Liar, Liar, the Forest is on Fire...

We started off our week with a bang by hiking 12 miles of the Alaskan wilderness. To say that it was beautiful would be a horrid misrepresentation because there are simply no words to describe the view. Hopefully the pictures below will do some justice. We hiked up the Eagle River Valley that we live in and saw a lot of butterflies, mountains, flowers and a few waterfalls. We hiked 6 miles to Icicle Creek where there was a large gravel bar that we had lunch on. We sat on the river bank looking across to Heritage Falls. At this point we were at the base of multiple different mountains so large I could barley fit it all into a picture. We plan to hike back in this valley further as soon as we build up some more stamina.

 

 The following day we took it easy due to the fact that we were a little tired and sore from the day before but fear not, excitement is just right around the corner! On Friday evening Adam and I had a nice dinner after a busy day at work and as we stepped out of the kitchen we quickly realized the entire forest was filled with hazy smoke! Adam and I have never ran so fast up a mountainside to the Nature Center! Seriously, that was painful. We ran into the nature center huffing and puffing to find our other local volunteer, Colin, already of the phone. Did we mention that both of our bosses are currently in the lower 48? Luckily Colin was talking with our board director since everyone else was out of town. The wildfire was roughly 7-8 miles down river and on the opposite side. Luckily the Fire Department got it under control before it spread too far. Using a plane and a helicopter, they were able to douse the fire and put it out. It only managed to burn 25 acres and Adam and I did not lose our home so we are happy! The fire only burned the forest but did come within 1000 feet of someone's home. Aside from that excitement, we had a busy weekend here at the Nature Center. The weather was sunny and low 70's so people were out and about soaking up the sunshine on our trails.

Let us introduce you to Nanook- a dog you should know. From the Eagle River Nature Center there is a trail that traverses 23 miles over the Chugach Mountains to the town of Girdwood. Crow Pass is the name of this trail and like many people Adam and I hope to take the trail this summer. There is a house close to the trailhead in Girdwood and they have a dog named Nanook (native for polar bear) and a few times every year Nanook gets the itch to go for a walk. She will hop the fence in her yard and follow hikers as they head across the mountains. This dog will travel over 23 miles in a day or two, a few times each summer and when she finishes her hike she shows up at the Nature Center. Her owners called us Friday morning to let us know that she had hopped the fence and that we should expect to see her in roughly a day or two. Sure enough she showed up the next afternoon, a little thirsty but otherwise in great shape! Such a sweet dog!




We saw our first Grizzly Bear! Luckily from the car! On our drive into town we found him on the side of the road munching on some dandelions! He did not seem interested in us or the line of cars taking pictures of him, he was very photogenic!

Finally on our day off we decided to go for a little hike...we soon found out what Alaska classifies as easy, is really a Wisconsin difficult. We decided to climb Mt. Baldy seeing as it was a local favorite and was supposed to be "easy". Well it might have been easy until we took a less traveled hiking trail and ended up walking directly up the steepest side of the mountain with nothing more than dirt footholds to guide us. From the bottom it didn't look that steep or that tall but when we were about half way up, already exhausted and losing the trail in the lichen, moss, rocks and flowers we started to regret our decision. Did we mention that it was windier than all get out? Ashley was too scared to stand up straight as the wind was so strong, we were so high up and the mountain side was so steep. There was a portion that we crawled up using our hands and feet and as we would get higher and higher more mountain would magically appear before us requiring us to go further and further up. About 3/4 of the way up we would have turned around but we were too scared to go back down the way we came; so we continued on and finally, after many false summits, we made it to the top. Let us just say that there is nothing more frustrating than thinking you made it to the top only to see the real top is another 50 feet above you. This happened multiple times and we are not going to lie, there was quite a bit of cursing, but we finally made it to the top and it was worth it! The view of the entire valley, Eagle River and Anchorage was spectacular! It was so windy at the top that Ashley was afraid if she tried to adjust her flannel around her waist it would blow off into the wind never to be found again. Thankfully there was an easier and less steep trail down it just was a bit longer than climbing directly up the mountain face. These photos might not seem very steep but trust us, that was freaking terrifying.

 

That's about it for this week. Fire, bears, mountains and plenty of tourists. What will we experience next?! You'll find out next week on the next edition of Adam and Ashley's Alaskan Adventure!

