Picture of the Day

So there have been some requests to keep the blog updated.... and some other comments that the blog lacks some serious picture action and even more serious lacking in good stories from the time up on the Last Frontier. So here's my solution... Picture of the Day (ish). Every few days I'll update the blog with a picture from the summer with some details about where it is, what trip it was on, why its cool, etc. That way everyone can continue to have a procrastination destination at work/home and I can get more of the pictures online without having to upload them all at once. Genius!

This picture was taken on May 18th on my first 12 day Sea Kayak trip in Glacier Bay. It was about 5 days into the trip and we had stopped for lunch on this beautiful day on a beach in Maquinna Cove. The tide was just starting to come in, and we were planning on riding the tide up toward the upper arms of the bay. While we sat there enjoying the sun we had to keep moving the boats up on the beach every 10 minutes or so or else they would float away. My boat is the 3rd from the bottom in the picture. The mountains across the way in the picture are part of an unnamed range that divides the two major arms of the bay. By the time I got back to this same spot a month later most of the snow from that range would be gone. This is probably my favorite beach in all of Glacier Bay, I love how clear the water is, and there is such a great view of the east arm from the place I am standing!

More Pictures

As time goes on I am getting a little bit better about getting pictures moved online. (baby steps).

So here are some pictures from the 24 day trip in Glacier Bay: PICTURES!

Portland

I'm almost back to MN! I'll be honest, it has been hard to leave Haines. I really loved living in Alaska, its a beautiful place, full of really fun people, and I was working for a fantastic organization. It just doesn't get much better than that. But it was time to go, so I'm back on the road.

I left Haines on Saturday morning and had some great company. One of the students from my last course was going to Vancouver, so she drove with me the last two days. It was interesting for her driving at first being that she is from New Zealand and everytime she had to make a turn she had to think pretty hard about it to make sure that she didn't turn into oncoming traffic!

We decided to take a different road down that I had taken up. We took the Cassiar Highway down from Upper Liard, YT down to Prince George, BC. It ended up being an epic day. The Cassiar is a mountain road that isn't paved all the way through, so we couldn't drive quite as fast as you can on the Alcan. It's beautiful though, and a shorter distance, and we saw 8 blackbears along the side of the road. Trouble was we had a hard time finding a place to sleep that night. Once we got back to a place that actually had hotels everything was full. So we ended up driving until around 1 am until we could find a room.

Sunday we decided to drive down to Vancouver via Whistler. Whistler is a beautiful town and we were both wishing that it would suddenly be winter so we could go skiing. But sadly there was no snow and we drove on. Too bad for us that there was major construction between Whistler and Vancouver, which really slowed things down. So by the time I dropped her off an got across the boarder it was getting late. I didn't get to the pant's place in Portland until close to 1 am.

We spent today playing in Portland and tomorrow morning I am headed toward somewhere in eastern WY. I do love my road trips, but I'm going to be excited to just be in MN and done driving for a while.

Time to sleep to be awake on the road!!!

More Pictures!

So it turns out that one of the students from the last few courses is way better about getting his pictures posted than I am (and he takes better pictures too.) So, I thought I'd go ahead and post a link or two to Henry's pictures for your viewing/procrastinating pleasure.

Glacier Bay

Yukon Territory

Enjoy!

The Last Few Days

Sorry it has taken me forever to get this up.... life here has been nuts-o. I got back in from trip on Tuesday and since then have been de-rigging the last trip as well has having meetings with some of the office staff to finish up the season well and talk about stuff in the future.

This last trip was fabulous. The students had a great time and the scenery on the hiking section was amazingly cool. Then once we hit the water things got rowdy. The Primrose River was in flood, which creates interesting obstacles for us as in there are no eddies (stopping places) to scout the river from.

The part of the Yukon Territory that we were in is in a rain shadow, so this trip was much drier than any of the others have been, which was fabulous.

I uploaded a few pictures from the trip for your viewing pleasure. More to come as I return back to MN. So far the plan is to leave here on Saturday and arrive in MN sometime on Wednesday evening. Can't wait to see everyone back down south!

