I SURVIVED!

The sun is out, the bugs are chirping, the wifi’s always on, and there’s not a bear in sight. I’m back in New Jersey!

Since Kelli left, I’ve pretty much been running around like a chicken with my head cut off. Work has been really busy. Last Monday and Tuesday I worked in the lab all day prepping for our big day in the field on Wednesday. On Wednesday Dave, John and I went to a site out the road and collected almost 200 soil samples! On Thursday and Friday I was in the lab again processing samples and getting them ready to be sent off to another lab.

Amidst all the work I have done a few fun things. After work on Friday I went downtown, got some free beer and chips (anything with free, beer, or chips alone is heaven for me), then treated myself to a burger at a bar.

On Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday night I went over to the glacier in the hopes that I’d see bears trying to catch the salmon that had just started running. Living in Alaska for the past two months I’d learned all about what to do if you encounter a bear, I’d laughed at foolish tourist bear stories, I’d seen a bear in the woods with Mark and Di, I’d seen one at the office, on the boat cruise. But I’d never actually encountered one on my own, and I almost wanted to just to see how I’d react, if I’d remember everything I’d learned. Well, on Thursday I got my wish. I was running to the glacier when I heard a loud rustling noise in the bushes right next to me… too loud to be anything but a BEAR! It poked its head up, looked at me, and came a little bit CLOSER! I backed away and was calmly (frantically) saying (yelling) “hey bear, hey man, it’s just me.” It felt like forever that it was just me and the bear, I was having tunnel vision, but pretty quickly a group of people came up behind me and I felt a thousand times better. I played it cool after that, but they had definitely seen the whole fiasco. We all watched as the bear kept walking along the edge of the woods and eventually crossed the road. It then made its way into the creek and meandered through the streams, lazily grabbing at salmon occasionally. Don’t worry mom (and others), there are viewing platforms set up so that everyone is safe and the bears don’t feel threatened. I’m not sure if everyone there called up all their friends, but eventually there were probably about 50 people there watching. At times, I couldn’t decide what was more interesting: watching the bear or the masses of people trying to get pictures. The whole thing was a pretty magical experience. Except for the fact that I was wearing running shorts and the mosquitoes were having a Thanksgiving feast on my legs.

Spotted this cutie at the glacier, right on the walking path

My "running buddy" as one man referred to the bear

On Saturday I met up with Alex downtown and we hiked Mount Juneau! It felt like a NJ summer day- warm, sunny, not a cloud in the sky. I promised myself I would never complain about it being too hot here, but damn it, it was rough. We climbed over 3500 feet in the blazing heat, getting passed occasionally by old people and runners. What the hell?! As cliché as it sounds, the view from the top really made it all worth it. We sat up top for a half hour maybe, watching a dog play in the snow, rationing water and fantasizing about lemonade and icecream instead, and examining our sun burns. On the way home I stopped at a convenience store and chose the beverage that made me drool the most-an orange cream soda. On Saturday night I got an unexpected visitor around midnight. No, it wasn’t a bear, it was someone who was locked out of her bunkhouse apartment. I let her stay at my place since I had an extra bed. Pretty random.

That's the path we came up!

Overlooking Douglas Island and the Gastineau Channel

On Sunday I went to my favorite spot overlooking Mendenhall Lake and wrote a bunch of letters. I had planned to work on my tan in the hopes that it would be as warm as Saturday but this is Alaska so what was I thinking?! I wrapped my beach towel around me and huddled down all afternoon. At night, I went over to John’s house, met his girlfriend and a few of their friends, and had pie with berries that they had picked from their backyard.  

Monday was the calm before the storm. Tuesday was my last day in Alaska! I did field work with Di in the morning and successfully led us to the yellow cedar site I’d gone to a few times (Di had never been). This whole summer I had always followed Mark, Di, John or Dave to any field sites we went to, so I was really proud of myself that I was able to lead the way and not get us lost. We had a relaxing day in the field, then after work met up with another coworker and celebrated my last day with a beer at a nearby bar. After that, I went to dinner at my boss’s house with his wife and son. I had salmon for the last time in Alaska! Over dinner, we all tried to convince his son to go to sleepaway camp for the first time. I shared with him a story about going to girl scout camp years ago, being terrified but then loving it. And I realized I could have just as easily given this summer as an example! I’ve learned that almost every single time, something positive comes out of doing things that scare me and this summer was no different. 

