marsh work.

However, Kathy and I prevailed in the unforgiving heat. Once back at the lab, I went out with Allison, the horse biologist here, and learned the ropes of mosquito monitoring. Starting next week (Monday), I will be driving to three different marshes on the Bay side of Assateague Island and setting traps for mosquitoes (and any other dumb insects that manage to get caught). The cool (literally!) side of this trapping technique is that I get to work with dry ice – so I can pretend I am a crazed laboratory inventor as tendrils of ice-cold air ooze and swirl from coolers I have placed on trees surrounding the traps. Once I set the traps in the afternoon, I return to them the following morning to retrieve the unsuspecting bugs. I then take the traps, encased with hundreds of buzzing and creepy crawlies, and drive back to the lab. Back at the office, I throw the traps into the freezer like the heartless insect murderer I am, and then wait an hour until the bugs buzz no more.
Eric pulling up the trawl net.

During this time, I gather forceps, a light/magnifying lens contraption (so much for the scientific language), a trash can, and revolutionized plastic solo cups to place the sorted mosquitoes. I then take the traps out of the freezer, throw away any poor innocents (aka horse and deer flies [which I don’t mind killing], spiders, beetles, flies, and other bugs that aren’t mosquitoes) and then start identifying the mosquitoes down to the species. The objective of this study is to monitor for mosquitoes that might be carrying West Nile Virus or Eastern Equine Encephalitis – both a concern for the wild herd of Assateague horses and people. The three main species of concern are: Ochlerotatus sollicitans, O. taeniorhynchus and Culex sp. Any other mosquitoes that do not fall under these species are just lumped into an “others” category. Once sorted, I weigh the entire sample, jot down the total numbers from each species, and then conduct calculations to estimate the total number of each species in a particular marsh. After this process is done from each marsh (so three cups in total), I throw the mosquitoes into labeled solo cups, cover them up, and place them into the fridge until I replace them the following week, when I conduct the surveying all over again. Yay!

Just another day in the lab: calibrating sondes. Whoohoo!

Loads and LOADS of crabs, captured from our trawling day.

When not doing mosquito stuff this week, Kathy and I calibrated several sondes (the data loggers we use for water quality monitoring) and then deployed a few sondes in Sinepuxent Bay. On Thursday, Kathy and I went out with Eric (the boss man) and two interp girls and went trawling for sea creatures. In other words, I was paid to act like a kid again and have fun setting nets and then pulling them back up to see what we found. While trawling, we captured hundreds of Maryland blue crabs, lady crabs, sea robins (cool fish that have modified fins that allow them to literally crawl on the bottom of the sea floor), a couple skates, spot fish, sea bass, a mantis shrimp, a flounder, tunicates, and sponges. It was quite a good find. The interp girls picked several fish of their choosing and placed them into buckets for them to use in their touch tank in the visitor’s center.

A huge ass Blue crab I wanted to take home and fry up (but couldn't).

Sorting through all the creatures we picked up on one of our trawls.

On Friday, Kathy and I worked – an unusual thing since we normally work 4-10s (10 hour days, 4 days a week) each week. However, since we had Monday off on account of the fourth, we decided to take advantage of this opportunity and work – since we were hoping to get off a Thursday coming up in two weeks. In two weeks, I’ll be leaving Assateague for the weekend with Kathy to go to her house in Virginia 7 ½ hours away.

Gotta love the bug suit.
Or not.

Since we really didn’t want to be driving into the night on a Thursday after we got off at work at 5, we decided to see if it would be possible to work another day in a week to get that Thursday off. Fortunately, Eric is awesome and was cool with us taking that option. So, on yesterday morning, we got up before the crack of dawn and started work at 4:30 AM to go do marsh work all day. Although any normal person would wonder why in the hell we would start so early – you would sympathize when learning that the high for the day was 98 degrees. We started our work so early so that we could get a good chunk of the work done before the hottest part of the day. So we finished up with Valentine’s Marsh by 10:30, enjoyed an early lunch on the beach, and then finished surveying Tingles marsh by about 2:00. We then headed back to the office, cleaned the vehicle, and were outta there by 3, just on schedule. I’ll definitely be looking forward to that three-day week soon!

Just your average lunch break: sitting on the beach, catching some rays.

July Fourth Celebrations

2010-07-10T14:37:00.001-07:00

It’s hard to believe that an entire month has passed since I first arrived here. And to think – in just over a month (and about a week more) I return to Florida. Although my life here at Assateague isn’t as frenetic as it has been the last two summers, the days still whiz by and I’m left reeling, wondering, where does the time go?

This past weekend, for the fourth of July, three of my friends from Florida made the 17-hour trek to come visit me and spend the holiday in Washington, D.C. All three hadn’t visited the capitol before (with the exception of Courtnee, who had visited when she was seven) so they were really excited to see the monuments and sights. Although I had stayed a week in DC four years ago, there were plenty of sights I hadn’t seen and many others I would enjoy visiting again.

A view of the National Gallery of Art from the National Air and Space Museum.

Again, Kathy fortuitously was headed the same direction that weekend, and, being a doll, dropped me off in the city Thursday night to stay with my Mom, who also happened to be in the city as she was attending a work conference. All the details seemed to fit perfectly.

A view of the capitol building.

The following morning, Courtnee, Jesse, and Dawn arrived (slap happy to boot, as they had been driving throughout the entire night and morning) and we had lunch on Capitol Hill. Once there, we visited the National Gallery of Art (upon my request) and was very excited to see that several of Monet and Renoir works were on display. We also saw the only Leonardo da Vinci work in the Western hemisphere – a painting of a woman’s face entitled, Ginevra de’ Benci (c. 1474/1478). This frieze had two sides – one side featured a woman’s face, and the other side was a landscape. We also saw works by Raphael, Rembrandt, Van Gogh, Rubens, and the very famous painting of Napoleon Bonaparte in his study, by Jacques-Louis David (c. 1812).

Auguste Renoir, A Girl with a Watering Can, 1876

After the Gallery of Art, we visited the National Air and Space Museum and then headed back to the hotel and had Chinese takeout for dinner. The following day, we spent the entire day outside, visiting the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington Memorial, the WWII Memorial, the Vietnam Memorial, the Museum of American History, and the Natural History Museum. For lunch, we were suckers for buying a very stereotypical hotdog from a corner street vendor – and then ate them under a big oak tree on the National Mall lawn.

These are the classy people I call friends.

On the day of the fourth, we visited the White House amidst a gaggle of protesters swarming the front gates. Rows upon rows of cop cars and secret service men lined each side of the street surrounding the house. While facing the front lawn and fountain, I saw men dressed all in black placed at each corner of the top of the roof, AK-47s in hand. Other policemen were stationed at each gate leading to the house, while others bordered the protesters. Wondering whether or not this was atypical, I went up to a policeman and asked, “This may be a stupid question, but – is there usually this much security, or is it because it’s the fourth of July?” I was promptly answered with, “This is just like any other day.”

A view of the White House, with secret service men on the roof.

After staring at all of these black vehicles, men in uniform, and shouting men and women toting posters and doling out flyers, I realized I would have to give up my dream of becoming president (I kid). I realized that presidents have virtually no freedom. Although I knew our leaders were in the constant public eye and had every move watched and judged, I didn’t even think of the fact that they have no liberty to even partake in the simple things in life – such as reading a book in one’s backyard or walking to the corner café to enjoy a steaming cup of Joe. Such things would be impossible without being bludgeoned by protesters, photographers snapping your picture, and potential assassins watching your every move. Presidents require constant supervision and that’s something, until visiting the White House, I failed to appreciate.

The Lincoln Memorial.

After the White House, we visited the Ford’s theatre, where we enjoyed a very interesting and informative interpretative talk inside. The four of us sat as close as you could get to where Lincoln sat that fateful night – right next to an alcove jutting out from the balcony. We learned that Wilkes Booth had manipulated a very strategic and well-thought out plan to assassinate the president. Being a well-known actor and having featured in several plays at the Ford’s theatre, Booth knew every nook and cranny to the establishment – so had planned to place a certain piece of wood in the door leading to where Lincoln sat so that others could not reach Booth after Lincoln was shot.

A view of the inside of the Ford's theatre.

On the night of the play, Booth snuck into the room undeterred, as the “security” for the night had left earlier. At this point in our nation’s history, the “secret service” was still a fairly new concept and there was hardly any cause for the president to be protected. Having watched every rehearsal and previously acted in the same play that would be played for Lincoln, Booth knew every part to the play in which would influence a certain reaction from the audience. In this specific play, there was one point in the show in which only a single actor was on stage, and he delivered a certain line that was particularly funny – a statement so hilarious that the entire audience would erupt in laughter. It was during this moment that Booth shot Lincoln – straight behind his left ear, which caused him to immediately lose consciousness and slump forward in his chair.

The area of the balcony Lincoln was sitting in - and was shot.

Although a gunshot would generate a significant resounding bang in a theatre, the sound went unnoticed, as everyone else in the theatre had been laughing. After shooting Lincoln, Booth wrestled with Colonel Rathbone (sp?), who was sitting with Lincoln when he had been shot. Booth stabbed Rathbone a couple of times and then jumped from the balcony onto the stage. Once on stage, Booth very dramatically held up his bloodied dagger, uttered a few lines in Latin from Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, and then ran to the back of the stage, leading to a door that opened outside, where he escaped with someone waiting for him. It wasn’t until later that Booth would be shot in a barn, unable to be brought to justice for what he had done.

Dawn, Courtnee and Jesse in front of the National Air and Space Museum.

I was so glad to have attended the interpretative program, as I hadn’t known all of these details concerning Lincoln’s assassination. It was so interesting and definitely shed more light into Booth’s thought and planning for such a horrendous murder. After the theatre, we headed back to the hotel and ate dinner. Later that night, we headed to Capitol Hill and spread stark white hotel towels on the lawn and waited for the fireworks to start. While sitting on the lawn, we listened to several well-known artists who were performing on the capitol steps. Such artists included Reba McIntyre, the lead singer of Hootie and the Blowfish (whose name eludes me), and several other country singers. I think Adam Lambert (although I’m probably incorrect) sung the Star Spangled Banner. After the show, the fireworks started at the National Mall, very close to the Washington Memorial. As we were oohing and aahing at the dancing lights parading on the roofs of city buildings, suddenly we heard an ear-splitting BOOM! as several cannons went off very close to where we were standing. Just across from the capitol steps, at least 10 cannons were shot intermittently throughout the entire firework extravaganza. It was definitely a fourth to remember.

Early the next morning, I had to say my goodbyes to my three comrades as they left to travel back to Florida. In the meantime, I read in the hotel lobby until Kathy whisked me away from DC and drove us back to Assateague.

Out on the Bay

2010-06-29T02:43:00.000-07:00

On Friday, Kathy and I made the 2 ½ hour drive to Annapolis to attend the “America’s Great Outdoors” listening session, featuring Secretary Salazar, Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, and Congressman Sarbanes.

The week before, I had received an email from Daniel Parr in the DC SCA office informing me of this event, and expressed that he hoped I could attend. Quite fortuitously, Kathy also received an invitation and wanted to come – so thus the transportation quandary was solved.

This “listening session,” among several others that will be occurring across the U.S., was designed by President Obama to bring together people of all backgrounds with a common goal in mind: conservation. With these sessions, Obama hopes to relieve an ever-expanding pandemic, creeping into each home, school, and work place: Obsessive technology user disorder; or, in other words, nature-deficit disorder, coined by the insightful Richard Louv (author of Last Child in the Woods – I highly recommend). Although I’m obviously embellishing, Obama hopes to bring together farmers, forest landowners, sportsmen and women, conservationists, youth leaders, business representatives, etc. to consider this problem that is currently plaguing our children and the rest of the population. He hopes to “listen and learn” from these sessions, devising creative and innovative ways to conserve outdoor spaces and get kids outside.

At this particular session, saving the Chesapeake Bay was the presiding theme. Several heads and CEOs of NGO and federal agencies were present, including representatives from the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the National Wildlife Federation, and Bob Stanton (sp?), who was the most recent Director of the National Park Service. He gave several inspiring talks throughout. I found it very exciting that Congressman Sarbanks has written a new piece of legislation that will (hopefully) pass in Congress: the No Child Left Inside Act (a play on Bush’s “No Child Left Behind” Act). This Act will hopefully address these issues, as well as provide funding to public schools in initiating more environment-centered curriculum and activities.
Overall, the session went well and it was interesting to listen to proposed solutions and ideas to engaging youth and instilling citizen stewardship.

After the session, Kathy and I went to Sandy Point State Park to stick our feet in the Chesapeake. I had been talking about seeing the Chesapeake since I first arrived here, and was so excited to have finally seen it. For years I’ve seen “Save the Bay” stickers on people’s cars – but knew I couldn’t be revved about saving the bay without having appreciated it first.

Driving on the Chesapeake Bay Bridge!

The Chesapeake Bay, with the bridge in the background. This was at Sandy Point State Park, where you can swim until your heart's content. Unfortunately, we didn't bring our swimsuits, so we have to look forward to next time.

The Bay water was considerably warm - even warm enough for a Florida girl used to 80-degree water.

More people lounging about at the Bay.

Just another Monday: collecting water from the surf for beachwater survey.

Any images come to mind? Such an outfit deserves such an epic pose.

YAY, uniform. I'm holding a Diamondback Terrapin, whoop.

This is our vehicle of doom: aka "Buffy." Usually she never disappoints, but to our own stroke of luck, we found that her AC did not work yesterday - miserable. We had to drive in 92-degree weather (and with heat index, felt like it was 104) with the windows down - having wonderful hot air blow in our face all morning and afternoon.

Valentine's Marsh: one of the two marshes we do surveying in. We have to trudge through many miles of sometimes waist-high cordgrass to find little PVC wells just barely sticking out of the ground.

Kathy, being a badass. This is the typical outfit we wear when we're doing marsh work. Official bug suit, festooned with a bug net over the face and rubber boots for the feet.

We found this Risso's dolphin carcass on our drive to Valentine's. The vertebrae were huge!

So Sunday I decided to make homemade honey wheat bread: pretty healthy, considering the recipe called for no sugar (just 2/3 c honey) and just 3 tablespoons of butter. Ended up being pretty delicious!

BABY!!! The Chincoteague herd has loads of babies, while the Assateague herd has only one foal.

Another foal with its pregnant momma.

The Chincoteague herd! (in the distance) Kathy and I see both herds (Assateague and Chincoteague) every Monday, when we conduct our beach water survey.

Two foxes making out. What dogs...

Now they're performing some sort of ritualistic dance...

A breeding pair of American oystercatchers.

Well, I leave you with that for now. Until next time, have a fantastic fourth of July!!

Sally Sells Sea Shells at the Seashore

2010-06-22T08:02:00.000-07:00

I realized today that I still can’t suppress the urge to hold a shell up to my ear to listen to the ocean.

After work, Kathy and I rode our bikes over to the island to look for shells. When I went out with the plover crew last Wednesday, I couldn’t help but pick up shells along the way (and probably appeared useless or had ADD: oh, look! A nearly intact whelk shell! Over there - Isn’t that a plover?) and found some really large clam shells I wanted to paint.

My sexy beach cruiser bike: my mode of transportation around the island.

So many of them have been bleached out by the sun and are completely white – yet still have beautiful ridges running along the length of their outer sides. I thought that I could paint sunset scenes or other images on these stark white shells to give them some color. When I told Kathy this, she thought it was a grand idea and proposed we comb the shore this evening.

Kathy, clad in rather stylish chest waders and green life jacket, with sampling cup in hand, collecting beach water for our Monday beachwater survey.

I finally decided to be a tourist today (while simultaneously taking water samples) and brought my camera with me on our beachwater survey. Again, Kathy and I were lucky enough to spot the Assateague herd frolicking in the surf – babies in tow.

Two lovahs taking a nice stroll (while nuzzling) along the beach.

Check out the little foal and his mommy! (and the two lovers)

We were also graced by a wonderful sunrise this morning (although these pictures were taken about an hour after sunrise). One of these days, I will sacrifice my beauty sleep to leave the house around 4:45 in the morning to provide you all with some (hopefully stunning) sunrise photographs.

While riding along the beach, Kathy and I noticed a fin slice the surface of the water – a surface so smooth and unbroken it mirrored the sun in perfect symmetry. The dorsal fin was rather small, but not large enough to be mistaken for a shark or dolphin. As the fin rose from the surface, it then gently slid back down into the water, tailed by a large, half-moon gray back that suddenly spouted a breath of water and air. We both said to each other, “that is definitely not a dolphin.” We gazed out in the open ocean for another ten minutes, silently watching this sylph creature glide through the water in quiet amazement.

When we got back to the park headquarters, we asked one of the mammal biologists what whales frequent this area, and discovered that what we probably saw was a pilot whale.
This isn't my picture, but gives you an idea of what a pilot whale looks like.

Since the park does not have much of a marine mammal program or active research and management, Assateague mainly deals with stranded and beached marine creatures – so most of the marine animals they see are sadly, already dead. I felt pretty lucky that we saw a true living pilot whale – doing what whales do best. I am also hopeful that I will have the opportunity to help if an animal needs “rescuing” or has been beached – I’ve been told sea turtles, seals, whales, and dolphins have been known to show up from time to time.

Well, that’s it for now. Hopefully by the next entry I will have some pictures of me in my stellar (i.e., sexy) uniform.

the day of birds

2010-06-17T03:49:00.000-07:00

Hundreds of birds swarming everywhere. So many that an ink blot has formed over the sky overhead, shrouding any evidence of light. Their shrieking, incessant cries create a jarring white noise that perpetuates a grating ringing in the ears. Several dive-bomb from above, speeding straight at your face – and then at the last minute, flick their bodies sideways and whiz past your ear, sending apprehensive shockwaves that ripple down your neck, arms, and feet.

This image seems eerily familiar (if not exactly) to that of scenes found in Alfred Hitchcock’s 1963 film, “The Birds,” yet you’ll find this everyday occurrence right here at Assateague National Seashore.

Today, I was left in the dust as my fellow water quality comrades went off to Chincoteague NWR to gather some water samples in the bay. They were to have a nice day out on the water, collecting samples and checking out some islands that contained a population of brown pelicans. Since the boat could only hold 4 people, I was assigned a day of “cross-training” and was given the opportunity to work with the plover crew.

A male piping plover.

Since the piping plover is threatened, an enormous amount of management, research, and planning goes into ensuring that these birdies survive and reproduce successfully. To assure their continued existence, the park has devised a number of initiatives that will protect and conserve the species. For starters, they have constructed nest “exclosures,” which are rectangular fences built around a plover nest to ensure that predators cannot access the eggs or the newborn hatchlings. They have also hired an entire crew of field technicians to rove the beach everyday, searching for new and old nests, plovers, and chicks. Once this information is acquired, nests can be mapped with GIS and GPS so that they then can be easily found and checked every day for new eggs and chicks. As the plovers and chicks are checked each day, biologists can get a better idea of nest, hatching, and fledging success, and whether plover numbers are increasing or declining (or staying the same).

Today, I went out with one of the “plover girls” to check nests for eggs, and to make sure sites that had chicks (and their parents) still had them. Each site I’d take out my binoculars and scour the shoreline and dunes for little cotton ball-sized critters scurrying across the sand. If I couldn’t see anything with the binocs, I would have to use a spotting scope attached to a tripod to get a better look. Unfortunately, many of these sites contained literal colonies of least terns, which were also nesting in the area. (Least terns are the smallest, and probably cutest, of all the tern species.)

Problem is, least terns, pardon my French, are bitches. Little did I know these adorable, bite-sized flying beasts will practically knock you down if you dare enter their nesting area. Each time I would try to get closer to an area where I thought there might be a plover, I was harassed and beleaguered by terns. I swear they wanted to eat me.

I would walk out onto the dune and start to set up my tripod only to then whip it up in a flash to use as a swatter for fear of my own life. Although I probably looked like a fool (probably? Uh, yeah, most definitely) I will unashamedly admit that I would take the tripod and swing it around to scare them off (unsuccessfully, might I add).

Beezlebub the demon: aka the Least tern.

In addition to all of these admirable qualities, these nasty, squawking creatures shot torpedos of shit with a vehemence unlike no other. And, although I found bird crap on my pants, arms, hands, chest, collar, shoes, and shirt – as if the terns paid no particular attention to what area they directed their feces, just as long as they made a direct hit - they seemed to take a particular fancy to shooting their excrement straight at my head and face. Fortunately, I was protected by a rather enlarged floppy hat that my boss had given me earlier that morning (he neglected to tell me why exactly I would need such a particular piece of clothing).

A baby least tern: much cuter, and much more friendlier.

