Where do I even start?
With the huge amount of bears and people, the month of July has really taken a toll on everyone in camp, not to mention that we’ve only had one nice day in weeks. This can be a very stressful job with all the people management we do around the bears.
Yesterday was beautiful though, just gorgeous. There were very strong winds on Thursday night and on Friday the clouds had all been pushed out to make way for blue skies. It was nice to finally have a sunny day. It was so nice that I decided that after work, I would head to Brooks Lake to spend my Friday night there. Brooks Lake is about a mile or two away from camp, and is where some of our maintenance employees live. It’s very nice. The best part about it is that it’s away from camp. This weekend was even better, because I had one of the maintenance cabins to myself. Some of our maintenance is in King Salmon working on projects there. Well, I was hoping to wake up to sunny skies, but I had no such luck. At least it was nice to wake up to a quiet cabin. There were no planes flying over head and no people walking past.
My Saturday has gone quite well. I slept in for a number of hours to try to catch up on sleep. Then I had bacon and eggs with one of the maintenance guys; thanks T. Kay. Then I went into camp to do some email/apply for jobs. So far I haven’t applied to too many jobs, but I have applied to one job teaching environmental education in Grand Cayman. It’ll be interesting to see what they think of me. I’d apply to more park jobs, but I haven’t seen too many openings.
I found a box from my gram full of goodies in the mail/laundry room. That was a nice surprise.
After being surrounded by too many visitors and bears at camp, I headed back across the river to Brooks Lake. T. Kay and I had planned to have dinner together. I thought it was going to be just a simple dinner together, but then some other people had the same idea as me. We ended up having some lodge workers and some of their friends come up for dinner as well. We had the best bear battered halibut, mash potatoes, and veggies ever. I haven’t felt that well fed in a while. It was nice to have a real day off and enjoy it.
Everyone says it slows down in August. I am excited to see that. I might actually get to do interpretation/environmental education like I’d like to do. Right now we just don’t get the chance because of the bear traffic. It’s a bit hard to understand how this place works if you aren’t living it. It’s way fascinating. I’m not sure I understand it completely myself.
Anyhow, after a good day like this one, I’m ready to have some very sweet dreams.
I hope all is well where you are!
27.7.08
19.7.08
The Falls Pictures
The wolf at the falls is quite the angler!!
Here I am smiling because the bears aren't eating me. There are so many bears!! (Honestly though, the bears don't even seem to care that we're there. I would bet I don't taste that good anyhow.)
07_20_08
I am so glad that I’ve made it more than half way through the month of July. With as many crazy people and bears there are, I have been starting to wonder why this place exists. Most people that come here seem to be focused on bears and can’t see anything else. They have “bear” colored glasses as I like to say.
I, on the other hand, have started to see more and more beauty in other things at the park. I believe this is due to the fact that some days I just can not stand that some people do not have an appreciation for the small things. For example, there is a very pretty and very small white flower on the trail to the falls (which are filled with bears) that has its stamen pointed towards the ground; it’s called a Shy Maiden. Very few people even know the flower exists. As a matter of fact, most of our visitors come only for a couple of hours and only have time to cross the river, go to the falls, view bears, cross back across the river and fly back to where they came from. We’re getting some odd 250 to 300 people a day and most of them are just here for the day. Now, from looking at that number, it doesn’t seem like a lot of people but, for as small of an area that these people stay in for the day (maybe only a couple of miles) we do get some big crowds of people with “bear” colored glasses. It’s enough to drive anyone crazy in my opinion.
This has been a great adventure, but I’m still sitting on the fence about whether or not I’d like to come back. I think I’ll wait till the season has been completed before I make up my mind. From what I understand, next month will be completely different and I’ll have time to focus on things other than people management and bears.
Currently my evening program is about identifying animal evidence, but I was asked to focus my program on bears, so a large portion of my program is now about bears. I don’t like it. So, I have begun to plan and research a new program focused around Novarupta and volcanoes. I’m much happier about doing this subject.