To the Yukon!

Ah.. Finally time to write, and its late on the night before I am going into the field again. I guess that’s life in Haines! It has been nice to have a few days off here (well at least a few days where I could move at a more reasonable pace through the office). I was due for some time in town and just being here and being around has made me realize how much I really love this place. Haines is a great town, small, quaint, lots of stuff going on, still pretty rugged. If you think about it in the grand scheme of things, the gold rush was really the first thing that brought people to South East Alaska, and that was only 100 years ago. This is still very much a “cowboy town” full of really interesting people and a vibrant community. I can easily see how people come here for a season and end up just staying.

I, however, am going back into the field right away. This next trip is going to be pretty amazing, and I’m stoked about it. It’s going to have some crazy logistics, but I think that is going to keep us all on our toes and keep things interesting for all. The schedule looks something like this.

July 23-28: Raft Guide Training and Swift Water Rescue on the Blanchard River in Dalton, Yukon Territory

July 29: Transport to Whitehorse, YT

July 30- July 6: Hiking the Wheaton River Drainage to Primrose Lake

July 7: Float Plane brings rafts and re-supply

July 8-July 13: 1^st Commercial Decent of the Primrose River!

July 14: Transport back to Haines for de-rig.

Crazy! But I think at the end of a long summer all the changes going on will help to keep things fresh and keep people (myself included) on our toes and stoked about being out there.

So I’ll be back in town on the evening of August 14^th, and then am planning on spending a few days in Haines wrapping things up before I head back down south. (I’m planning on being in Portland somewhere around the 21^st and back in Mankato somewhere around the 24^th). Travel plans are still pretty up in the air, I’ll figure it out when I get back, it seemed too far away on this break to really plan anything or set anything in stone.

All in all, life is excellent in Alaska, but at the same time I’m getting excited about getting back to my life in Minnesota and all the awesome things that are going to be going on there this next year. Always a new adventure!

More Pictures from Glacier Bay

So there are many fabulous things about leading trips with Ted Roxbury, but one of my favorites is that he is a photographer, that takes way better pictures than I do.

So here is the link to Ted's Pictures from our trips! Enjoy! http://tedroxbury.com/gb.html

Back from Glacier Bay.... again.

Hey Y'all!!

I decided that since I had way too many pictures from this trip I wasn't going to take the time to really upload all the pictures to the blog and instead I just did a mass upload of them all to snapfish. You can find them all by following this link. Pictures from Glacier Bay

This last trip was great. We spent 24 days in the bay and this time got to see almost everything in both the West and East Arms of the Bay. We spent the first 12 days in the East Arm of the bay doing skills training with the students and also doing some exploring. It was my 3rd trip in that part of the bay, so it was starting to feel rather homey and really familiar which was nice.

The West Arm was new and really awesome as well. There are tons of tidewater glaciers in the west arm and it was a totally different environment out there. Super sweet.

Now I'm in town taking some down time to just chill out and relax before I head up to the Yukon for my last 24 day course. Shoulds like its going to be awesome! More details later.....

The quick breeze through town

Sigh... only really 30 hours in Haines this time and I'm back to Gustavus. There are times if I wonder if I should have just made that home for the summer. Things change, plans change, and I'm being sent back down to Glacier Bay.

Not that I'm complaining at all. Glacier Bay is beautiful! And this trip is going to be twice as long which means we'll get some time to explore some new parts of the park and see some amazing stuff.

I guess when I started this blog I had thought that I was going to be in town a little more often than I am and therefore be able to update this on a more regular basis. My apologies to those who feel as if they are in the dark part of the time. It's not my intention.

Pictures from Glacier Bay

Students paddling north from Sturgess Island

My co-instructor Ted Roxbury!!!

Very very little ice berg!

Brown Bear at the McBride Glacier

Brown Bear Tracks next to Ted. That's one HUGE bear!

For some strange reason its always warm and sunny at the McBride Glacier.