On the bright side, I did see a plethora of very cute bird babies today. (And, I really enjoyed the plover work.) I saw a ton of American oystercatchers, which are of a much more amiable disposition and merely scamper away if you happen to be too close to their nest. I saw one set of parents with their 3 babies, which were probably a few weeks old, but still fluffy and undeniably adorable. I also saw tern chicks about the size of my thumb – and very docile and vulnerable, unlike their demon parents. Last but not least, I saw plover chicks - which, according to my boss, resemble cotton balls that have 2 toothpicks attached to them. They are definitely tiny, but very fuzzy and cute.

An adult oystercatcher.

I also got to collect beautiful shells, enjoy the relaxing lull of waves crashing on the shore, and got tan to boot. Not a bad day at the office.

Disclaimer: I apologize for the use of profanity in the above blog post. Although more polite words are more appropriate, the use of curse words seemed entirely necessary in this post to guarantee comic relief.

Kickin’ it on the Eastern Shore

2010-06-13T12:52:00.000-07:00

An entire week has passed since I arrived in Maryland.

Assateague Island National Seashore: place where hopes and dreams are made.

For all those not completely aware, I was offered a seasonal full-time biological technician position at Assateague National Seashore for the summer [in other words, I will be an actual EMPLOYEE (that entails bi-weekly payment for my efforts) for the federal government!] Assateague is managed by the National Park Service, so as soon as my uniforms arrive, I will look like a bonafide park ranger (although I’m considered a tech – everyone just wears the same outfit. The difference lies in the style hat you wear). And don’t worry, as soon as I receive my uniform, I’ll be sure to post pictures of me in it just so you can wish you had one too (or laugh at my expense).

Hudsonia House: my humble abode. It is two stories, but each "story" is a separate living area. I live with 4 other girls downstairs, while 2 girls live on the top floor.

So for all you Florida crackers (and wannabes), you’ll find that Assateague isn’t too much of a change of scenery. Growing up in Titusville on the eastern coast (just 2 ½ hours southeast of Gainesville), Canaveral National Seashore and Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge (MINWR) were at my disposal – a mere 20-minute drive away. MINWR is home to hundreds of wading and shore birds, an extensive wetland/salt marsh ecosystem, endangered scrub habitat (also home of the FL Scrub Jay), the Indian River Lagoon, and Canaveral National Seashore – a nearly pristine, untouched beach and dune landscape that has yet to fall victim to Florida tourism and all its accoutrements (i.e., towering condo buildings, cement sidewalks and boardwalks, inordinate amounts of pollution, etc.). Despite some differences in the beach scene, Assateague is very similar to the natural environment in which I grew up.

My side of the room. I share a room with one other girl, Daisy. It's a pretty small room, but I also only have to share a bathroom with her (rather than the whole house), so it's pretty nice.

Assateague is home to a plethora of birds, most of them migratory. In the short week I’ve been here, I’ve seen a myriad of loud-mouthed red-winged blackbirds, willets (whom I’ve determined to be extremely mentally challenged – one nearly flew right into me as I was biking down the sidewalk – it then proceeded to shriek and attempt to flee, only to continue flying in front of me), the endangered (or threatened?) piping plover [which has undergone and continues to experience extensive management and research by the Assateague piping plover crew], several laughing gulls, ring-billed gulls, ospreys [whose nests (that contain chicks!!!) are located at several of the tide stations in which I have to take water samples], cormorants, a TON of glossy ibises, eagles, herons, regrettably, a lot of brown-headed cowbirds, loads of swallows, and much more. It’s definitely a birder’s paradise (as is MINWR).

My summer reading list. Just finished reading The Poisonwood Bible and The Glass Castle. Both amazing - I highly recommend. I'm now reading Desert Solitaire by Edward Abbey.

I’ve also seen a ton of wildlife – from white-tailed deer (which are WAY bigger than the wussy ones in FL), Sika deer (introduced from Japan by the good ol’ Boys Scouts of America), the endangered Delmarva Fox squirrel, Diamondback terrapins and mud turtles, and the famous (or infamous) Assateague wild horses! There are actually two herds, purposely separated by NPS and the USFWS. One herd lives on national park land, while the other herd exists on Chincoteague NWR (in Virginia). I saw both the same day, on the first day of work (what luck, huh?). Both herds fulfilled my stereotypical image of horses on the beach – they were running and mingling along the shore, whinnying and rearing up whenever a huge wave crashed on the sand (okay, maybe they weren’t whinnying, or rearing up on their hind legs…but they were on the beach with their legs in the water). As it always is, I didn’t have my camera on me so I cannot share that image with you (this one has to stay in my heart).

A diamondback Terrapin. I saw this fella trying to dig himself a hole next to the sidewalk I was biking on. He didn't seem to mind me getting uncomfortably close to take his picture.

Assateague’s “wild” horses are a huge attractor for tourists and visitors to the park – so unfortunately, the park service must manage an invasive species. Although they’re cute (and especially the wittle foals), the horses trample fragile and vulnerable vegetation, compact soils, alter the hydrological regime of the wetlands and salt marshes, and eat a lot of essential native vegetation (if only we could train them to only eat Phragmites, which is an especially vicious breed of invasive plant that runs rampant throughout the island). Although under heated debate, it is presumed that the horses came to be here when farmers of old let their horses run free to evade taxes on their land. Others think that the horses escaped and “swam” to shore from Spanish ships that had barely grazed the East coast on their way south to Florida. The former explanation is more likely. The horses will probably be the closest thing that comes close to Yellowstone. As it was in bison and bear jams, people driving along Bayberry drive (the one road that runs along the entire barrier island) will suddenly veer off to the right or left of the road (despite oncoming traffic) to stop and catch a glimpse of the horses. Often, several cars will do this – so inevitably, traffic piles up and car travel is on an inch-by-inch basis. Looks a lot like the wetlands in Florida, right? This wetland runs out into the Sinepuxent Bay. It lies on the western side of Assateague Island.

Assateague Island is actually an over-the-bridge drive (or walk, or bicycle ride, in my case) from the mainland in which I live. The mainland itself is a peninsula that is bordered by Delaware Bay, the Atlantic Ocean, the Potomac River, and Chesapeake Bay. On the left side of the Chesapeake stands the rest of the state of Maryland and Virginia (and home to our nation’s capital). Just 25 minutes from Assateague housing is the state of Delaware (which I hope to visit at some point).

Assateague wild horse poo! Didn't think I could get one blog post in without animal excrement, did ya?

Through word of mouth, I’ve discovered that Washington, D.C. is just a 2-hour drive away, Philadelphia is 2 ½ hours, Virginia can be reached in less than half an hour, and the New Jersey and New York shores can be reached by an hour drive and ferry ride. The place is really central to a host of big cities and cool stuff to do – it’s just a shame that I didn’t bring a car up here. Fortunately, (or unfortunately) it seems I am the ONLY seasonal here that didn’t bring a car – so hopefully I will be able to catch rides with people to explore the surroundings. Nearly everyone here is also from Maryland or somewhere fairly close – with the exception of one lone Texas ranger, I think I came from the farthest direction. Most other people come from Virginia, Rhode Island, and PA. And, most of the seasonals are here for their second, third, or sixth season – so it appears Assateague is an awesome place to work.

Assateague Island National Seashore: tourist's paradise. It's a lot like Playalinda, except for all the people and the lifeguards. Interesting NPS trivia: the National Park Service actually HIRES lifeguards! How crazy is that?! They work for the feds...but they're lifeguards. WHAT?!

Thus far, I’ve had an entire week of work – as a volunteer. Fortunately, I found out on Wednesday evening that my background check went through – so hopefully this Monday I will start work as a paid employee! I haven’t been trained in everything I’ll be doing yet, but I can now say I know how to drive an SUV on the beach (drop the air in the tires to about 20 psi, stick the car in 4-wheel drive, and hold onto the wheel). Each Monday, I conduct a beachwater survey – which entails driving out on the beach and collecting water from several sampling sites. Each water sample is measured for salinity, pH, and temperature. Once all the samples have been acquired, they are then processed in a lab in Salisbury, MD. We usually receive the results the following day, providing us the necessary information to determine whether or not we should shut down the beach. The processing in the lab involves analyzing petri dishes of the sampled water to determine whether there are any significant colonies of bacteria that would make it harmful for humans to swim in. Pretty cool.

Assateague Island National Seashore. See Mom? They allow dogs here. You should totally bring Chloe when you come up.

Other work includes use of a boat to drive to tide stations at specific points in Sinepuxent Bay (the area of water in between Assateague Island and headquarters, which is located on the mainland-peninsula) and hooking up equipment to get tide/weather information. Kathy, the intern I work with, and I also had to take water samples from sites on Assateague and in Virginia to analyze for brown tide (somewhat similar to Red tide). Throughout the week, we also have to check a NOAA weather station for rainfall data (that is then sent to a research station in Colorado for analysis). Each Thursday, I have to conduct marshwater sampling at two different marshes on the island. Each marsh has about 40 wells (constructed from PVC pipes) that contain water. At each well, I have to measure the length of the water column, and use a data logger to measure pH, salinity, and water temp. Ultimately, these wells will provide information on how the hydrologic regime of the marsh ecosystem is changing, and whether outside sources (i.e., human development, pollution, etc.) are changing the properties of the water. Later this week, I should be trained in another aspect of my job – mosquito monitoring (wearing bug suits and all). This task should entail setting traps and then checking the following day for mosquitoes – whatever are trapped must be collected and then analyzed in the lab. I’m pretty sure this is one part of the job I have to do by myself – so should be interesting.

Overall, I’m really excited about everything as it seems this job will give me a solid foundation for water quality monitoring and work that will be essential knowledge in any aquatics-related job or venture I have in the future. This position seems highly varied and contains work from all sides of the spectrum – so it should really boost my skills and experience. There’s also talk of conducting marsh bird surveys and vegetation sampling – so I’m super excited for that as well.

Anyway, I don't have any more pictures to share with you, so I shall put this post to a close. Hopefully I'll get some pictures of me on the job so you can get an idea of what I actually do here (and maybe show you the horses as well...)

Damn technology...

2009-07-09T16:25:00.000-07:00

First and foremost, let me apologize for the long absence in my blog writing. I'm confident that your powers of deduction told you that I've been really busy.

On another note, I'm really annoyed at the moment because I spent a couple of hours a few nights ago collaborating all the photos I was to post on here, only to discover when I got to the computer this evening that my USB is not compatible with the work computer. So I can't access any of those photos. Instead, I will post the few I have from work and some I managed to steal from Kate, Michela and Hilary.

So, a month has passed since my last entry. I have played with a lot of fish in that time, and done a bit of hiking (currently past the 100-mile goal). This past week of work has been AWESOME. We collected OVER 1,000 fish in two days, and sent the bulk of that number via helicopter to High Lake of Northwest Yellowstone. These fish, caught through the electrofishing method, are transported to High Lake to increase cutthroat numbers.

There's the helicopter carrying the bucket (more commonly used to drop water over fires) to hold fish.

Since the helitack crew has to abide by all of these safety rules, Kate and I couldn't be the ones standing directly under the copter to drop the fish. These two guys transferred the fish from one of our buckets into the big yellow one. The guy on the right is holding the net of fish.

Just another day at the office. Not a bad place to work, huh? I'm the third from the left. Here's our crew hiking to the spot where the fish were held in live cars.Drumroll please! ...And here's the star(s) of the show! All the little cutthroats, wishing they weren't stuck in a wire cage.And that's how it's done. Kate's holding the probe, which sends an electrical current throughout the water. The rest of us are carrying dipnets to catch fish.
Beyond work, I've been having a blast hiking in and around the park. For the Fourth of July weekend, Kate, several of my dormmates and I camped in Grand Teton National Park and spent a couple of days in Jackson. Unfortunately, since I don't have my photos, I can't share the absolutely stunning sights we witnessed on one of our hikes. Kate, Hilary and I made a 10-mile trek up 18 switchbacks and 4,000 feet of elevation to be rewarded with a breathtaking view of two alpine lakes surrounded by towering snow-capped mountains. We were somewhere below 10,000 ft - the highest I've hiked yet. And for all those football fans out there - we also happened across the path of Peyton Manning on our way up to the first lake. During the chance meeting, Kate and Hilary were exchanging excited glances while I stood in confusion - until they revealed at a more appropriate time that Manning is apparently a very good (HOT!) player in a family of awesome football players. The things you learn on the trail, seriously.

Below is our tent city. Our campsite provided a beautiful view of Jenny lake just beyond the trees.

The group of us in front of the Tetons. From left: the foreigners Michela (Italian) and Agnes (French), then Kate, the two Hilarys, Derek, me, and Andrea (the other Italian). What a great group.

Agnes and Michela. What more is there to say?
The most epic spin-around playground event ever. I'm pretty sure we had 9 people spinning at one point. Kate, Michela and I just flew off. The rest were still hanging on. On the afternoon of the fourth, all of us met some people we knew at a park in Jackson and had a BBQ. Some unmitigated buffoonery might have occurred.The fireworks! This was probably the longest, best firework show I have ever experienced. Being in Jackson with awesome people might also have something to do with it. Oh, for all of those wondering: sadly, I did not get to go in a hot air balloon. For the slight chance we might have had, the group of us would have had to wake up at the ungodly hour of 3 AM to do it. I was all for it, but I think the rest appreciated their beauty sleep a bit more.

The next string of photos are from various hikes I've done the past month. The photos below are from Pine Creek trail. This hike was a hardy 12 miles long that lead up through the Absaroka mountain range to a valley between two peaks, where a glacial lake lay. This hike was outside the park, closer to Bozeman.

Kate, being the BAMF that she really is, me, and Hilary in front of the trailhead. Take special note of the status of our clothing.

Kate in front of the falls. After about 2-3 miles, the hike leads you to these gorgeous falls. Most people hike to this point and then go on their merry way back to their cars. The four of us (or at least I did) huffed and puffed our way on.After hiking through miles of snow, constantly in the search of a marked trail, we came to this talus slope, knowing we had just a bit further to go before reaching the lake. After about 20 minutes of switchbacking and scrambling, a blinding flash of light pierced the sky. Right in the middle of saying "you" in my question to Kate, "Did you take a picture?" a deafening BOOM! shook us (literally) and continued rumbling down the mountains. That sound was a quick ticket out of there. The four of us quickly rushed down to lower ground to avoid being electrified. The mountains that were so clear and bright minutes before became shrouded in a mist of sleet. This was not the first time I had been hailed on while hiking.

Note the stark change between the first photo? Still in happy spirits, though!

The next hike was a 5-mile stroll that ended at Lonestar Geyser. The group of us were lucky enough to catch it erupting.

A closeup of me and Kate, and a better view of the geyser. I got this great photo of it from the other side revealing all of these vivid greens and oranges, but sadly, like I said, I don't have my photos with me.After hiking Lonestar, we all walked a couple of the boardwalks in the Upper Geyser Basin of Yellowstone. The one below is of Sapphire Pool. The blue was unreal.This photo, compliments of Kate Olsen, is of one of the vista points seen from the trail leading to Bunsen Peak. This mountain is just behind my dorm. I think one of the photos from a previous entry gives you a good view of it. If not, I'll have to post a photo of it later. In the valley below this view lays the town of Mammoth.You know, doing the usual on top of a mountain. What an incredible view of Swan Lake Flats and the surrounding Gallatin mountain range. We could also see the Tetons far off in the distance.

Well, those are all the photos I managed to steal for now. Next time, I'll be more prepared. Rodeo photos are a guarantee.

Thar she blows!

2009-06-07T16:24:00.001-07:00

Yesterday, Kate yet again obliged in letting me be a tourist for a day and drove around the park, stopping whenever the urge came upon us. We stopped at various pullouts to take photos of geysers, SNOW, and the occasional buffalo.

We visited Norris Geyser Basin, which contains some of the several hundred geysers and thermal features that make up the park. Photos never do justice, but at least they give you some glimpse of such magnificence.

This is a coyote we saw en route to Old Faithful. He was quickly behind another coyote that was crossing the road. We visited the Old Faithful Inn, a revered historic monument that is over 100 years old. People still stay at the Inn, but at a hefty price. It's completely made of wood and logs that stands over seven stories high...a pretty rare view of amazing craftmanship. Saw this cool sign (also made of wood) within the hotel.

View of the outside.And there she is! Old Faithful being her reliable constant self. The sound and height at which the water shot up was brilliant.A tourist was kind enough to take our picture in front of Old Faithful erupting. From left, that's Chelsea (certified geologist oh yeah), Kate, Hilary, and me. I was crouching, I swear. Old Faithful needed all the room and glory it could get.This photo is of Steamboat geyser. One of the park employees wondered why it wasn't even more famous than Old Faithful, as it shoots way higher and more spectacularly than the legend. However, it is not nearly as predictable as Old Faithful, and does not have major eruptions regularly. The last one shot over 115 feet in 2005.

The next string of photos are of various geysers within the Norris Geyser Basin.

This one is appropriately named "Pearl pool." Of course the glowing azure blue does not appear as brilliant as it did in real life.

It's snowing! I was ridiculously happy and probably acting rather silly.

Picturesque photo of a bison grazing in the snow.

Hilary making a snow angel.

Hilary, Kate, and Chelsea trying to catch snowflakes.

That's it for now! I hope 3 blog posts will satisy your appetite for now. Hopefully it won't be so long until the next update. Until then, update after I've rampaged on a lake trout killing spree!

Get in the boat, FISH! FISH! Get in the boat...

2009-06-07T15:11:00.000-07:00

So I figured I would include some photos of me hard at work. I think many of you aren't really clear what I do besides the all-encompassing term of fisheries, so I'll go into a bit more detail. The Yellowstone Westslope subspecies of cutthroat trout are native to many of the creeks and lakes within the park, and this is the species of fish the restoration part of the fisheries program here at YNP is working towards saving.

For the last two weeks, Mike, Kate and I have been working on Geode Creek in collecting fish ready for spawning. We collect fish via the electrofishing method. Electrofishing involves using a probe that sends an electrical current throughout the water. This current periodically stuns the fish, making catching fish with dipnets seemingly easier. This is not always the case. We work in fairly fast flowing water that has vegetation, fallen trees, and other areas where fish can hide. Sometimes the current doesn't wholly stun the fish, so they often can speedily evade your grasp. When we do catch a significant number of trout, we take length and weight measurements and clip a bit of their pelvic fins for genetic sampling.

We electrofished a handful of times, and then kept the fish in live cars (plastic bins) in the creek to hold them until we were ready to spawn them. On Friday, we collected the males and females (in their own separate buckets) and extracted eggs and milt and placed them together in airtight containers. Egg extraction is simply squeezing the females until eggs jetrocket like a machine gun out of the female's ovipositor. Same thing goes for the males: just milt shoots out instead.

The picture below is from the hike Kate and I did to Specimen Creek. This is where Kate and many other fisheries folks last summer constructed a barrier to keep fish from going upstream. This area is where rotenone (poison) is injected into the water to kill gill-breathers. Such action is centered around attempting to eradicate brook trout, which is invasive.

On my pack are a pair of snoeshoes. The week before, Kate and Mike went to the barrier to check things out, and had to snoeshoe a large part of the way, as there was several feet of snow still left on the trail. As you can see from this picture, we clearly did not need them.

This was a bison jam we got in on our way to Specimen creek. You can see in the background a ranger on a horse. Yellowstone rangers actually have to periodically herd bison, as they are not protected outside of the park. If they roam outside of park borders, ranchers have the right to kill bison if they happen across their property. The culling of bison in Montana and WY is quite a controversial issue here.This photo is at Geode creek. Waders are so sexy. That is Mike on the left, and the live car in the water.

Huge elk antlers I found while hiking alongside Geode.Me hard at work. I'm clipping part of the pelvic fin of one of the many fish we worked with.

Unfortunately, you can't see the trout very well in this picture, but a better photo will soon follow.

Mike working with the spawning canisters. A better photo of a female cutthroat trout. Females are generally fatter than males...and definitely feistier.

We saw this sign on Friday, heading towards the Blacktail deer plateau drive. On the drive, we did experience rather poop driving, as rocks, muck and the like flew up everywhere as we drove down the road.

Baby elk! This is as close as I could get. The elk must have been just a few days old...it was so awkward on its legs, but oh so cute.

The photo above is from the Osprey Falls hike (approx. 7 mi) we did last weekend. This was at the top of the canyon. This hike was pretty peculiar, as not only did you go up for 2 miles, but you also went down for another 2, switchbacking all the way down to the falls. After reaching the falls, we had to hike back up and the side of the mountain and then back down to the dorm.

This photo is right before reaching the bottom of the falls. The trees were swaying and quaking in the tremendous wind and spray that came from the cascading falls.Right at the foot of the falls. I swear it was like I was on the Maid of the Mist, without the super stylish snazzy blue ponchos. We got SOAKED. Yellow-bellied marmot we saw chilling on a rock on the side of the trail. Although it's been rainy the past week, it makes for some incredible cloud photos. This was taken at the top of the trail.Western Tanager we saw along the trail. Such a gorgeous bird.This drive leads you to Old Faithful and other amazing natural wonders. The cliffs are smack against the road and windy as ever.

