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