That's So Alaska

Last Friday night I took my advice from my first blog post to “be a fool,” maybe all too literally. I wasn’t paying much attention to the bus schedule and when I left the grocery store around 8:30 at night, I realized with an incredible sinking feeling that the next bus wasn’t for another two hours. There wasn’t anywhere inside to wait, and it was pretty cold so I made the stupid, rash decision to walk home. Four miles. In the pouring rain. With heavy bags of groceries. I cursed my decision all the way home, and when I finally did make it back I plunked down on the couch with a beer and didn’t get up for two hours. 

I wasn’t feeling too happy with Alaska after that rough night, but Saturday changed everything. I rode my bike out to the trailhead for the West Glacier Trail. This is the trail that people sometimes branch off of to get to the ice caves under the glacier, but all the warning messages had freaked me out so I decided that I would stay on the trail the whole time. Well, maybe halfway up the trail I got talking to this local family who told me they were going to the caves if I wanted to go with them. The dad had even graduated from Cornell years ago. I could not have been luckier! They were incredibly friendly and helpful, giving me advice about what else to do with my time here. Eventually, after following a winding trail through the woods, scrambling up and down rocks, and navigating loose gravel and the icy glacier (yes, we walked ON the glacier), we made it to the caves! The place was packed actually, and for good reason. I’ll let the pictures tell the story. I couldn’t stop smiling. It was easily one of the coolest experiences of my life. I hiked the way back down with the two kids and their friend, all a few years younger than me. As we parted ways and I headed over to my bike I heard them say “she rode her bike here? That’s so rugged… that’s so Alaska.” Yeah, that’s right :) That night I ran to the glacier visitor center, still in awe that I had walked on and under that very same glacier. 

A view before the trail even started

On the way to the ice cave

About to enter!

Inside the ice cave

A skylight at the end of the cave is right above me

The surface of the glacier

Unofficial trail sign

Sunday morning I awoke to heavy rain, but I took the bus into town anyway to hike. I did the Perseverance Trail, which followed an old mining road and eventually ducked down into the woods. It was really different than most other trails I had been on. Afterwards, I wandered through the residential streets of downtown Juneau and explored the small staircases that connect some of the hilliest streets. Some of the houses are so adorable, I snapped a few pictures and tried not to be too creepy about it. 

Scenic turning around point

The Perseverance Trail, the first road in Alaska, which was used to access gold mines

A view of downtown 

Monday morning I got an early start and took the bus into town again. It was deserted when I got there, still too early for cruiseshippers to be out and about. It was kind of creepy actually. I hiked a trail I had been on before- the Mt. Roberts trail which I had taken up to the tram. This time I hiked past the tram station, up to something called Father Brown’s Cross (Father Brown had helped build the trail). It was raining again today and pretty foggy too, but it just made it feel that much better when I finally hunkered down in the tram station with my lunch and a good book. I wandered around the gift shop and even helped carve a totem pole! The father and son carving it knew of the totem pole park I had been to on Prince of Wales. As a reward to myself, I rode the tram back down into town.

Beautiful despite the rainy weather

Mountain selfie!

A father and son struggling against the rain

I helped carve a totem pole!

Tuesday I took a recovery day, just went to the library to work and skyped Owen for the first time since I'd been here which was nice! 

Wednesday I finally went back to work, I was ready. I met my actual boss for the first time, he had been away until recently. I processed samples all day, some of which we had taken and some from my boss. At night I did a long run on the Brotherhood Bridge trail which I had been on before. It was a nice relaxing run and I was just thinking, wow it's so great not to worry about bears, because the trail is so popular and so many families, including babies, use the trail. Then, the dreaded moment happened- I passed by someone who told me a bear was up ahead in the woods and had gotten into a tussle with a girl's dog! I kept running, much more warily, until I came across the girl, her dog, and a family they were walking with. The girl's dog was OK and the bear had gone back into the woods, so I ran on.