Friday night was my dormmate Laura's birthday, so we all went to this resort called Chico's to celebrate and participate in a little unmitigated buffoonery. Chico's has a pool that contains water that is pumped from hot springs, and a big group of us decided to try it out. The water was amazing...not lukewarm, and not too hot. Now I can say I swam in hot spring water...how cool is that?

Next to the pool was also a bar that featured a funk/reggae band that we all danced ridiculously to. This photo is of me, Derek (fisheries), Agnes (the French girl) and Kate.

The other night I witnessed an incredible sunset. It looked as if a painter had taken his paintbrush and made sweeping flicks of his brush from the mountain top upwards. The colors were amazing.

That's it for this post. One more covering yesterday to go.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

2009-06-07T13:10:00.000-07:00

So uh, despite the odd Christmas-themed blog title, it really does relate to just another day in June at Yellowstone NP. It indeed is snowing. Or rather, it snowed yesterday and all this morning. SNOW IN JUNE?!?! Seriously? Pretty frickin awesome. Kate yesterday noted that we were all acting like little kids again...Hilary was making snow angels, and the rest of us were sticking our tongues out in the attempt to taste snowflakes. But the thing is, I didn't actually grow up with such instances. I guess I am just...a kid, then? As we were driving from Old Faithful back home to Mammoth last night (a beautiful two-hour drive), all of the girls in the car were getting a kick out of me constantly saying, "everything is white!" I was maniacally taking pictures inside and outside the car...I think I even received a couple of strange stares.

Anyway, I have a TON of pictures to put in this post, so I am going to narrate along with pictures, rather than bore you with long, laborious introductory paragraphs that you probably don't read anyway. I admit it, pictures are more fun.

So, approximately two weeks ago, Kate was kind enough to indulge me in being a tourist. En route to Cody, Wyoming, we stopped off at the GRAND CANYON OF THE YELLOWSTONE and were awed by such splendor. I must say, after spending 3 weeks at Yellowstone, I think I want to have a change of career (aka major) and become a geologist. The rock formations are out of this world. Jagged peaks, unstable precipices, and thrashing, unruly water make up this incredible sight. It's amazing to think that water ultimately creates such wonders.

Photo of Yellowstone Lake, just after the Spring thaw. The first week I was here, the entire lake was frozen. Now it's one large mass of cold, fluid water.This photo is taken from the Buffalo Bill Scenic Highway heading towards Cody. This area is about 2,000 feet higher than Mammoth and was still largely caked in snow. It was an incredible drive.

Tunnel!! We went through many of these on our way to Cody. So awesome. I think the only other places where I've driven through mountains were in Tennessee. Like I said, crazy rocks. Kate and I (vicariously) both thought we were in the Southwest on our drive. The rocks were colored these stunning reds and oranges resplendent of a Utah or Arizonian desert.Took this inside the Buffalo Bill Museum. This poster, along with thousands of other relics, overwhelmed the walls of the museum. Buffalo Bill truly created the cowboy image and lifestyle of buckin' broncos and oversized Steston hats we (ahem, Dad) revere today.

Remind you of Arizona? Yeah, that's what I thought.

Photo of Bear tooth mountain...I'm convinced your powers of deduction will enlighten you as to why it has such a name. Took this inside the car on the drive back to Mammoth...what a drive!Saw this little critter in the parking lot of the hotel we stayed in while in Cody. Jackrabbits are everywhere! I think Kate thinks I have an obsession. I somehow feel the need to point out a rabbit whenever I see one by indicating such with a a loud, "bunny!"Back in Yellowstone. Home, home on the range comes to mind when I see this photo. The buffalo were conveniently situated in an idyllic setting of a hilly backdrop with thunderous clouds looming in the background. I just had to take a picture.This is appropriately coined a "bison jam." Bison jam: when bison nonchalantly stroll across a road, seemingly unaware and/or unconcerned with the growing pileup of cars and overly exited tourists just itching for a National Geographic-type photo.I see these little guys everywhere. This is a ground squirrel. He was hoping for a treat, but sadly, he was not satisfied.Ok, so the next string of photos (with above photos included) are just a smattering of snapshots of wildlife I've taken while driving throughout the park. Some of them I've seen in hikes, but a large majority are straight from the car. The reliability and frequency of wildlife viewing here is absolutely incredible. The photo below is of a chipmunk. They too are everywhere. These are two bighorn ewes that usually hang out on some cliffs that lie very close to the North entrance of the park. They had some babies with them, but unfortunately, my camera just couldn't get close enough. This photo is provided for you courtesy of Kate Olsen. If you look closely, you can see the fairly developed horns of the ram in the middle.
Here's a bull elk grazing, with its antlers just starting to grow. He and another bull caused quite a jam.Mule deer! Their ears are so funny. Along the drive to Gardiner and Livingston, Montana, mule deer are everywhere. They are often seen grazing on some rancher's property.Very pregnant pronghorn does resting on a hillside. Closeby we saw a mother and her fawn, but they were too quick for me to get a picture. It's freaking baby season! They are soooo cute. Copious girl noises would erupt from the car every time we saw a baby elk, pronghorn, bison, or deer. Male pronghorn grazing. Fun fact about pronghorn: they are the fastest land mammal in North America, and the second fastest in the world, only beaten by the cheetah.This is taken on the Beaver Ponds Loop hike (approx. 5 mi) we did two weekends ago. Hilary is on the left, and Kate is on the right. Hilary worked in fisheries last year, but now works for Ted Turner on one of his ranches in Bozeman. She was down in Mammoth for the Cody and hiking adventure weekend. More mule deer, seen on the Beaver Ponds hike. We also saw some white-tailed deer, but I didn't get any photos that were clear enough. They were all in hiding in the woods.

One of the larger ponds we saw during our hike. And no, unfortunately, we didn't see any beavers (lots of dams, though). We did see, however, a yellow-headed blackbird. Youtube their call. It's the most awesome bird call I've ever heard.It was such a beautiful day.

This is a view of the Gallatin mountain range that surrounds Gardiner and Livingston seen from our hike. I loved the shadows of the clouds over the hills and mountain tops. This is from the Monument Geyser Basin hike I did with some people that I live with in the dorm. I think it gained 600 feet of elevation in just over a mile. It was pretty grueling, but the view made it all worth the effort. Oh, I can't forget to tell you this: en route to the vista point, we got hailed on. No kidding. This is a steam vent, also known as a fumarole. The sound of air and gases hissing from these things is amazing. I wish I had a video of all of the hissing and gurgling noises that emit from these geysers.View of some of the monument geyser basin area. Again, I was inundated with horrible, sulfuric smells that burned by nose...but I sacrificed comfort for the gorgeous view in front of me.

I might have let one go. But then again, who could tell?

View of the mountains on the drive back. I swear to you, it really does seem like the sky here is bigger. I wonder if they call it Big Sky country here. Every day, the clouds are unreal. If you look to the bottom of the picture, you can see the strokes of rain coming down on the far off mountains. Saw this grizz just 10 feet in front of me (see car). I first saw him behind a tree about 15 yards from the road. He was just meandering down to the road, taking his sweet old time when he seemed to suddenly notice there were about 20 cars around him. It was like he looked up and went, "Oh!" and then high-tailed it across the road and down the hillside, about 200 yards away.

Anyway, I have more photos to post, but my fingers are growing weary from all of the scrolling down so I will start another entry with more adventures to follow.

First week at Jellystone

2009-05-22T15:47:00.000-07:00

So, if you all thought I was hard to reach last summer, think again. I have no cell phone service yet again, so my apologies for the lack of communication this past week (and for the entire summer). The dorm in which I live in does not have a house phone, but does, however, have a payphone. Unfortunately, messages can't be left on payphones. If you would like to call and attempt to reach me, just let me know and I'll email you the number. As far as internet access goes, I have to walk 1.5 miles into the town of Mammoth to access email and this blog. So, communication capabilities are pretty low.

Despite all of this, I am living in an incredibly beautiful place, and will enjoy being back in the "wildnerness" again. I live right on the outskirts of the town of Mammoth, which is a touristy historic place within the Northwest gate of Yellowstone. Many of these buildings are over 100 years old, as the place was first known as "Fort Yellowstone" and was commanded by the US Army. The real majesty of this town, though, is in its hot springs. I live about a mile from these gorgeous natural curiosities, and had a chance yesterday and today to explore them. Pretty photos will soon follow.

My first day in Montana and Wyoming was welcomed by numerous elk, bison, and a lone pronghorn. While unpacking my things, I happened to look outside my room window and saw this cute little creature:

The bison have just dropped their calves, so many of them still have a part of their umbilical cords still attached to them. After witnessing this calf, a larger bison came lumbering around the corner munching on grasses. This entire herd came to say hello just outside my window.Then around 8:30 pm, I was greeted by a wonderful sunset. I was thinking that, being that WY is moderately close to Alaska, it would have really long days too. But, the sun sets at a reasonable hour, and rises around 6:30 am.

On my second day, Kate and I rose at an early 5:30 am to head to the office by 6:30. Along with Todd (fisheries overlord) and Mike, my supervisor, we drove down to Yellowstone Lake to begin orientation and training. Usually, the drive to Lake is around 1 hour and 45 minutes. But, construction on the way caused our drive to extend to a lengthy 2 hours and 30 minutes. Though this diversion created some grumbles, I was glad to take the long route and witness the beauty of Yellowstone. About 1 hour into the drive, we came across a road jam to find that the commotion was centered on a large grizzly just 40 yards from the road. Of course, as fate would have it, my camera was in the bed of the truck, unreachable to my fevered grasp. Never fear, though, another convoy of fisheries folk following behind us stopped and took pictures, so I just have to get some from them. Just a half hour later, we were stuck in another jam, this time caused by a herd of buffalo. About 30 or 40 bison were just taking their sweet old time, trotting down the entire width of the road. A quick scan along some of car passenger faces had some people looking frightened, others snapping away without either hand on the wheel, and one man literally shouting and waving his arms, apparently hoping that such behavior will quicken their pace. About half way, we made a stop in the "town"of Old Faithful to use the facilities. I took a quick photo of Old Faithful in the meantime:

Unfortunately, we couldn't stay 90 minutes to see the eruption, but I'll see it another time.

The next photo I took especially for you, Dad and Mr. Anderson. I knew you would enjoy such things. For all those in confusion, this is a pile of bison poo. Looks almost petrified, don't you think? Most of them look like cow patties - one big mass of flat feces. I think a cow patty fight may be in order.

This is the fisheries crew. Although the faces are miniscule, I'm right around the center, Mike is behind me, and Kate is to the right of him. We make up the cutthroat restoration group. The rest of these folk are divided between gillnetting, water quality, and stream/lake surveying crews. After work that day, Brian, one of the fish biologists, took us to one river where Harlequin ducks reside. I wasn't able to get too close, unfortunately, so the ducks look really tiny. It was pretty amazing how they were able to keep up with all of the ebb and flow of the fast current. It looked like they were having a ton of fun diving down into the water.

Also during our stay out at Lake, we saw two coyotes. The treat was so brief though, so I didn't get a chance to take a picture. I first thought I was seeing a wolf, because I wasn't used to seeing such large, gray coyotes. The ones in Florida are so small in comparison.

This next photo is of my backyard. No, really. The landscape is so different than what I'm used to. The vegetation is pretty scrubby, with few trees lying in lower elevations (makes for answering nature's call pretty difficult). Many of the trees and plants here consist of lodgepole pine, blue spruce, juniper, and few wildflowers. The area is also largely brown, and surprisingly (for me, at least), many of the areas are still covered in heavy snow. Around Lake, snow drifts as tall as 10 feet or higher were seen all along roadways and within the woods. Everybody here says the snow is taking longer to melt this year. (I'm most likely going to have to snowshoe this next week as we start hiking in backcountry!) Though that is the case, this entire week I've been basking in the sun (no rain) in temperatures around 66 degrees. At night, it gets in the thirties.

I thought this mountain was super cool. You can see all of the water lines, reaching as far as the top of the slope.Opposite this stood Mammoth Hot Springs. To get better views of the area, the NPS installed boardwalks running all alongside of the springs, reaching as far up as 6,600 feet.

So, yesterday and today, I had some time to walk into town and check out these natural wonders. These springs are formed from the upwelling of water from underlying limestone. The water is naturally scalding (I tested it out today) and huge clouds of steam rise as the surrounding air is much cooler. The main chemical compounds that derive from the limestone-hot water mix rise up from the rock, creating calcium carbonate deposits throughout the entire area. The deposits are in the form of travertine, which forms the terraces of the springs. Unfortunately, I didn't bring my all-weather gloves to steal some travertine for the bathroom floor for you, Mom. You'll have to come prepared when you arrive in July. Anyway, what makes the awesome colors of orange, white, green, brown and an amalgam of others that are seen in these creations are these creatures called thermopiles, that live in the rock. They are some of the only creatures that can live in such an environment.

The spring facing the road is Canary Spring.

This next one (above) is the largest of the terraces, named Minerva terrace. The kinds of formations these springs create is absolutely astounding.

This here spring is the Cleopatra terrace. While walking throughout the numerous miles of boardwalks, I couldn't help but notice a smell of sulfur. There was a distinct, fart-like smell pervading my nostrils the entire walking adventure. (Take comfort in that thought, Dad, as it was like you were there right with me.) After reading one of the interpretative boards, I learned that the putrid stench was a result of hydrogen sulfide that was being released.

The picture above is of the town of Mammoth, looking down from one of the many boardwalks. When I was hanging out in front of Minerva Spring, I looked to the right of me and noticed these beauties relaxing on top of a dormant spring. The elk and bison around Mammoth are so acclimated to human activity, that they act fairly comfortable when in close proximity to people.Most of them look pretty ragged right now, as they are shedding their winter coats.

Along the hike home, I saw another sight, reminiscent of my days in Alaska: Elk poo! Looks really similar to moose poo, doesn't it?Remember what I said about dirty, inconsiderate hikers, Mom? See Exhibit A:

Saw some pretty flowers to make up for it, though.

I just had to take this picture.

Another shot of the sunlight hitting the vegetation.

Anyway, that's all for now. I haven't included any photos from my day in Mammoth today, but I will next time. Got to check off a yellow-bellied marmot and ground squirrel from the list!

Yellowstone Bound

2009-05-17T09:43:00.000-07:00

How lucky am I, to boast that I have another adventure this summer in another absolutely stunning place. Starting at 8:30 tomorrow morning, I will be jetsetting to Bozeman, Montana to start my internship at Yellowstone National Park.

As of yet, I am unsure how often I will be able to update this thing, but I will try to keep you all in contact as much as I can. If you ever wish to mail me anything, email me and I'll let you know my mailing address.

Anyway, I just wanted to do a quick update and inform you of the vast ways you can contact me. Until then, I'll update when I'm out in cowboy country!

I know this is delayed...but alas, here it is. I hope the wait was well worth it...

2008-10-20T17:45:00.000-07:00

I didn't want to tack this onto the last post purely on a feng shui basis. Florida and Alaska just don't combine too well. But for all of those who wanted to see where I lived, worked and played for most of the summer, here they are! (P.S. Apparently I started a blog post end of September...so that's why the date is way late on the last post. I did indeed post it today, October 20th.)

This, my friends, was my favorite place to work. Ahhh, I can feel the nostalgia coming in to sweep me off my feet. Every time I worked the visitor contact station, I'd have to flip the sign to "Open" as you see here, put out those two pink geranium plants that you see on either side of the building, and prop open the door. Isn't it beautiful?This is how it looks further away. There was a nice little sitting area out front. I used to sit out here on sunny days and nestle in on a comfortable spot, and bask in the warmth of the sun, often reading the sage words of my buddy John Muir.

Alright, I've taken pictures of the inside of the VCS to give you a better idea of how it looked like. If you picture looking at it from coming inside the front door, this is the back wall. The sign there tells the history of the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge and tells about first man as he crossed the bering land bridge. To the left was a little interp exhibit for kids.This is the wall to the left from the front door. Those three racks are where we displayed our merchandise. This is the wall of the front door. The thing jutting out from the wall is a register, for visitors to sign-in to and write where they were from. On the back wall there is a huge map of the Kenai and Katmai peninsulas. This is one of my favorite maps I used. I wish I had my own. I often would walk over from the table you see there on the left and show visitors the area they were in (and potential areas they wanted to visit). This is the main desk area. I sat behind this and looked all official like a park ranger. Or at least I tried to at least... Another view of the map. As you see up above, there's a skylight in the ceiling. As I've already mentioned, this building, being in the middle of nature, had no electronic/electric capabilities. So there was no light whatsoever, except natural light.The Queen's chair. I spent a good amount of time here. Me and chair became fast friends...it was a good thing he didn't mind me sitting on him. Behind the desk there, as you can see, is a lot of books, pamphlets, and other paper. All of this was informational resources I could use to help advise visitors on hiking, fishing, hunting, etc., etc.

This is also something I was very intimate with. The infamous tracker. I drove this beaut back and forth to the VCS whenever I worked there.

So, apparently I've lost the photos I had of the Refuge headquarters itself. This greatly saddens me. If you want to know how the main visitors' center looks like, I would check out their website (kenai.fws.gov) or google to see it.

The following photos are of the bunkhouse itself. Sadly, I can no longer call the bunkhouse mine because it's currently being converted to law enforcement offices. I'm pretty sure they're keeping the kitchen how it is, though. This, if you hadn't figured it out already, is the kitchen. Pretty spiff.

View of the kitchen and dining room area. Not sure if you noticed this, but, we had two refridgerators! That was nice. One you can see is on the left, the other you can see from the previous photo. This table experienced many fun times. Lots of eating, cooking, and the occasional BEST GAME EVER was played here. This is the living room, and our small, small tv. There's Eve. Sadly, she's no longer in AK. But I'm sure she's enjoying being back with the fam. To the left of this photo and beyond is a hallway that leads to two bedrooms and a bathroom.Beautiful Eve again! This a view of the living room from the other side. Beyond this photo to the right is a hallway that also leads to two bedrooms and a bathroom.

There indeed is the hallway. The room smack dab in front was Eve and Sam's room. My and Julia's room was on the left. The door to the right is the door to the bathroom.

Aaah, there it is. I spent many a good time here. Especially on that contraption over there with its lid up. If you look above it there, you see a poster with flowers on it. I kid you not, I memorized that thing. On the back wall there to the right was the shower. Very tight, but did the job.My room! To the left is Julia's bunk. Mine is the impeccably clean one straight ahead. Kades, you can see your heart there on the wall. :)

Inside my closet. It's so organized.

The laundry room! I put this to probably too much use. I think Eve would vouch for that. :) The door there leads to the outside of the bunkhouse, which you will see in the next photo!And that, my friends (do I remind you of anyone? McCain, perhaps?) is the bunkhouse. The front of Eve's truck (that is no longer in her possession, but some other lucky dude's) is to the right. Many times I saw moose right up against the door there or near the windows.This is the pathway we walked everyday to get to the main visitors' center. If you remember that photo from way back, the black momma bear and her two cubs was just below that first curve. Pretty close to the bunkhouse, huh?

Come to think of it, I took pictures of headquarters and all of the little pathways that lead off from it. Unfortunately, either I have yet to find those photos, or they were accidentally deleted. This photo here is of the Andrew Berg cabin. It was relocated here so the refuge could look after it, so no more damage could be inflicted upon it. Mr. Berg was Alaska's first licensed hunting guide. He came to the Kenai Peninsula in 1888 from Norway and established a life for himself off the land. This cabin was built entirely by himself. Pretty impressive.

This is the EE building, where Eve mostly worked. It's fairly new...I think only four years old or something like that. This is where we had a lot of our trainings, and also where a lot of fun programs for children were held. We had wild flower and wild berry fun days here.

Just a photo of the outdoor sign.

Okay, so I take what I said earlier back. I did find some photos of headquarters! That's a relief. I was really saddened by that fact.

And there it is, in all its shining, scintillating glory. My beautiful Kenai National Wildlife Refuge headquarters building, with the American flag proudly waving in the Alaskan sunlight. Mmmm. How I miss thee.

Another photo.

The Keen Eye Trail. Get it? Those refuge trail sign makers, they are comedians. This was right outside, to the left of the KNWR headquarters, if you are looking at it straight on as in the previous picture.This is on the Keen Eye Trail. It eventually leads to headquarters lake, and also hooks on to the Forest Loop trail. The Keen Eye Trail is the hike I led on wild berry fun day. :) On the boardwalk, looking out at the black spruce trees. This was an absolutely stunning day. Sunny, cool, and shining. Clouds were amazing.