Another sunny day in Kayaks at the inlet to Goose Cove

One of the coolest parts about doing trips in this park is the ammount of natural history that is a part of doing trips here. Out on the water its rocky and there are huge mountains that jut up into the sky and then you walk just 10 feet into the trees and you've been transported into this amazing rainforest that you didn't even know was there.

Ted working with a student on some advanced strokes and rescues in the Beardslee Islands.

Back from Glacier Bay

Howdy y'all.

Just got off the plane from Gustavus and I'm back in Haines for a little bit.

In all honesty I have so many thoughts about this last trip, it was really challenging and I learned so much about working with really difficult students. At the same time leading trip with Ted is always fantastic and how can it not be amazing when you are leading trips in Glacier Bay!?

I love working in Alaska.
I love working for IWLS and AMG.
I love that I get to work with such cool people.
I love that I'm in a place that challenges me and also uses the skills that I have.
I love that I feel like every day is a new adventure.

I have some pictures from this last trip that hopefully I'll be able to get up soon.

Back to Gustavus

I'm sitting in the IWLS office with a few minutes of free time before we have to start prepping gear and food and all of those fun things and figured I'd check in.

The mountaineering section we just finished was great, and I've had 2ish days in town to chill out a little bit and get my head back on my shoulders before heading out again. This afternoon I am on a 2 pm flight back down to Gustavus, AK to start a 12 day Sea Kayaking trip in Glacier Bay. I'm stoked about getting to go back to Glacier Bay and doing a trip where I actually know where I'm going this time. Fimiliarity can be a beautiful thing.

The rest of my summer schedule is finally settling into place. After this trip I will have 2 more 24 day trips that will be almost back to back and then things will slow down. (Around August 14th). I'm hoping to be back in MN in time for classes to start and to get settled back into work... but we'll see.

It's still chilly up here, but today is finally a bit warmer and we're all thankful for that. The weather is clear today as well so we are hoping that the ceiling stays high enough for us to fly over the Chilkat Range to Gustavus instead of flying around the pinnsula on the water.

I should be back in Haines on the 22nd. So hopefully more pictures and updates then!

Re-Cap of the 12 Day Mountaineering

May 27^th Today was the first day of the trip and honestly I’m a little tired just coming off the last trip. My few days off were consumed with office work and getting things ready for the season in general especially with the new integration of the WEA curriculum into the IWLS curriculum. In any case we met up with all the students early this morning, took care of our final outfitting and were on our way to the airport by noon.

The ski planes in Haines are down for repair at the moment and because of that we had to take a helicopter up onto the Garrison Glacier. It took a couple trips of ferrying students and gear but eventually we were all up on the glacier and setting up Camp I.

May 28^th

Today we were in camp getting all the technical skills that the students will need to travel safely on the glaciers for the next 12 days.

May 29^th

Travel day!. We have so much gear that we needed to ferry half the food and gear up toward the ice falls at the entrance to the Casement Glacier. Unfortunately we got just below the first ice fall when one of the students started having chest pains that were consistent with vital signs that meant that he needed to get out of the field immediately. He was evacuated by a helicopter. The rest of us returned to camp and tried to get some other work done for the days that were coming up.

May 30^th

We woke up this morning to total white out conditions. The clouds were rolling in and over the glacier pretty quickly so every couple hours or so we’d hit a break between the clouds and get a glimpse of the range. We did some more classes today and got a lot of rest. Tomorrow we are planning to head up to the cache.

May 31^st

We woke up to a totally blue sky, packed up camp and started heading up toward the cache under the first ice fall. It was a long hard day hauling both heavy packs and heavy sleds. Once we got to camp Kevin and Brian continued up to scout the ice falls and the group and I stayed to set up camp. The group built this awesome snow shelter for us to sleep and after a few lessons we headed to bed.

June 1^st

Up over the ice falls today! Huge elevation gains and steep terrain and we decided to do it in one push instead of having to tackle the two ice falls twice. The students were up for the challenge and we had a great day. Once we were up ontop of the icefields things were beautiful and the skyline was beautiful.