Thursday we went out into the field and scouted out a new cedar stand site. It was a pretty long day, so I rewarded myself after work with a milkshake from Hot Bite- mint chocolate chip. It was also the first SUNNY day in awhile, it felt great to relax outside in the sun with a cold drink. After that I went on a run and found a huge network of trails right behind the bunkhouse. I couldn't believe I hadn't discovered them earlier. 

Awesome view from up the road on the way to the field site

Friday was another really long day at work, I processed samples, learned how to use a machine that analyzes samples for nitrogen content, and saw a BALD EAGLE! Every time I've seen one so far, I'm caught so off guard that I forget to take a picture, but one of these days I'll get photo evidence of these elusive birds.

Today (Saturday) I went for a run to the glacier and out to Nugget Falls. The sun was out again! On the way home, I saw a big black animal run out from the woods to the edge of the road about a quarter mile ahead of me... could it be a bear?? A taxi stopped, someone got out and took pictures. I sprinted as fast as I could to investigate, but by the time I got there the taxi had gone and I couldn't see anything in the woods. I'm thinking that was bear siting number 7!

Warm enough to wear shorts and a tank top on my run :)

Nugget Falls, with the glacier in the background behind the mist

Also, a piece of good news- my sister will be visiting me July 17th! Shit's gonna get crazy with two Liebermanns in Alaska :) Stay posted.

My First Ever "Business Trip"

This past Saturday Mark, Di and I left for a work trip to Prince of Wales (POW), an island south of Juneau, actually the fourth largest US island. We took a plane from Juneau to Ketchikan, and then a float plane from Ketchikan to POW. It was my first float plane trip! The float plane was like a relaxing, scenic roller coaster ride. I got to sit in the co-pilot seat. There were hundreds of knobs and dials, all right in front of me. Thankfully I resisted the urge to press anything. Once we landed we worked for a few hours on respiration, then stopped at a grocery store. Mark and Di told me to choose whatever food I wanted. I repeat, whatever I wanted. As a poor college student, my brain is hardwired to choose the cheapest, more store-brand like option to save money. So when I heard I could buy whatever I wanted I lost all rational thought and started hysterically laughing. I quickly darted over to an empty corner of the store to regain control of myself. That was certainly the highlight of the day. Di and I went for a long run along the coast. We ended in Craig, the town we were staying in for two nights in a Forest Service bunkhouse. We were all so hungry that we feasted on two extra-large pizzas, both loaded with meat. Later that night Mark taught me a few chords on his guitar.

Doing respiration work

In honor of Father’s Day on Sunday Di cooked us all bacon for breakfast. We drove to a place called Naukati, which was over an hour away. On the way there we saw a black bear running down the road! Much less scary when viewed from a vehicle. We also saw tons of fawns which were not that smart, they'd run right in the road, but so adorable! We did respiration work on six different sites. On the way home we stopped at a totem pole park. I had never really been excited about totem poles before but these were awesome, towering over us and each one seemed to have its own story. Later that night, someone staying at the bunkhouse took me out for a ride on a boat. I pulled up a crab trap and we had caught one female crab and threw her back in. I even got to drive the boat for a little bit!

One of many doe-fawns pairs we saw

Out-of-commission totem poles

Totem pole park

A view from the docks

Driving the boat!

On Monday morning we moved out of the bunkhouse and drove to 12-mile-cabin which is owned by the Forest Service. The cabin had a dinner table, a stove, shelves for food, and bunk bed platforms. Simple but so nice to have a roof over our heads! After carrying all our gear to the cabin, we drove nearby to Azalea Creek and did work with release trees. I learned how to use a laser to measure tree height. Di and I ran the last 3 miles back to the cabin and it was so sunny out I actually swam in the water! I never thought it would be warm enough in Alaska to swim. The swim was also a great idea since we wouldn’t be showering for the next two days… We had a gourmet dinner of Caesar salad, pasta, and wine. I also had another guitar lesson and learned how to play a few chords from my favorite part of Pink Floyd’s “Wish You Were Here.” It was pretty tough, one of my fingertips was still numb from playing on Saturday, but it was so rewarding to be able to produce the sound that I love so much.