Boardwalk leading across the boggy area leading to the lake. Black spruce trees all around.

View of the headquarters lake!Another photo of the lookout area.

Headquarters lake: place where dreams come true. Or at least, where float planes come in. This lake is restricted access - no canoeing or any other water activity (swimming included) is allowed.

So pretty. Well, that's it! I could have taken more pictures of everything, but alas, this is all I have. I hope it gave you a better idea of where I worked this summer. These were the places where I spent the best summer of my life. I hope you were able to grasp and get some inkling of the beauty of this place.

Back in the Sunshine state...where it may be hot, it may be humid, but bygum - it's freaking SUNNY!

2008-09-27T12:39:00.000-07:00

So tomorrow marks my two month anniversary for being back in Florida. Not something I'm overly excitied about...but alas, the fact still remains. I have, incidentally, been continuing an exciting life post-Alaska. Spent two weekends in good ol' Titusville, one weekend in historic Savannah, one in beautiful St. Augustine, another camping at Manatee Springs State Park, and finally, spent this past weekend at Caravelle Ranch, a wildlife management area near Palatka. Although I've been (mostly) restricted to Florida...I'm trying to make the most of it. I'm making a valiant effort to explore Gainesville and be busy most weekends. This week we have the friday off, due to it being homecoming weekend...so I'll be enjoying the cool weather and phantasmagoric (I can dream) colors of Fall in North Carolina and Tennessee! I'm very excited about that. I'm going with four other friends, roadtripping through the mountains and staying in Asheville, NC. We plan to enjoy a BBQ at Cades Cove (TN) and will also visit the Biltmore Estate. Should be a weekend of rainbows, butterflies, lollipops, and hopes and dreams. Or something like that.

I was excited to discover in my mailbox today a package from the BioDiversity Research Institute. I.e...the people I did the loon capture and tagging surveys with! So I FINALLY got my loon pictures. They turned out great. And here they are:

There's the loon in my lap. I had to hold its head down (right hand) and use my left to keep its bill closed. Those suckers can slice right through the skin...rather painfully so.

Picture of the Common Loon close up. Isn't she a beaut?

OK, so these next two aren't close up. The one up above is me and Rick (one of the researchers) about to let the loon go. And there she goes! It was so exciting. I wish I could do that everyday. They have an awesome job.This and the next couple of pictures are from our weekend in St. Augustine. I went with my two roommates, Megan and Jesse. That was an adventure. Since the trip wasn't really planned, we kind of got up and drove. So no arrangements as to where we were going to sleep for the night were arranged. So that meant I spent my first night in a car in a public parking lot next to the beach. What an experience. The next morning, I woke up just in time to walk down the boardwalk and to the shoreline. I spread out a towel, sat down and watched as the sun slowly rose above the ocean surface. And what a beautiful sunrise it was.

You see, Florida has some redeeming qualities! There's nothing like waking up to this. The reflection of the sun onto the water was absolutely fantastic. Reds, oranges, yellows, violets and colors of all hues spread out onto the water like a rainbow.Then after gazing at the sun for an hour or so, we made a visit to the St. Augustine lighthouse. It wasn't open yet, so we couldn't go up inside...but I was still able to get some good photos of the outside of it.This is a photograph of one part of the Flagler College campus. Absolutely gorgeous campus. Most of the college used to be a hotel, which since has been converted into a university-like setting. In 1888, Henry Flager built the luxury resort Hotel Ponce de Leon, so many parts of the campus are over a hundred years old. Many buildings throughout the town were built or commissioned by Flagler, so the town has a ton of history. Much of Flager college has ornately-decorated buildings with doors of intricate design. I would love to go to school here. A shame that the school only offers 12 majors. Or something like that.Here's one of the two lion heads that guard the entrance to the college. Notice what ol' Leon the lion here has in his mouth...what a rebel.

Here is Flagler Presbyterian church. The inside is absolutely stunning.After taking a stroll through the campus, we visited the fort. Officially named the Castillo de San Marcos, this monument of stone and mortar was built by the Spaniards in 1672. As all of you should know, St. Augustine is the oldest city in the U.S. The fort itself is the oldest masonry and only extant 17th century fort in North America. It still has some of the original cannons and weaponry used at the time.Here's one of the cannons. Notice the intricate design inlaid on the metal.These are my two roommates inside one of the four lookout towers. Jesse is on the left, Megan on the right. And there I am, not looking angry. The fort was once surrounded by a moat, but there behind me is the Atlantic flowing into the St. Augustine marina.

Two weekends ago, my friend Tessa and I went camping at Manatee Springs in Chiefland, FL. The campground is right next to a set of natural springs that stay around 70-76 degrees F year-round. The turquoise-clear water was surrounded by Bald Cypress trees on all sides. Here's me and Tessa, blinking away sleep at 8 in the morning. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed are we! There's my tiny tent that I bought in Alaska. It still had a bit of AK trail spice in it. Sigh.This is what we got to wake up to in the morning. We saw her and many other deer during our trip. It was awesome getting to see them so close, but was also sad to realize they they are too acclimated to human activity. Then Tessa and I went kayaking along the Suwannee River. It was a nice 4-hour paddle in beautiful, overcast weather. Of course, as soon as we got done, the sun decided to grace us with its presence.

More kayakers!

Did you suddenly start hearing Rocky's theme with this photo? I sure did.

Pretty leaves.

The next string of photos are from my 21st birthday. The first one is at Friday's restaurant. There was about 14 of us all together at dinner. Tessa got me this very embarassing headband to wear, which you'll notice in the photo below.

This was a night we went out to the Melting Pot for dessert. From left, is Shannon, Ana, and Ashley, three girls I've met at my apartment complex. Megan, my roommate, is right beside me.

This is my roommate and me on my birthday. I was completely sober.

And last but not least, I had to give you a picture of the cats. I have four other roommates, but these are the two I care about the most. Megan and Jesse have two cats, a Ball python, and Mika, their beagle (who is thoroughly annoying). This handsome fellow below is Pokey.

And this is Sylvia. She likes to get into everything. I saw her cutely laying in this box and just had to take a picture.

Anyway, although my title says otherwise...today it wasn't hot. Miraculous! We've been enjoying cool, breezy weather that's been staying around the 70s. At night, it gets to 58. Very nice. I don't think I've gotten to enjoy such temperatures since I was in Alaska. Sad, isn't it? Hopefully I'll get to enjoy even cooler temperatures this weekend in NC. I hope you all enjoyed the update. I'll post more later.

Time to Say Goodbye...as so beautifully sung by Andrea Bocelli and Sarah Brightman....le sigh

2008-08-21T10:56:00.000-07:00

So today, August 21st, marks my last day in Alaska. I already feel the tears coming. This will be my final entry while I'm in Alaska. When I get the time, I might upload more pictures here and there that I never posted. But the key thing is that I won't be posting them while physically being in one of the most beautiful states (I think I can say this unbiased-ly) I have come to know. And my toe has just grazed the surface! It's amazing to think that I've been here 3 and a half months, and I've just gotten my feet wet. There is so much more to Alaska that I have yet to explore. People can spend their whole lives here and never see all that they wish to see. ALASKA, the last frontier - is the largest out of all 50 states - and impossible to completely cover. But alas, I must be satisfied with the wealth of experiences I will bring back home with me. TODAY. I can't believe it. These short three and a half months have absolutely zoomed by. Alaska will remain in my heart for the years to come - and hopefully, I'll come back to that special place often.

Anyway, for the very last time, the four of us (many thanks to Candace) were given a field day together last Sunday. Saturday night marked the last (!) campfire program Sam and I did. And it might just be the excitement that comes with things that come to a close - but I swear, that was our best campfire program. I think we both were the most relaxed (and by golly - we should have been - we had 8 programs to practice) and comfortable with the audience. The adults and kiddies were great - engaged, humored, and entertained. Once we finished, Sam, Julia, Eve and I camped at Hidden Lake Campground. We had some din-din, shared some funny stories, and toasted marshmallows with the campground hosts. It was pure and unadulterated joy.

Eve and me in the tent that morning. We look so tired. Ready for hiking, are we!

That Sunday morning, we took a little trip to Seward, in which we partook (is that a word, Dad?) in what was probably the most grueling hike I've done this summer. (Sidenote: I calculated all of the miles I've hiked this summer - and it came to a whopping, 104.5 miles! That doesn't include all of the walking I did all total - just numbers of miles I've done on Refuge, Chugach, and Kenai Fjords NP trails. I must say, I'm pretty proud of myself.) All FOUR of us hiked and completed the 8.4 mi hike on the Harding Ice Field Trail!

Being that the trail ends at the top of a 360-degree view of an ocean of ice, the entire ride up is constant elevation gain. The trail gains roughly 1,000 feet per mile. So at the very start, we were huffing and puffing while scrambling up rocks and precarious precipices (how's that for alliteration!). This is what Eve had to say about that:

That's right! Thumbs down to the HIFT (Harding Ice Field Trail) and all its glory! It kicked our ass. This is Eve at Marmot Meadows. This was a fairly flat area that we came to, before we next got to the copious switchbacks we had to overcome.

This is a marmot! I know I mentioned a marmot when I talked about Sam's and my hike. I didn't put a photo up because none of mine were close enough. But, while Eve was tra-la-la-ing along the trail and taking a breakie-poo, out popped a marmot out of its little hole! So she then immediately aborted the said breakie-poo and snapped as many pictures of Mr. Marmot as fast as her little fingers could go. Then they held hands and continued to tra-la-la along the trail.

Then, we got to this lookout point (which doesn't look like it in this picture, but just believe what I tell you) that overlooked exit glacier and the surrounding mountains. It was an absolutely breathtaking view. At this point, we sat down, relaxed our wearied muscles, and ate some lunch.

I even had a little nappie-poo!

Then, due to a retarded photographer, all three of us look like we're about to start a race! Actually, the original intent of this photo was for all three of us to look like we were suspended in mid-air over the glacier. But as I mentioned said incapable photo-taker, he captured us at the wrong moment. But it's still funny.

This was a sign we saw at the first mile we trekked. I thought it was funny. But I guess I should take it seriously, huh?

Photo of Exit Glacier. Once the sun decided to grace us with its presence, the angels came out heralding HALLELUJAH! and the blue of the glacier literally glowed. It was amazing.Surviving the elements. Or, at least attempting to walk in snow. This is the most snow I've ever seen and/or been in. I had seen a lot of snow when I went skiiing in Utah, but it was nothing compared to this. Fortunately, people that had done the trail before us left definite tracks in the snow...so I carefully followed their footsteps, so I wouldn't go cascading down the mountain and die. True fax.

See? I'm a pro at this!

Snow in August? What? Only in Alaska.

Almost there!

Aaaahhh, time for a restie-poo. This was the emergency shelter near the top of the summit. It's just a little wooden box, pretty much. There was a little register in there that you could sign in to, which we did. The entire inside of the cabin was covered with the signatures and Rufus wuz here (no kidding about the Rufus) signings of people from all over the world.

See those little dots in the picture? That's us.

The Harding Ice Field! It was so surreal. A complete sea of ice surrounding you from all sides. This is something that I think compares to such sights as ones you Must See Before You Die, along with the Grand Canyon. In the lower right hand corner of this picture is Exit Glacier. The glacier is covered in ice and snow, and just that little area of it down there is the blue ice peeking through. We made it to the top! From the left, that's me, Eve, and Sam. Many thanks to Julia for sacrificing herself and taking this picture. Unless global warming kicks up into high gear, this ice will stay here forever. How unfathomable is that?!

While we were hiking the trail and at the top, I was cursing the fact that I forgot to bring my polarized sunglasses. It's unbelievable how snow reflects so much light. My corneas were burning.

Truly a white-out picture. It looks like I copied this picture in Paint and then took the little eraser button and outlined the edges of all three of us. Completely stunning view.Me at the top! The snow was so bright, that all of us were almost silhouettes in comparison. Unfortunate you can't see us that well, but I'm not complaining. Picture of surrounding area. Look, you can even seen a bit of green! (in the lower right hand corner, just in case you were having trouble.)

Another stunning view of Exit glacier and the Harding Ice Field. This is a place that you will only see if you take this trail - or go on a plane. No place else to access it. And no place else like it.

The three of us at the end of the trail. I think those are smiles of win. And exhausted-ness. Too bad we had the entire trail to go down!

On the way back down! Since there was so much snow, and many, many foot tracks, much of the snow turned into slick ice. That was really slippery. So all of us had quite a few close calls. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of us sliding down...but we literally got on our butts and slid down most of the way. For some parts of the trail, we used our shoes as skiis and crouched real low to the ground and slid the way down. It was really fun.

I even made a snow angel! You know, it was just one of those things I just had to do. In the middle of making my perfect snow angel, Sam proceeded to grab ahold of my foot and slid me down. In the act of which, I acquired snow crystals on my back, ankles, and butt. It was so cold.While looking at this picture, don't you just hear Handel's "Hallelujah" chorus singing in the background? Well, we did...and sung it the entire way down the trail. (As a matter of fact, I'm playing it right now as I write this post. It has a little ring to it, I think.) Eve got us started singing the Hills....are alivvvvvvve....with the sound of muuuuuusic, too. It was glorious.

Two thumbs up for a gorgeous view and kicking that trail's ass! (Although it was a mutual ass-kicking smorgasbord.) Of course, I had to get the hair-down picture. Beautiful view. I'm talking about the mountains, of course.Then, at the end of the day, trail conquered, legs shaking and us questioning who we were and where we came from, we went to a Greek restaurant and ate dinner. We were all rewarded with this delicious, fattening, chocolatey piece of cake. Sam's expression is absolutely priceless. I love this picture.

So that was awesome, and an unforgettable experience. I hope you all get to Alaska and do that trail - because it's something you'll remember for the rest of your life. Now, I know I mentioned clamming centuries ago...and said how I'd post pictures. Well, I finally got the pictures from Chad, so here's the evidence:

We caught 135 clams that day. Here's Sam with her two razor clams. Doesn't she look so cute in her little clam gear? (yes, Randy, she does!)

Chad with his clam and clam gun ready in hand. He went crazy with clamming. I think he probably pulled out two clams a minute, he was so badass.And so was I. I got down there, went elbow-deep in muck, and pulled those little suckers outta there. It was exhilerating. Might I add that Sam and I made a clam chowdah out of them and it was absolutely delicious.

What I reaped.

Sam and Chad each getting their clams.

Did I mention that I loved clamming?

I know from the last blog entry that I cut my and Sam's vacation story off at when we took the Alaska railroad. Well, our last night in Seward, we took the train at around 6 pm and rode into Anchorage. We saw some beautiful views of Kenai Lake, the Kenai mountain range, and many glaciers along the way. Once we got into Anchorage, we were welcomed by a gorgeous sunset across Turnagain Arm.

It's so beautiful.

Pretty, pretty sunset. You can see the reflection of the train windows on the picture.This was inside the train.

Turnagain Arm.

My last Alaskan sunset. (tear)

Once in Anchorage, Sue picked us up and we spent the night at her house (which was lovely) and the next morning, we drove out to the Flat Top Mountain trailhead. This was a hard hike, too. I think the highest point was 3,500 feet (or somewhere close) at the top of Flat Top Mountain. It really does have a flat top - but you have to scramble up rocks for a good mile or two to get there.

Yeah, that's right, I'm hard core with my big guns. This bit of the trail really epitomizes the entire trail: uphill the entire way. At the top of the summit, overlooking the surrounding mountains. I think my expression is one of strained happiness. Good one, Emily.

See? It really does have a Flat Top. Too bad it looks really easy from this picture. It's deceiving, I know. From probably that bit of snow right there 'til the top, you have to scramble over jutted-out rocks the entire way. It was pretty scary.

Overlooking the entire area. It was a pretty awesome view.

That's it! (for now, at least.) In two hours, I get on a plane to Anchorage that will eventually lead me back to good ol' Florida. I've had an absolutely life-changing, out of this world, amazing time here in Alaska. I've met some of the most interesting people, seen some of the most beautiful things, and been shown a whole new world of possibility. I will never forget those that I've met here and they will remain in my heart forever. I hope to come back to Alaska as often as I can (or as much as my pocketbook allows) and see more incredible sights and people. In a matter of three and a half months, I've done things people don't even get to experience in one lifetime, and for that, I'm eternally grateful.

The sole purpose of this blog was to catalogue my adventures in Alaska. I will continue it, as long as my life remains exciting (it better be!). Who knows where I'll end up next summer. Only time will tell.

Send me on my way

2008-08-16T11:01:00.001-07:00

So Sam and I just got back from our 5-day backpacking extravaganza. And it was SO awesome. If blogger wasn't so slow in uploading photos...I'd have the majority of this post as pictures...for your viewing pleasure. But, since I don't have 5 hours to kill in the library, I'll post as many as I can before I must go.

So the trip started at 5 am Sunday morning. We left around 5:30 and were dropped off at the Summit Creek trailhead around 7:15. We took our "before" photos at the start of the trail, smiling with toothy grins and laden with 40 lb packs on our backs. Summit Creek is roughly 8 miles long through alpine/tundra area. Most of the trip you are in a bowl surrounded by mountains on all sides of you. You gradually climb uphill for the first three miles, and then the next two and a half are along a ridge following the side of a mountain. The trail had several snow crossings and creek crossings. The latter was a time where I got go for a little swim. Without fail, everytime we had a creek crossing, I'd slip off of the rocks we attempted to cross by and fall shin-deep in water. Sucked. The rest of the trail my feet, shoes and socks were soaked, sloshing and gurgling the entire way. (But that didn't deter me!)

This was probably three miles in. Snow was everywhere. Fortunately, I think we had about 3 or 4 places where we had to cross snow...so it wasn't all the time. This area here is close to the place where we ran into an older couple that were hiking. They were your hardcore hiker-type: petite, lean, and muscley, with poles in either hand and all their gear nicely snug on their backs. They told us they had hiked off of the trail and camped up in the mountains you see behind me there - and that it had snowed on them during the night (and they saw caribou!). Crazy. I would say that it was around 48-55 degrees our entire trip. Dall sheep! We saw a family on our way down from another snow crossing we did. I'm pretty sure there's three females, one male, and two babies in this group. We got pretty close to them! At this point, we saw the sheep, and then out of nowhere, we heard this high-pitched, whistling sound, similar to that of a referee's whistle. We first thought that it could possibly be a whistle from one of the hunters we had met along the trail. But then after another whistle, we turned our heads to the direction of the sound and saw a marmot! They can get pretty big, but they're usually 2 feet long and resemble beavers in a way. They're gray-tan color and have little fluffy tails. We saw a bunch more during our hike.

This is near the last 2 miles of Summit Creek trail. Before this vista point, we had done a grueling climb from a low point (the bowl area) up to this point. Many breaks were necessary (and taken). But once we got to this point, we were rewarded for all of our efforts. It was an absolutely stunning view. Along the side of the mountain to the right of the picture near the bottom is Resurrection trail. Summit hooks onto Resurrection. We hiked on that for about 3 miles and then took the Devil's Pass trail from there.

One of the creeks we had to cross. And one I subsequently fell in. Not only did we have to cross a creek, but immediately after doing that we had to cross snow. Not fun. But challenging. On this creek we saw our first ptarmigan. We hadn't seen any the entire time we'd been up here - and that's mainly because they're mostly found in alpine/high elevation areas. During this time of the year, they have a red tuft on their heads and they are mostly brown/gray with spotted feathers. During the winter, they turn completely white - so they are almost possible to see in the snow.

Here are the two ptarmigan we saw. One was female (in background) and the other was male.

This is at the point on the Resurrection trail that shows you which direction each trail leads to. Devil's Pass cabin was right behind us, and then we took the Devil's Creek trail leading to the left of this sign.

This is a photo of Devil's Lake. Just beyond the lake is where we camped for our first night. This was about 1.5 miles into the Devil's Pass trail. It was so pretty.

The view we had in the morning. Absolutely breathtaking, huh? We got lucky in finding a fairly flat area to pitch our tent in. We slept on a bed of lichen and moss...so it was pretty cushy. The next morning, we woke to sunshine and a fairly crisp temperature. I can also now say I've been in my skivvies in the tundra of Alaska.

Sam just waking up from her perfect slumber.The tent was pretty small...but we kept eachother warm. :)

Me just waking up as well.

Morning view, just got started on the trail.

The Devil's Pass trail had even more creeks to cross than Summit. And more treacherous to boot. Fortunately, I guess I got a little experienced from the day before and didn't have any tumbles (thanks to Sam). These creeks, though difficult to cross, provided us delicious refreshment. There's nothing like drinking naturally cool and fresh water that you took right from a creek.

One of the more treacherous creeks we crossed.

This was a really pretty waterfall we had to go under along the trail. It had some really cold water!Wolf print! We ran into some hikers the day we did Summit and they had told us they had seen a wolf while they were hiking. This print was on the Devil's Pass trail. We suspect it was the same wolf.