 

-the A-Team

A lot happens when the sun never sets

We finally got a chance to take the Sweaty Yeti back on the road and do some camping this past weekend. We headed back through town to Ekultna Lake just a few miles up the road. The lake was massive and freezing from all the snow melt and glacial melt that fed into it. The water was a murky blue/gray color which we decided to name Jamaican Blue (patent pending). It gets this unique color from the finely ground bits of rock that are created by the glacier, called rock flour. We did a little hiking and then headed back to our campsite for crescent rolls and hotdogs over the fire. We liked to call them Fire and Ice because the crescent roll was a little burnt but the hotdog was cold in the center. Not the greatest meal we have ever made but pintrest just made it look so easy. We even managed to start the fire just like they do on survivor! Courtesy of the flint and steel given to us by Hillary and Case. A group of high school kids moved into the sight next to us and they got a little loud in the night. So we decided to keep to ourselves in the camper and play cards for the rest of the night.

The next day we packed up camp and headed down to Anchorage for a day of sight seeing and souvenirs. We found an antique shop with tons of cool artifacts from the area and even some relics from when Alaska was still a part of Russia. A massive painting of a mountain was calling our names but at 5 feet tall and 7 feet long we decided that would be a little tricky to haul home, let alone just to the car in the parking lot. We ended the day with some pizza and headed back to our cabin.

Tuesday morning we decided to do some hiking at the trails just down the road from the nature center. Less than a mile from our driveway we found a moose eating buds from a tree just off the road! We got a few dozen pictures as she continued to eat with no regard to us watching. The trailhead was just a short drive away from our new moose friend. As we got out of the car and started to gather our hiking supplies we saw two more moose just at the edge of the parking lot! We quietly got back into the car and watched the cow and year-old bull cautiously cross the lot and disappear into the woods just ahead of us. The camera was practically smoking with how many pictures we took! Finally we were able to start hiking for the day but not for long. Ashley's allergies started acting up so we took a break from the trails and headed to town. We wandered around to a few shops before heading back to our cabin to make dinner. Enchiladas were on the menu for the night and for the rest of the week since we made enough to feed a small army. But that was just fine because they were delicious!

On Wednesday we had the day off from work so we could attend the state park volunteer training program. Our manager, Laura, took us down along the Turnagain Arm where we got to meet the other volunteers for the season as well as the park rangers. We had already covered most of the material during training from the nature center but there were still a bunch of interesting things they covered. The craziest part was that for all of the half-a-million acres of land that is the Chugach State Park, there are only 5 rangers! And even crazier is the fact that they also cover the largest state park in North America, Wood-Tikchik, which is 1.6 million acres or roughly the size of Delaware. Fortunately they have a single additional ranger to help patrol that area. So 6 rangers to cover over 2 million acres of land. You can do the math but no matter how you slice it, something doesn't add up. After that we drove around town with Laura and she pointed out some cool places to check out. We got to haul some supplies for the trails and Laura even bought us ice cream! She's pretty cool! We definitely picked a good place to work for the summer.

Thursday was a pretty mellow day at the nature center. It was pretty windy all day so we didn't have too many people on the trails. But that night we got to have a super cool date night! The nature center has a projector for presentations and we were told that we could use it for watching movies. So we decided it was a perfect time to use that privilege and watch the season finale of Survivor! It was like a movie theater with the big comfy chairs and the lights out and enchiladas galore! The only scary part was the loud thud of the someone pulling on the door to the nature center that clearly read "CLOSED." Sure it was still light out, but read the sign! Also the survivor that Ashley chose at the beginning of the season won! If this spoils the results for you then we're sorry; but we're also glad this blog takes precedence over your television shows so let's call it a wash? Deal.

Friday was a busy day for the staff because we were having a dedication ceremony for the newly built trail maintenance garage. The nature center was pretty empty most of the day so we were told to close up a little early and head down to the ceremony if it stayed quiet. Unfortunately the general public didn't get the memo and decided to all come to the nature center 20 minutes before we were going to close! We finally got a chance to lock up and head down to the garage for the final speech and the ribbon cutting. Did we mention this is the same garage where we have our kitchen and bathroom? So this was technically a ribbon cutting ceremony for us and the kitchen in which we prepare enchiladas and sometimes spaghetti. Take that regular kitchens! There were appetizers and local beers, including a beer named specially for one of the river access points in our park called Echo Bend. We met the board members and other volunteers that until now we had only heard about. After the party died down we stayed to clean up because let's face it, that's our job and our kitchen. There were tons of leftovers and fortunately we had the only fridge in sight. We've been eating like royalty ever since.

