Alaskan Road Trip with John

John and I spent 2 weeks driving and Camping (sleeping in our rental car) all over the road system of Alaska. We traveled over 3000 miles on our journey and saw a lot of fun and exciting things. It is amazing how long it takes to get from one town to another. Many of the "highways" are unpaved and have sheer cliffs on each side. Also, there are moose, rabbits, geese, and squirrels all over the roads. On top of all that, there are a ton of fun places to stop and hike on trails along the roads so every adventure took us a lot longer than I thought!

We started out on May 16. John flew in that morning and I arrived in the afternoon. We had lunch with some friends of mine who were amazed to see that my "little" brother was so tall! Then we stopped at Fred Myers and loaded up on some supplies. We bought Pilot Bread, which are big crackers, peanut butter, jelly, banana's, and salad. John organized the car and I supervised then we were off.

Our first adventure took us South towards the Kenai Peninsula where we slept outside a glacier for the night. We tried to go to the visitor's center in the morning, but we were in a little early in the season. They had posters up and a hiking trails clearly marked so we just explored on our own. As we were walking, we saw a PORCUPINE. I had no idea what it was - it actually looked like a baby bear climbing a tree. I really need to stop getting my ideas about nature and wild life from cartoons!

A moose came up to our car the first night we were camping. Guard Dog Puffin alerted us, but I got some cool pics of it while it was leaving:

Here are some pics from our way down to Kenai:

We also stopped at a conservations park that rescues hurt animals. Did you know Bison were not extinct?

Up close with a Caribou: Brown Bear - this was definitely close enough for me!

The snowy part in the middle is the glacier:

The frozen water is melted glacier:

We wouldn't want Puffin to get cold while hiking!
Puffin is on thin ice:

Eagles anyone?

A really cool partially frozen river:

Icicles on the side of the river bed.

In Denali, we saw bears, cubs, moose, caribou, and all kinds of birds. Here is a picture of the state bird a ptarmigan (who starts a word with "pt"). It changes plumage from white in the fall to brown in the spring. This one is caught between seasons - part white and part brown:

Mt McKinley:
John and I in Denali:

Back Seat Driver:



We tried to go to a hot spring in Circle (one degree below the Artic circle), but when we got there this is what we found.

In the middle of all these run down buildings, there was this beautiful house...so strange.


If there was a road, John and I traveled on it! We drove over 300o miles in about 13 days. It is amazing that Fairbanks was the hottest place we traveled. We encountered temperatures varing from 30 to 90 degrees. I really didn't exspect the south of Alaska to be warmer than the north. We also got to drive over some really high mountaints (about 5000 feet) with some breath taking views! Here are some random pics from the road:

Nature Week

This past week I have seen more nature than I have ever seen in my life!

On the first of May, our river broke. Here is what it looked like from my apartment:

This is what it was like at the beach:

Here is what some of the ice build up looked like last night on the river:



I went hiking with some kids and Puffin and we managed to find the last bit of snow.


This is the stream we hiked down to:

Here is Puffin happily enjoying the snow.
A Bald Eagle followed us on our hike:

It has been very hectic here with the end of school coming up on Friday. We had graduation last Friday and 13 students walked. That is a VERY big class. Here they are celebrating after the ceremony:

We also had prom that same night. Prom here is really just a big community dance that some of the graduates and their dates dress up for. It was really fun. There is a band and they play only old country music. I "two-stepped" with a few elders.

The other day a friend of mine got a bunch of ducks. He brought about 10 of them up to the teacher housing for us. So, I actually plucked a duck - like took the feathers all off of it!! It was pretty weird and gross. I was totally grossed out by the whole experience. It peed on me and kept making noises as air was escaping from it's belly. My friends were all teasing me that the duck was mad at me and asking me to stop plucking it...I didn't think they were very funny. I said if I had nightmares I was going to come and stay with them! I didn't actually cook my duck. I just gave it to one of the other teachers who was going to roast it or whatever.


This is a friend of mine that I steam with at night. Here son-in-law caught a porcupine! They called me over to try some, but Puffin and I were out hiking so we missed out.

Last night I was out on the river and I saw a otter and a bunch of MOOSE!! I can't believe I really saw moose - they were huge!! We even saw a little baby one. It was really cool!

The other day, when I was walking with Puffin down at the beach, I saw a beaver that someone had shot out on the river and he was taking it home for diner. I had no idea they were so fat and their tails are scaly like a snake! In person, they look nothing like they do on the cartoons.

The Season Known as Breakup

In Alaska there is no real Spring, instead we are in the season known as Breakup - the river starts to thaw and hug pieces of ice will soon be move down river, the snow melts, and the roads "breakup". Puffin and I played hookie from school yesterday and we out hiking around.

Here are some pics form our adventure:

Here Puffin is running free outside of my apartment -

This is Puffin playing in the mud -


Here she is playing with Licorice - the two of them are very good if not unlikely friends. Licorice, a black lab, waits at the door of my apartment after after school, hoping I will let Puffin come out and play.

Puffin is taking a break from some hard playing -

This is my apartment building from the old airport-


Here is the view from our hike -

Sun Rise

I thought you might want to share in the beautifulu sunrise the other morning. I made Puffin get up to watch it with me, but she seemed pretty unimpressed :)

This is the view from my new apartment:

SPRING!!!

Well, it is April 22 today and I think it is finally spring! Today it is 50 degrees out - practically a heat wave. I have traded my winter boots for spring ones and my Carhart Coat for a lighter Land's End one.

Unfortunately, the rain is starting to move in so the snow will be gone soon and the mud and puddles are already coming up strong. The puddles are crazy there are about two inches of mud, but underneath that is a sheet of ice so if you slip you not only land on ice, but also in a very cold mud puddle. Luckily, Puffin is a little girl and HATES the cold puddles so she isn't getting too dirty, but she does get to run around outside a lot.

The sun is starting to stick around a lot longer. It starts rising at about 6:30 now and doesn't set until about 10. Even at 11:30, it is still just dusk outside so getting to sleep is getting more difficult, but it is really nice to leave school at 7 and still be able to go out walking with Puffin.

Another great part of spring is that there are a lot more Eagles out flying around. :)

Moving...

I decided to accept a job in on an Island out in the Bering Sea.  I know I am crazy, but I really think this will be an incredible experience.  The island is way out in the sea about 200 miles from main land Alaska and only about 40 from Russia.  You can actually SEE Russia from there!  

If you want some more info, check out this site -  http://www.tsuru-bird.net/gambell  

I promise I will post lots of cool stuff when I get there :)