The second day, we did 9 miles in roughly 4 and half hours. We kicked ass. We did more than two miles per hour. We finally ended at the Devil's Pass trailhead at around 12:30pm. We did a little victory dance and then took our "after" pictures:

We are #1.

Once we got back onto the Seward highway...we didn't walk more than a mile before we got picked up. We held up our little typed up, overly prepared "SEWARD" sign and within 20 minutes, got picked up by a hippie homeopathic doctor that had a reassuring "Coexist" bumper sticker on the back of his Honda Element. Yes, hitch-hiking we did indeed. I know it was incredibly stupid, but we were fortunate. We had a really nice guy who had done a bit of hitch-hiking himself, and he was generous enough to take us all the way into the town of Seward.

WE WERE OFFICIALLY IN SEWARD!!! It was so exciting.

Once in Seward, we walked down to the boat docks and had us a nice meal in the "Marina" Restaurant (in which I ate a caribou burger. Yum yum.). We then walked to the SeaLife Center and checked out all the Sea Life. Yeah.

Exhibit A: The homo sapiens. Look at it attempt to fool itself into thinking it's driving a boat that is really a wooden box cut out to look like one. Exhibit B: A Murre, I think.Exhibit C: A horned puffin. I swear I bet some of the tourists at this place were taking pictures of all of the sea life and were going to go back home and brag to their friends and family about how they got such close-up pictures of all of this sea life out in the wild. I guarantee.

A HUGE Steller sea lion. It had a really freaky eye that was looking at us.

An Alaskan King Crab. (It's a bit blurry due to the fact that it's in a tank.) These crabs are supposed to be THE deadliest catch.

After the SeaLife center, me and Sam had some quality time with the Captain. We spotted him in downtown Seward.

Then we met up with Eve and her sister, went out to dinner, and then spent the night at Miller's Landing in Birch cabin. It was such a change (and better sleep) than the night before. Then the next morning, we went on a Kenai Fjords Tour, like the one I did during our first week of training. This was a 6-hour cruise, the one we were originally supposed to go on but didn't, on account of bad weather. As opposed to the previous one, this one is two hours longer, and you get to see more of Resurrection Bay. We also got a close look at Aalik Glacier. This picture above is of a humpback breaching. The picture's blurry of course. We were all so excited because he did it out of nowhere. He was being a total ham. He breached a total of three times, and did a lot of back-stroke swimming. It was so amazing. It was peculiar that he should be breaching, because it is typical humpback behavior to do such a thing around other humpbacks. But we didn't see a single other. It was just him the whole time, putting on a show for us.

The picture above is of the humpback swimming stomach up. He kept on flapping his fins back and forth on top of the water. The sound was incredible. The next picture is of Aalik Glacier. It is a forbidding sight. Here's the ice calving. The sound is out of this world. Since sound travels slower than the forces of gravity, you could watch the ice falling in silence. Then a couple of seconds later, a huge, cracking CRASH and BOOM into the water reverberated the entire surroundings. It's a sound you can't really describe in words. One of those - you have to experience it moments.

More close-ups of the glacier. In the crevasses, the blue was a much deeper hue. Anywhere there was a crevasse was huge potential for the ice to calve. Apparently, I'm pretty sure this glacier recedes 200 m each year. The Kenai Fjords tours guarantees this sight. It happens every couple of seconds (even quicker at some points) of every day. The amount of mass this glacier loses each day is incredible.

Sam and me on the boat. It was pretty cold! It felt like you were standing next to a refridgerator. Pretty cool feeling (haha, forgive the pun).

Unfortunately, we didn't get to see any orcas. But we did see a ton of steller sea lions. This is a huge area for the stellers to hang out. Unfortunately, they are endangered. The ship captain told us that this is probably the smallest number of stellers he's seen this year. He told us that usually, you can't even see an inch of rock beneath the seals because there are so many covering the entire area.

For the entire boat tour, we saw a plethora of wildlife. Horned and tufted puffins, double-crested cormorants, red-faced cormorants, auklets, steller sea lions, harbor seals, humpback whales, sea otters, eagles, mountain goats, murres, oystercatchers, tons of gulls, and kittiwakes were just some of what we saw. I took a ton of bird and wildlife pictures - but unfortunately, it would take me hours to put them all up on here.

After our cruise, we walked outside of town and hitched a ride from a Russian fisherman to Exit Glacier. This picture above is of the glacier. You can actually hike down right to the toe of the glacier and touch it. Unfortunately, the water you see there was running fast and deep - so it was too hard to cross to get to the glacier. Instead, we hiked to the edge of the glacier, and got about 10 feet close to it.

This is a tremendously dorky picture of me. I didn't realize the hood of the jacket I was wearing looked so retarded. Anyway, that's Exit glacier behind me.

After we hiked up to Exit, we camped at the Exit Glacier campground for the night. The following day, we hitched a ride back into town with a couple from Wyoming, who were celebrating their 10-year anniversary. The next day in Seward we hung out around town for a while until we got on the Alaska Railroad to Anchorage.

Anyway, I've spent way too much time in the library. I'll have to post more photos later of our trip and time in Anchorage, in which we hiked Flat Top Mountain. Hope you were stimulated by all of the photos, and wish you were here!

Oh Happy Day

2008-08-07T10:12:00.000-07:00

To appease the recent complaints I've received in the past week in a half, I've decided to write another blog entry. (Or to possibly capitalize on the opportunity to yet again brag about what I have sown?)

Anyway, my time here is soon coming to an end, and that fact has been depressing me. As is clearly evident by my blog posts, I've had (and am still having) an absolutely amazing, life-changing time here in Alaska. The fact that I must leave this gorgeous place to suffer the hottest temperatures of Florida's summer, quite frankly, makes me want to cry. Since the days of my internship are quickly waning, I'm trying to soak in all that I can before I leave.

This Sunday marks my and Sam's 5-day off period to do whatever we want. We've planned to partake in a surmountable hike of 23 miles, stretching over the Summit Creek and Devil's Pass trails (check it on the map of the Chugach National Forest near the Cooper Landing/Hope/Seward area) in two days. We've heard it's a beautiful hike, so we're looking forward to it. After that, we plan to travel to Seward to check out the SeaLife Center and go on another Kenai Fjords Wildlife/Whale-watching tour (even better than the one I did when I first got here - see first blog entry with the pictures). We'll camp in Seward for two nights, and then leave for Anchorage the following day. We'll stay the night at Sue's (grad student that's been periodically staying with us at the bunkhouse while she does her field work), hike Flat Top Mountain, and check out all the museums and shops Anchorage has to offer. Then that Thursday, (August 14th) Sam and I travel back to home sweet home, to do a wildberry fun walk (!) the next morning.

All in all, I would say the days since my last blog post haven't been as exciting. Spent 5 hours trying to get the tracker un-stuck, pet some moose, caught some halibut, counted snowshoe hare poop, fed a robin, watched the dipnetters at Beluga Lookout during a beautiful sunset, and caught a salmon. Yep - not exciting at all.

This picture is just the preview. This is a little teensy weensy halibut. Dusty told me I had to take a picture of it to show that all the halibut I'd been catching were around this size. Then I caught this one:

and then he shut his mouth. Yeah, that's right. This is a 61-pounder! Dusty had to hold it up because my weak arms couldn't handle the massive weight of this behemoth. So, we went halibut fishing yesterday. Dusty (as I'm sure I've mentioned in an earlier blog post - he's a law enforcement officer at the refuge) was kind enough to take both me and Sam out to Anchor Point yesterday, to catch us some fish. We jetted to about 10 different spots in all (I think), and all caught our limits (2 per day). I caught about 10 halibut in all...but threw back all of them (with the exception of one: according to Dusty, you have to keep your first fish you catch - otherwise it's bad luck), until I caught this tank. After we were done fishing, Dusty filleted all of the fish, and then we drove home. I took the fillets to Peninsula Processing where they will be vacuum-sealed, and then I'll take them to the bunkhouse, freeze them and then take them on the plane with me home. Here's a better view of the monster. It was more than half my size! Should make for some good eats.

This is the 25-pounder Sam caught. What a beaut! She was so excited. I'm glad she got to go halibut fishing, and surpass her fishing license's worth. Here's one of the many seabirds we saw that were constantly following us. They smelled the herring we used as bait and were hoping to get lucky.

So, I think I mentioned something about the tracker being stuck. Yeah, those were good times. Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the hilarious event, so those will just have to remain in my heart. About two weeks ago, Julia, Sam and I had a field day assigned to us, in which we had to go garbage-picking around the Swanson River Rd/Swan Lake Rd canoe area. We finished around noon, so we (okay, I did) had the great idea (and it was great, lemme tell ya) to go to the moose pens! The moose pens is a highly restricted area. It's regulated by both the refuge and the Alaska Department for Fish & Game. The moose here are held in captivity (but for the most part, it's pretty natural. The pens cover several miles. Only calves are held in smaller ones.) because they have been injured by human and/or natural causes. Its purpose is for research: they are studying the effects of copper deficiencies in moose.

Anyway, we heard about the moose pens through Annie, who is a researcher there. We met her previously and she had told us that we were welcome to come out there and check the place out (and possibly feed the calves!). So, after getting the proper gate combinations from headquarters, we went through about 8 different locked gates until we got to an area where there were a number of log cabin-ish buildings. We knocked on several doors, but got no answer. The place was completely desolate. So we decided to go through one final gate. This gate marked the transfer from gravel road to no road. We weren't sure about it, but we decided to steadfastly drive on. At the very end of this path, two gates on either side led to more non-gravel roads. We decided then that we'd gone far enough, and turned around. Not 1/4 mi on the way up, we got stuck. I forgot to mention that it had been pouring rain this entire time. So the dirt was slick. After about an hour of trying to do whatever we could to stop the wheels from spinning, Julia walked the way back in hopes of finding someone to help. Lo and behold, she found Annie! Her and Annie came back with a four-wheeler. Annie surveyed the damage, and decided that her F-250 should be able to do the job. Annie came rolling in with her truck, and you wouldn't believe it - but, that got stuck too. All this time I kept on thinking to myself, there's no way a truck like that shouldn't be able to handle this. All the same, Annie thought that adding gravel to the path may give the tires traction - so another two hours later, we started piling shovel upon shovel of gravel onto the path. Tried the truck again - but to no avail.

At this point, Annie was cursing up a storm and told us we better radio our people. Until this point, we had kept quiet. We figured we could take care of this predicament on our own, without having to notify the entire world what dumbasses we were. Unfortunately, we had to commit the deed. We radioed headquarters, much to our shamefaced embarassment, and were told that we had an "emergency team" headed our way.

Then Annie's partner researcher, a city girl from Los Angeles, had the smarts to realize, Hmm, don't you have to do something with the tires to have it in four-wheel drive? (the city girl, of all people. Come on.) Annie loudly proclaimed "Shit!" and then locked the tires. And guess what - the truck got un-stuck. So we hooked up some rope from the tracker to the truck, and within minutes, the tracker was freed.

We radioed all the necessary people again and told them that everything was under control. But the damage was already done. We came back, heads hanging and our eyes downturned, and suffered all the mockery from all angles. But we did get to pet(and feed) some moose:

This is a baby calf. She's eating fireweed.

And apparently some us even got to kiss some moose, too.

Sam, Julia, and me with the calf. You can't really see it so well, but if you look close enough, you'll see how muddy we are.

About a week ago, Sam had the brilliant idea for all of us to enjoy a sunset at Kenai Beach, while enjoying glasses of champagne and the warmth of a fire. But when we got to Kenai Beach, it was absolutely crowded with dipnetters.

Dipnetting, for those in ignorance, is a way to fish, only open to Alaskan residents. Depending on how many mouths there are to feed, one can fish up to 100+ salmon for one household. It's considered "subsistence fishing." They take a big net, put it into the water, and catch as many salmon as can fit.

So, since the beaches were so packed, we decided to go to Beluga Lookout, which overlooks the mouth of the Kenai River, where river meets Cook Inlet. Eve, Sam, Julia and I all sat on a bench, sipping champagne and realizing that this place is absolutely remarkable - and we're really gonna miss it - and eachother.

Alright, these last couple of photos are of a momma moose and her calf that like to hang around the bunkhouse and headquarters. This calf is just a yearling, so it was born this year. Anyway, feast your eyes upon the photos - I gotta run. Post later!

FISH ON!

2008-07-23T18:16:00.000-07:00

So for those of you that haven't heard Mom's bragging (and bygum - she better be braggin'!), I caught my first Alaskan halibut down in Homer yesterday. It was a whopping 40 pounds - so a long, heavy and suffering haul to reel in. Although it's me saying it - without any biased-ness and bigheadedness, my fish was the biggest on the boat. There were 20 fishermen on the boat (only three women - the two other women were older, and the rough lookin' type) altogether. The bag limit for halibut is two per day - so there were about 35-40 fish on the boat - and out of all of 'em, mine was the biggest. It was so awesome.

So, the day started out with Wesley and I driving down to Homer around 8:30 in the morning. We looked around the shops for a while and then piled into The Jackpot boat around 12:30pm, after our fishing licenses were checked and tallied. We then drove out of Kachemak Bay for a good hour and a half before we found what was supposed to be the "perfect" fishing spot. Got the run-down on how we were supposed to use the reels, and then we got to fishin'. We were given halibut poles (rods that can handle over 100 lbs. of fish), twisted line that was about 1/4'' thick, two-pound weights attached to the line, and about a 3-inch hook with herring on it (as bait). Once you let the line out about 150 feet down to the bottom, you wait to feel a pecking on your line. On the first drop, I got a bite. I whipped the pole up and pulled it to the side to lodge the hook in better, and started reeling in like a fishin' fool. Now, if you gather that without a fish you're having to reel in about 150-300 feet of line that is 5 pounds of sheer line, hook and weight, add on the weight of a huge fish - that has a ton of power to fight with you as much as it can.

This is the Jackpot, the boat we were on.

Reeling in was HARD. I have never had to reel as hard as I had to yesterday. By the end of the day, my left hand was cramping, my arms were sore, and I was soaked to the skin. It had been raining all day.

So, you reel in with your right hand and hold the pole steady with your left. Thankfully, I had Wesley and the boat captain helping me with holding the pole. Not only does it take so much strength to reel in the large boulder attached to your line - you also have to hold your rod steady so the fish doesn't pull it out from underneath you. It was hard work. While waiting for the fish to bite, being that it was probably 48-50 degrees outside and raining - you were cold. But once you got to reelin,' you were cursing all the layers you had put on - because you felt that they were now a hindrance.

It was an amazing time, though. To my annoyance, most of the three hours we fished I caught gray cods. Gray cods are trash fish. They play with your mind into thinking you're catching a big halibut, and then after grueling over reeling in 200 feet of line, a gray cod pops up, mouth wide as a size 4 soccer ball - clinging onto the piece of herring that was meant for your record breaker halibut. Gray cods aren't small by any means - some were as long as 2-3 feet probably, and 12-18 inches wide. Unfortunately, they're useless (for the most part), as they're filled with parasites and worms and aren't good eating. The deckhands on the boat said that they don't even use gray cod as bait. I (no exaggeration) probably caught 15-20 gray cods before I caught my halibut. With an all-call stating that there was 20 minutes left to fish, I had to catch one. Once I caught my halibut, it was worth all the effort. Sadly, by the time I caught my halibut, we only had a couple of minutes left so I didn't end up limiting out. Imagine catching 2 40-pounders! That's a helluva lot of meat.

This is me catching my first gray cod. I'm holding ono the two-pound weight as the deckhand pulls off the fish and lets it go.

This is a gray cod. My face looks terrible. Rain was pelting my eyes. Anyway, this is a smaller one. I caught bigger cods than this -but it gives you a good idea as to how they look like. And, I didn't keep any of those. Like I said, the meat isn't good so it was pointless to keep them. Most of us (with the exception of this one here - a man wanted to keep it to use it for bait) threw them back into the water after we pulled our line up. This is my halibut. I didn't have the strength to hold it up all of the way, so you can't tell how big it is compared to me. But it does look pretty big. Wesley held up the halibut so you can see how big it is. It doesn't look as big compared to him...but it sure looks big compared to me!This is the halibut Wesley caught. He felt embarassed that I outdid him. It was really funny - all the guys on the boat were saying, "The littlest thing on this boat caught the biggest fish!" Don't make fun, though - like I said earlier, he caught a 75-pounder just two weeks ago (that was really tasty, by the way). This is just some of the halibut caught on the boat.The rest is on the other side of this picture not shown. The two deckhands filleted all of the fish on the drive back to the dock.

This is one of the deckhands filleted a fish.

Went to Buttwhackers again to check out the damage. Biggest halibut on the end (on the left) was a 45 pounder, so just a teensy bit bigger than mine.

So, after getting back into Homer, we went over to the fish processing place so I could send all of the fish home to my mommy. Guess how much it cost me - for 25 pounds of meat - just guess. Betcha guessed wrong! Cost me 175 bucks to send that sucker home. After filleted the fish, I was left with 25 pounds of meat. So there'll be plenty to make dinner for those hungry for halibut. I'll definitely be taking some up with me to Gainesville.

This picture below is of me and Ed, a volunteer here at the refuge. This is when I caught my first Alaskan salmon! As much as I hate to admit this, my fish is on the right. A nice woman volunteered to take the picture for us - but unfortunately, took a crap photo. I'm not just saying this to atone for the fact that my fish looks tiny in this picture. It was small, I grant you that - but not as small as it looks here. The way it's held you can't tell how big it was around. Anyway, Ed and I went fishing around 10 at night for about two hours - and didn't get a thing. We both had a few bites, hooked a few but lost them as they started jumping out of the water - but nothing after that. Then suddenly, Ed caught his big 'un. His is a male Sockeye. Once he caught his, I said to myself, I aint leavin' this place empty handed. So I fished with a determined gleam in my eye (oh yes, I'm editorializing) and in no time, caught my salmon. Mine is a female King. She was probably about 5 pounds. Her body was mostly filled with eggs - but we still got two good-sized fillets out of her and it was SO good. I cooked the salmon the next night. I marinated it in teriyaki, italian dressing and cajun seasoning - and boy, was it good. I cooked some for Sam and had 5 other taste testers - and they all assured me it was finger lickin' good. So no biased-ness there. No worries to the family - I'll be catching some more salmon to send home.

Shortly after I caught my first salmon, I foul hooked one close to the size of Ed's. Unfortunately, it was foul hooked so I had to let it go. To this day I still beat myself up about it, because I should have kept it. The hook was just under the gills, the fish had tired out, and it probably died after I let it go. I should have kept it.

Anyway, since that night, I've fished three times. Hooked and caught a few, but haven't managed to land them. I'm supposed to go out again tonight, so hopefully I'll have better luck.

Last Wednesday, I went over to the Russian River ferry and caught my first Rainbow trout. The limit for that is one per day, less than 16 inches - and it was bigger than that, so I didn't get to keep it.

The Sunday after I caught my salmon, I went to Girdwood with Ed to go gold panning. Girdwood is really close to Anchorage, if you want to look at it on the map. It was an absolutely beautiful drive to there. I swear, the mountains and scenery here are 10x better than what I've been showing you guys already on this blog. The mountains were bigger, and more snow-covered. We saw Turnagain Arm and the Alaskan Train that runs from Seward up to Denali (and probably more North).

We gold panned at what I think was Copper Creek. I can't remember the name of it now. I do recall that the creek's name started with a C. We got our pans, two buckets, and two shovels and then hiked down to the creek. We shoveled a ton of dirt and gravel, put them in our buckets, and then sifted that material handful by handful into the pans, searching for gold. I could almost taste the metallic sweetness of that nugget I was sure to find.

To tell you the truth, I never had much of a hankerin' for gold panning, but I figured I'd add that to my repertoire of Cool Things I've Done. In addition to the fact that you can't go to Alaska - the Last Frontier - place where thousands of men, with hunger in their eyes, pilgrimmaged to make their living - the Gold Rush - without searchin' for a little gold. So search I did. For two hours. And found four flecks. I wasn't expecting much - so I had that going for me. I went for a good time - and a good time is what I got.

Above: Me looking through my pan for gold. Below: Ed searchin' for gold. He reminds me a bit of you, Dad. Not in the looks, but in the personality.

The four flecks I found. Ed had been gold panning before - so it was funny that I should find some - and he didn't find any at all.

Before and after we gold panned, we took a little drive around the area - saw Alyeska Ski Resort - and made a lot of stops at overlook areas. I got some really good pictures.

After we gold panned, we took a hike to the Copper Creek Gorge. We took a hand tram over the gorge to get to the other side of the river.

This is a view from the tram, smack dab in the middle of the gorge.