Ice Falls behind the Garrison Glacier

June 2nd
We woke up this morning to rain on the Casement Glacier, but after a morning of some lessons the student leaders of the day decided to push on and do some ice climbing anyway. The skies cleared up in the afternoon and they had a great time doing climbing some vertical ice on an ice fall a few miles down the glacier.

June 3rd
The end of the trip is on the horizon, so today we packed up the sleds and packs and did an 8 mile traverse of the main ice field over to an area called "the nob". The light was super flat which made it difficult to do route finding in the broken up areas of the glacier. It was a long day and a late night into camp, but I think everyone was excited to get it done in one day and save us having to set up a snow camp somewhere in the middle.

Rope Team on the Traverse of Ice Field

June 4th
Again another day of wonky weather. We had a chill out morning for people to do some relaxing and some people climbed up on top of the nob. (I had to stay in camp to get evals done and some other fun paperwork stuff.... woot.) After that we did peer midcourse evals and early to bed to get ready for the bushwack in the morning.

June 5th

Today we started our decent down to the water for our pick-up. We exited over the Harley Glacier and down over the ablation zone of the glacier. After we got off the glacier and the moraines we started the crazy bushwacking. Seriously one of the most fun bushwacks I have ever done. Granted it was 6 miles and 12 hours with our packs on, and bushwacking with packs that have big orange sleds strapped to them isn't the greatest conditions, but it was really cool to get to walk out of the black and white world of the moutains and glaciers and down into the thick and dense rainforest.

Toe of the Harley Glacier

June 6th
Today was the second day of the walkout. We had made it down to the beach and the delta where the river from the Harley meets the ocean. Today we walked up the beach about 5 miles to Glacier Point where we will catch a boat in the morning. The hike to Glacier Point was nice, and it was great to be on the beach again. About half way to Glacier Point there was a river crossing that looked deep and pretty fast. So Dave, Kevin, (the other guides) and I decided to rig up a Tyrolean Traverse to get over the river, that all the students really enjoyed getting to see done in the field, and we all stayed dry!

Tyrolean Traverse

June 7th
We got up super early and headed out to the dock to catch the boat back over to Haines. After the boat ride it was a quick clean up and interviews with the students and then to a shower!

Pictures from Glacier Bay

Just wanted to throw up a few pictures from Glacier Bay. Hopefully while I have some more time in the office in the next day or so, I'll be able to get a few more up!

Glacier Bay, East Arm, McKenna Cove.
Iceberg on the beach just south of the McBride Inlet.
The background of this picture is the McBride Glacier. Where I am standing used to be under the glacier in the 1970's. All the icebergs in the bay are from the calving glacier.
The icebergs flowing out of the Muir Inlet in the East Arm of Glacier Bay.

Heading out again!

Sorry everyone, but today got to be totally nuts and I didn't have a chance to upload pictures from Glacier Bay! We had an all staff meeting this morning and then I got sucked into the wild world of WEA paperwork for a good part of the middle of the day and then had to start doing trip prep stuff for the trip that is going out tomorrow.

Usually things are that crunched around here, but the fixed wing planes that we usually use to fly into the glaciers are have maitnance done on them at the moment. Therefore we are having to take helicopters into the glaciers. This means that instead of having a day with the students to prep (Sunday) and then flying in on day 2 (Monday) we have to be ready to load the helicopters at 1 pm tomorrow (the only time the whirlybirds can fly into the mountains). So the 5 guides that are on trips going out tomorrow have been working at full tilt to be ready for the new departure time.

Sean gave us a quick run down on new protocols for flying in on helicopters instead of on the planes. It makes everything we do about 100 times more intense and more dangerous since the helicopters can be more unpredictable and will be landing in places that the pilots have never flown before. So tonight we are weighing all the gear and prepping the flight plans to be able to get into the mountains efficently.

soooo awesome.

