Tuesday, February 8, 2011
A Skijor With Banks & His New Lady Sage
Yesterday my friend Amy and I decided to finally get our dogs together and go skijoring. Skijoring is something new for both of us with our pups. It's essentially skiing while your dog tows you from a line attached to your hips via a climbing harness or something similar. Banks and I have made 3 good attempts at this. He pulls hard...when he wants to. And he stops well...when he wants to...sometimes unexpectedly. You can imagine some of the dangers of this activity, particularly when you have classic cross country skis that don't have a metal edge. It makes maneuvering and stopping on the fly a bit more difficult. Regardless, we take the risk so we can spend the day outdoors with our dogs and hopefully tire them out a little in the process. Both Banks and Sage are new to skijoring, so they are a bit...remedial. They're both a little over 2 so they have alot of energy and alot of "puppy" in them. For the most part we did well. They both stayed on the trail and didn't try to pull us into the woods. About 2/3 through our ski we stopped to let them off their lines to play togther. Once we got them hooked back up we headed off down the trail toward the parking lot. Somehow...I'm still not quite sure how, they got their lines tangled and we ALL went down. I ended up falling backward on my fanny pack (yes, I said fanny pack) that had 2 water bottles and my 35mm camera in it. The camera is OK and the water bottles are OK, don't worry. I, however, am now 5'9" as opposed to my normal 6'. One of the water bottles stabbed me in the right flank and I'm having a little trouble standing up straight with the new muscle spasms. So tonight, as you all check out the pics from the day, I'm nursing a gnarly bruise on my right flank. It's icey hot, advil, a heating pad and a glass of wine tonight. At least Banks is exhausted and resting comfortably... ;)
Monday, February 7, 2011
First Explorations - The Conclusion
Once we finally got up and motivated, we re-packed the car and headed north to Denali National Park, home of Mt. McKinley, the highest peak in North America. Despite the rain, it was a gorgeous drive north...all 4 hours of it. Despite alot of rain this past summer, the days were still pretty because it made everything so lush and bright bright green.
We stopped off in Talkeetna to grab a bite to eat at the Denali Brewhouse. Talkeetna has a population of roughly 500 during the winter and 1000 during the summer. It was the inspiration for the TV show Northern Exposure. The town was established in the early 1900's as part of the railroad effort. Now it serves as a base for things like summiting Denali, salmon fishing, river rafting, camping, etc. Hearty folks attempting to summit Denali come here and wait out the weather. When it's a good day they board a bush plane that takes them up to the Great Gorge where they set up base camp for their long and dangerous ascent. We actually had lunch next to 4 Irishmen waiting for the weather to clear so they could head out. They had been waiting the better part of a week for a break in the weather. Talkeetna is truly a very small town. The road through town is dirt and the entire place is on the Historic Register. We had halibut nuggets and caribou burgers for lunch. Krissy also sampled the Ice Axe Ale...an IPA that is apparently so strong they will only serve you 2 before they cut you off.
We walked around a bit, then headed out toward Denali. There is 1 road into the park. It's 92 miles long and you can only drive private vehicles on it to get to your campsite. The farthest they'll let you drive on your own is about 15 miles in. If you want to see the rest you must take a park bus. We got our tent set up and bedded down for the night. We were much more prepared for the cold and light this time! Both of us were heavily layered including gloves and we had eye masks. We also had 1 more thing: bear spray. Alaska is truly the great outdoors and seeing things like moose and bear are common place. Denali is remote and thickly wooded, therefore bears are everywhere. They have classes you can take to be more "bear aware." It just made me "bearanoid." Notice the easy accessibility of the bear spray...
We woke up the next morning bright and early as we had signed up for the entire 12 hour tour all the way down the park road. The park was established in 1917 and is 6.25 million acres. It is the 5th largest park in the world. It is patrolled by rangers in the winter by dog-sled. Along the bus ride we saw EVERYTHING! Brown bears, dall sheep, caribou, elk, golden eagles, moose, snowshoe hares and a pack of wolves with their pups sunning by the river. The following are some of the 4 million pictures that we took. Apologies for the wolf pics not being incredibly clear, I didn't have the best camera at the time.
That night we stayed at the lodge. Krissy had the hook-up through Aramark. She is a dietitian for them and they run ALOT of facilities at national parks. She got us a great deal on an adorable cabin room, a great dinner and white water rafting the following day! We rafted the Nenana River, class III & IV's. It's a glacier fed river that was FREEZING! The water is 12 hours as it comes from 2 glaciers one 14 miles away and one 17 miles away. Once we were through the rapids our guide told us we could dip in if we wanted too. We had on drysuits but despite them it was so cold that it too your breath away! We headed back to Anchorage that night with 1 more adventure to have before Krissy's departure: halibut fishing!
