So much to say

05_13_08

I’ve now been at Brooks Camp in Katmai National Park for about 5 days, but it feels like I’ve been here a month already because of all the things that have been going on.

Day one started with weighing myself and all my gear in King Salmon, Alaska to prepare for a flight on the single engine NPS (National Park Service) plane. All the rangers headed out to Brooks Camp on Friday were allowed themselves and 100 pounds of gear (enough food, clothing, and other items to live on for a couple of days to a couple of weeks, if needed). It was very nerve racking to try to pack 100 pounds of essentials. Luckily though, the pilot, Alan, didn’t seem to care that I was carrying 115 pounds of gear. As a matter of fact I think we were able to get about 200 pounds of my gear onto the plane. Apparently I don’t weigh much. Sometimes it is a bonus to be little.

The flight itself was awesome! It was a 15/20 minute flight from King Salmon to Brooks Camp. I did not get motion sick and I saw a lot. We saw moose, bear, and even a dozen caribou. We also saw the landscape change dramatically. It was gorgeous to see the flat bland lands and little ponds turn into mountains and huge blue ice covered lakes. The best part was the landing though. We really did a dive bomber move. Alan cut the engine and practically pointed the nose of the plane at the beach (we did an off runway landing). Thankfully I felt completely confident with Alan behind the yoke, otherwise I would have thought for sure that I was going to die. I think my confidence in him, and myself, was boosted by the water ditching training we had the days leading up to the flight. For your information water ditching went well… for the most part. (I need to get the photos and videos from my boss, Roy.)

As a side note, make sure your seat belt secure when flying in a small plane. When we did the simulations for a water crash in a small plane there was one time that my seatbelt unbuckled itself and I really got thrashed around in the PCP simulator. Also learn to hold your breath for a very long time … they practically rolled us half way across the pool in one of simulations that my partner and I did. I was sure I was going to try to take a breath if I had to stay under water for much longer. That would have been no good. I was totally panicked. I do not want to do that training again for a very very long time.

Back to what I was saying… Once my roommate and I landed in Brooks Camp it was off to our tent-frame “apartment” to set-up. It wasn’t very cozy to begin with, but it now looks colorful and lived in! We also had the bonus of some cool Christmas lights that were left behind that helped! That night we had our first on the ground bear sighting; a courting couple. They were about 100 yards or more down the beach from where we have camp. I feel like the rangers are bear stalkers though, with the way they try to get a good look at the bears and figure out which bears they are.

In total since Friday I’ve seen something like 6 bears since being here. At least 5 of them were stalked by the rangers. The other one was seen moving through camp. He was so close!!

Day two of Brooks Camp was a day off. Stephanie and I spent the majority of the day organizing our tent-frame just a bit more and hiking. It was good to see Lake Brooks and the Brooks Falls. I’m pretty sure we saw a river otter while we were at Brooks Falls. We had seen one the pervious night as well. I wish I could have taken a picture, but there’s not even a chance that I could have taken a good picture with my camera. It was way too far away. With how beautiful of a day it had been, we were wiped out at the end. The only problem was that I wasn’t able to sleep the whole night through. I’ve been sick with a deep cough for the past couple of days. It gets worse at night.

Day three was very windy!! It was so windy that some of the flights that were scheduled to come out weren’t able to. I also was beginning to think that I could be turned into a human kite. For training we did go on a hike again to Lake Brooks. The shelter from the trees kept a lot of the wind at bay. That was nice. It was nice to get a tour of camp and the 3 trails we have around here as well. Yes, 3 trails, the rest of the trails you make yourself. For a post hiking activity, we sat in the one and only well heated cabin (the management cabin) and watched a movie about Salmon. It was interesting for the most part. I was just happy to be warm really. The wind was coming off the still frozen lake and nights in the tent-frame are awful so far. They are very very cold, even with two space heaters… and me being in the loft.

Day four was tedious… unwrapping little pins from plastic, cleaning buildings with no heating because the electricity to them hadn’t been turned on yet, and trying to stay out of the wind. It wasn’t very exciting at all.

Today was nice. It was a day off for the most part. There was non-mandatory training that was supposed to be going on, but because of the winds the planes with all the people weren’t able to land until later in the afternoon. We did finally get to part of the training at the end of the day. Tomorrow will be a full day of boat training. It will be interesting to see if the have us boating at all tomorrow. It’s a bit cold and windy. Also part of the training is swimming in the lake. You know how last journal entry I said I wasn’t ready to swim in the lake… I better get myself ready, because it’s going to happen sooner than later. I can’t believe I’m doing this voluntarily. I just keep telling myself, “it’s free training and it’ll look great on my resume.” It’s really just too bad that I’ll be sick while doing it. I hope it doesn’t mess up my body too bad!! I like learning the information though.

Well, I suppose this is long enough to bore anyone, myself included, so it’s time for bed. I look forward to another day here at Katmai National Park.

By the way I think I may do my evening program so that it’ll involve SCAT! Hahaha… I was thinking “Moose Poo: What does animal evidence say about an animal?” or some such thing. My program is a whole other journal entry though.

Peace out!

P.S. I've decided to spend my day getting healthy instead of jumping into a freezing cold lake. Also pictures are taking forever to load... so I need to figure out some other way to get pictures up or I need to sit here for a long while... or I need to take less quality pictures... hmm I'll work it out.