This is a picture of the path we took to get to the hand tram. The forest was beautiful, and it left kaleidoscope dappled sun patches on the ground wherever we went. This is Ed and another man on the tram. It took you 500 yards across the swallowing depths of 500 yards below your feet. This is a picture looking down from the grate of the tram cage. My shoe is on the lower left corner. The water was running so fast. It was an amazing and beautiful sight. This is a picture of the Alaska railroad and train. It was headed in the opposite direction, away from the mountains. In between the mountains there is a glacier.

Another photo of the train, this time of the front.

This is a picture of a mountain peak from the car. Can you believe it? Just from the car. It's really cool to look at the shadows from the clouds on the snow. Took another one from inside the car. This is on the drive back to Soldotna. Such a breathtaking drive, isn't it?

Photo of the rushing water of the gorge.

The loon tagging and capturing I did last Tuesday was absolutely amazing. I held two loons in my hands. I held their beak tight shut with my left hand, and kept their head down with the right. The two researchers took blood and fecal samples, made several measurements of their beaks, and then tagged their left foot. I met them at the Drake/Snookum Trailhead at 8 in the morning, and didn't get back 'til 9 at night.

The second loon we captured was a thrilling adventure. We set the capturing net and grid and all sat in our designated spots hidden by camouflage curtains we had hooked up. The one researcher (Chris) started playing loon calls from a device, and the three of us sat silent, waiting. Within ten minutes of making the calls, we spotted a group of four loons way down the lake. Four loons is unusual. Loons are, by nature, solitary. They have their one mate and that's it. When another loon comes onto the lake, that loon, by the other male loon's perspective, is not respecting his territory. And this is just what happened. The loon we eventually captured was being extremely territorial. He chased the other loon on the lake for a good ten minutes. Apparently, I witnessed something that was extremely unusual. Chris had said that that was probably one of the longest chases he had ever watched - and he's been working with loons for years.

When males feel threatened, they do the "yodel" call, which only males do, and they do the "penguin dance," in which they make the call, careen their heads to one side, hold their wings outstretched, and kick the water out from underneath them. It quite literally looks like they are walking on water. This male was doing that several times. It was such an amazing sight. When they "chase" another loon, they stay on the surface of the water, but flap their wings and use them as propellors as they speed through the water. The territorial male was clearly faster than the other, but the other was doing these sharp and quick turns and so was able to escape. After the other male left, we finally were able to snag the other and then do our measurements.

Unfortunately, I didn't take my camera out because I didn't want to risk it falling into the lake - so the pictures with me and loons in my lap are with the researchers. They said they would send me pictures in August. Those should be awesome.

Anyway, that's all for now - but more adventures are sure to follow!

I gazed and gazed, but little thought what wealth the show to me had brought

2008-07-13T23:16:00.000-07:00

So, the tables have been turned. I'm the one posting copiously, while all of you are scrambling to keep up. Come on now, you asked for me to have fairly regular entries, I expect enthralling comments to follow!!

So on Thursday, Wesley, Luke, Andy (two other guys that work at the ferry) and Dusty (one of our law enforcement officers - the one that I went out with on the "cadaver search") went halibut fishing. What's key here is the fact that they went without me. Unfortunately, I had to work that day, so I missed out. But, what reaped out of that misfortune was reward. Wesley came by and dropped off a hunk of halibut meat that was probably 15 pounds. This slab was only 1/4 of the entire fish. Wes told me that all four guys had reached their bag limits (2 halibut per day) and each fish was within the 50-80 Ib range. Just imagine - reeling in a 70 Ib fish!

So. I had 15 lbs of halibut and had no idea what I was going to do with it. Eat it, ofcourse - but I hadn't ever cooked it before. Fortunately, Sue (a grad student that stays with us at the bunkhouse) is a halibut cookin' fool and gave me some ideas. So the next night, we went out shopping together and spent nearly $60 on ingredients to make curry (with snow peas, mushrooms, onions and garlic), macadamia nut-encrusted baked halibut, and ceviche (a salsa of chopped up kalamata olives, onions, cilantro, tomato, green pepper, mushroom and halibut). And it was absolutely delicious. (Tessa, I can't wait to make curry for you when we get back to Gainesville!)

Tomorrow, Wesley is supposed to come over and all of us are gonna eat beer-battered halibut and french fries (aka fish n' chips). Mmmmm. I know all of you are jealous. Especially you, Mom. Wish you were here. Whenever I do go halibut fishing (and catch my Alaskan salmon, don't fergit about dat) I'm sure I'll catch a record breaker (over 400 lbs.) so I'll have plenty to send home some for you.

Yesterday Sam and I had our campfire program. What a downer. Only had 10 people show up...and it was a pretty horrible crowd. On the upside, afterwards, Sam and I saw our first brown bear! It was just on the shore of the Russian River/Kenai River confluence. If you look at the picture, you'll see how close it is to the fisherman up on the top of the stairs. This is probably a yearling on the cusp of turning two.

Today, Eve and I did the Skyline Trail. So I have officially done all of the hikes now! Skyline is

virtually a 45-degree angle ascent up a mountain. Round trip, it covers about 4 miles. At the top, you get a wonderful view of the Kenai Mountains, a lake right there in the middle whose name escapes me (I know, unforgivable) and Skilak Lake in the distance. It was an absolutely beautiful view. Unfortunately, it's been rainy all day, so the clouds shaved off the top of nearly all of the surrounding mountains. When Eve and I got to the top, we decided to take a little restie-poo and eat some snacks. In the span of probably 10 minutes, everything around us was covered in cloud. We couldn't see 10 feet past us in any direction. Before we got to the top, I had told Eve - "Eve, I want to touch the clouds." And by golly, I sure did! As soon as we were covered in mist - I told Eve - go and grab the clouds, baby - 'cuz they're all around us. And so we did.
That's the view when the clouds were rolling in. Below is a picture Eve took without me realizing. Nice panorama of the spruce trees, don't you think? This is just a taste of what we hiked. We had to climb up rocks and other slippery, craggy surfaces. On the way down, we slipped and slided our way down. It was skiing with our feet, without the skis - and the snow, ofcourse. Here's the aftermath:

Eve has a sexy butt.

This is a columbine flower. They were all over the place. It's so amazing to see such an abundance of colorful wildflowers in a place that hosts such harsh conditions during 80% of the year.

Eve and I are hardcore. Does Legends of the Fall ring a bell to anyone? Like Brad Pitt, we put three lines on our face - because we had undergone a tragedy. But see, we're tough - and we're handling it just fine.

View of some Kenai mountains. The snow stays on their peaks for the entire year. Oh, by the way - I just figured I'd tell all of you Florida folks and those of you suffering in the summer heat that it has been in the upper 40s this entire week. Absolutely gorgeous, and I love it. Who could imagine that even in those temperatures, you get all sweaty after hiking - and that's wearing only a t-shirt and lightweight pants!

Eve fell.

Eve died.

Here's a video me and Eve made while at the top of the mountain. It had just started raining. And we were hungry. Cravin' some cereal and milk.

Picture of me at the Skyline Trailhead after we braved the wild. I know it says 1 mi. First of all, the trailhead doesn't include the roundtrip. Second of all, we hiked past the saddle of the mountain and went up through the ridge, which cost us another mile. Hence the four-mile trek.

Anyway, that's all for now. On Tuesday, I'm supposed to meet with some researchers and do loon captures and tagging! I'm excited. We get to canoe some lakes and hang out with the loons. It'll be a long day though - from 8 am - 8 pm!

HOT OFF THE PRESS!!!

2008-07-12T15:16:00.001-07:00

Guess who's famous?! That's right, we are! All four of us made news in the local Kenai newspaper, The Clarion. Click on the link below to check it out. :)

http://www.peninsulaclarion.com/stories/071108/out_258462039.shtml

Third time is indeed the charm

2008-07-11T19:11:00.000-07:00

So, I went to the library - discovered they were about to close. Then I went to Mugz coffee shop - I couldn't get hooked up to the internet. Then dear, sweet, sweet Kaladi Brothers Coffee shop was the charm, and alas, here I am writing another blog entry.

As I mentioned in the previous, I didn't get a chance to relay all of my exciting adventures here. So I'll begin with telling you about what I did about 3 or 4 weeks ago with one of the refuge's biologists. An e-mail was forwarded to me and the rest of the SCAs detailing a notice that one of the biologists was looking for volunteers for a snowshoe hare survey he would be conducting later in the week. So of course, I jumped on the opportunity and went with him, his two sons, and Julia. Lo and behold, we find out that our survey involved us counting hare "pellets" - i.e. poop - for the entire day. Although some of you might find this disgusting and boring, it was actually enormously fun. The area where we went was in complete wilderness, so Julia was assigned to carry a shotgun and I, on the other hand, had my trusty bear spray attached to my belt. We had to travel through thick forest and navigate our way across the grid with a map and a compass. There were no trails - just a smattering of tape markings leading the way from plot to plot. And I do not exaggerate when I say "smattering." Many times there weren't any markers...so we had to bushwhack for a while until we got back to where we thought we were supposed to be. We saw bear prints, moose prints and other animal paraphernalia while we were out, but no actual animals.

To do the actual survey, we had two metal pieces that we attached together to form a square. Once we got to the plot (marked by iron rods in the ground), we put down the metal square, and counted as many hare pellets as we could find within the square. If there were pellets right outside of it, we couldn't count them - as we were testing how often snowshoes use certain areas of a grid. We also had to make sure that we didn't confuse those pellets with porcupine ones...as they look really similar - but there IS a difference. (Fascinating discussion about fecal matter, isn't it?) Anyway, I think the most poop we found in one plot was 60 pellets...but we were beaten out by Toby (the biologist), who found over 150 pellets in one plot!

This is me, with my trendy bug head net, marker tape attached to my backpack strap, Xtra Tufs secured on feet, and snowshow hair poop in my hand. Check.

This is a little spruce grouse chick. They are sooooo cute. On our way out from the bush, we happened across this little chick. We were peturbed by the fact that it was all alone...and then within a matter of seconds, I hear this weird whirruping (I know it's not a word) noise, and then out of nowhere wings, feathers, and Hell in the form of Momma Spruce Grouse flew right at my face. I nearly died. It's funny...because if you were here to see the string of photographs I had taken at that point...they get gradually blurrier - as I first get a nice in focus shot of the chick, then a couple of ones even closer - then a photograph of momma, then a shot where you can't see any shapes or forms except for blurred streak - because at that moment in time, I was under attack.

Anyway, I know I said that I'd be telling you about looking for dead guys on boats. Correction: just one dead guy. Please forgive the desensitized way in which I mention a poor man who has yet to be found, most likely laying at the bottom of Skilak Lake. A couple of weeks ago, a father and his two sons went rafting down the Kenai River and were fishing. All wore a life vest except for the father. Suddenly, all three were thrown or fell overboard (I don't know how) and a huge search team had to go out to find them. Helicopters, planes, law enforcement officers on boats and rafts all went looking for the three men. Thankfully, the two boys were found - and still alive. But the father has yet to be found. So, nearly two weeks ago now, on one of my days off, I had called up one of the law enforcement officers and asked if I could tag along with him that day - and that day happened to be when he would be taking part in the "cadaver search," as they so-called it. So, more or less, it was an excuse for me to hang out on a boat all day. I hate to sound morbid - but it was fun. We left at 8 in the morning for Skilak Lake, got in a boat, and patrolled the lake and the river from which it feeds all day. We went out with two other law enforcement officers (one on a bigger boat, the other on a raft) and two trainers and their dogs. So we had search dogs with us as well. It was really cool...even if they were useless.

We weren't successful - so the guy has yet to be found - could turn up in months - or he may never show up. It's always weird when you hear about these stories - because they usually happen to residents. That guy was from Anchorage. I think residents feel as if they know the area and how it is...but don't really take it as seriously as they should.

Here's a photo of one of the dogs. He looks really cute with his little life vest, huh? It was amazing watching him get so excited to get on the boat. These were water dogs, no doubt about it.

This is a photo of a merganser and her ducklings that we saw while we were out on the boat. I'm pretty sure she had 11 of 'em. I couldn't believe how many she had. They were so cute. Some of them were sitting on her back. Awwww.View of the mouth of the Kenai River meeting Skilak lake, and the Kenai mountain range in the background. It was a beautiful, sunny day in which I gained a little bit of tan on my face. I've discovered that you're not considered a true Alaskan unless you sport the "Alaskan tan."
I'm sure most of you can guess what that is...a tan on the face, the neck if you're lucky - and your hands. Because that's mainly what sees sunlight - as the rest of your body parts are covered in clothing. So I'm sporting the Alaskan tan in full swing...with my face and hands fairly brown, starkly contrasted by the milky whiteness of my neck and forearms.

Anyway, that day I drove my first boat. Sam and Eve were surprised that I hadn't driven a boat before....and quite frankly, I'm kind of surprised myself. I've been on a boat plenty of times...just haven't driven one before. So Rob (one of the officers) gave me the reigns, taught me how to control the motors, and I drove around Skilak Lake and Doroshin Bay for a good hour or so. It was a really good day.

I think the very next day - I worked the contact station (which is 40 miles outside of town) and then decided to go on a short hike after my shift. On the way to the trailhead, not even two minutes after having turned down Skilak Loop Rd., a large (probably two-year-old) black bear ran right out in front of me (while I was in the car). It was not even three feet in front of the car. Then, less than 5 minutes later, I started passing the Bear Mountain Trailhead and slammed on my breaks, as I saw a black bear out of the corner of my eye - and fittingly, saw it right next to the "Bear Mountain" trailhead sign. The bear was sitting down, nonchalantly feeding on Devil's Club as if it didn't have a care in the world. I watched it for about 15 minutes, took some really good pictures, and then thought, well, better get going. Thankfully, I stayed just a minute too long - and noticed two little heads poking out of the grass. It was a momma bear and her two cubs! How lucky was I?! I probably stayed sitting in my car for 45 minutes or more, watching them and taking pictures like mad.

After having exhausted my camera, I tore my eyes away from the incredible sight and drove down to the Seven Lakes trailhead. I had a nice little two mile hike, and then started heading out. On my way back - I saw a momma bear and her two cubs meandering right on the road. I passed them by - and they didn't even flinch. I'm pretty sure it was the same momma bear and her two cubs. Then, just 5 seconds later, I saw ANOTHER black bear sitting on a little bluff beside the road. It was standing alert, with its ears perked. It merely looked curiously at me, not moving. Just as I got my camera out again, a car came up from behind me and the bear ran off - so I have no pictures of that one. That one was definitely older, and looked bigger, too. So, after seeing a total of 8 bears in less than two hours - I was on such a high. I was so excited. People say here that that's the way with wildlife - you won't see them for days, weeks at a time - and then you see everything all at once. And I have to admit that that is so true, especially evident on that day. I think after those sightings I saw several moose, eagles, snowshoe hares, porcupine, and spruce grouse. Oh, and salmon. I went fishing that night, too.

Here's a photo of the Russian River Ferry, just so you guys have an idea of how it looks like. It doesn't have any motors....it gets across the river purely by the speed of the current.

This next photo, if you look closely enough, is an alcove completely stock full of sockeye salmon. I took this picture at the Russian River Falls. If you remember from a previous blog entry, I had posted pictures from the falls when Eve, Sam and I went on the hike nearly two months ago. (By the way, today marks the two -month anniversary of my time in Alaska! Can you believe it?!) When we did that hike a while ago, the salmon weren't running yet. From working the contact station, I had so many people come in and tell me that they had just done the hike, and saw the salmon jumping and brown bears feeding. That's when I said to myself, by golly, I'm going on that trail again! Typically, I didn't see any brown bears. That's starting to grate on me, by the way. Been here for two months and still haven't see a brownie. I will see them, damnit. Oh, and found out today that the same people I ran into on the trail (they came into the visitor's center today and I recognized them so we talked) had gone to the falls maybe 20 minutes after I had left them and saw a sow and her two cubs feeding on salmon. I swear, the brown bears are conspiring against me. They whisper amongst themselves, "Emily's coming!" and they all go into hiding. Argh.

So, last but not least (because again, I have to leave without telling you everything) I wanted to share my clamming experience! I don't have the pictures with me right now, so I'll have to post them later. Last week, before Sam and I did our campfire program, we went out with Chad (fisheries folk) to Ninilchik area and went clamming. We had two shovels (designed for such things) and a "gun" - a tube-shaped shovel-thing that sucks sand up as you put it into the ground. We went out on what was apparently the lowest tide of the year. To go clamming, you really have to pay attention to the tides. And you also have to keep close watch of them - because if you don't leave in time - the tide will start coming back in, you get stuck in the mud - and drown. No exaggeration. The tide window time frame was just about two hours - around 11 it was at its lowest - then around 1, it starts filling back in.

The clamming was crazy. Chad had gone the day before - spent a good three hours clamming - and only managed to take back with him a grand total of 13 clams. To me, that was a lot - but then again, I didn't know a damn thing about clamming. The day we went, we took home 140 clams. No joke. Chad began finding the clams, and soon Sam and I followed suit. It turned into a little competition, to see who could get the clams the fastest. The bigger, the better. We pulled some out that were longer than 6 inches!

Just so you all know (as I'm positive you're itching to know), here's a bit of Clamming 101:

to know where a clam is, you must first look for a "show." A show is a small perfect circle depression in the sand. If you don't see a show, look for a hole in the sand, or water spitting up from the ground. Once you witness this, you grab your shovel, start digging right beside the show - and dig fast. These suckers dig at 9 inches per minute - so you can easily lose them - as they'll outdig you.

You dig about a 1-2 foot deep hole, and then get on your hands and knees and start digging and feeling for the clams with your hands. There's no way you won't get completely covered in sand and muck. You might as well accept the fact that by the end of the day, you'll get sand in places you didn't even know existed. Anyway, elbow-deep in sand, you feel around for the clam - and as soon as you feel something descending quickly down the depths of the sand world - you grab ahold of it and hold on with all of your might and try to suck it out of the sand.

I didn't keep track of how many I caught, but I sure caught a heck of a lot. It had so much fun. Once I get the pictures, you'll get to see how freaking busy it was out there. I'm surprised they haven't coined the phrase "combat clamming" yet, because it sure was. There must have been a couple hundred (if not more) people there on less than half a mile of beach.

That night, Sam and I shucked clams for probably three hours. Being that they were razor clams, our hands and fingers went under some damage - and are still recovering. It was pretty creepy cutting the shells off of the clams - then proceeding to degore them - and their muscles still contracting in your hands. Pretty weird. Anyway, those are in the freezer right now - I still haven't tried them yet - but we plan on making some fried clam strips and clam chowder...so hopefully it'll turn out all right.

Anyway, I must leave again - hope you enjoy and talk to you soon!

2008-07-08T16:19:00.000-07:00

So I realized that it has been nearly an entire MONTH since I last posted, for which I hope all of you must accept my sincerest apologies. But, being that it has been a month, a whole heck of a lot has happened...which cannot all be relayed on this teeny tiny computer screen. I have been super busy and really just haven't had the time to make the trip to the ol' Soldotna library to spend a good two hours conveying my amazing Alaskan experiences. But I digress. I came on here to give you all a little sprinkling of what has been happening.

With the exception of the Skyline Trail (45-degree angle climb all the way up and over a mountain), I can now say that I have hiked all the trails for which the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge has to offer. I have done a ton of hiking this past month, so of course I have tons of pictures to show you. So that (and fishing) has been my main past time here in AK. I'm not sure for definite if this is happening, but Sam and I are supposed to go on a 40-mi hike in August for our 5-day off period. So, the hiking I've been doing in the meantime has been good practice...and a good way to get my body physically ready.

The pictures that are displayed below are from the hike Sam and I did on Vista Trail. As its name implies, this trail had many vista points where you were able to climb up on a craggy precipice and achieve an absolutely breathtaking 360-degree view of the Kenai mountain range, Skilak Lake and surrounding lakes. Although they are harder, the best hikes are those that do have elevation gain - because you get the best views. After spending a good hour traversing over rocks, fallen trees, muck, and climbing precarious steep mountain sides - the end result makes it worth all of the effort.

This is a view of the Kenai Mountain range, the Kenai River, and Skilak Lake behind it.

Luckily, Sam just made it. If it hadn't been for my strong arm pulling her back up and my simultaneous deft maneuvering with a camera, Sam wouldn't be alive to tell the story today.

It really is such a difference from Florida, isn't it? Crazy to think that we're smack-dab in the middle of summer, and yet I'm having snowball fights. Jealous? I think yes.

Another view of the Kenai mountain range, river, and Skilak Lake. My little figure in the lower left corner gives you a better perspective as to how small we are in this huge world.