The next morning we drove down to Whittier for our halibut charter. There are 2 things that happen in Whittier, fishing charters and glacier viewing cruises. There were 5 total people on our tiny charter boat. Krissy and I ended up doing OK...she caught a 45lb halibut and I caught a monstrous 20lb cod. Another interesting bit of trivia: when halibut are brought on the boat you have to CLUB them in the head to kill them otherwise they can flop around and knock you over/off the boat. The other interesting tidbit is that sometimes they are so big (hundreds of pounds) they have to be shot with a shotgun in the head to kill them. Now that's some crazy fishing...
Had a FANTASTIC time while Krissy was here and I'm so glad I got to experience so much in my new home with one of my best friends!
We woke up the next morning bright and early as we had signed up for the entire 12 hour tour all the way down the park road. The park was established in 1917 and is 6.25 million acres. It is the 5th largest park in the world. It is patrolled by rangers in the winter by dog-sled. Along the bus ride we saw EVERYTHING! Brown bears, dall sheep, caribou, elk, golden eagles, moose, snowshoe hares and a pack of wolves with their pups sunning by the river. The following are some of the 4 million pictures that we took. Apologies for the wolf pics not being incredibly clear, I didn't have the best camera at the time.
The next morning we drove down to Whittier for our halibut charter. There are 2 things that happen in Whittier, fishing charters and glacier viewing cruises. There were 5 total people on our tiny charter boat. Krissy and I ended up doing OK...she caught a 45lb halibut and I caught a monstrous 20lb cod. Another interesting bit of trivia: when halibut are brought on the boat you have to CLUB them in the head to kill them otherwise they can flop around and knock you over/off the boat. The other interesting tidbit is that sometimes they are so big (hundreds of pounds) they have to be shot with a shotgun in the head to kill them. Now that's some crazy fishing...
A Little Education - "The Job"
My job, or rather the organization that I work for, is pretty unique.
The Alaska Native Medical Center (ANMC) is a 150 bed, level II trauma center that provides medical services to Alaska Native and American Indians living in Alaska. This is a patient population of roughly 200,000 people. We provide acute, specialty, primary and behavioral healthcare services. Our patients live all over the state of Alaska...an area that covers 586,412 square miles.
This can make getting to the hospital for regular appointments, surgery or in an emergency kind of a challenge. Patients are medivac'd in daily for emergencies. Sometimes patients will have to take a snow machine to a neighboring village to then catch a bush plane to a larger village where there is an airport large enough to accomodate regional jets. All of the villages have health clinics, but many of them aren't staffed with doctors or PA's, only health aides with little more than high school educations. Doctors and PA's staff some of the larger clinics in places like Bethel, Barrow, Kotzebue, Dillingham, Kodiak, and Nome among others.
ANMC is jointly owned and managed by the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANtHC) and Southcentral Foundation, tribal governments, and their regional health organizations. These parent organizations have established a Joint Operating Board to "manage" the services provided by ANMC. They receive funding from the federal government as well as from the individual Native tribes to provide "pre-paid" healthcare. If patients have insurance or medicaid, we bill it, but otherwise their care is pre-paid.
ANTHC has several divisions. Along with ANMC they have the Division of Environmental Health and Engineering (DEHE) whose function is to facilitate running water and wastewater facilities to the villages as well as institute community based injury prevention programs. Also, he Division of Community Health Services (DCHS) which manages Alaska Native health research projects, monitors industrial pollutant levels in Alaska Native mothers and infants, trains chemical dependency counselors and tracks and promotes immunization, and works to prevent Hepatitis.
I'm a physician assistant in the orthopedic department. We take first call for traumas, first-assist in surgery, run outpatient clinics, perform reductions and procedures in the clinic and ER and manage all the inpatients on the orthopedic service in the hospital. The ortho. dept. has a staff of 8 surgeons and 6 PA's located here in Anchorage. The doctors go to field clinics 3-4 days at a time in the different villages a couple times a month. Beginning in April they will be taking PA's with them. We are all really looking forward to this opportunity!
There is alot of alcohol abuse, depression, domestic violence, suicide and surprisingly homelessness in the Native population which can make for interesting injuries/traumas. Many of our patients live a subsistance lifestyle where they hunt and fish for survival. This means guns and the injuries associated with them are common. The following is a small sample of injuries that I have seen in the 8 months I've worked here:
- gunshot wounds (GSW) from cleaning loaded weapons
- finger and hands blown off from faulty explosives
- stabbings
- a BBQ skewer impaled in a patient
- harpoons (for whaling) impaled in people
- seal finger: a finger infection unique to patients in the arctic where hand or finger has been cut while cleaning seal meat and gets a unique infection.
