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!