Moving

As some of y'all already know, I'm no longer in AK. It breaks my heart to say that, but I've made the decision to move on to other interesting, exciting, and mentally demanding pursuits, known more commonly as the PhD.

I'm down in Utah now, that the University of Utah, where I'll spend the next three years hacking away at a dissertation in hopes of coming out on the other side with a few more letters behind my name. (And a better understanding of how and why outdoor recreation is a critical social force for the world we live in).

It would seem odd to chronicle these PhD adventures here, so I'm moving to rachelsphd.wordpress.com. If you're interested in keeping track of the victories, hair pulling disasters, and very late nights that come with PhD world, you can find my ramblings (and occasional insights) there.

Cheers!

Rachel

Winging to the Vet

Sadly, Sig had a much more adventerous day than either Duane or I did. The Vet in Juneau has this great service where they meet pets at the airport so that the owners don't have to pay airfare to fly over with their pets. (Only in AK!) So, I put Sig on a plane earlier this afternoon for his solo vet trip. He needs and updated health certificate so we can travel with him into Canada next month, and also needed an update on all of his shots.

As much as I would have loved to have a few hours to go over to Juneau, I don't think he really enjoyed the experience. He doesn't like being carried around in his crate for one, and second, I doubt that any dog enjoys getting shots. However, the vet did report that he is a very healthy pup and she also mentioned that he was very well behaved and was "precious". If only he was such a charmer for us too!

Now he's home, and sulking around the house as if he is trying to figure out what he did wrong to be sent away today by himself. I'm trying not to spoil him on the whole, but I think today I'm going to be unable to resist the urge to give him an extra rawhide. I know, I'm terrible.

Rain Comes Down

Yesterday we woke up to what feels like our first full blown rainy day of the season. I honestly can't remember the last time we had rain that lasted all day. There were a bunch of us that were joking about how great the summer has been adn how we love that we can't even remember when it last rained this hard. Here in town we badly needed it though. Most of our roads are gravel and the dust form the road was started to geting all over everything. Plus most of us aren't used to having to water our gardens.

I think the rain was refreshing for alot of us. There is a certain mentality around rainforest towns, that when you get a spot of nice weather you have to head outside and take advantage of it. It's engrained into our conciousnesses up here. So naturally we have all been outside alot lately, and there have been a few projects around the house that have gone by the wayside due to excessive sunshine. It was nice to get some time to catch up on them while we were hiding from the mist outside.

I think today I'm going to pretend that it is still raining and go home and hunker down under a blanket with a book and some tea.

Changing Tides

Part of working in a seasonal field means, that around the middle of the season, we all start looking ahead to the next one, to make plans for the move, the change in roles, the change in offerings, etc.

For me, there are going to be some bigger changes this fall than just moving back to Utah. A little while back I was offered a position in the PhD program at the University of Utah as well as a teachign assistantship in the Parks, Recreation, and Tourism department. My time with AMG has been interesting, and I've learned alot, but I know that this opportunity with the U of U is something that I've wanted for years, and saying no to it now would just be ridiculous.

Duane and I will be getting on a ferry out of Juneau to head south for the fall on August 13th, which means we only have a month left in Gustavus. As much as I'm really excited abut stepping into this new role, I am also starting to realize that there are a great many things that I love about my life now that I have to let go.

I love living in Gustavus. Life here isn't necessarily easy, but it's wonderful. Living in a place with such a strong sense of community has been fabulous, and just serves to remind me once again how important to me living in a place with a sense of community is. I've also loved the people I work with here in town, the challenges that come with having a small staff, and the sense that you get from the tourism industry here that we are all in this together, especially this season.

I konw I'm not going to be ready to leave Gustavus, and Alaska, in a month, but it'll be time to look ahead to new things.

Mellow

Things have been pretty mellow around here lately, which honestly, I’m quite enjoying. I’ve been trying to track my hours in the office to make sure that I’m getting some time away from the desk and outside enjoying being in Alaska.

The weather has cooled off a bit, and we’re back into our typical cool and overcast skies. I think this weather is more my speed, I was starting to worry that I might actually melt in all the heat. One of the guides here, Matt, and I were talking about how we can’t believe that it’s already past the 4th of July. Where did summer go?! It can be truly amazing how you can have the best intentions in the world to do so many things, and they all just don’t quite happen. Duane and I were really hoping to get up to Haines and Skagway at some point, and spend more time in Juneau, but with both of us working the rest of the summer is filling up fast.

On a completely different note: wish I had a camera right now, Sigurd is passed out on the floor and has his limbs splayed like he’s a bearskin rug on the floor, and he looks like he just collapsed there. I think I should take him for a walk down to the beach, but I don’t have the heart to wake him up yet. Puppies: such sweet things when they are sleeping, such little terrors when they are awake.

That’s all the news from here!

Land of Whales, Bears, and Eagles

Is anyone out there getting tired of hearing about all the whales? I hope not.

I went out to guide again today, which was fabulous. The forecast was calling for 80 and sunny, so I knew it was going to be a great day to spend on the water. I even charged up the camera battery so I would be ready (and then forgot the camera in the car, oops!)

Regardless, we started off with a great sunny morning. I had 4 guests with me, who were all super fun, and excited about the day to come. Right away from when we launched the kayaks and started paddling east from the Chicken Ranch we saw whales, and they were in really close to shore! One of my guests, Jordie, joked that paddling along this way was like running the "whale gauntlet". We ended up having to stop and wait quite often, because the whales were so close to shore that we couldn't get around them.

We finally got through, saw a bunch of eagles at "Eagle Rock" and then headed over to Pt. Adolphus proper to see what might be going on. The whales were pretty quiet during lunch, but we got back on the water and the crew decided at random to paddle back west.

Just as we flipped our boats around to start paddling back west the whales started going nuts! There was a pod of about 6-10 of them traveling west, so we stayed close to the shore and just waited. They were all diving and circling for something and then out of nowhere one of the whales came rocketing out of the water for a full breech! This was then followed by 5 or 6 more full breeches by the other whales and lots of pectoral fin slapping and fluke slapping. The rest of the crew got great pictures (I just enjoyed the show).

When the whales calmed down (about 40 minutes later) we headed back toward the pick up spot. On the way there the "whale gauntlet" was back in full swing, and just when we got past all the whales and I thought I had found a beach to land on, there was a brown bear hanging out on the shore munching on the tide line. Another great photo op. After the bear we paddled a bit more west to give him his space and the next good stretch of beach revealed 2 bald eagles and a juvinile sitting on a piece of drift wood. We floated right past them. Go figure, camera is still in the car. ah!

I guess this means that I'll have to start gluing my camera to the back of my hand on trip days. :)

Rainforest Fires

I know, it seems like a complete oxymoron, but indeed, we had a wildfire in Gustavus yesterday. I was spending most of the day in my office, and therefore was generally oblivious to what was going on around me, until Duane called my cell and told me he needed me to bring his work gloves and water to the fire station. I asked him why and the answer I got was: “uh… because there’s a fire?”. Ok, I should have been able to figure out what was going on, but I think considering that we live in one of the wettest places in the world this was a fair question.

When I showed up at the fire station, Justin asked if I was available for the afternoon to help out, so I sent Duane off to the fire site and I went home to grab carhartts and work boots.

Most of the fire was contained around 6 or 7 last night, but it’s still smoldering a bit out there. A bunch of us in the community are taking ½ day shifts to sit out at the fire site and monitor for any flare ups. Don’t get me wrong, we’re all loving the 70 degree and sunny weather, but we’re going to need a bit of rain here soon to make sure this thing is really dead.