The path to the cabin

The Forest Service cabin we stayed at

Shelf fungus, which you can write on!

On Tuesday we drove to a nearby site called Camp Creek, where we measured out 5m by 40m plots and recorded and measured every single tree in the plot. It was a pretty rough day- it rained the whole time so we were soaked through. And at one point I looked down at the paper I was taking notes on and it was splattered with blood! I had cut my hand on a metal tape measure so we took a quick break from work to bandage my hand up. When spirits were particularly low, Di went to brush off moss from the top of a stump and it came off looking like a huge moss wig! We all laughed about that which lightened the mood. On the way home we stopped to see a fish ladder, which enables fish to travel farther upstream past steep waterfalls. Back at the cabin we changed into dry clothes and I finally warmed up enough to wander around outside and take pictures. Later we roasted sausages over the fire for dinner- delicious! Di and I stayed up late reading by the fire light.

The moss wig that improved our morale

A view from the cabin

On Wednesday we had another long day of work doing tree plots, but at least it didn’t rain. We moved out of the cabin and drove to the Hollis bunkhouse, another bunkhouse for Forest Service employees. Di and I ran the last three miles of the trip. Unlike the Craig bunkhouse, which had only one person staying in it, the Hollis bunkhouse was full of people. It was quite a shock for us actually, since we had only seen each other for the past few days. Despite the fact that the current bunkhouse residents stayed up late partying, we were all so tired that we just drowned out the noises and went to bed early.  

One of the forest sites we worked at

More Xtratufs than I had ever seen at one time

On Thursday we “slept in” until 6:30 (we normally woke up at 6 on the dot). We did respiration work at a site called Harris, only a few miles away. The work was so easy and the hike in so short that we were finished in less than three hours. The whole time I was expecting something horrible to happen (crazy storm, broken bone, broken equipment) but we sailed through all the sites with zero problems. We rewarded ourselves by pigging out in the car as soon as we finished under the premise that we were trying to get rid of all our food before we left. We had a few hours before we had to leave, so I packed and repacked, strategically placing the smelliest stuff away from the cleaner things. Funny thing was, even the things I hadn’t worn (one pair of socks, one pair of underwear) seemed to be dirty somehow. In the afternoon we drove over to the dock and rode a floatplane to Ketchikan. This ride was even better than the last- we had music playing on our headsets, we saw a pod of killer whales, and at one point the pilot moved the controls over to my side! I was too afraid to really touch them, so the one time an adjustment had to be made he moved it. We got drinks in the airport bar in Ketchikan and read off data sheets to Di so she could put them into the computer, real exciting stuff. On our flight back to Juneau, I almost got off at the wrong stop! It had been a long week. Finally, we arrived in Juneau and I got a ride back to the bunkhouse. I vegged out on the couch with a good book for a few hours. Today (Friday) I slept in then took the bus to a mall for wifi. I don't have to go back to work until Wednesday (!!!!) so hopefully I'll have more adventures to report back about :)

 

Operating a real, live plane!

Running Bear

Saturday I completely vegged out… I read an entire book! My body really needed the rest though. I also went on a junk food craving shopping spree which included multiple bags of chips, salsa, meat, cookies, and beer.  Now I have no choice but to keep exercising…