- MANY alcohol related traumas.
- a patient trampled by a moose while intoxicated who suffered fractures
- failed suicide attempts from drug overdoses, jumping from heights and GSW's among other things.
- LOTS of frostbite and subsequent gangrene.
Some days it can be really challenging, not only with the medicine but dealing with the social issues. But alternatively it is really rewarding to be able to spend time with, and help such a unique patient population!
More to come...
ANMC is jointly owned and managed by the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium (ANtHC) and Southcentral Foundation, tribal governments, and their regional health organizations. These parent organizations have established a Joint Operating Board to "manage" the services provided by ANMC. They receive funding from the federal government as well as from the individual Native tribes to provide "pre-paid" healthcare. If patients have insurance or medicaid, we bill it, but otherwise their care is pre-paid.
ANTHC has several divisions. Along with ANMC they have the Division of Environmental Health and Engineering (DEHE) whose function is to facilitate running water and wastewater facilities to the villages as well as institute community based injury prevention programs. Also, he Division of Community Health Services (DCHS) which manages Alaska Native health research projects, monitors industrial pollutant levels in Alaska Native mothers and infants, trains chemical dependency counselors and tracks and promotes immunization, and works to prevent Hepatitis.
I'm a physician assistant in the orthopedic department. We take first call for traumas, first-assist in surgery, run outpatient clinics, perform reductions and procedures in the clinic and ER and manage all the inpatients on the orthopedic service in the hospital. The ortho. dept. has a staff of 8 surgeons and 6 PA's located here in Anchorage. The doctors go to field clinics 3-4 days at a time in the different villages a couple times a month. Beginning in April they will be taking PA's with them. We are all really looking forward to this opportunity!
There is alot of alcohol abuse, depression, domestic violence, suicide and surprisingly homelessness in the Native population which can make for interesting injuries/traumas. Many of our patients live a subsistance lifestyle where they hunt and fish for survival. This means guns and the injuries associated with them are common. The following is a small sample of injuries that I have seen in the 8 months I've worked here:
- gunshot wounds (GSW) from cleaning loaded weapons
- finger and hands blown off from faulty explosives
- stabbings
- a BBQ skewer impaled in a patient
- harpoons (for whaling) impaled in people
- seal finger: a finger infection unique to patients in the arctic where hand or finger has been cut while cleaning seal meat and gets a unique infection.
- MANY alcohol related traumas.
- a patient trampled by a moose while intoxicated who suffered fractures
- failed suicide attempts from drug overdoses, jumping from heights and GSW's among other things.
- LOTS of frostbite and subsequent gangrene.
Some days it can be really challenging, not only with the medicine but dealing with the social issues. But alternatively it is really rewarding to be able to spend time with, and help such a unique patient population!
More to come...
First Explorations - Part 2
We got up bright eyed and bushy tailed the next morning and headed down to the beach in Seward to set up our tent. We ended up with the last campsite on the corner of the beach with an unobstructed view of the bay. Not too bad...
The couple at the site next to us were leaving and generaously gave us their leftover firewood. As Kris was skillfully making our Bloody Mary's (a very complete vacation breakfast as they contain a ton of antioxidants, vegetable juice, and snacks!), I was setting up the new grill that almost exploded 2 nights before.
If you remember from my last post there were some "issues" with this grill previously. I wanted to leave as little to chance as possible this time. There was a guy at the campsite to our left packing up to leave. He had a ton of gear and just "looked" like he knew what he was doing. So...the following is an excerpt from Krissy's travel journal:
"She [Kim] asked the guy on the other side of us, who was about done packing up his stuff if he knew anything about propane grills and if he would come over and check it out, the exact quote: 'Excuse me. You look like you camp a lot, can you come look at our grill so we don't blow our faces off?' This quote started our new friendship with Gabe."
Seward has about 3000 residents, and it's beautiful! It sits on Resurrection Bay and was founded in 1903 by survey crews looking for an ice free port to start a railway into the Interior of Alaska. Also historically significant is that the beach we were camping on was the start of the original Iditarod trail. In 1925 there was a diptheria outbreak in the gold rush boom town of Nome in northwest Alaska. It was winter and there was no way to get a boat through the ice and there were no railroads that far north at that point. The needed serum was brought into Seward by boat and was run over 1100 miles to Nome by several groups of mushers and their dogs. Without their bravery the entire town would likely have perished. Every year they run the Iditarod race (1150 from Anchorage) commemorating this historic act of heroism. It's known as "the last great race on earth." It starts the first weekend of March, and this year I am lucky enough to be a part of is. My mother, aunt and myself are going to Nome to volunteer as dog handlers for the race finishers!