Saturday and Sunday were more training days. We covered plants of the area and holy smokes is there a lot to learn! Some plants are edible and some aren't-same as Wisconsin. Some berries are good but their bushes have thorns- pretty typical. Some berries are poison but they can look like a good berry- uh-oh. Some plants have poisonous berries but the leaves and roots are edible- what? Some plants can be used to heal a cut but others will burn you just from touching them- seriously!? Needless to say there was a lot of material to cover and we're still getting the hang of it. But don't worry! We won't eat or touch ANYTHING. Except for blueberries. Blueberries are the same everywhere.

Now we realize that we're not the greatest at updating this blog, but can you blame us? With a crazy week like this it's a miracle we don't collapse from exhaustion. But it's still incredibly fun and we couldn't imagine a better place to spend the summer. We'll see what next week brings!

-the A-Team

PS. Below are some pictures of our cabin from the outside, per request :)

The fire deptartment, the gas company and a bear walk into the nature center...

Good Morning! Or as they say in Alaska "Good Morning!"

On our first day off of work as decided to head into Anchorage and check out the city! We headed out and went to the Alaskan Zoo, it was pretty cool! We got to see lynx, wolverines, bears, tigers, oh my! Afterwards we went out to eat at a local favorite called Moose's Tooth! It's a pizzeria/brewery and it was delicious!! We did a little shopping after dinner at the only store we can really afford right now, Goodwill. Ok we can afford more but second-hand is where it's at! To say the least it was a fun day off!

This work week has been quite a crazy one. First off we had emergency response training for the nature center on Tuesday. It covered some really good topics such as what to do if a forest fire starts, someone gets mauled by a bear, how to manage difficult customers and what to do for any emergency that requires police, fire, state troopers, etc. Good thing we covered this in training because literally the next day the fire truck and gas company had to come, we had a difficult customer AND there were a ton if bear sightings-luckily no maulings!! What are the odds?! We had some volunteers (not us) digging a hole to put a kiosk up and the put a tiny hole in a low pressure gas line...so the fire department had to come along with the gas company. Luckily there was no danger so the fire department was only there for 15 minutes and the gas company shut off the line to fix later. After all that drama we had a customer come in who you could call "disgruntled". A manager came out to deal with them but they ranted for roughly an hour. Also throughout the day we kept getting people coming in to tell us there was a grizzly bear out on the trails. Probably ten different people told us about this bear throughout the day but he never made any sign of aggression. Just went about his day ignoring people. We know this all sounds terrible but it was just a crazy day and we still are loving it here! We also had training on Alaskan Animals. The Nature Center is running a Master Naturalist course and we get to sit in on some of the classes such as Alaskan animals. It was six hours of learning and what did we cover? Polar bears, animal tracks, short eared owls and bugs...that's it! Apparently those are the animals you need to know about? Who knew!

On Thursday night we went for a hike in our park and we saw a black bear! It was way off in the woods but you could see him moving around in there! He was kind of small so we figured he was a cub and the mom was around so we decided to move on...Ashley moving really slow because she wanted to see it a bit more and Adam dragging here along making as much noise as humanly possible. Ashley thought she saw the mama bear standing up on her hind legs looking at us so we high tailed it out of there. Of course, after about an hour we decided to walk back that way to go home (Ashley's insistance) and we discovered that "mama bear" was really an uprooted tree root ball. In Ashley's defense it was really tall and black so I guess we will let that one slide. But we made it back to the nature center unscathed and at 10:30pm it was still light out. We are still trying to get used to all this light.

We know we have talked about a lot of exciting stuff but the most exciting thing happened last night! WE FELT AN EARTHQUAKE! It was around 9:50pm and Ashley was on the bed and Adam was making a fire in the wood stove and you could hear all of our stuff starting to rattle around...then you could feel the cabin start to shake! It was crazy! We were both too stunned to evacuate the cabin...but luckily it lasted only 4-5 seconds. Then everything went back to normal. We stepped outside and it was like nothing ever happened. We looked it up this morning and not only was Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash playing on the radio but we discovered it was from a 5.4 earthquake that started 82 miles beneath Denali National Park. Without a doubt one of the weirdest things we have ever felt!