Thought this might make a good picture. It was an amazing view. One of those, "Had to be there" spots.
So, about two weeks ago, Sam and I decided to hike the Fuller Lakes Trail. As we were constantly reminded, this trail was notorious for getting people lost - especially those people of the SCA kind. We heard stories of last year's SCA crew...who sounded over the radio after hiking for 12 hours with quivering voices explaining that they were lost. I kid you not - I am not sensationalizing here. The interns of last year did the hike, got lost, radioed in sounding fearful - and then finally returned that night. I heard just recently that if we indeed couldn't find ourselves the way back - the most the refuge could do would be for our law enforcement officers to turn on their lights and drive back and forth along the Sterling Highway - which is adjacent to the Kenai Mountain range. That way, those that were lost would assumedly see the lights and hear the sound and just make their way back down the mountain towards the highway. So apparently, no search planes involved.

Now, after having given you such a formidable introduction, at this point you must be guessing (you're right!) that Sam and I got lost. So indeed we did. The way the "trail" works is that two trails - Skyline and Fuller Lakes - connect across a ridge between mountains - so that you can start on one trail and end at the other. We heard differing pieces of advice as to whether we should start on Skyline or Fuller - but in the end, we started on Fuller. Fuller itself is nearly 6 miles of gradual uphill hiking, wherein you come to lower and upper Fuller lakes, which are positioned more or less in a valley between mountains. Once we got to upper fuller lake and hiked completely around it, the trail just dissipated into nothing. Sam and I trudged around for a good 45 minutes to an hour trying to find the trail, but to no avail - so we started to head back. It was during this time that we just happened upon what appeared to be the trail. So we hiked uphill again for a good two hours. We both said to eachother, "Now it's mountain climbing time." But after gaining elevation for those two hours, we then began to go downhill. For a long time. It didn't seem right to us...but we still followed the trail like good little hikers. After awhile, we found ourselves simultaneously experiencing deja vu....because yet again, the trail just disappeared. Again we spent a good amount of time trying to find the trail...but then finally decided to just make the ascent up the mountain...bushwhacking the entire way.

I have to admit that I'm not too fond of alders, elderberry bushes, and willows. Actually, to be totally honest, I have a severe hatred of them. So we bushwhacked until our arms, legs, and faces were aching and entirely cut up...and then reached the top of the mountain. Oh, but before that end was reached...we also had to traverse over what was probably 8 feet of snow...in boots that are not equipped for such things. Sam did fine - but I was seriously scared...because one wrong footing would have you slipping and sliding all the way down to most likely your doom. So I may be exaggerating...but it was dangerous. And something I was totally unprepared for.

Once we reached the top, we had a few moments of celebratory hurrah-ing before we realized that we had an even steeper (and more dangerous) mountain to ascend...and beyond that...an entire ridge of mountains to cross before we hooked back onto Skyline. It was at this point that I said no more and we decided to head back. Probably the most disappointing part of this entire fiasco (aka nice jaunt) was that I didn't get to appreciate what we had accomplished when we were at the top of the mountain. My nerves were entirely shot, I was tired and cold, and the wind was blowing like mad - so when we finally did get that amazing vista point - I couldn't take it all in. It was too much for me and the fact that we hadn't even come close to Skyline was constantly looming over my head. So, after trying to take a few feeble pictures to at least prove we got on top of a mountain, we started to descend. We went down the mountain more or less the same way we came back up, and assumed we would just hit up the trail on the way down. But we never found it. So again, we bushwhacked and bushwhacked until we (or at least I was) were bone-weary and ended at a cliff overlooking water. We had decided to get to the source of water and so descend and follow it along to reach upper Fuller Lake - but this point (the cliff) was way too high and the water was way, way down. It was at this point that my frustration turned to actual worry - because we still hadn't found the trail, we had been hiking for 10 hours, it was already 7 pm, and my food was gone, eaten. After having a short 10 minute break, we started climbing uphill again. It was then that we (miraculously) found the trail and then hiked for another 4 1/2 hours until we reached the Fuller Lakes trailhead, dazedly piled into the car, and drove home.

Although I still say to this day that it was a horrible experience, I'm glad I did it. Although it took me quite a number of days to realize it, and I had a pulled groin to boot - I was proud of what I had accomplished. At least I know some of the terrain of that trail and could (hopefully) find my way back, if I were to do it again (not happening any time soon, trust me). I still want to do Skyline - and it will be then that I decide to attempt to go further on Skyline to go across the ridge to meet up where we stopped.

So here's a view of Upper Fuller Lake, with the mountain we were supposed to climb (the steeper one) behind it. The Fuller Lake area was truly beautiful.

I took this picture when I was quite literally hugging a tree. I held on to it for dear life while I took this picture. Gives you a little idea of the steepness of the trek. I don't think I ever quite felt like I did at this moment in my life, where I felt forever grateful of trees, while simultaneously feeling a great hatred of them (for giving me such a hard bout of bushwhacking).

What it looked like straight up. At this point, I was also feeling, "Why the hell aren't we equipped like lynxes and bears to be better able to climb this shit?"

At the top of mountain #1. The one behind me and subsequent ones behind it were what we would have had to cross to connect to Skyline. Doesn't look so bad in the picture, though, does it? Well, pictures are deceiving.

A photo of upper fuller lake and the Kenai mountains. So pretty.

So, the day before we hiked Fuller, Sam and I decided to go to Homer for the day out on a whim. We were able to get a hold of Dan, so we met up with him and had a good dinner at Fat Olive's and had a nice little nature walk. That day we did the total tourist thing, where we looked in a lot of the shops, compulsively bought things we really didn't need, and took stupid pictures. We went back to Buttwhacker's (remember the sign?) and saw it in business. That's where they cut up and de-internal organ halibut. I got some close ups of the whole process for all of you to enjoy (and possibly salivate over?).

From the Homer Spit, a picture of the dock. Beyond that is the Kenai mountain range and Kachemak Bay. A yummy Halibut. I didn't ask how big it was, so sorry folks, can't tell ya how much it weighed. Nice view in all respects, I should think. This is where they were de-goring the fish. Look! A moose! A very strange looking one...Nonetheless, it sure has some big antlers.The Salty Dog Saloon. Place of lollipops, rainbows, and hopes and dreams. Not. But a popular place for those of the alcohol-consuming kind.

As per usual, we saw a ton of moose on the way up and down from Homer...and got to have a real treat when we saw a mother moose and her twins cross the road. Unfortunately, it was getting dark at this point (dark in Alaska? Well...kind of...) so I didn't get a good picture.

As I've mentioned, we've done a lot of hiking. The next string of photos are from when Sam and I went on the Resurrection Pass Trail of the Chugach National Forest (which we did last week). It was an 8 mi hike round trip, that took us to Juneau Falls - an absolutely out-of-this-world sight that had me wowing every 5 seconds for a good 10 minutes. That day we ended up hiking a little over 12 miles, though...because we had to do a little of a detour....but that's besides the point.

Pretty, pretty view of the Kenai mountains from the trail. Right down below from the mountainside is Cooper Landing, which is a cute little town that really doesn't have running water.

Below is a black bear footprint. It's huge! It was a pretty big pawprint for a black bear. We saw this on our "detour."

So obviously pictures can't capture what you truly see in person...but I hope this picture does Juneau Falls some justice. All you could hear was the crash and thrash of the water as it was roaring down these cavernous canyons.

A little vole we saw along the trail. I got extremely close up to it...and it didn't act frightened at all. Strange behaviour. Sam, after having climbed down the precipice we were on. Although you can't see her very well...I thought it was a good picture to show perspective. She looked so little compared to the majesty of the Falls.

Annnd, we've still been going fishin'. We haven't been in about two weeks, because the salmon run has been slowing down. It's supposed to pick up in a week or two when the second run starts...so we're gonna wait a little while until we go again. The second run is not only Sockeyes, but Coho and Pink salmon as well - so the numbers are higher, and thus a better chance for me to reel in the big 'un. Hopefully soon, we'll also go halibut fishing. Unless you know someone (and I do, but they're not feeling overly generous) to take you out, you most likely have to take a fishing charter to catch halibut - because they're out in the sea. These charters cost a pretty penny - some of them being over $200 for a day trip - but apparently, it's well worth the money because you are almost guaranteed 100 % success in catching 70 lbs of halibut...which ends up being worth way more than $2oo if you were to buy halibut in the store or at a restaurant.

This is Wesley holding up the Sockeye he caught. He's in front of the Russian River Ferry sign - which is the place where we mainly go fishin'. I didn't get to try his salmon...but I did get to try another guy's that works there. Not just two hours before, the salmon that I was consuming and that was currently traveling down to my stomach was swimming up the Kenai River. THE freshest salmon I've ever eaten. And boy, did it really show it. Hands down, that's the best salmon I've ever had. Here's a little view of what is considered "combat fishing" on the Kenai River/Russian River confluence. Crazy busy. And people suffer hooks to the eye and whatever else that could potentially hurt. It's pretty hardcore. Me with my rod, getting hooked by Eve. We caught a lot of rockfish that day.

As I discussed in an earlier entry, we been having our campfire programs! Sam and I have already done three, and they've all proved successful. We've had very different audiences each time, so we had to adjust how we did our program just a little bit to accomodate the range of ages. Our second time we had over 45 people come - and the majority being children aged 10 and below - so it was quite a handful - but we did it alright. The way our presentation is organized is thus: we teach them the 5 species of salmon as I have taught all of you by the "Edward Salmon Fingers" tool, we have two activities where volunteers are needed (and in which they receive swedish fish as a prize - get it? Swedish fish are like little miniature salmon - haha, we're so clever) then we have a bit of the factual, in which we talk about the life cycle, and finally, we end with sharing fishing stories, handing out salmon recipes and salmon jerky to taste. We end on a final note - or ditty- that we sing for the entire audience. (Dad, you would be proud.) Sam and I both don our SCA hats and with salmon puppet in hand, I belt out our "Salmon rap" as it is so-called. For all of you who miss this incredible event, here are the lyrics (below) so you can appreciate (and represent! Yee-aahh.).

I am a salmon just look and see

if you live in Alaska, you see a lot of me

There's five species, if you look

the first is the King, also known as Chinook

next is the Sockeye, which is red you know -

did you know that Silver is also called Coho?

Pink, Humpies, the rivers they clog

don't forget chum, 'cuz they're my dogs

they're born in the river 'cuz they like the water n' motion

and when they grow up - they go live in the ocean

Salmon start as eggs in gravel beds

in little nests, that we call Redds

then they're the alevin with the cute yolk sac,

and they use that sac for a yummy snack

then they're the fry, with parr marks on their sides

to help them hide

but before they become adults,

salmon must become smolts

yes before they go out to the ocean for vacation

salmon must go through smoltification

(Yeah that's smoltification!)

And when it's time for spawning, I go back the the river where I came from-

and this is what I do

I see a pretty female making a redd her nest

then I fertilize her eggs, 'cuz she likes me the best

then you know what people - that is, when I die

but it's not sad, so baby don't you cry

'cuz my body has made the steam o' so healthy,

the nutrients are rich - and my offspring are wealthy!

Fini.

You like? When you read it, sing it as if it were a rap - to the tune of "We will Rock You." We actually have the audience do the beat for us as we lyricize, baby.

Sam, holding up a map of the places on the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge of where Sockeye salmon typically run. Behind me is a poster of a picture of the "egg stage" of the salmon life cycle. Oh, and that's us in our hott (with two t's!) uniforms.

That creature attached to my hand is Stan the salmon. He taught us everything we know. No, seriously.

Ok, so I have a helluva lot left to tell you guys, but unfortunately, I have to leave because I promised Sam I'd be back by 5:30 today (and I'm gonna be late). But, right below I'm just giving you a sneak peak (and a reminder to myself) of what else you'll be hearing about soon.

I'll be telling you stories about looking for dead people out on boats, riding on my first motorcycle, learning how to drive a boat, seeing 8 bears in the span of 2 hours, doing a snowshoe hare survey, hiking to Russian River Falls yesterday and seeing salmon jump 5 feet in the air, and seeing a bear not even 40 feet away from me on the Kenai River trail I did today. Miss you all, and I will be writing again soon!!!

hey ho the salmon stream

2008-06-09T22:09:00.000-07:00

It's been a while...since I could hold my head up high...it's been a while...since I last posted...

I must apologize for the delay. Since I've started actually working now, I'm constantly on computers and so it's taking a lot of me right now to come back to Headquarters (HQ: the visitors' center - aka: work) to write this post.

A lot has happened and yet, not a lot has happened. We started official work last week - where we learned how to man the visitors' center and the visitor contact station (40 mi. away from HQ in a little 10 x 10 box). My work week is divided up as follows: three days of working the visitors' center, 1 field day (where I get to hike), 1 day working the visitor contact station (VCS) and 1 day to do my campfire program - which is on salmon, by the way. My work week won't be that organized until we've done our first campfire program - which doesn't start until June 20. Until then, my field days won't start. What should be my field days are 8 glorious hours of sitting on the computer, putting together an outline of everything salmon. By the end of this summer, if any one ever has a question regarding salmon, I'm your woman.

Now, what is a campfire program, you may ask? Well, a campfire program involves me and a partner (Sam) coming up with a 30-45 minute presentation about a certain topic (salmon). On the day of our program, we travel 50 miles from HQ to Hidden Lake campground area, where there is an ampitheatre sort of thing - where there are seats and a presentation area. Before our program, we must advertise it throughout the refuge, so that we'll have a large audience for when we present. Pretty exciting.

I thought I'd share these two photos with you. These photos are from 3 weeks ago, when we did our CPR/First Aid training. Me and Sam were practicing wrapping our near-fatal wounds.

Eve was in so much pain. She had just broken her arm. And I made her sling! Doesn't it look amazing?

Anyway, so it doesn't seem like a lot's going on here, but we have been doing a lot of hikes and other extracurricular activities that are keeping us busy. This is a photo from a hike we did down the Russian River Lakes Trail. It was a 4.6 mi hike, and the end result was absolutely breathtaking. The speed and rush of the water was unreal. And I finally got my postcard pictures.

Eve was a little perturbed by the fact that our supervisor gave us a can of INERT bear spray for our hike. We didn't realize 'til we were halfway through our hike that we had been carrying around a useless can of bear spray. It's a good thing we didn't come across any bears...because I would have had to bring out my kung fu moves and there would be a dead bear we'd have to worry about.

This sight was RIGHT outside of our bunkhouse just down the road. A momma black bear and her two cubs. Since I've been here, I've seen three momma bears and her two cubs - that's 9 bears - plus three lone bears - that's 12 bears I've seen here since I've been in Alaska. How cool is that?

This is a photo of Eve and me rolling down a hill. We went on a hike down these trails that are used for cross-country skiing in the winter. We saw this hill and we just had to roll down it. Below is a photo of Sam, me, Eve and Julia. These are our uniforms! Now you know (yes, Katie, you especially) how we look like and what we have to wear. We are sometimes mistaken for cops. But I don't have a problem with that. Anyway, this is us on top of bear mountain. This was an approx. 2 mi. hike - and let me tell you, the name fits. We saw 6 places where there was fresh bear scat, and trees that had their bark torn off. Bears have been sighted on this trail. I'm sure if there's been record of any bear maulings, though. Have I got you scared?

This is a tree that shows the typical signs of having encountered a bear. I felt where the scratch marks are, and my hand got covered in sap. On the other side of this area on the tree, there was just gobs and gobs of sap that had run down the side of it - it kind of looked like a the side of candle that had been burning for hours.

And there's the bear! AHHHHHH!!! Pretty strange looking bear, if you ask me. But when we asked if it was a bear, she promptly replied, "Yes. I am indeed a bear."
Bear scat! This is how it usually looks like. That is, if it eats its typical diet of shrubbery and berries. Human diet, though...may make it look a little different.

This is a picture of Julia, Jetta (a totally cool ranger at the refuge), Eve, and Me. We all got dressed up for seeing Sex in the City.

CARIBOU!!!!! Three weeks into living in the awesomeness that is Alaska, we still hadn't see the elusive caribou. We had heard that they were here, but we still hadn't seen any! Then on one night on our way to Kenai beach, as we were crossing the Kenai River, we saw a group of caribou! It's hard to see them as they are so well camouflaged against the hayish grass, but they are there. There's two females and one male in this picture. And if you look closely enough, you'll see antlers on the male in the middle.

Me and Eve frolicking. On Kenai beach. This was the same night we saw caribou. We went out to the beach just for the sole reason of seeing an Alaskan sunset. And boy, was it pretty. We didn't leave the beach 'til midnight, and the sun still hadn't gone completely down. Anyway, back to telling you what's been going on. Two nights ago, I wentKing Salmon fishing. It was so much fun. Unfortunately, I didn't catch anything, but I did get two bites and I just sucked on the reeling in part and they got away. But my roomie, Sam, did indeed catch a 20 pounder! It's little by King Salmon standards...but a big fish nonetheless. It was 28 1/2 inches long...so pretty big. We went with three guys - Dan the Man, Ken and Frank (both guys that work at the fisheries office). They had a pretty big fishing boat - we all had comfortable free-standing seats to sit on -- and all the gear necessary.

This is the beaut! So lovely, eh? I held it up as well (shame we didn't get any pictures) and it was heavy! I was extremely in awe/proud of Sam.

So I just had to go to the local grocery store here and buy a 1-day fishing license ($25) and a King Salmon stamp ($5). It was totally worth it. We went out around 5:30 and didn't get back 'til about 1 am. We left the waters around 11:45...and the sun still hadn't gone down yet.

This is Sam holding up her catch! Big, eh? She was so ecstatic.

Sam's sending half of the fish to her Dad for Father's day...and the other half she's sharing with me (haha - YUM!). Ken skinned and prepared the fish right there - it was really cool getting to watch how they did it. It totally wasn't gross at all. By the time they prepare it - all the blood's run out so it's not all bloody and gooey like you think it would be.

This is a photo of another Alaskan sunset over the upper Kenai River. It was so beautiful. In the lower right hand corner was our boat.
One more picture of the sunset.

So, we're definitely going to have to go fishing again...because I have to catch my Alaskan salmon.

We went to the Russian River Ferry site two days ago - that's where hundreds upon hundreds of fishermen come to buy their Russian River Ferry pass to cross the river and go fish. So it's a booming place. This place is what defines "combat fishing." I want to check it out just to see how it really is - but I wonder how long it will take me to get there - because apparently, the traffic is horrendous, and cars upon cars pile up to get into the parking lot where the ferry site is. Anyway, we went to the ferry site to get a free ride on the ferry and check it out - and we met three of the guys who will be working it. They are all college-age, doing a similar summer thing like I am, and there's about 15-20 of them altogether, I think.

Picture of me, Julia, Eve and Sam on the Russian River Ferry.

So we got to talking about fishing - and they said they'd take us out anytime. So hopefully at some point we'll come back when a couple of them have their days off and they be opportunely waiting for us to take us out on the boat. Haha.

So, if you're wondering what we did 'til 1 am the night we went fishing...I guess that's just something that will have to remain a mystery...

Just kidding. We went into Sal's restaurant and had some good midnight food. I know - how gross, eating late at night -- but oh, it was glorious. It's crazy, actually. Most of you who know me know that I'm not a burger eater -- and I never eat burgers at restaurants. I pretty much always go for fish - salmon, tilapia, you name it. But up here, since what I really want - halibut or salmon - is so expensive, I order a burger as it's cheaper. And I've had three burgers now! And you know what's even crazier? Is the fact that they all have been absolutely delicious! They all have been so good.

So last night, as you may have now ascertained, I ordered a burger and fries. And it was so good. Sal's was absolutely packed - and according to Dan, we really missed out -- because Sal's is the place to be around 2-3 am - when it's hoppin'. Apparently, it's so packed out because all the drunkies are coming in to soak up some of the alcohol they just consumed at "The Mav" across the street or Hooligans right down from Sal's.

Sal's was this awesome hole in the wall place with all of this hunting, fishing, and trapping paraphernalia plastered all over its walls. The menu was really cool -- it was made to look like an old timey newspaper from the Gold Rush Era. The front and back of it were news stories - and the inside was actual menu items. We'll definitely have to come back - because, according to Eve, Sal's is the best place for breakfast (if you want to feel like a tub of lard later - teehee).

So yesterday and the day before, Soldotna was hosting the annual Kenai River Festival...so we went to that for a couple of hours. I got my first Alaskan Sockeye salmon dinner there...for a whopping $6! It was so awesome. The whole reason why I haven't had any salmon or halibut here as of yet is because it's so expensive. You wouldn't think it would be that expensive, seeing that we're right here - but it still is. I've seen halibut dinners going anywhere from $16.99 to $29.99...so getting this salmon was an incredible deal. It was a huge hunk of salmon, with generous portions of tabouleh, potato salad, a piece of bread, and a rhubarb muffin (first time for rhubarb, too!). And it was absolutely delicious. The salmon was so tender and fresh...all of you would have loved it. Soooo good.