Anyway...Krissy and I had big plans of walking around Seward and hiking some trails, but never left the campground except to go to the grocery store for some s'more ingredients and beer. We spent the day at our campsite with Gabe. He lives in Palmer which is ~45 minute drive from Anchorage. He works "on the slope". The Alaska North Slope is located on the northern slope of the Brooks Range along the coast of the Arctic Ocean and the Beaufort Sea. This is where the National Petroleum Reserve is as well as Prudhoe Bay Oil Field. Oil was discovered there in 1968. Gabe went to the culinary school in Seward and is currently working as a dishwasher awaiting an opening for a chef position. Most of the guys on the slope whether they are engineers, "rough=necks", medical or support staff work 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off with 12 hour days. We had a great day with Gabe and a few of his friends who stopped by. We were talking to the guys about recycling as we had both noticed that there are no recepticles around Anchorage. They said there is one recycling station in Anchorage. Apparently, because we are so isolated, it is more expensive for Alaska to recycle and it's not very popular.
Afternoon drifted into evening, then into night. Krissy was looking out into the bay and about 50 yards from where we were sitting, a whale breached! A HUGE WHALE! Gabe has been visiting Seward his whole life (his dad lives there) and he has never seen a whale in the bay. He told us we must have good things headed our way because that never happens. He said it was a fin whale, an animal on the endangered species list!
We were making s'mores when a bald eagle soared by our campsite as the sea otters played 25 yeards from us in the bay...again, not bad.
The following morning Gabe gave us some fresh peppermint for tea. He planted a peppermint patch a few years ago on his way to Seward one weekend along the coast and stops at it every time he comes down to pick fresh peppermint. He told us where he planted it and said we were welcome to grab some whenever we pass by.
We packed up camp and headed to the Alaska Sea Life Center in Seward. It's a research center, and marine wildlife rehabilitation facility as well as a tourist attaction partially funded by monies from the Exan-Valdex oil spill. They have puffins, sea otters, a 2200 pound sea lion and his girlfriend (who was preggers at the time) and every kind of fish you can imagine. They also have a "petting zoo" where you can touch sea urchins, sea cucumbers, star fish and anemoneas among other things.
Interesting trivia tidbit of the day: shrimp are hermaphrodites. They start life as males then 3 years later becomes female. Seriously.
Heading back to Anchorage we blew a tire on the Pilot! We weren't worried for 2 reasons, 1) we'd both heard stories about how kind Alaskans are, always stopping to help with any car trouble and 2) we were both forced to learn how to change a tire prior to getting our driver's licenses. Well...I'd like to thank both my dad, Ken, and Krissy's dad, Bob, for insisting on teaching us this skill! We got passed by 3-4cars who didn't even slow down. We even got passed by a guy on a bike! As we were tightening the very last lug nut a State Trooper pulled up on the other side and said.."Everything ok ladies?" We smiled...:)
We rolled back into Anchorage, unpacked, threw in some laundry and headed to Moose's Tooth for pizza and microbrews! The next day we got the tire replaced and picked up a few things before heading to Denali the following morning.
The couple at the site next to us were leaving and generaously gave us their leftover firewood. As Kris was skillfully making our Bloody Mary's (a very complete vacation breakfast as they contain a ton of antioxidants, vegetable juice, and snacks!), I was setting up the new grill that almost exploded 2 nights before.
If you remember from my last post there were some "issues" with this grill previously. I wanted to leave as little to chance as possible this time. There was a guy at the campsite to our left packing up to leave. He had a ton of gear and just "looked" like he knew what he was doing. So...the following is an excerpt from Krissy's travel journal:
"She [Kim] asked the guy on the other side of us, who was about done packing up his stuff if he knew anything about propane grills and if he would come over and check it out, the exact quote: 'Excuse me. You look like you camp a lot, can you come look at our grill so we don't blow our faces off?' This quote started our new friendship with Gabe."
Seward has about 3000 residents, and it's beautiful! It sits on Resurrection Bay and was founded in 1903 by survey crews looking for an ice free port to start a railway into the Interior of Alaska. Also historically significant is that the beach we were camping on was the start of the original Iditarod trail. In 1925 there was a diptheria outbreak in the gold rush boom town of Nome in northwest Alaska. It was winter and there was no way to get a boat through the ice and there were no railroads that far north at that point. The needed serum was brought into Seward by boat and was run over 1100 miles to Nome by several groups of mushers and their dogs. Without their bravery the entire town would likely have perished. Every year they run the Iditarod race (1150 from Anchorage) commemorating this historic act of heroism. It's known as "the last great race on earth." It starts the first weekend of March, and this year I am lucky enough to be a part of is. My mother, aunt and myself are going to Nome to volunteer as dog handlers for the race finishers!