On Sunday I did my first solo trail run here! It didn’t go perfectly but that’s what made it fun. Not only was it down pouring the entire time, I was warned at the beginning of the trail head that there was a sow (mama bear) and cubs coming down from the trees only tens of meters up the trail. My first thought was of extreme frustration. I had summoned up the courage to come out here and run by myself, and now there was no way I was going to be able to. I stood frozen for minutes, totally unsure of what to do. Finally, a group of men came up the trail, I warned them about the bears, and I was relieved that they looked as scared as I felt. Right behind them, a park ranger came to the rescue. I was so happy I wanted to give her a hug! We all walked up the trail together, found the bears in the trees going about their own business, and then I continued my run. A group of women stopped me and asked if I was alone (yes), if I had bear spray (no) and then decided I was extremely brave (hopefully not stupid…). I also ran by a tour group and one of them called out “Look, it’s a running bear!” So now I like to think of myself as the running bear. I also saw a piece of glacier calve (aka fall off)! Well, actually I was standing next to a man who saw it calve, but close enough right? The ice was bright blue where the piece had calved off.

I SAW MY FIRST BEAR IN ALASKA

The bright blue part is where the glacier calved 

I made it!

Later that day I took the bus into town which is about 13 miles away, a little bit too far for me to run too. It was two bucks each way. There were some sketchy characters on the bus- a man with an eye patch, more than one tattooed bald man, but I made it downtown fine. I got off at what seemed like the most touristy stop and I was thrown right into the mix of clueless cruiseshippers. I couldn’t believe how different it was from the rest of Juneau. I went into a bunch of gift shops, got a snack, and called it a day.

On Monday and Tuesday, I helped with yellow cedar plantings “up the road” (that’s what locals call the road that goes north out of Juneau). A group of eight of us from the lab spent all day finding yellow cedar plants, measuring their height, and clipping back other trees and plants. In total, we did work on 1600 plants! By the end of the day on Tuesday, my back felt like an 80-year old’s, and I could barely grip my shampoo bottle. But I did manage to go for a run on Tuesday night and I found the trailhead for what seemed like an awesome bike/running path. Also, on Tuesday while driving back we saw a bear cub sticking its head out of the shrubs next to the road!

A view from "up the road"

After a day of field work

On Wednesday Mark and I went to McGinnis to measure carbon dioxide flux, collect tree litter, and install temperature probes at nine different sites. We biked part of the trail then hiked and bushwacked the rest of the time. It was a pretty long day (8am-6pm). When we got back to the lab I was so hungry and tired that I decided to go down to Hot Bite for another delicious dinner. To my extreme sadness and anger, they were out of power and closed. So instead, I snacked on a Snicker’s Bar bought from the gas station and consumed four bags of chips when I got home. Whoops.

I had Thursday and Friday off from work in preparation for a 6-day work trip starting this Saturday. On Thursday I took the bus downtown again. This ride was much more fun than last time- I talked to someone from Austria the whole time. His lifelong dream was to travel to Alaska and he’s finally doing it. His joy and appreciation for Alaska made me amazed at this place all over again. We also saw a few bald eagles! Anyway, I had decided to do my first solo hike today (Mount Roberts), and of course there were troubles. The sketchy trailhead I came to was closed and it said to start the trail from another area, about three-quarters of a mile away. I was already tired and sweating and didn’t feel like going anywhere else but up the trail, so up this closed trail I went. Well, the trail branched off in about twenty different directions, and again I felt this sense of extreme frustration. I had mustered up the courage to hike alone and I was about to be thwarted again, just like on the trail run. I finally turned back and walked all the way to the proper trail head, which was much more popular and so worth the walk. I crossed over a wooden trestle high above a river. As I was examining the map, a friendly man asked if I needed any help. I told him I was aiming to hike to the tram station and then take the tram down. He assured me that it would only take about an hour to get to the tram and that they had water up there. Could he see the desperation in my eyes? I didn’t have any water with me because I had left both of my bottles in the lab. I had contemplated bringing a Tupperware full of water, kind of like a doggy bowl. But it looked too weird and spilled everywhere so I ended up bringing nothing. So this man and I hiked part of the way up together.  He told me he had retired but was now pretty high up in a non-profit called Trail Mix that does trail work around Juneau. Later that day I read about his organization in a library book and they are a pretty big deal here. He had to stop to supervise trail work and I went the rest of the way up alone. The tram station was something else- restaurant, gift shop, theater, nature center, the works. I took a bunch of pictures, ate my lunch, and bought a souvenir then rode the tram down.