So I'm headed up into the mountains and glaciers that I just spent the last 12 days looking at from a Sea Kayak with other stellar guides and 9 very excited students. If all goes according to plan I should be hiking out of the mountains on the 7th and back in Haines that evening. Then its another 2 days off and I jump on a plane back to Gustavus, AK for a 12 day Sea Kayaking Trip that goes out on June 10th.

Alaska is amazing. IWLS is full of cool people and I'm stoked about being here more and more every day.

Back in Haines

I'm back in Haines.... but only for a short bit!


The last course down in Glacier Bay was fabulous! Lots of good stories that hopefully I'll be able to get posted before I head out into the mountains again on Sunday morning!

Things are going really well here, and life is slightly chaotic with all the trips coming in and out right now but all in all fabulous.

Alaska is beautiful and amazing and the people here are so fun to work for!

Stories and pictures soon!

Leaving for Gustavus

Well, I've been in Haines for all of 3 days now and tomorrow I shove off! Tomorrow morning, my co-instructor Ted and I, are flying over to Gustavus, Alaska to start a 12 day Sea Kayaking trip. AMG recently established a basecamp down in Gustavus, so Ted and I will be packing our trip out from there. The trip doesn't offically start until Sunday, but we will take tomorrow and Saturday to pack and get oriented to the area and do all the final trip plans.

And then we head to Glacier Bay National Park!

Currently AMG has a group permit to be able to run commerical trips in Glacier Bay, so this is an amazing opportunity to get to go in with them and get to use this area as a classroom.

Also in news: My cell phone works in Haines! woot!

The calendar for the coming weeks is slightly chaotic. I leave tomorrow, for a trip that starts on the 13th, and I'll fly back to Haines on the 25th. Then on the 27th, I leave for a 24 day Mountaineering/Sea Kayaking Course. Should be interesting.

People keep popping in and out of the office and I still need to get home and get some packing done! I'll check in again when I'm back from Glacier Bay!!

Haines!

I pulled into Haines late yesterday afternoon and met up with the folks at AMG. It was so nice to have people expecting you and excited for you to finally get into town.

The drive yesterday was absolutely beautiful. I stopped in Whitehorse, YT for a little bit to look around and decided that it was a stellar little town, just nestled into the mountains. Then I headed on down to Haines, AK! Haines is a cute little town right on the water of Lynn Canal, where the glaciated mountains come right up out of the water. Haines is small, only about 2,500 people and two main streets. One bookstore, one grocery store, a few bars and restaurants and thats about it.

The south side of town is dominated by Fort Seward, which is no longer active. All the buildings have been converted into homes or businesses. The biggest house is now a fancy hotel, and the old stables are where our office and warehouses are.

I found out when I got here that I am leaving on Friday morning for Gustavus where we have a kayaking base. Ted and I are leading a trip down in Glacier Bay National Park. The trip officially starts on Sunday, but we will have to do our trip prep on Saturday down in Gustavus.

After that trip its back to Haines for a Mountaineering trip and then straight back to the water for more Sea Kayaking. I'm anxious to get to explore Haines, but it looks like it's going to have to wait until the middle of June until I'm really able to get to spend some time in town.

So for now I'm settled into the camp ground near the office and trying to remember as many names as I can and get ready to head into the field.

Miss you all and wish you could see this place! Pictures soon!

Hot Springs

680 miles

13 hours on the road

I’m writing this sitting in a wooden Adirondack chair in a little lodge nestled in the Canadian Rockies. I have no idea when I’m going to be able to get internet, maybe tomorrow.

Yesterday with Scott was really great. It was so nice to be off the road for a day and stretch out my legs on some hiking trails. It was fun to be able to see him in his element too. After hearing about fire fighting it was really fun to get to see the base, and the rappel towers and the helicopters.

I started driving this morning around 6 this morning. And honestly, the drive from Hinton up north was rather boring (sorry Scott). It was miles after miles of thin trees. But then every once in a while I’d come around the corner and then out of no where would appear the Canadian Rockies, only for a minute, and then the road would dive back into the woods. The road itself was pretty quiet and isolated today. Not many cars on the road just yet. Today did mark the begining of the driving on the Alaska Highway. Sooo cool!