Anyway...Krissy and I had big plans of walking around Seward and hiking some trails, but never left the campground except to go to the grocery store for some s'more ingredients and beer. We spent the day at our campsite with Gabe. He lives in Palmer which is ~45 minute drive from Anchorage. He works "on the slope". The Alaska North Slope is located on the northern slope of the Brooks Range along the coast of the Arctic Ocean and the Beaufort Sea. This is where the National Petroleum Reserve is as well as Prudhoe Bay Oil Field. Oil was discovered there in 1968. Gabe went to the culinary school in Seward and is currently working as a dishwasher awaiting an opening for a chef position. Most of the guys on the slope whether they are engineers, "rough=necks", medical or support staff work 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off with 12 hour days. We had a great day with Gabe and a few of his friends who stopped by. We were talking to the guys about recycling as we had both noticed that there are no recepticles around Anchorage. They said there is one recycling station in Anchorage. Apparently, because we are so isolated, it is more expensive for Alaska to recycle and it's not very popular.
Afternoon drifted into evening, then into night. Krissy was looking out into the bay and about 50 yards from where we were sitting, a whale breached! A HUGE WHALE! Gabe has been visiting Seward his whole life (his dad lives there) and he has never seen a whale in the bay. He told us we must have good things headed our way because that never happens. He said it was a fin whale, an animal on the endangered species list!
We were making s'mores when a bald eagle soared by our campsite as the sea otters played 25 yeards from us in the bay...again, not bad.
The following morning Gabe gave us some fresh peppermint for tea. He planted a peppermint patch a few years ago on his way to Seward one weekend along the coast and stops at it every time he comes down to pick fresh peppermint. He told us where he planted it and said we were welcome to grab some whenever we pass by.
We packed up camp and headed to the Alaska Sea Life Center in Seward. It's a research center, and marine wildlife rehabilitation facility as well as a tourist attaction partially funded by monies from the Exan-Valdex oil spill. They have puffins, sea otters, a 2200 pound sea lion and his girlfriend (who was preggers at the time) and every kind of fish you can imagine. They also have a "petting zoo" where you can touch sea urchins, sea cucumbers, star fish and anemoneas among other things.
Interesting trivia tidbit of the day: shrimp are hermaphrodites. They start life as males then 3 years later becomes female. Seriously.
Heading back to Anchorage we blew a tire on the Pilot! We weren't worried for 2 reasons, 1) we'd both heard stories about how kind Alaskans are, always stopping to help with any car trouble and 2) we were both forced to learn how to change a tire prior to getting our driver's licenses. Well...I'd like to thank both my dad, Ken, and Krissy's dad, Bob, for insisting on teaching us this skill! We got passed by 3-4cars who didn't even slow down. We even got passed by a guy on a bike! As we were tightening the very last lug nut a State Trooper pulled up on the other side and said.."Everything ok ladies?" We smiled...:)
We rolled back into Anchorage, unpacked, threw in some laundry and headed to Moose's Tooth for pizza and microbrews! The next day we got the tire replaced and picked up a few things before heading to Denali the following morning.
Sunday, February 6, 2011
First Explorations Part 1
Upon hearing that I was moving to Alaska, my very dear friend Krissy immediately bought her ticket to visit. I didn't even have a place to live yet! We decided that if we were going to get much accomplished while she was here she needed a 10 day stay minimum. We did not underestimate AK! There are plenty of roads in Anchorage, like any other town in the lower 48, but there is 1 road in from the north (Glenn Highway) and 1 road out from the south (Seward Highway). Other than "in town," roadways are somewhat limited, and they are generally only 2 lanes. This can make road travel 1) slow at times, 2) very dangerous at times, 3) very desolate at times.
I've decided to divide Krissy's trip into 2 posts. They are detailed and as such are fairly lengthy...so I apologize if anyones eyes tire. I've mixed in plenty of pictures to break up the monotony of my story telling.
Kris arrived to daylight at 1am full of excitement with her highlighted travel books and we devised a plan. We decided that we would head south first, to the Kenai Peninsula for a few days. The following morning, before heading out Krissy decided to go for a little run to de-stress from the plane ride. I stayed at the house to start getting some gear together. Anchorage has an impressive multi-use trail system throughout town and I live about 2 blocks from a greenway that connects to that trail system. About 7 minutes after Krissy left I heard furious foot steps charging up my front porch steps. She throws the front door open and screams, "MOOSE!!" Apparently she was jogging and looking at the mountains breathing in a little Alaska morning air when she adjusted her gaze in front of her and almost ran straight into a cow moose on the trail. She demanded that I get the keys and the camera! Despite my promising to see more moose, she could not be persuaded...so we stalked the moose for pictures. By the time we got back to her, she had moved to behind a wildlife fence.
