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Published: June 26th 2013
Hello all my friends and family!
This is your long lost Alaskan, trudging through the muck and mire to send the latest blog entry. I laugh when I read back and see I was apologizing for waiting two weeks to send an update. Alas, it has been over a month now, since May 11, that I last sent a missive as to my whereabouts. Never fear, beloveds! I am still here, not lost in the tundra or eaten by a Grizzly Bear. Alas, though, my fate has been even worse than that, I must admit; I have had to write SIX programs to deliver to the public. When I wasn’t writing my programs, I was shamelessly procrastinating, and writing to you all simply wasn’t on my complete escape list. Now that I’m doing it, I’m remembering what a joy it actually is, but more writing did not seem like a reward at the end of a long day of staring at a screen, or trying to read up about Grey Wolves.
So it is that a month and four days has whirled by; blizzards have melted into 85 degree days, snow has been replaced by mosquitos, and the leaves
have spurted out, nearly as we watched. Yes, summer is upon us, without even enough time to mourn the absence of spring.
My days have been filled with writing programs, researching those same programs, jitteringly presenting same programs (did my third one today!), and trying to ignore the deadlines for the other programs that loom constantly. Today was a landmark day, as I presented my theater program, and handed in the Discovery Hike outline due, marking the last of six outlines to hand in. Only three more programs to present that I have not yet. Every third iteration of each program, we get coached by a more experienced ranger, and thus far, I have been coached on two of my programs. So, 4 more to go for coaching, and the things cause me anxiety will be in my past! By my second coaching though (two nights ago at my campground program), I was feeling much calmer, and I think the next four will not be so bad.
My programs consist of a sled dog demonstration (which many of you have seen pictures of on FB), a campground program, a theater power point presentation, and three guided walks and
hikes, one of which is an all day hike. Under my belt I have the most challenging of the six; the dog demo, campground, and this morning’s theater presentation. My three talks have a similar theme of dogs and wolves. It is easier to research one or two topics well than three more surfacely. My walks are natural history oriented, except for one that goes through a few historic areas of relevance to the park, so that walk is more of a historical one.
Two weeks ago I ventured into the park by bus, which is the only way you can get in past mile 15. I went out to visit my fellow rangers who are stationed in the west, which is about 2.5 miles away by bus. I had a wonderful weekend there, hiking with others up a hillside and down the Toklat River bed, until I was turned around because there were too many bears in the area! Everyone is supposed to keep a minimum of 300 yards from a bear, but if you are hiking in more enclosed areas, it is quite a challenge to ensure you have that kind of distance. If you do see
a bear closer than that and the bear does not see you, we are taught to quietly and suruptitiously back away. However, if that bear does spy you, you are to HOLD YOUR GROUND! If one were to run, the bear would assume you are prey, because the only thing that runs from a grizzly is food! So, despite your obvious terror, you are nonetheless required to stand your grand and strike up a conversation with the bear. Bears are not used to the sound of a human voice, and it has been found that there is nothing more effective than the human voice to weird a bear out. As you chat with your bear (and soil your pants simultaneously), you should be waving your hands above your head to make yourself look as big as possible. In my case, that is still pretty small. If the bear gets up on its hind legs, all 7 plus feet of him/her, you are still to stand your ground! Apparently, it is just sniffing you out, and you are not really yet in danger. If the bear then decides to charge at you….still HOLD YOUR GROUND!!! Your pants are definitely goners by
Dall Sheep
Taken from the busnow. If it gets around 20 yards away, now is the time to pull out that pepper spray and hope the wind is blowing in the right direction. If the wind is not cooperating, wait another second or so (and by now, you may have called the bear’s bluff; most of the time their charges are just bluffs), then blow off that pepper spray anyway. That way when the bear tears into you, you will be so preoccupied with your stinging eyes, you won’t even notice! Even more likely though, there will be enough spray lingering in the air that the bear will get it too, and head off into the great white tundra. If, however, all this still fails? Play dead! Protect your neck with your hands, drop to the ground in the fetal position, and play dead. The bear may bat you around a bit, but truth is, a dead human is kinda smelly, so likely they’ll head out and look for something tastier. If not, its time to fight back. Not that you have a chance, mind you, but you might as well go out fighting!
All that said, my co-worker John and I were making
our way down the Toklat River bed, chatting about mundane things, when we noticed these weird people staring at us a ways up the river. We ignored them, but stare they continued to do. John decided at that point to go off and explore a tributary, so I continued on alone with the starers continuing their vigil. I finally caught up to them, waved a friendly wave, which they returned, and went on ahead. A few minutes later they caught up to me.
“Did you see the bear??” they whispered in hushed tones.
“What bear?” I asked, bummed that I had missed it.
“The one that was about 30 yards above you in the hillside. You walked right past it! It could have spit on you.”
“Why didn’t you shout something to us??” I sputtered out.