The festival was really cool too...they had all these little tables with homemade wares, jewelry, quilts, and other such things...and a big stage where people were singing and playing music. Jelly-making (is there an official name for that?) is really popular here. There was this table where one single woman makes all these jellies - fireweed jelly, spruce tip jelly, rhubarb butter, salmonberry jelly - all delicious. We could taste test some of them.It was really cool getting to taste the fireweed one, because on one of our work days last week, we had a nature tour with one of the rangers, and she showed us all these plants - and fireweed was one of them. There are a ton of plants here that you could make jellies out of. Even spruce! That was crazy...I didn't realize you could make jelly from the tips of spruces. We asked her how she made it...and she literally goes out and picks the very ends (new growth) off of spruce branches (gets hundreds of them) and with a combination of pectin, sugar, and honey, (I think) she makes the jelly. Sooo good.

This photo is from last night. I was just practicing my gun skills. Because I'm a real cowgirl and everything.

Me and Eve went over to Jetta's to play some Balderdash. Jetta is half-native Alaskan. This is one of her brother's pistols. She's a supporter of guns. Lots of guns.

Picture of Sam on a tree/log across Skilak lake. We went on a 2.6 mi hike today on Hidden Creek trail. It was so beautiful and clear out today.

Anyway, I'm ending this post as it's ridiculously long and I'm tired. Hope it was enjoyable! Hopefully I'll be writing back with more fishing and hiking tales...because supposedly I'm going fishing again tomorrow! Whee!

I like cheese....NOT

2008-05-27T13:16:00.000-07:00

So I decided that this entry will mainly be pictures...because I know all of you are tired of reading words when you can be instantly gratified by cool pictures!!! (P.S. I survived the canoe trip. Although I came devastatingly close, I did not die.)

Me and my precious shotgun last Wednesday at the shooting range. Don't I look so hardcore?

Shooting at the rushing "bear." That little screen thing in the back is a snarling bear about to eat me!
Sam, me, Julia, and Eve on our rafting trip. I did not discuss this in an earlier entry. Last Thursday, we went on a rafting trip (I think there were about 20 people in all) down the Kenai River. I think we rafted 10-12 miles...but I could be wrong. We saw amazing scenic vistas everywhere we went. Unfortunately, I didn't want to risk anything happening to my digital camera, so I couldn't take any pictures. All these pictures are happily provided to you by Eve Smallwood (copyright). This trip we probably saw the most variation in wildlife we've seen the entire time we've been here. We saw a moose and her (maybe) 4-day old meese babies, a beaver, a black bear and HER two cubs (amazing - unfortunately, nobody had a camera with a battery left at this point, so we couldn't take any pictures. But, we were driving back from our day trip in a huge 15-seater van when we saw a bear on the side of the road. And in all seriousness, the bear and her two cubs were literally 4 feet from the van. We got such an amazing view of them. And those pictures, my friends, are only in my heart.), a lone black bear, several eagles, several murganzer (sp?) ducks, goldeneye and harlequin ducks, and so much more. Our rafting guide person is a birder...so he told us all of this neat stuff about the waterfowl commonly seen. He said that hardcore birders travel from all over the world to see harlequin ducks right here in Alaska. And here we saw them everywhere. I felt so priviledged.
Here's a picture of the moose and her two babies. They were so unbelievably cute. They were all awkward on their legs.

A picture of us on the raft. I'm in the front. Sam and Julia are in the back somewhere, if you can spot them out. The rest of the people on the boat are trail crew and fire people. Anyway, after our rafting trip (which lasted about 4-5 hours) we went on a boating trip across Skilak lake. We saw a glacier in the distance (whose name fails me at the moment) and the absolutely breathtaking Kenai moutains surrounded us. We stopped onshore at a cabin and did a little roleplaying game to practice a potential emergency situation. We had to use the 7 survival rules to discuss and determine what we would do if we were stranded on this island with just the stuff on our backs and in our pockets. Mucho fun. Later that night (and unfortunately, or possibly thankfully I don't have pictures of this) we went to a bar and did some karaoke. Dad, I would have made you proud. Julia and I sang "Take on Me" by Aha! and "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" as duets. Although I suffered sweaty palms and shamefaced embarassment, it was hellishy funny. I kinda wish we did have pictures. Anyway, here's pictures of our canoe trip:

This was on our first day of canoeing. It absolutely poured on us the entire day. It was miserable, but fun (surprisingly). This little area was a portage, but thankfully, was one that we could canoe through. The other ones weren't so painless. We had to portage through muck that made you sink 'til you were knee-deep in sketchy brown stuff, with it underneath your nails, covering your hands, and if you were lucky, with it even splattered on your face (I was that lucky). With the exception of the final portage we did, I fell knee-deep in muck every single time. I was lucky (no exaggeration here) I didn't break my leg...because I almost did. We had to portage through trails that were knotty with tree roots, limbs, and full-on trees that blocked the path. The portages were long and arduous...but somehow we made through it, bruises on our spines and all.

This is a picture of me, Scott (our guide - Ranger on the refuge) and Eve. Me and Eve were partners (and tent sharers) the entire weekend. I think me and Eve shared something special that weekend that will forever change our relationship. Or not. This is me portaging a canoe. Doesn't it look like oodles of fun?? NOT! It was a horrible experience. Although I can say I can portage a canoe by myself, now. Nearing the end of the third day, Eve discovered a little something that would help us through 'til the end. She realized that listening to a little "Thriller" by Michael Jackson on her ipod while portaging would move mountains (or at least canoes). I, on the other hand, listened to some Jack Johnson. I have a new and unadulterated appreciation for Jack Johnson now...as he saved my life. (I'm considering writing him a personal note of thanks.) This is a picture of Sam [bless her heart - she seriously damaged her back this weekend - Randy - she'll be needing some serious therapy when she gets back :) ], Me, Eve, Scott (being a badass), Julia, Christa (YCC co-leader) and Ryan (YCC leader and motorcylist extraordinaire). These past two pictures are really funny. Eve set a timer on her camera and set it off a ways so that she could get a picture of all of us. Unfortunately, it looks like we're focusing on a leaf. But I kid you not, what is more important is what's in the picture beyond. This is Scott, me, Julia, Christa, and Eve. We're stalking the camera. Seriously. You see? Although we all practically died this weekend, we did have some fun.

Alright, the next string of pictures are from our trip to Homer. I know I talked about it...but I didn't allow you to experience the amazingness that is Homer. It was absolutely beautiful...and it was such a clear day - so I got some pretty sweet pictures of the mountains. (We now get into the pictures that were taken with my camera. You'll see the difference. And no...I am not bigheaded or biased about my camera or picture-taking abilities in the least.)

Julia, Eve, Sam and Me overlooking the Kachemak Bay. Although you can't see them in this picture, there's snow-covered mountains surrounding this bay. Here's Dan the man...the guy I have been constantly referencing. He's so much fun. This was at the Pratt museum in Homer...where we saw one of only two remaining skeletons of the entinct saw-toothed whale. Dan is wearing some emergency safety suit that you would wear if you had to do some life-saving in hypothermic water. On the side of the bin where this suit was stored was a little challenge to visitors: to see if you could put this suit on in 30 seconds or less. I'm pretty sure Dan failed. But at least he can successfully do the robot in it!!Sam, Me, Eve and Julia overlooking the Kachemak bay and Kenai mountain range. This was probably the highest point of Homer. It was an absolutely amazing view. This is the closest I could get with my camera (if you ask me, it's pretty close) of one of the mountains. If you look close enough near the bottom of the picture, you'll see a glacier. The snow looks a little different at the bottom than the rest of the mountain. The way you can spot a glacier is by the color of it. Glaciers tend to look blue, because the ice reflects all colors of the spectrum except for blue - which it absorbs from the blue of the sky. I promised a picture of this, didn't I? Buttwhackers: we pack 'em, rack 'em, whack 'em and sack 'em. I'm pretty sure they're talking about fish. I could be wrong. Right next to this lovely place was the Salty Dog Saloon. Apparently it's a hot spot of The Spit. I'm pretty sure I explained this in a previous post, but -- The Spit is an peninsula that juts off of the mainland of Homer. It's not too wide across...so you can easily walk from either side to have a nice jaunt on the beach.

Got this picture off of a bumper sticker on a truck. This is Homer's slogan...and boy, does it hit the mark. This is a picture from the Spit of the Kachemak bay and the Kenai mountains. The water is so unbelievably blue. It reminds me of the crystalline water of the Bahamas...could be the very same - if it weren't for the temperature difference.

Sam, me and Julia on our day hike on Burney's trail in the Refuge. I talked about it briefly in a previous post. It was about a 2-hour hike (that was grueling - man, I need to get into shape) up some hilly areas. We got to see some wonderful views of Skilak Lake and the Kenai mountain range.

This is a picture of Cook's Inlet overlooking three of Kenai's ACTIVE volcanoes. I can't remember their names right now...but they're off in the distance. This was at 10 pm. See how far the sun is up in the sky? It was absolutely beautiful though. This was when Dan, Scott (fisheries fellow), Sam and I went walking on the beach at night. It was really amazing and quiet. We saw some seals and porpoises in the water...but they were too quick for me to get a good picture. And last but not least, here's a picture for Randy. I stole a picture of Sam when she wasn't looking. She's so sneaky, that one. She'll never let you take her picture...so you have to stoop down to her level and sneak in a picture whenever you can. In the background is Dan. Most likely, Dan just told a joke that he and Sam are presumably laughing at.

Anyway, that's it!!! Today we get a day's rest from our canoe trip this weekend...so I'll most likely be wasting a lot of time (like now, for example - but at least you've been visually stimulated, right?). Tomorrow we do CPR/First Aid training...and then I can't remember what. I'll be checking in soon!!

Spiderpig...spiderpig...does whatever, a spiderpig does...

2008-05-23T18:01:00.000-07:00

So unfortunately, until my fingerprints and official background check get cleared, I can't use any of the computers at the visitors' center. So again I will have to give you a post without any pictures. I promise - amazing, breathtaking, wish-you-were-here photographs will be coming soon.

I have had an absolutely exhilarating time here in Alaska since May 18th. I'm not sure if I mentioned this in a previous post...but since I arrived here nearly two weeks ago, all that we have been doing is training. We get three weeks of training...and then I think we start officially working. So this week was filled with classroom sit-ins, staring at powerpoint screens for four hours at a time...and getting sprayed with bear spray. Monday of this week was bear safety training - where we learned bear behavior, what to do in a confrontation, and how to prepare for it. While one of the wildlife biologists (John) was explaining the benefits of using bear spray (a spray made from red peppers), one of the law enforcement officers thought it'd be funny to spray an inert bottle in the act of handing over the spray to John. Little did he know (or did know actually, and just didn't read the bottle correctly), the bottle actually said "Interp" on it, which is short for "Interpretation" --- meaning, it was a bottle of pepper spray for Interp staff. So lo and behold, out gushed the red pepper fumes and out rushed all of the people in the room. John was absolutely drenched in it...arms glistening and all. All of us were coughing and spluttering with eyes watering. Despite the immense pain I was in, it was extremely funny.

Later that night, Sam and I went with Dan and Scott (another fisheries fellow) to Cook's Inlet on the Kenai and walked a good 3 miles on the beach. Though it was nearly 11 pm by the time we got home, the Alaska sun was bright and shining at the top of the sky. One of these days I'm getting a sunset picture. I'll just have to stay up until midnight out at the beach and take pictures like mad.

We learned the 5 species of salmon that pile in on the Kenai River every summer. The secret to knowing them is by looking at your hand: your pinky finger stands for the "Pink" salmon; your ring finger...which has the potential of having a silver ring on it - is for the "Silver" salmon; your middle finger - which might be used for varied purposes like say, I don't know...flicking someone off - i.e. the "King" of all the fingers - is for the "King" salmon; your pointer finger - which might be used to poke somone's eye - is for the "Sockeye" salmon; and last but not least, your thumb - is the "Chum" salmon. Those two just rhyme. It works. Anyway, say that out loud -- and I promise you'll remember it forever. Now I can seem somewhat intelligent when visitors ask me what kinds of salmon we see here.

Tuesday was oodles of fun. That day, we got a briefing of our weekend - which is a 3-day canoeing trip around the Swan Lake and Swanson River canoe routes. As a little preview of what this weekend will entail, we practiced portaging a canoe around a parking lot. Each of us carried a tandem canoe on our backs by ourselves. (Michael - this doesn't mean next time we go canoeing I carry it.) It was extremely heavy and I'm pretty sure I'm going to die this weekend. You'll know for sure if I post after Tuesday.

That night, we went to Dan's house for "Taco and Tequila Tuesday." Got to taste moose and caribou for the first time - and my, were they tasty. There was also halibut and various other scrumptious delights. It was great fun - with Michael Jackson singing "Thriller" in the background and jokes all around.

Wednesday was probably the most grueling day of all. I wasn't able to get much sleep and so woke up at 4:30 in the morning. I took a nice hour and a half walk down the main drag of the refuge. It was really beautiful getting to enjoy such stillness. The only sounds I heard were the whistles and tinkles of thrushes and robins amongst the trees. I probably saw about ten snowshoe hares, but that was the extent of the wildlife I saw. Around 11 am, the 3 SCAs and I drove down to the shooting range, where I LEARNED HOW TO SHOOT A SHOTGUN. Yes. For the first time in my life, I shot a firearm. Repeatedly.

Although it was really exciting, it was also really hard and physically tiring. The guns are heavy - and since I have short arms (I'll admit it) the shotgun was hard to hold. Three hours into it one of the instructors finally realized I should have a shorter gun and so I finally got one that I could semi -handle. I can't count how many shots I did - but I shot buck shots, slugs, and another one I can't remember. I got to keep a slug as a souvenir. Every shot was pointed at a board that had a picture of a snarling bear plastered on it. As the final exam to the training, we had to shoot at a "running bear" - which was a model of a bear that sped towards you at the pace of a running human. Needless to say....I failed miserably. But that's okay. There are plenty of people (including three of my roomies - they proved to be impeccable shooters) that are around to protect me in case a grizzly tries to charge me.

Three days after the shooting range, my arms are still killing me. And tomorrow I have to portage a canoe by myself for who knows how many hours. Wish me good luck.

2008-05-18T19:51:00.000-07:00

So I realized today that I never explained the title to my last post. A quaint drinking town with a fishing problem is not Soldotna. It's the slogan of the town of Homer...at a whopping population of 5,000 people. The locals like to say, "It's a town of 5,000 during the winter, but 50,000 in the summer." I think most could guess why.

We went to Homer yesterday. The town was absolutely beautiful with breathtaking views of snow-covered moutains lining the Kachemak Bay. Right now I'm in the Environmental Education center of headquarters, and unfortunately, didn't bring my camera. So I'll have to upload photos of Homer later. To the west (I think) of Homer is The Spit, which is a peninsula that juts out far into the Bay. On either side are mountains upon mountains of sea-smooth stones that I know Aunt Kathy would be absolutely beside herself with. They were great for skipping...although the surf made it hard to get in more than 3 skips. The peninsula was lined with fish n' chip places and saloons. One shop was called "Buttwhackers" -- I'll post a picture of it later. Anyway, the four of us spent about three hours there, walking along the coast to repeatedly stop whenever we wanted to capture the scenery. It was so idyllic - with families setting blankets down and having picnics with their fair-skinned curly-headed children racing after their labrador retrievers who happen to be neck-deep in hypothermic water with sticks in their mouths. Homer is definitely a place I want to go back to.

I'll have to end this for now as I'm pushed for time. I'll repost in a couple of days with more tales about Seward, Homer, and the 2-hour hike we did today.

A quaint drinking town with a fishing problem

2008-05-17T21:35:00.000-07:00

I'm currently sitting in a cushy recliner at a tiny hole in the wall coffee shop named "Mugz" listening to Dan the Man play his mandolin. Dan is a fisheries fellow I met the second day I was here in merry ol' Soldotna. He frequently plays at this coffee shop and other local bars in the area during open mic nights, bellowing out tunes that he seems to improv right there on the spot. He is currently singing "Dirt made my lunch." Here in the coffee house there is actually just me and my fellow SCA roommate, Julia, the coffee shop employees, and Dan. Doesn't stop him from singing, though! (This entry may be a bit all over the place...Dan's singing is a little distracting. :) )

So after nearly 11 hours of comfortable airplane time, I arrived in the city of Kenai. The plane I took from Anchorage to Kenai was the tiniest plane I have ever been on. There might have been maybe 10 people on the plane. I had a clear view of the pilot in front of me and was able to see all of the controls. Fortunately, despite the extremely bumpy ride, the flight only lasted about 25 minutes so I didn't have to suffer for too long. My supervisor met me at the gate and we drove to a Safeway and picked up some groceries. I discovered that a carton of delicious Tropicana orange juice costs nearly $7....needless to say, I had to settle for storebrand from concentrate. Then we drove to the Kenai National Wildlife Refuge in Soldotna.

Candace (my supervisor) took me to the bunkhouse, where I met two of my roommates. Eve is an 8-month intern and has been here since February. She is from Illinois. I also met Sam, who is a summer intern like me and also from Missouri. I found out that my cell phone doesn't work in Alaska, and we have no internet access at the bunkhouse. The only way I am able to access the internet is by going to the local library or this coffee shop. So those of you who know the bunkhouse number, call to contact me. (Pictured from left: Me, Julia, Sam, and Eve)

The next day, Sam and I went to the grocery store and drove around Soldotna. Saw my second (my first was in Utah with Kaylie :] ) moose! We were driving along K-beach Hwy and Sam shouted out, "Moose!" and I looked over to my right and saw what appeared to be a moose attached to the side of a motel wall. I turned the tracker around (that's the govt vehicle we have access to) and drove into the motel parking lot. The moose was just nonchalantly (but awkwardly - meese are so awkward) grazing and munching on the ground. Two men in their underwear walked out of their rooms to see the moose. It was an interesting sight indeed.

Later that night, I met my third and final roommate named Julia. Julia is a graduate of Columbia University from Pennsylvania. The following day was our first day of work. Sam, Julia and I walked over to headquarters (the main visitors' center) and spent a good three hours filling out paperwork. After that, we walked back to the bunkhouse and went with Eve and received an official tour of Soldotna and the Kenai area.

The scenery is really beautiful. Kenai is bordered by the Kenai and Russian Rivers. You can tell the difference between the two by looking at the color of their water. The Kenai is a turquoise color due to the glacial silt that flows down from the mountains into the river. The Russian is more of a muddy brown color. Surrounding the entire area is the Kenai mountain range, which reaches not far beyond 5,000 feet above sea level. They are fairly short mountains by normal standards. The mountains are nearly entirely covered in snow. There is a lot of snow still chilling on the flatlands here. Since Sunday, the temperature has averaged at around 50 degrees. Three days ago though, it was 38 degrees - so it was cold!! I've been having to repeatedly go to Fred Meyer's (the Soldotna equivalent of a super Wal*Mart - but WAY better) to buy warm clothes...as I didn't bring clothes to prepare for such cool temperatures. My hiking boots are finally starting to look worn, with a bit of caked mud on them for good measure.

On Wednesday, Eve's supervisor Michelle took us on a tour of a large part of the actual refuge. We went to several different campgrounds, hiked some trails, and...saw a bear!!! Here's a fun fact that I learned: brown bears and grizzlies are the same bear. The only reason that some are called brown bears and some are called grizzly is on account of where they live. Brown bears in Kenai are brown bears. Bears in Denali are grizzlies. What's even more exciting is the fact that bears here in Kenai are larger than the bears in Denali...as they eat salmon. The bear we saw, though, was a black bear...which are smaller than brown bears. Here's a photo of him:

I found out that one of the trails is a 12-hour long hike up and over a mountain. Me and the other SCAs will be doing that at some point. We went on this one trail that gave an amazing vista of the Kenai River.

The next day, we drove to Seward and took a cruise tour of Kenai Fjords and the harding ice field. It was approximately 5 hours long. We got to see beautiful mountains, cliffs, a plethora of mountain goats, tufted puffins, comorants, stellar sea lions, HARBOR SEALS (!!!) eagles, sea otters, dall porpoises, and two humpback whales. We saw a momma humpback and her baby. They were so unbelievably cute and fascinating. They weren't shy at all. They came up right to the boat and were extremely playful. Unfortunately, we didn't see any Beluga whales or orcas...but I have the whole summer to hopefully see them sometime. A big group of guys in Holland America jackets came onto the boat with us and I found out a large majority of them were Mormon!

(Kaylie, you will appreciate this) Two really cute guys sat next to us (much to my disappointment, the cuter of the two had a ring on his left finger) and we found out that they went to BYU in Utah, and they were working for Holland America doing bus tours for the summer. Surprisingly, those two actually did their missions in Alaska!

Anyway, the coffee shop is about to close, so I will have to finish this post later. Enjoy more photos of wildlife below!!!