More interesting it was what happened after I got done driving for the day. I decided to stay at the Lodge at the Liard Hot Springs for the day, which is about half way from Hinton to Haines. So tonight I’m in British Columbia.

After I checked in I hopped across the road and jumped into the Hot Springs in the park. They are close to 125 degrees and after so many days of driving it was very nice to just be able to sit and soak and relax for a bit. While I was at the hot springs I met a couple of people who were driving 80 dogs north to Juneau do to dog sled tours. Also, I met two guys from Utah that were driving north to be tour guides at McKinley.

Back at the Lodge two people I had met at the hot springs (Jenny and Joe) invited me to have dinner with them. Jenny is from Southern California and Joe is from British Columbia, they are up here on their anniversary. They are the sweetest couple, in their mid 50s and also Christians. We talked a lot about ministry and traveling and relationships.

I think the best part of the day was that in all the trees I got to do some heavy thinking. I was walking out to the hot springs tonight and feeling really anxious about the summer and the driving still to come and generally about things unknown. When I got into the hot springs something in the water turned the silver ring that I wear on my finger into a gold and then blueish color. It reminded me of something I had been listening to on the drive earlier that day. I was listening to the Alchemist on CD and it talked about how all things evolve. The wise man in the book said that one of the worst things we can do is ignore the fact that all things need to evolve and change over time. That to become stagnant is to ignore the reality that life is ever changing. I have been wearing that silver ring on my finger for almost 10 years, and while it is bent and scratched, it has always looked the same. But today it changed, and now it’s this beautiful color of blue.

Jasper

Today was absolutely fabulous! I told Scott that I was up for doing anything that didn't include driving as the primary activity for the day. So... We got up early and went into Jasper and went to this awesome gorge (picture coming).

After that we drove up to the Valley of Five lakes and did some hiking. Along one of the trails we found a row boat that wasn't locked up and took it out on the lake and got some sun out on the beautiful teal water. There were a few issues with the boat though. One there was a bunch of water in it. Two, only one of the oars was actually in the oar lock and the other oar lock was totally busted. Needless it say it was the most bizarre paddling either of us had ever done.

We finished out the hike, ate our picnic lunches and then headed into Jasper to walk around and got some smoothies and sat out on the deck looking at the mountains and enjoying the warm day.

All in all a fabulous rest day, and tomorrow its back to the road! I have 1100 km tomorrow until Liard Hot Springs !

I'll update when I can, but I should be in Haines by Tuesday evening, or Wednesday morning.

Canada!

750 miles
12 hours on the road

Day two of the drive was probably the most beautiful drive I’ve ever done. I was on the road at 5 and heading north on I-15 towards the Canadian boarder and got across with out even having to get out of the car. Gotta love drive through customs.

What I didn’t love some much is that the speed limit on all highways in Canada is 100km (60 mph), which felt ridiculously slow after a day of Montana and North Dakota speed limits of 75 mph. Oh well. So I headed up to Calgary through the ever so flat southern Alberta and from there turned West toward Canmore to head into the Parks.

Driving through Banff and Jasper National Parks was amazing. There simply aren’t words. The whole approach to the mountains you are just sitting there with your mouth open and being so excited that land can rise this high after driving through the Midwest. I stopped in Lake Louise for gas (which is 1.10 a liter) and drove up to the Lake. Unfortunately it was starting to snow so the view of the mountains wasn’t that great and the lake was still very frozen. (I had heard that the lake is this amazing color of blue that I had to see). I thought to myself that I might have to stop again in August on my way home and try to see it, but then remembered that in August this place would be swarmed with tourists (such as myself)/ So I just enjoyed the view I had from bench, ate an apple and got back in the car.

The drive to Jasper from Lake Louise is along the Ice Fields parkway. Again, it was snowing so the first half of the drive there wasn’t much to see, but the snow broke up and if you looked around there was snow covered mountains with blue ice peaking out everywhere. It’s still full on winter here, so you can still see all the avalanche slides on the sides of the mountains.