I really enjoy going to the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. I enjoy talking about the geology of this area. It’s fascinating. Actually on my last Valley Tour, I saw a moose as well!! It was my first moose sighting in about two and a half months; my first sighting since Anchorage even. I’ve also recently seen a wolf on the road to the Valley! Wolf sightings are very exciting. I saw wolf fishing at the falls about a week ago. They are really good at fishing.
Wolves are a lot better anglers than I am. As a matter of fact, don’t tell my friend Olin, but I have yet to catch a salmon. I am so slack, or I’m just a really bad fisherwoman. My line has been messed up for a while and I never know how to feel if I have a fish on or not when I’m fishing. I suppose I did snag a fish in the dorsal fin the other day, but I’m not allowed to keep fish I snag anywhere else than in the mouth. Fishing for salmon is so difficult, because by the time they’re coming up the river they’re not feeding. It doesn’t matter what you put on your line fly wise, because you’re just snagging the fish anyhow. In my opinion, I think if you live in the bush you should be able to have a subsistence fishing license, because I like eating fish, I just can’t seem to catch them. I’m lucky that everyone likes to share their fish or at least most people do.
Tomorrow I’ll be hosting a pirate party and salmon bake. I’m very excited about it. I think there will be lots of different and good foods to eat including many different salmon recipes. It’ll be good fun. Thanks for getting all of the pirate stuff for me mom! I even covered a small box in foil to make it look like a silver treasure chest, and filled it with candy.
Time is still going by very quickly here. Soon enough it’ll be July 31st; Katmai Halloween! That should be good fun as well. With time passing so quickly, I need to start applying for a new job also. I haven’t seen too many job openings that I’m interested in, but I have applied for a job in the Grand Cayman doing environmental education. I figure if anything, it gives me more experience doing applications. We’ll see how that goes.
I can’t wait to go into town. I’m starting to have a bit of island fever. It’ll be nice to go into town for an interview actually when I get one.
I hope all is well were everyone else is. I need to get back to improving my new program. It’ll be good to talk about something other than bears. *smiles*
I, on the other hand, have started to see more and more beauty in other things at the park. I believe this is due to the fact that some days I just can not stand that some people do not have an appreciation for the small things. For example, there is a very pretty and very small white flower on the trail to the falls (which are filled with bears) that has its stamen pointed towards the ground; it’s called a Shy Maiden. Very few people even know the flower exists. As a matter of fact, most of our visitors come only for a couple of hours and only have time to cross the river, go to the falls, view bears, cross back across the river and fly back to where they came from. We’re getting some odd 250 to 300 people a day and most of them are just here for the day. Now, from looking at that number, it doesn’t seem like a lot of people but, for as small of an area that these people stay in for the day (maybe only a couple of miles) we do get some big crowds of people with “bear” colored glasses. It’s enough to drive anyone crazy in my opinion.
This has been a great adventure, but I’m still sitting on the fence about whether or not I’d like to come back. I think I’ll wait till the season has been completed before I make up my mind. From what I understand, next month will be completely different and I’ll have time to focus on things other than people management and bears.
Currently my evening program is about identifying animal evidence, but I was asked to focus my program on bears, so a large portion of my program is now about bears. I don’t like it. So, I have begun to plan and research a new program focused around Novarupta and volcanoes. I’m much happier about doing this subject.
I really enjoy going to the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. I enjoy talking about the geology of this area. It’s fascinating. Actually on my last Valley Tour, I saw a moose as well!! It was my first moose sighting in about two and a half months; my first sighting since Anchorage even. I’ve also recently seen a wolf on the road to the Valley! Wolf sightings are very exciting. I saw wolf fishing at the falls about a week ago. They are really good at fishing.
Wolves are a lot better anglers than I am. As a matter of fact, don’t tell my friend Olin, but I have yet to catch a salmon. I am so slack, or I’m just a really bad fisherwoman. My line has been messed up for a while and I never know how to feel if I have a fish on or not when I’m fishing. I suppose I did snag a fish in the dorsal fin the other day, but I’m not allowed to keep fish I snag anywhere else than in the mouth. Fishing for salmon is so difficult, because by the time they’re coming up the river they’re not feeding. It doesn’t matter what you put on your line fly wise, because you’re just snagging the fish anyhow. In my opinion, I think if you live in the bush you should be able to have a subsistence fishing license, because I like eating fish, I just can’t seem to catch them. I’m lucky that everyone likes to share their fish or at least most people do.