Downtown Juneau and Douglas Island 

Today (Friday) I woke up early and biked to the beginning of that bike path I had found a few days ago and ran out and back on it. There were some beautiful views. Now I’m in the library getting my internet fix and contemplating treating myself to Hot Bite tonight… Tomorrow we leave for a work trip to Prince of Wales Island! I am absolutely loving Alaska. 

 

The bike path I ran on

Be A Fool

I’m back at blogging and this time it’s from Alaska! For the past week and for the next two months I’m living in a bunkhouse about ten miles outside of Juneau, Alaska. I’m working for the Forest Service at a research station. If it sounds shocking to you, it’s even more shocking to me to be living it out. This summer my motto is “be a fool.” Two weeks ago Ed Helms delivered Cornell’s convocation speech and he in essence told us all to be fools: to try hard at everything we do and to scare ourselves. Coming to Alaska, when I’d never even been to the west coast, is pretty freakin scary. But I wanted to challenge myself and prove that I can do it. Plus, there is the added bonus of being in one of the most untamed and beautiful areas in the world.

 Five days ago I woke up at four in the morning and caught a plane from Newark to Seattle. I thought I had prepared myself- I had bought an Alaska guidebook, packed meticulously, went to the shooting range, and said goodbye to my family, friends, and boyfriend. As I sat on the airplane, I realized I had done a few more things to prepare- or rather hadn’t done. I hadn’t shaved my legs in days, I forgot to clip my creepily long toenails, and in the wee hours of the morning, of all things I had forgotten to change my underwear. Amongst the glaciers, forests, bears, and long daylight hours, would I learn to not care about shaving my legs, about smelling good? I didn’t know then, but these three things were a secret that made me feel slightly more prepared.

For almost the entirety of the ride, my seatmates and I said nothing to each other. The man on my left spent most of the ride clutching his possesions, mesmerized by charts on his computer screen, while the man behind him occasionally whispered some sort of strange code to him that got scribbled down. The man to my right was much less interesting to watch. At the very end of the flight the three of us finally struck up a conversation. The man to my left had a brother who lived and worked in Alaska for years and the man to my right was from the same area in New Jersey as me and was starting a new job that day! In that moment, I felt less alone to be starting a new job in a strange and wild place. I hadn’t looked out the window the entire flight (damn you, middle seat) but I glanced out as we were descending and saw monstrous snow-capped mountains. Talk about good first impressions.

I was ravenously hungry by the time I got to Seattle so I bought a sandwich, feeling slightly odd to be eating it at ten in the morning (Seattle time). I then flew from Seattle to Juneau. I was expecting this plane to be tiny, because how many people fly to Juneau? I even had visions of being the only one on the plane! So I was surprised that the plane was normal sized, six across total. The people on it were of a slightly different breed- lots of grizzly old men and hardened looking women. On this plane ride, the ride of no return, the Alaska dream finally felt real, like it was actually happening. We landed in what has got to be the most beautiful airport in the world. We were surrounded by forests on all sides with snow-capped mountains off in the distance.

As I was waiting for my checked bag, a man wearing a strange hat and very tall rain boots approached me. It was an employee from the research station who I had been corresponding with over email. He said he picked me out of the crowd because I looked lost. Damn it. We drove right over to the research station and I met a bunch of employees. We also found a bike for me to use this summer to get around. We went grocery shopping, drove to the Mendenhall Glacier, and then he dropped me off at the bunkhouse and I was on my own! I was too excited to unpack so I rode my bike over to the glacier. Despite the mass amounts of tourists, this place is just freaking awesome. It’s probably a little over two miles from the bunkhouse, and I can really picture it becoming my place here. That night at the bunkhouse, I made dinner and settled in. The bunkhouse is actually more like an apartment complex. I’m in my own one bedroom apartment. The bedroom has two beds but I don’t think anyone else will be moving in this summer. It has pretty much everything I need: dishware, utensils, microwave, oven, toaster, kitchen table, couch, and TV. Unfortunately there’s no internet so I’m constantly on the hunt for WiFi. Exhausted from jet lag, I slept for twelve hours that night! I was worried that it’d be hard to fall asleep when it was still light out but I had no trouble at all.