I was making pretty good time, so I stopped just before Jasper at Athabasca Falls. The Athabasca River flows off of the Columbia Ice Field (one of the biggest in the world) and I read a sign somewhere that it feeds into three oceans. (I have my doubts though… Artic, Pacific, and……? If anyone knows what the third ocean is please let me know) Anyway, the falls were swamped with people but still worth getting out of the car to hike around and look at. While I was at the falls I met a man from Edmonton who was painting pictures of the river and mountains and said I had a strange accent and asked where I was from (eh). I told him I was driving from Minnesota to Alaska and he said that sounded like a lot of fun (eh) and asked which highway I was driving on (eh). I said I was going to take the Alaska Highway up. He told me that the best drive was to take the Alaska highway north and then to take the other highway down the coast of British Columbia on the way back (eh). But that I should know that once I got north of Hinton all I would see for a while was a lot of trees (eh). His paintings were beautiful and I wished I could have gotten one, but sadly I had only American Dollars. So I thanked him and headed back to the car to get to Jasper.

Scott met me in downtown Jasper when I got there and we tooled around the city for a little while. There was this great trail across the river from town that we hiked up and from there you could see the whole town and the surrounding area. It was absolutely beautiful. Scott pointed out to me all the different trails around the town and peaks that you could ski and climb. Also, we hiked past some huge big horn sheep that didn’t even care one lick that we were there. Literally we walked past a group of them with only about 5 feet between us and them and just kept munching on the grass. Scott made some comment about the bizarre “city sheep” and we kept hiking.

Today is my day off, so Scott and I are going to head into Jasper and do some hiking and check out the town a bit more before I have to head off again in the morning to keep going north.

Big Sky Country

1115 miles
15 hours on the road

Day one of the drive and it was absolutely beautiful! I left Mankato around 4:30 this morning and headed out on 94. For some reason or another North Dakota has gotten a seriously bad rap for being flat and really boring. Here’s the thing though, North Dakota is not nearly as flat as western Minnesota, and it’s so much prettier. It was actually a nice drive. There’s something that is beautiful about middle America. It’s not flashy or exotic, but the bluffs were beautiful.

In eastern Montana I decided to get off of 94 in Forsyth and take 12/87 to Great Falls instead. It looked like it might be a more direct route and also would mean I could see some of Montana that was not just right on the highway. It’s amazing how much open space is here. A lot of it is farms and grazing land for cattle, but it was really cool to be able to drive for miles and only see one or two ranches scattered around. Then every once in a while you bump into a small town with one Main Street. It was endearing. As you drove you drive through you can’t help but wonder if this is one of those towns where every one knows everyone else and what it would be life to live there.

Tonight I am in Great Falls, MT and getting ready to head north tomorrow up to Hinton, AB. It’s nice been nice to be on the road again, and stretching out my travelers legs. More later!

Last Day in Mankato

Wow, I've spent all morning packing and cleaning the apartment, and to even my suprise, I didn't even fill the car. Hmmmm maybe I should take more stuff.... ;)

Upated to the Travel Itinary:

May 4th: Mankato (A) to Great Falls, MT (B)

May 5th: Great Falls, MT to Hinton, AB (E)

Then I'm going to spend 6th in Hinton hanging out with a good friend from Grad School.

May 7th: Hinton, AB to Muncho Lake, BC
May 8th: Muncho Lake, AB (F) to Haines Junction, YT (G)
May 9th: Haines, AK! (H)

The Last Week

This week has been totally chaotic. We had the Conference for work last week, which went really well but was insanely stressful. I have been moving at a snail's pace ever since then just trying to recover. The last thing I need is to show up in Alaska sick and totally drained.

All my course work for the semester is done, and I just have a few more small paperwork things to do at work before I can offically seal everything up at the office for the summer.