Once the excitement of her first moose sighting wore off we got showered up, went to the grocery, packed the cooler, and headed down to the Kenai.
The drive down from Anchorage is ranked one of National Geographic's Top 10 Drives in the World. The snow-capped Chugach Mountains are to your left, and Cook Inlet is to your right. We headed to Cooper Landing for sea kayaking on Kenai Lake, a 26 mile long glacier fed lake. We pulled up to Leah's house (our guide) and noticed the airplane in the drieway next to the house, a common mode of transportation in bush Alaska. We followed her down to the launch for what should have been a 90 minute kayak trip. She informed us that she generally brings hot chocolate and cheese and crackers and has a 15 minute break on one of the beaches across the lake. We jokingly asked if we could bring beer and she smiled and said, "Absolutely." So Kris, true to form, grabbed a large grocery bag and shoved beers and ice in it proudly proclaiming, "I always have a travel cooler!" Our kayak was phenomenal, I've never seen a body of water the color of Kenai Lake in my life.
We were out with Leah nearly 6 hours! Our 15 minute picnic turned into a 4 hour campfire gab session!
By the time we got back to the launch it was 10:20pm...and still bright as day!
Our ultimate destination for this leg of our trip was Seward for a planned hike of Exit Glacier, complete with crampons. We left the lake after many hugs with Leah and set up camp about 25 minutes down the road at the Ptarmigan Creek trailhead. After a near disaster with a fleece jacket and a Coleman grill that kept blowing up, we finally managed to grill some chicken sausages at midnight, and it was still light out. In a stroke of shear genius, I purchased a new tent just prior to Krissy's arrival. A bright orange tent. In Alaska, during the summer, there is virtually no darkness. Even when it's "dark" outside during June and July, it's really just more like dusk. Susequently, the orange tent was so bright it was like sleeping on the surface of the sun. Which was ironic as we were absolutely FREEZING!
After a chilly evening we met up with our guides, filled our camel backs and loaded up with trail mix. It was about a 15 minute drive to Exit Glacier. The glacier is so named as it is the most accessible part of the Harding Icefield which spans nearly 1100 square miles atop the Chugach Mountains. It is compromised of more than 40 glaciers! We hiked nearly 2 hours straight uphill to the glacier. Within the hike we had to cross rushing waterfalls, snow, ice, gravel trail, mud banks, and huge stones. We had to do sledding without sleds (ie on our bums) to access some parts of the trail.
At one point, we rounded a bend in the trail and there was a marmot right in front of us. According to our guides they spray acid when they feel treatened, so we felt it best to wait for him to tire of staring at us. Just before we hit the glacier we needed to add a few layers, crampons and put on helmets: safety first. And no, they didn't make ME wear one the entire trip. We geared up and headed onto the glacier, and there was an obvious drop of about 20 degrees once we were on the glacier. There are no words for how rad this was. We were basically playing on a giant ice cube! We saw crevases which form as the glacier shifts and melts. There were pools of the most amazing blue water you have ever seen. The pictures don't nearly do it justice.
After an exciting, and exhausting day we grabbed a quick dinner and some beers and we made the executive decision to get a hotel room. We really wanted to shower and not spend another brightly lit night at 40 degrees with wet hair. We found a reasonably priced (ie cheap) hotel with a "stuffed" animal (literally...stuffed animals) in every inch of available space in the lobby. The taxidermy zoo included: moose, polar bar, carbou, lynx, mountain goat, ptarmigan (kind of like a pheasant) dall sheep, and black bear. Creepy...thankfully there were none in our room to watch at us while we slept.
The next morning we woke and headed down to the beach on Resurrection Bay in Seward.
I've decided to divide Krissy's trip into 2 posts. They are detailed and as such are fairly lengthy...so I apologize if anyones eyes tire. I've mixed in plenty of pictures to break up the monotony of my story telling.
