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.

Woah Whales!

It looked like it was going to be a pretty typical day this morning. I got up early, took Sig out for a walk, and then grabbed my paddling gear to head down to the dock.

Every once in a while I get to get out of the office and head out on the water with some guests here in Gustavus to go and do some kayaking in and around Pt. Adolphus. It's a fabulous place to be paddling (see June 23rd), and it means that I get to spend a whole day ignoring my cell phone and email and just enjoy being outside with great people.

Today's trip was very cool for two reasons. First, the family that I had out to day was from Wenham, MA! (The tiny town in MA where Gordon College is). They even brought their "Nick's Roastbeef" sticker to Gustavus! We had a great time out on the water talking about all our favorite Wenham places.

The best part of the day though came after lunch. We had stopped out in the middle of the stright to eat and watch some feeding whales that were a bit off from us, but they all dove down deep so we had turned our backs. Then out of nowhere we heard this very loud blow right next to the boat and we all went runnng over to see a whale surface no more than 40 feet off our boat. The captain and I knew that the pod was bigger than one whale so we kept the engines off so that we wouldn't risk running into any of the other ones and then the rest of the pod surfaced, probaby between 8-12 whales, that were close enough that if I had lept off of the boat I could have landed on their backs. Then as quickly as they appeared, they also all took a deep dive and headed back down into the deeps to find fish.

This was definately the coolest thing I've seen all summer, hands down.

We're Back!

Duane and I spent the last few days having some time to ourselves exploring Glacier Bay. I’ve been paddling in here so many times, it seemed only natural that we spent some time up there together so I could show Duane some of my favorite spots in Glacier Bay.

We paddled into the park on Friday night and camped just a few miles north of the Beardslee cut. The next day we had intentions of paddling all the way up to Garforth Island, but about mid morning we were haulted by a severe amount of wind (about 20 knots, seas around 3 feet). We decided to tough it out and stay on the water because we were paddling in a stable double boat, but it still slowed us way down. We ended up staying at Sturgess Island instead, which is one of my favorite campsites in Glacier Bay. We had a wonderful evening hanging out on the beach and watching the colors change over both the east and west arms of the bay.

Sunday we had intentions of making it all the way up to the McBride Glacier to camp that evening, but after being slowed down the day before we decided to stop short at Goose Cove to make sure that we had enough time to get back down the next day to make our pick up. The native people who lived in Glacier Bay (the Tlingit) say that Goose Cove is one of the places that the Krustica lives. The Krustica is a Tlingit shape shifter that lives between life and death. Those who travel in Glacier Bay say that when you sleep in Goose Cove you tend to have bizarre and abstract dreams because of this shape shifter. Neither of us really remember dreaming, but who knows.

Monday morning we got up early to start heading back south on the tide currents that were ebbing south out of the bay. We made it across the bay just in time before the winds started blowing out of the south, right in our faces, again. We did manage to make it down to SeBree Island to camp before our pickup the next day.

The pickup the next day was a breeze, thought getting picked up is always kind of a kick. All the passengers on the boat treat kayakers they are picking up like they are a part of the wildlife. Everyone comes out on the decks to take pictures of you and then the whole day on the boat everyone wants to ask you questions about how people go camping in such a cold and wet place. However, the day tour boat that does the kayaker drop off and pick-ups can be a great end to the trip. It means that the last day of our little “mini vacation” we get to just sit on the boat, drinking lots of cocoa and tea, and watch all the tide water glaciers of the west arm of Glacier Bay as we cruise along.

We got home tonight and the pup seems to have grown up another inch or so and was very excited to see us.