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!