Kris arrived to daylight at 1am full of excitement with her highlighted travel books and we devised a plan. We decided that we would head south first, to the Kenai Peninsula for a few days. The following morning, before heading out Krissy decided to go for a little run to de-stress from the plane ride. I stayed at the house to start getting some gear together. Anchorage has an impressive multi-use trail system throughout town and I live about 2 blocks from a greenway that connects to that trail system. About 7 minutes after Krissy left I heard furious foot steps charging up my front porch steps. She throws the front door open and screams, "MOOSE!!" Apparently she was jogging and looking at the mountains breathing in a little Alaska morning air when she adjusted her gaze in front of her and almost ran straight into a cow moose on the trail. She demanded that I get the keys and the camera! Despite my promising to see more moose, she could not be persuaded...so we stalked the moose for pictures. By the time we got back to her, she had moved to behind a wildlife fence.
Once the excitement of her first moose sighting wore off we got showered up, went to the grocery, packed the cooler, and headed down to the Kenai.
The drive down from Anchorage is ranked one of National Geographic's Top 10 Drives in the World. The snow-capped Chugach Mountains are to your left, and Cook Inlet is to your right. We headed to Cooper Landing for sea kayaking on Kenai Lake, a 26 mile long glacier fed lake. We pulled up to Leah's house (our guide) and noticed the airplane in the drieway next to the house, a common mode of transportation in bush Alaska. We followed her down to the launch for what should have been a 90 minute kayak trip. She informed us that she generally brings hot chocolate and cheese and crackers and has a 15 minute break on one of the beaches across the lake. We jokingly asked if we could bring beer and she smiled and said, "Absolutely." So Kris, true to form, grabbed a large grocery bag and shoved beers and ice in it proudly proclaiming, "I always have a travel cooler!" Our kayak was phenomenal, I've never seen a body of water the color of Kenai Lake in my life.
We were out with Leah nearly 6 hours! Our 15 minute picnic turned into a 4 hour campfire gab session!
By the time we got back to the launch it was 10:20pm...and still bright as day!
Our ultimate destination for this leg of our trip was Seward for a planned hike of Exit Glacier, complete with crampons. We left the lake after many hugs with Leah and set up camp about 25 minutes down the road at the Ptarmigan Creek trailhead. After a near disaster with a fleece jacket and a Coleman grill that kept blowing up, we finally managed to grill some chicken sausages at midnight, and it was still light out. In a stroke of shear genius, I purchased a new tent just prior to Krissy's arrival. A bright orange tent. In Alaska, during the summer, there is virtually no darkness. Even when it's "dark" outside during June and July, it's really just more like dusk. Susequently, the orange tent was so bright it was like sleeping on the surface of the sun. Which was ironic as we were absolutely FREEZING!
After a chilly evening we met up with our guides, filled our camel backs and loaded up with trail mix. It was about a 15 minute drive to Exit Glacier. The glacier is so named as it is the most accessible part of the Harding Icefield which spans nearly 1100 square miles atop the Chugach Mountains. It is compromised of more than 40 glaciers! We hiked nearly 2 hours straight uphill to the glacier. Within the hike we had to cross rushing waterfalls, snow, ice, gravel trail, mud banks, and huge stones. We had to do sledding without sleds (ie on our bums) to access some parts of the trail.
At one point, we rounded a bend in the trail and there was a marmot right in front of us. According to our guides they spray acid when they feel treatened, so we felt it best to wait for him to tire of staring at us. Just before we hit the glacier we needed to add a few layers, crampons and put on helmets: safety first. And no, they didn't make ME wear one the entire trip. We geared up and headed onto the glacier, and there was an obvious drop of about 20 degrees once we were on the glacier. There are no words for how rad this was. We were basically playing on a giant ice cube! We saw crevases which form as the glacier shifts and melts. There were pools of the most amazing blue water you have ever seen. The pictures don't nearly do it justice.
After an exciting, and exhausting day we grabbed a quick dinner and some beers and we made the executive decision to get a hotel room. We really wanted to shower and not spend another brightly lit night at 40 degrees with wet hair. We found a reasonably priced (ie cheap) hotel with a "stuffed" animal (literally...stuffed animals) in every inch of available space in the lobby. The taxidermy zoo included: moose, polar bar, carbou, lynx, mountain goat, ptarmigan (kind of like a pheasant) dall sheep, and black bear. Creepy...thankfully there were none in our room to watch at us while we slept.
The next morning we woke and headed down to the beach on Resurrection Bay in Seward.
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Everybody's bloggin'...
People blog about anything and everything and sometimes even about nothing. So I'm getting in on the action! At the urging (i.e. insistance) of my mama, Miss Jenny, I am finally setting up a blog about Alaska and my adventures here. I have a travel journal that I write in on vacations, but I have never made the comittment to write about my daily life. I figure this is a convenient way to not only share the new experiences I'm being privileged enough to have, but to also chronicle them for myself so I don't forget them. My immediate goal is to catch you all up on the last 8 months quickly so we can get current! Please stay tuned, I have many stories to share about both my life here in Alaska as well as my work and some of the exciting and random things that I am blessed enough to witness!