After all that excitement we decided to keep the ball rolling! We are going to enjoy this beautiful weekend we are having (70 and sunny-Alaskans think this is hot) and go camping and hiking at Eklunta Lake. Pictures and stories to come in a few days!

Adios for now!

-The A-Team

Sometimes Ignorance Really Is Bliss...

Hello to the Lower 48! Everything up here in Alaska has been going well! We have settled into our cabin and we are having fun hiking around our park and exploring our surroundings a bit. This week we started work and it has been going great! We had our first day on Wednesday and we basically run the front desk of the visitor center. We issue parking passes, update trail conditions, talk with visitors and see if they saw any wildlife on the trails, things of that nature. It actually is really fun because we get to talk to people from all over the world. We have already started to make some friends! Everyone we work with is super nice and helpful, we even went out to a local brewery and had a drink with our boss. On the way up here it seems that everyone we met was either from Alaska or had spent considerable time there. Now that we are here it seems that everyone is from the Midwest! One of our coworkers is from Stevens Point, another is from Michigan and our director is from Illinois. The crazy thing is that we took a Wilderness First Aid course this past weekend and the instructor was from Fort Atkinson! Such a small world. A unique thing we learned on the job is that horses are not allowed on our trail system but apparently llamas are...we looked out into the parking lot one afternoon to find three lamas. They are used as pack animals to haul supplies or gear into the back country. It makes sense but not really something you would expect to see in Alaska. We have yet to see a bear here and that is alright by us...no need for any run-ins.

With this job comes awesome training opportunities. We got to learn Wilderness First Aid the past two days. It was an intensive crash course in what to do in the backcountry incase you or anyone you are traveling with is injured. Let us just say that this class was terrifying. We were so much more carefree and naïve three days ago. Knowing what we know now we will never look at the Alaskan wilderness the same, so much can happen out there. Good news is the body is really good at healing itself! However, Alaska is a very remote state with only a few medical evacuation planes/helicopters to rescue you. The main goal of the course was to learn what are big deals and little deals. What you should call a medevac for and what you should not. A broken clavicle in the backwoods is not a big deal but a ischemic foot (broken ankle that cuts off circulation to your foot) is a big deal. Very interesting stuff but the main reason they teach this is because so many people call for a medevac when it is not necessary and it pulls away important resources from people who really need it. We also learned many important life lessons such as it will take roughly an hour or more for your body to become hypothermic in frozen water (Google Dr. Popsicle-pretty neat stuff) so as long as you can keep your head above water you will have sometime to figure out a way to get out. Also your body is meant to move so keep it moving! What you eat today can determine how well your body will heal tomorrow! Hydrating is super important! Things of that nature that are common sense but tend to slip our mind from time to time. Both days involved an eight hour class and the first day was mostly lecturing. We discussed what the most important systems in the body are (Circulatory, Nervous, and Respiratory) and how if one gets hurt you need to call for help immediately. We also talked about the skin (infections, etc) and what to do for musculoskeletal problems such as broken bones, twisted body parts, etc. The second day was a bit more active. We got to practice splinting broken bones and got to clean wounds! The teacher brought in pig arms that had large gashes in them with dirt in the wound and we had to clean them as if we were in the backcountry. It was disgusting but very informative. Then the best part was she put make-up on us and we got to practice diagnosing medical issues in the woods. Ashley had an ischemic foot (as described earlier in the blog) so they painted her foot blue and purple. Adam had a sliver that he took out and got infected. It looked so awesome! Really believable! Now this infection got so bad it was actually a day away from sepsis! Below is a photo of what it looked like-remember it is fake, it is just make-up. Very fun part of the course! After everything we learned, we are now going to be extremely cautious whenever traveling or hiking. We actually are going to beef up our first aid kit and take a few more things with us hiking just in case. Better to be over prepared than under prepared. Well, that is really all for now, this week we have emergency response training and will learn more about Alaskan Animals! Below are some photos of our home here in Alaska! These were all taken as we hiked around our park.

-The A-Team

We cannot see Russia from our house...