Mendenhall Glacier

I reported to work at ten the next morning. The bike ride to work is about 3.5 miles each way. These first few weeks will be pretty rough but I’m going to be very in shape by the end of the summer, I can tell already.  I actually got to the research station half an hour early so I rode down the road and found the UAS (University of Alaska Southeast) library which has WiFi- score! That day at work I learned how to use some monitoring equipment, we went out to make a precipitation measurement, and we went shopping for true Alaskan gear: Xtratufs. These are the “tall rain boots” that the employee was wearing when he picked me up from the airport and what most Alaskans wear in the field. I finished work early that day and when for a run, exploring the roads around the bunkhouse.

The bunkhouse, my home for the summer

Wednesday morning around 4am, my apartment started shaking. My first thought was that someone was very violently trying to break in. My second thought was that I was going crazy. The next morning when I was picked up to do field work by a grad student at the University of Alaska, he asked if I felt the earthquake last night. What a relief.  That day the grad student, an undergrad, his dog, and I went to Heen Latinee, an experimental forest north of Juneau. To get there, we took the main road north almost all the way to the end. Fun fact: there are no roads that lead to Juneau (it’s the only state capital like that). We hiked on the remnants of a trail for a few miles then bushwacked to get to three different sites where we mapped out the plot, took tree cores, recorded tree species and DBH (diameter at breast height) and underbrush specifics for all the growth in each plot. It was beautiful but exhausting. It was my first time truly bushwacking so I was just grateful I survived. Also, I found myself wishing I was a dog at many points throughout the day because the dog seemed to have no problem navigating dense brush or fallen trees. The guys I worked with were close to my age so it was a change from the employees at the research station who are mostly my parents’ age. That night, I realized my refrigerator wasn’t working so I called someone from the research station about it and in the meantime, a friendly neighbor let me keep my food in his fridge. I met a few others living at the bunkhouse as well.

A view on my way to work

Thursday and Friday, I did field work with two employees from the research station. Thursday we went to a site on Douglas Island, which is a pretty large island accessible from near downtown Juneau. Friday we drove on the road that goes northward, not quite as far as the site on Wednesday. Both days we measured carbon dioxide flux using this specialized machine we call IRGA and looks like something from outer space. There are nine different plots and each plot has seven different collars that need to be measured, so it’s a pretty long day. Thursday night, I got home, microwaved leftovers, and could not get off the couch for a good hour. Friday, we got back to the lab around 6:30pm and I felt like I could eat about a hundred candy bars. Instead, I bought one very large candy bar and then checked out Hot Bite. Hot Bite is a burger and shake shack next to the harbor that had been recommended to me by three different people. I was salivating just reading the menu. I ordered a Southwest burger which had fried onion rings, cheddar cheese, bacon, and chipotle sauce. It did not disappoint. I called both my mom and Owen and then sat near the harbor devouring the burger. I had the forest service vehicle to use for the weekend so luckily I didn’t have to bike home. I spent the night watching a movie on TV, doing laundry, and picking out these painful prickles that were stuck in my hand. Earlier that day I had reached out to grab a tree to stabilize myself and I had accidentally grabbed Devil’s Club, a nasty plant that has these super sharp prickles. I stayed up late enough for the first time to finally discover when it gets dark out, which is about 11pm. Mystery solved!

My official getup

Auke Bay

Now it’s Saturday and that means I have officially made it through my first week of work. My body is pretty beat down but it’s nice to have the weekend to relax, restock on food, and do some exploring!