Anyway, after dinner I drove over to the glacier for one last attempt at seeing a bear catch a salmon. It was cool to see the bear last week, but I wanted that stereotypical bear-with-salmon picture. Oddly, I had a feeling that I was going to see something cool that night. I can’t really explain it, and it seemed too good to be true, but these types of things always end up happening to me and I was hoping the streak would continue that night. I wandered around for a half hour with no luck and since it was getting dark, I decided, sadly, to give up. I was driving away when I noticed the commotion usually associated with a bear siting: cars in front of me stopped or parked at odd angles, people wandering around on the edge of the woods. Sure enough, a man told me a bear had been seen! I ran back to the viewing platform, anticipating the bear’s path and it eventually met me up at the river. Within a minute it had grabbed up a salmon, I snapped a picture, and I finally felt satisfied with my Alaskan summer. The rest of the night was filled with packing, cleaning, polishing off the last of icecream and brownies (not complaining about that!), and returning the Milks’ car. Packing was quite an affair. I was too worried to even try to lift my bag that night.

The precious picture

Wednesday morning I couldn’t put it off any longer and I had to lift my bag. My worst fears were confirmed: this bag was heavier than it had ever been, even after a semester in Scotland. So the fact that it weighed in at 55 pounds at the airport was no surprise, but it did send me into a bit of a frenzy. I threw things into my carry on left and right until it was exactly at 50 pounds. I got to Seattle pretty painlessly. Some of you may not know, but I had plans to come home a day early and surprise my boyfriend on his birthday! My parents had invited him over for dinner, but really I would be the one cooking him dinner! So when he called while I was at the Seattle airport, buzzing with people and announcing flight arrivals and departures left and right, I panicked! Finally, I got up the nerve to call him, making sure it wasn’t until 12pm Alaska time so I’d be on “lunch break,” and coughing violently every time they made an announcement. He had no idea. Flight to Newark was long but tolerable because I kept asking the flight attendants for more snack mixes and they kept on giving them to me. My mom picked me up around midnight and Newark was a mad house. Yesterday (Thursday) I basked in the warm weather, inhaled some good Jersey peaches, and made Owen’s dinner!! He came to the front door, I opened it, and he lost it. He was pretty shocked I had kept this a secret and that I was home in the first place. So shocked that he couldn’t even eat dinner at first! We had a great night together, I took him to fireworks at a park afterwards, it was SO NICE to finally be together again.

Tacos with chipotle marinated chicken, fruit salsa, and sour cream-salsa topping, served with Alaskan beer

Reunited at last!

Now that I’m home, some final thoughts about Alaska:

Having a car: Subie changed my life, and I’m not exaggerating, just stating a fact. The first part of the summer was pretty freaking difficult, biking to work, working my butt off in the field, then biking home, then going for a run. I was always exhausted. Getting groceries was a fiasco. I walked home four miles in the rain with all my groceries. I biked around 15 miles from downtown home, just so I could enjoy the Fourth of July. I had visions of biking 40+ miles to see a scenic beach. It all was pretty insane. Once I got Subie to use, life was so much simpler.

Having survived: Many scenarios of not making it out alive crossed my mind at one point or another. Getting injured or lost during field work, killed by a bear, kidnapped by an insane hiker, falling off a mountain, crashing on a float plane… it might sound crazy but there were just lots of ways to get hurt up there. So it feels really good to come out of the summer alive and well.

What is respiration: A little birdie (my mom) told me that everyone is wondering what respiration is. We use a machine to measure the amount of carbon dioxide leaving the soil, which will be later used to calculate the contribution of temperate rain forests (which is where we worked in) to the global carbon budget. 

THANK YOU for all reading my blog posts, listening to my rants, and supporting me and my crazy adventures. It really was the Alaska Dream.