There are too many mountains in the way. We have finally made it! After 22 days of traveling and living out of the camper we are finally here. We got to the Nature Center around midafternoon Saturday and met our new boss. She was super nice and showed us around. We finally got to see the cabin that we will be living out of for the next 5 months and oh boy…this will be interesting. We were a little taken back when we first saw the cabin, both of our ideas of what to expect were a little bit off. There is a wood stove, gas heater, and gas lamps which is nice. There is a massive pile of wood already split and ready to go for us and we even have small patio. However, the entire cabin is on a slant and this is the weirdest mismatch of furniture that we have ever seen. The slant does not particularly bother Ashley but it is driving Adam crazy. There seems to be an ongoing collection of posters and art from previous tenants (whom have some questionable taste). After some light cleaning, redecorating, and unpacking things are starting to feel a bit more comfortable. After spending our first few nights here we are starting to get into the grove of living here. Less than 150 yards away is our kitchen and bathroom which was added a few years ago so it is relatively new and updated which is a nice added bonus. We went grocery shopping and bought real groceries for the first time in what feels like forever. After getting settled into the cabin we have explored our park a little bit. We went for a short hike yesterday and were stunned by the beauty around us. We are living in the bottom of a valley surrounded by steep mountains. Just to get to our Nature Center, the road has an 11% grade!! That is steep! Just to put that into perspective the entire trip out here no road had more than an 8% grade; and we crossed over several mountain ranges to get here! It is a bit hilly out here, to say the least. Since this nature center is surrounded by these mountains, in the winter time it does not receive any direct sunlight for roughly two months! HOLY CATS! That is crazy! These mountains are not the best for cell reception so do not be surprised if we do not get your call or text message. We are told we need to drive about 2 miles towards town before we will get a signal so we will check it every other day or so. But even so, we are loving it here! Eagle River runs right through the park and has a large salmon run every year so we are excited to see that. Everything is going great so far and we have some training coming up soon which will be helpful. We will be learning wilderness first aid, about Alaskan plants and animals, and emergency response training. We are excited to say the least! Yesterday we had training on how to live in bear country and actually got to use a can of bear spray to see how it works. Even though we have arrived at work our blog will not end. We plan to take trips on the weekends and will update this roughly once a week. Wish us luck and we will blog again soon! Thanks for reading so far!

-The A-Team

Livin' the Fancy Life

We woke up to a warm and sunny morning in Talkeetna. We packed up the camper and headed back downtown to do some more sightseeing and check out the local shops. The people were super friendly and were very excited to hear we would be working in the area for the summer. After a couple shops we discovered a small bakery and stopped in for some breakfast and boy was it tasty! We got a chocolate coconut scone and a Rudy in a Parka to share. The Rudy in a Parka was a reindeer sausage stuffed inside a potato pastry with Colby-jack cheese. YUM!! It was so delicious that we got another one for the road! We started heading out of town when we noticed the clear, mountain-filled skies behind us. We quickly pulled over at a viewpoint and took some amazing photos of the tallest mountain peak in all of North America; Mt. Denali. It was gigantic but the magnitude of its size was hindered by the other peaks surrounding it. It was still incredible but lacked the stand-alone power of a mountain by itself such as Mt. Rainier; but what luck to have seen the top on only our second day!

We continued down the highway towards Eagle River and Anchorage but decided to stop for the night in Palmer, just outside of Wasilla. We stayed at another cozy RV park before we made it our summer jobs. The next day was a little rainy but we decided to head past Eagle River and down around the Turnagain Arm. We did have a spare day before work so why not vacation? The road followed the twists and turns of the bay, right on the edge of tall mountains and small waterfalls. We found an affordable hotel in the town of Girdwood, about 45 minutes south of Anchorage. Imagine the surprise on our faces as we drove through a valley to the fanciest hotel/ski lodge we had ever seen! There was a sky tram from the back of the hotel to the top of the mountain behind us. The pool and hot tub were massive, and the pool was salt water. This hotel room had robes and slippers, a remote with buttons on both sides, and a heated towel rack! If that’s not fancy enough then ask yourself the last time you had a hotel room with a doorbell! You’d think we grew up in West Philadelphia, born and raised…We went out to a local restaurant for dinner and had some delicious pizza and beer. Then Ashley insisted on ice cream and we discovered a new favorite flavor of ours. It’s called Glacial Silt and it’s ginger ice cream with cinnamon mixed in. Ashley loved it so much we had to stop for more the next day before we headed off to Eagle River to finally see where we will be working for the next 5 months!

 

-the A-Team