Those of you who know me (which is all of you at this point, since I'm a bloggin' newbie) know that I recently uprooted my life in the midwest. All it took was some heartbreak followed by a minor real estate nightmare. Other than leaving a job that I loved, the decision to leave Indianapolis was a pretty easy one. Let's face it, it's not the most exciting place to live. Resume's were sent, interviews were had...and 2nd interviews were had, and a new job was accepted...in Anchorage, Alaska. My "new" position is as a physician assistant in the orthopedic surgery department at the Alaska Native Medical Center. I accepted the job the first week of February and spent the next 2 months trying to figure out the best time and most tactful way to give my notice to my boss, Tim. He had been not only my supervising physician for 4 years, but had also become one of my best friends. Tears were shed, cocktails were consumed and I was off! The last week in Indy involved me carefully wrapping my entire life in bubble wrap for the 6000 mile trip. I certainly made some wonderful friends in Indianapolis that I dearly love. However, as I drove out of town for the last time I was content feeling that I wasn't leaving anything behind. For the first time in a very long time, I felt that I was heading TOWARD something, rather than RUNNING from something.
Travel was pretty uneventful. It took me 5 hours to fly here nonstop from O'Hare, but sadly, it took 4 weeks for my "household goods" to arrive. During that time it was me, a 1200 sq foot condo, 4 new books, an air mattress, a 19" TV/DVD combo and alot of Lean Cuisines eaten with plastic utensils. Shy (11 year old lab mix) was shipped about 2 weeks after I arrived. Mom arrived on a Tuesday night a month after I had arrived. The movers rolled up the following morning. Let me just say that if you are ever given the opportunity to spend all day at work only to arrive home to Jenny Hand putting away the last dishes in your kitchen having already arranged your furniture and put fresh sheets on your bed...I highly recommend it. Banks (2 year old Malamute) was shipped up here to his new home the following week. My little "family" was complete, in our new home.
Since setting up house here in Anchorage, I have been asked countless times why I chose to move to Alaska "alone." People make that word sound so ugly and serious and sad. To me it sounded glorious, full of potential and like just what I needed. And boy was I right...
The pics are a few from my first couple of hikes south of Anchorage. My parents feel very safe knowing that there are at least signs at the trail heads to remind me of pending dangers (see below).
Those of you who know me (which is all of you at this point, since I'm a bloggin' newbie) know that I recently uprooted my life in the midwest. All it took was some heartbreak followed by a minor real estate nightmare. Other than leaving a job that I loved, the decision to leave Indianapolis was a pretty easy one. Let's face it, it's not the most exciting place to live. Resume's were sent, interviews were had...and 2nd interviews were had, and a new job was accepted...in Anchorage, Alaska. My "new" position is as a physician assistant in the orthopedic surgery department at the Alaska Native Medical Center. I accepted the job the first week of February and spent the next 2 months trying to figure out the best time and most tactful way to give my notice to my boss, Tim. He had been not only my supervising physician for 4 years, but had also become one of my best friends. Tears were shed, cocktails were consumed and I was off! The last week in Indy involved me carefully wrapping my entire life in bubble wrap for the 6000 mile trip. I certainly made some wonderful friends in Indianapolis that I dearly love. However, as I drove out of town for the last time I was content feeling that I wasn't leaving anything behind. For the first time in a very long time, I felt that I was heading TOWARD something, rather than RUNNING from something.
Travel was pretty uneventful. It took me 5 hours to fly here nonstop from O'Hare, but sadly, it took 4 weeks for my "household goods" to arrive. During that time it was me, a 1200 sq foot condo, 4 new books, an air mattress, a 19" TV/DVD combo and alot of Lean Cuisines eaten with plastic utensils. Shy (11 year old lab mix) was shipped about 2 weeks after I arrived. Mom arrived on a Tuesday night a month after I had arrived. The movers rolled up the following morning. Let me just say that if you are ever given the opportunity to spend all day at work only to arrive home to Jenny Hand putting away the last dishes in your kitchen having already arranged your furniture and put fresh sheets on your bed...I highly recommend it. Banks (2 year old Malamute) was shipped up here to his new home the following week. My little "family" was complete, in our new home.
Since setting up house here in Anchorage, I have been asked countless times why I chose to move to Alaska "alone." People make that word sound so ugly and serious and sad. To me it sounded glorious, full of potential and like just what I needed. And boy was I right...
The pics are a few from my first couple of hikes south of Anchorage. My parents feel very safe knowing that there are at least signs at the trail heads to remind me of pending dangers (see below).
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