I got a card yesterday from a good friend of mine, actually it was a birthday card, just a bit belated. It was actually really good to read it this week, she wrote about how she hoped I was settling into Mankato, and making this place my home, even if its only for a short while, and that she hoped I was meeting people that would become close to me. The timing of this card was actually perfect. I thought about it, and this place really has become more of a home to me than I ever would have expected. There are people here that mean so much to me, and saying good-bye to them is going to be really difficult. Though, there is comfort in the fact that in a few months I get to come back to the people at school, at chuch, and at work that make my life so enriching while I am here.

This is going to be a busy week full of saying farewell to alot of people who have meant so much to me this year and have made Minnesota so dear to me.

Starting this morning... I'm off to church. Only 4 more days in Mankato.

Travel Plans

10 days and counting until I leave for Alaska and I'm starting to figure out where to stop where to stay and how on earth I'm going to spend 4 days in a car! I've heard the drive is amazing!

Tentative Itinerary:

May 4th: Mankato to Regina, SK
May 5th: Regina, SK to Hinton, AB

Then I'm going to spend 6th in Hinton hanging out with a good friend from Grad School.

May 7th: Hinton, AB to Muncho Lake, BC
May 8th: Muncho Lake, AB to Haines Junction, YT
May 9th: Haines, AK!

The Last American Frontier

The countdown is officially down to 15 days. Oh geez! I don't know that I'm totally prepared for what I am about to go do, but I'm getting there.

I was chatting with a friend of mine from High School when I was back in Chicago over Easter and was talking to him about Alaska. He was saying how he has thought for years that I was born a century too late. That I would have loved to be a part of the exploration of the US, traveling in wagon trains and exploring the untouched woods of the great west. He said that Alaska is perfect for me, it gives me that chance to stretch out the explorer in me.

The more I read about Alaska the more I hear people talking about it as the Last American Frontier. This is an arguable point, i realize, but all the same, its completely foreign to me. I don't just want to go to Alaska, I need to go to Alaska. I need to be 23 and do take advantage of the life that I have before me. I think there is something to be said for putting roots down and really becoming a part of some place specific, but for now I know I'm not ready for that. To put it proverbially, I still need to figure out what kind of soil I can grow best in.

Anyway, I've been trying to get in a bunch of paddling to get ready to spend a summer on the water (or at least that's where I think they are going to have me for most of the summer). Yesterday I was out paddling on the Minnesota when this awesome little beaver popped up next to my boat. He was awesome, we moved along in the river for a little bit together, me padding and he diving for something under the water and then he went on his merry way. Sometimes even on the rivers right along the highway you can find little treasures.

T-minus 28 days!

Holy nut! It's less than a month til I leave for AK! I'm getting super stoked. Even went out for a paddle the other day on the Minnesota, but it was like being on a river treadmill. There was some serious current going on.

Anyway, the offical departure date from MN to start heading north is May 4th! Which means I should be in Edmonton by the 5th and in Skagway on the 8th in time to drive into Haines and start trip prep stuff on the 9th!

School is winding down, and the conference for work is in two weeks... which means I'm ramping up training and reading to get me ready to be leading trips in a whole new climate, environment, and with a brand new company. Gosh I love a good adventure. My friend Hoover says I have the spirit of a frontiersman. I love it.

This is where I am going to be living when I'm not in the field. My awesome portable apartment that my grandfather got for me. Complete with "no see em" netting so I don't get carried off by all the little black biting things at "night".

More pre-Alaska stuff soon!

Alaska Bound

I think most people know about this by now but... I got a job working for Alaska Mountain Guides this summer leading sea kayaking trips out of Haines, AK! I'm so stoked!

I'm going to be mostly working for the International Wilderness Leadership School teaching on 12-24 day sea kayaking and moutaineering trips. Then between those longer trips I'll be working for Alaska Mountain Guides guiding sea kayaking, climbing, and hiking trips for commercial clients (tourists from cruise liners and such).

The tough part is that my first trip goes out May 13th. So I need to be leaving MN on May 5th. Ikes! Goodness knows I need the break from all the flatness of MN!

I have no idea if I'll even have internet while I'm up there, but I'm hoping that between trips and such I can post up-dates, stories, and pictures of the trips here. Check back for more!