Tomorrow I’ll be hosting a pirate party and salmon bake. I’m very excited about it. I think there will be lots of different and good foods to eat including many different salmon recipes. It’ll be good fun. Thanks for getting all of the pirate stuff for me mom! I even covered a small box in foil to make it look like a silver treasure chest, and filled it with candy.
Time is still going by very quickly here. Soon enough it’ll be July 31st; Katmai Halloween! That should be good fun as well. With time passing so quickly, I need to start applying for a new job also. I haven’t seen too many job openings that I’m interested in, but I have applied for a job in the Grand Cayman doing environmental education. I figure if anything, it gives me more experience doing applications. We’ll see how that goes.
I can’t wait to go into town. I’m starting to have a bit of island fever. It’ll be nice to go into town for an interview actually when I get one.
I hope all is well were everyone else is. I need to get back to improving my new program. It’ll be good to talk about something other than bears. *smiles*
2.7.08
More pictures
The Valley from the sky!
Finally a picture of Kate in Uniform!
A mink I saw by the bridge. Mink comes from the Finish word "Menk" meaning a stinky animal from Finland. Hahaha...
In the plane again with Steph and Elise in the back.
It was a beautiful flight!!
I will get out to Novarupta at some point!
I probably won't make it to the Katmai Caldera, but it's still pretty dang cool.
6_29_08
There is just way too much excitement here at Brooks Camp. I’m not sure where all my time is going. I’ve been working too hard and having too much fun!
A while ago, I gave my first bear orientation spiel and it just happened to be in German! I couldn’t believe how tired speaking German on and off during the day made me! It was good fun though. The five older German men were here only for only a day on their world trip in hopes that they would see a Grizzly Bear. Unfortunately for them they didn’t see a single bear, but fortunately for me, I seem to be bear repellent. Almost every time that I’m on duty to be bear look out the bears seem to disappear. I’ve only seen a bear once, a few weeks ago, while standing on the platform by the river and all he was doing was eating grass. I was happy with this encounter.
Then a few days later, we, the interpretive ranger staff, got to fly over part of the park to see what it’s like from the air. It was incredible! The weather had just been beautiful for a number of days and it made all the scenery look awesome. The best part of the flight was flying over the Mt. Katmai caldera and Novarupta. It was just so cool to see ground zero! It really put some things in perspective as well, the eruption site is massive! The Katmai caldera was so massive that I couldn’t take a picture of it all at once, even at 5,000ft.
I also gave my first evening program. It’s not the best evening program in the world, but it’s okay. I hope to brush it up a bit, give it a few times, and then create a whole new evening program. I think being able to track an animal is really cool, but it’s difficult tailoring the program to focus on why Katmai is so unique, without talking about bears for more than half the program. I’m not saying I dislike bears (all that much), but I just see them all the time; I don’t want to talk about them all the time as well. I think my next evening program will be about volcanoes. That seems to hold my interest a little better. I was really meant to do something with geology. I don’t know what it is with me and talking about rocks here at this park. I think the geology here is so awesome. Then again, apparently I’ve always liked rocks. Ha!
The other programs I do are alright. My cultural walk could use some help. I think it’s neat that Brooks Camp is considered a National Historical Landmark because of the number of archeological sites (There are over 900 of them!), but I want people to see that our culture isn’t so different from Alaskan culture and the way people lived over 2,000 years ago. As you can see though, I even have a hard time explaining what I want to do. I have no idea how I’m going to get in the information that I want to. How do I connect little depressions in the ground to the world as a whole? Anyhow it’s still kind of cool to think that people once lived in a home in that little depression about 2,000 years ago or so.
My favorite program by far is the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. Of course there I get to talk about geology and get out of camp… and maybe see a moose! We see way too many bears around here!!