“We didn’t want to attract its attention,” they responded, still in very hushed tones.
They pointed out its whereabouts to me, and indeed, John and I had walked right past it, and these folks seemed more than willing to throw us to the bear.
They moved on, leaving me standing by myself on a river bed with
a 300 lb grizzly bear 200 yards away, and no way to backtrack without crossing the river. Just then, I spied John coming back out of the tributary. Deciding the bear noticing us was far more desirable than John becoming afternoon snack, I shouted at him with everything I had in me, and at last he heard me and headed my way, away from the bear. I showed him where the bear was, and we both breathed a sigh of relief that we were to venture back with each other rather than alone, and that we, and then he, had gotten away from a way too close situation.
We waded through the ice and water, checking in with binoculars every few minutes to make sure the bear was still absorbed with digging whatever it was digging on the shore. At one point, John saw it do its typical stand up on two legs to sniff us; thankfully, I missed that gesture of goodwill. We made it back an hour later, alive and able to tell the tale. I had only just seen my first grizzly from afar the day before, and now had a few checked off my wildlife
checklist.
OK, as in my last telling, you must insert a week plus in the gap between that last paragraph and this one. I had full intentions to send this thing off, but wanted more of the before (winter) and after (summer) pictures to show. Thus, this all got put on hold again, and I have finally coralled my inner child into finishing her homeworkJ
Last weekend I went out to Toklat (West) again, and it was as if an entire season had passed. Gone were the snows of winter, and in their place rolled green hills and Mountains. I went on a wonderful hike to a waterfall with some friends, then had a delectable dinner with same friends, and the next day, Elizabeth and I took the bus even further westward towards the Eielson visitor center, where you can see the Mountain in its full glory. Move over, Rainier, you’ve got competition! Once again I lucked out to have the perfect requisite of clear skies to be able to see her; the day was breathtaking. We hiked on the Alpine trail where we could get even better views and panaramas.
This weekend I opted to stay
on the east side of the park where I live. Took a couple of short hikes, but mainly caught up on things at home. Tomorrow I launch back into programs again, starting the week with my campground program on wolves. All of my programs need so much re-vamping it is a bit daunting, but I’ll spend the day reworking it before I have to head out to do it at 6 pm (I start at noon). I work the visitor’s center desk from noon to 3, so will have 2 hours or so for revamping.
The hardest part of being here for me is the housing situation. We are put into cabins with a random roommate in an area called C-Camp, which is named for the CCC camp that was established here during the 40s. The buildings have all been revamped, but we’re all still in the same area. There is a feeling here of being at summer camp; we have a shared bathroom and shower house, and until 2 weeks ago, the only running water for washing dishes was there. The water in the cabins is cold only, but still a step up from having to haul dishes
to the dish room in the bath house.
All of that would be manageable, but being placed with a roommate has been challenging. Since this is a public forum, I won’t go into the details, but all of you who have ever had a roommate can imagine the possibilities. It’s like being back in college, except that when I was in college, I lived off campus in a group house with friends I chose to live with. So, at 6 weeks shy of turning 50, I get to have my college dorm experience after all. Not that it’s as bad as a college dorm, but it is still far too close to that for my liking. I was expecting to be in a remote cabin out in the wilderness, not in a cluster like this. It’s a mini city, and alongside c camp are garages, gas tanks, offices, etc. Not pristine to say the least. Looking to next year, this all will play into my decision to come back or not. If I do venture upon another year here, the big plus is that all of my programs will be written, and I’ll have much more time to play.
However, if I do come back, I will bring a car for sure, and look into “off campus” housing. Lessons learned:-)
Solstice passed but a few days ago, and I have now experienced that singular sensation of never having a night. I have learned to batten down my bedroom with a piece of cardboard over the window, a coat blocking the crack under the door where light gets in, etc. The only tradeoff is air. Lucky for me, it gets colder at night, so letting fresh air in is not as desperate as it would be were it hot. All that aside, Solstice night was fun. A few friends came over to toast the never-ending day, and I stayed up until 1:30 am, at which point it was still very light out. I took a bunch of pictures that actually look much darker than it was here. The next night I stayed up until 2 am, at which point it was still quite light out, and suddenly the birds started singing to escort in the morning. Quite a strange sensation since there never was a night, and it makes me wonder what triggers their morning song response. I always
thought it was light, but it must be something else, at least up here.
Well, despite the fact that it looks like late afternoon/early evening out my window, it is 11:40 pm, so I should send this off, block my windows off, and head to bed. I will strive for a shorter span between now and the next post, which will enable me to go more into depth with different experiences such as my programs.
Wishing you all well, missing you, and so glad to be carrying you all along on the journey.
With love,
Suzanne
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Lisa Turay
non-member comment
What beautiful photographs!
Thank you so much for keeping us caught up with you. Is pepper-spray the same as bear-spray? I hope you never have to use it!