Speaking of the bears though, they’ve really started to come out in force to eat the millions of sockeye salmon that are coming in. The people are starting to really come out as well. We have easily over 120 people a day now! I jump into that mess starting tomorrow. I hope I haven’t forgotten all my training!!
Like I said before, I’ve been having too much fun. Hopefully that hasn’t affected my memories from training too much. Today I went fishing with my friend from the lodge, Stephanie. We caught a HUGE (okay, medium) salmon and then spent the day cleaning it, cooking it and eating it! It was beautiful! I love fresh salmon! A week ago we had our Solstice party. Yay for the longest day of the year! It’s just too bad that the days are getting shorter now. We seem to have a lot of parties out here, both the lodge and the NPS staff. There’s a lot of food and drinks to go around… and movies to watch… and dancing to be done. A good time is had by all.
It is such a good time that it wears me out. It’s time for bed.
Send ice cream :-)
A while ago, I gave my first bear orientation spiel and it just happened to be in German! I couldn’t believe how tired speaking German on and off during the day made me! It was good fun though. The five older German men were here only for only a day on their world trip in hopes that they would see a Grizzly Bear. Unfortunately for them they didn’t see a single bear, but fortunately for me, I seem to be bear repellent. Almost every time that I’m on duty to be bear look out the bears seem to disappear. I’ve only seen a bear once, a few weeks ago, while standing on the platform by the river and all he was doing was eating grass. I was happy with this encounter.
Then a few days later, we, the interpretive ranger staff, got to fly over part of the park to see what it’s like from the air. It was incredible! The weather had just been beautiful for a number of days and it made all the scenery look awesome. The best part of the flight was flying over the Mt. Katmai caldera and Novarupta. It was just so cool to see ground zero! It really put some things in perspective as well, the eruption site is massive! The Katmai caldera was so massive that I couldn’t take a picture of it all at once, even at 5,000ft.
I also gave my first evening program. It’s not the best evening program in the world, but it’s okay. I hope to brush it up a bit, give it a few times, and then create a whole new evening program. I think being able to track an animal is really cool, but it’s difficult tailoring the program to focus on why Katmai is so unique, without talking about bears for more than half the program. I’m not saying I dislike bears (all that much), but I just see them all the time; I don’t want to talk about them all the time as well. I think my next evening program will be about volcanoes. That seems to hold my interest a little better. I was really meant to do something with geology. I don’t know what it is with me and talking about rocks here at this park. I think the geology here is so awesome. Then again, apparently I’ve always liked rocks. Ha!
The other programs I do are alright. My cultural walk could use some help. I think it’s neat that Brooks Camp is considered a National Historical Landmark because of the number of archeological sites (There are over 900 of them!), but I want people to see that our culture isn’t so different from Alaskan culture and the way people lived over 2,000 years ago. As you can see though, I even have a hard time explaining what I want to do. I have no idea how I’m going to get in the information that I want to. How do I connect little depressions in the ground to the world as a whole? Anyhow it’s still kind of cool to think that people once lived in a home in that little depression about 2,000 years ago or so.
My favorite program by far is the Valley of Ten Thousand Smokes. Of course there I get to talk about geology and get out of camp… and maybe see a moose! We see way too many bears around here!!
Speaking of the bears though, they’ve really started to come out in force to eat the millions of sockeye salmon that are coming in. The people are starting to really come out as well. We have easily over 120 people a day now! I jump into that mess starting tomorrow. I hope I haven’t forgotten all my training!!
Like I said before, I’ve been having too much fun. Hopefully that hasn’t affected my memories from training too much. Today I went fishing with my friend from the lodge, Stephanie. We caught a HUGE (okay, medium) salmon and then spent the day cleaning it, cooking it and eating it! It was beautiful! I love fresh salmon! A week ago we had our Solstice party. Yay for the longest day of the year! It’s just too bad that the days are getting shorter now. We seem to have a lot of parties out here, both the lodge and the NPS staff. There’s a lot of food and drinks to go around… and movies to watch… and dancing to be done. A good time is had by all.
It is such a good time that it wears me out. It’s time for bed.
Send ice cream :-)
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