happy halloween :)

Today is probably one of my favorite holidays. It's the one day in the year that you can dress up and be whoever or whatever you want to be and no one can judge you for it. This Halloween I will be Red Riding Hood. For those of you who don't know, it's a legendary fairytale about a courageous girl who shows bravery and strength. Unfortunately, I don't have a wolf or a grandmother to follow me around, but I can still be a symbol of courage. Tonight there's a Halloween dance, I doubt I'll stay at it very long, but I also got invited to a party tonight, I'm so excited! I hope all of you have a wonderful and frightening Halloween!

Here's a clip of some teachers and student workers that performed for the Halloween Costume Contest and below that is the video they are mimicking!

Happy Halloween!

Baby Got Back..Pack

Day One
We've been trying to come up with an ODS slogan or motto that we could put on t-shirts.
So far we've come up with:
"ODS: Learn or Die"
and
"Baby Got Back"

Hiking in the pouring rain

This is our coach, Micaela.
We called her coach because she didn't feel right being called professor.

Heading towards Windfall Lake Cabin

Stausi and I after we just arrived at our camp spot for the night

Our second attempt at a bear hang and a successful one

I don't know who thought it was a good idea to give me the flares..
We were given two expired flares to practice using in the field, I was lucky enough to light both of them!

Day Two

Stausi, Gutschi and Flo eating breakfast

Hannah Vigue and Hannah Voic
(my tent mates/cooking buddies)
enjoying some instant oatmeal and dried fruit for breakfast!

Cooking breakfast

My pack that I borrowed for the weekend.
If you're looking for me in any of these photos, I'm the only one with a blue pack!

See..there I am with the blue pack!
The trail was a bit sketchy in some areas..

I became quite intimate with several trees..

I hiked up decently steep areas..

Slipping on muddy paths in an attempt to maneuver around debris..

Had to stop a few times along the way to enjoy the view, bask in the sun and catch my breath..

Oh, how I cherish these few sunny days..

Hannah Voic, Anna Stausberg, Me, Flo & Anna Gutschi 

The view from our second campsite
We are in the saddle on Grandchild Peak

The reflection in the pond was breathtaking..a true mirror image

Sunset

Our tents are beginning to freeze 

Day Three
Sunrise

The pond, partially beginning to freeze over

Chilkat Mountain Range

0 - 180 degrees

180 - 360 degrees

backpacking..

My backpacking trip was both extraordinary and exhausting. I've never carried so much weight for so long before. I'm use to van camping or having a designated camp ground and going on day hikes for multiple days. Backpacking is a little more extreme though. It's invigorating having everything you could need in a large pack strapped to your back. All you have to do is walk. Surprisingly I wasn't as tired as I thought I'd be. My knee started hurting so I relied too much on my left leg which is now tight, and yeah, walking 15+ miles with 50 pounds of weight on your back makes your feet throb, but it was a good experience, one that I'll need to keep at.

So, Friday we started off on one end of Montana Creek trail, and it was miserable. The rain wouldn't let up, our leader for the trip hadn't hiked that half of the trail before and where we planned on camping, because it looked relatively flat on a topographic map, was completely covered with devil's club. It was getting close to sunset and we all pulled our headlamps out, fearing that we'd have to hike through the night in the rain until we could find a suitable place to camp. Thankfully we found a camp in a pretty wet but relatively flat area. We set up camp, began cooking while half our group went to set up a bear hang. Apparently while setting up the bear hang the rope became wrapped around the tree branch several times and we had to cut the rope to get it unstuck. Than we go the rope properly around the branch and attempted to hoist our bags full of food up. Unfortunately for me while I was underneath the bags of food lifting in order to help the people tugging on the rope, the branch broke off and fell on top of me. I was fine, but it felt like nothing more could go wrong that night. And thankfully, nothing more did go wrong.

Saturday morning we had a late start, ate oatmeal, packed up our gear and continued along Montana Creek trail. It was sketchy in a few places. It looked as though some of the trail had been washed away in a mud slide and we had to climb over and under several trees but we eventually made it to Grandchild Peak trailhead. I hardly even noticed the trail because it ascended almost vertically up a hill, and although it evened out in a few places, most of the trail was very steep, and very muddy. But, the sun was out so no real complaints. We made it to the saddle where we set up camp, watched the sunset and the stars come out. Now, if you didn't already know this. When it's a clear sky at night more of the Earth's radiation is able to escape and leave the atmosphere because it isn't being reflected off of the clouds and back to the Earth's surface. Therefore, clear night amounts to freezing temperatures.

When we woke up Sunday morning, our tent was covered in ice, the pond nearby froze halfway over and the ground was covered in frost. I was pretty cold, but I managed to sleep through most of the night. We all watched the sunrise, I made cinnamon and brown sugar pancakes and we hiked a little farther up the mountain to get a better view before packing up camp and heading back down.

I know I've mentioned this a few times, but I truly do appreciate a hot shower and toilet paper after several days of camping outdoors. Using moss to wipe yourself is alright, but it's always cold and wet and leaves pieces of moss behind. And hand sanitizer can only do so much until you realize that the dirt under your fingernails wont be coming out anytime soon. I'm pretty sure I forgot to brush my teeth Saturday night and Sunday morning, which I realized once I got to the end of Montana Creek trail when I began feeling really gross. Luckily, everyone else in my group smelled so you never have to worry about being the odd man out!

Well, that's all I'm going to write tonight. I'm pretty exhausted, it's becoming harder and harder for me to find the time to post. I will try my best to keep up, but unfortunately I don't think I'll be posting daily for a while. I'll include photos of the backpacking trip in a post tomorrow morning. For now, sweet dreams!

Sorry!...again.

Wow, I didn't realize that it had been so long since I last posted. Let's see, Tuesday I had to get some shopping done in the morning before class and then I had night class from 5:30-8:30, worked out with Mercede and then I'm sure I came back and when to sleep. Wednesday was pretty much the same thing but after class I came back to my apartment because I was suppose to go to Flo's birthday party, but the party was moved to my apartment and no one really left until after midnight. Flo loved her birthday surprise! Thursday I had class all day and then I played dodgeball last night. And now I'm quickly writing to you about my week because I leave to go backpacking today. We're hiking on Montana Creek Trail starting at Windfall Lake and we'll camp by the lake the first night. After packing up camp the next morning we'll continue hiking Montana Creek Trail until we come across another trail which will lead us up Grandchild Mountain. We'll camp on the mountain the second night. The next morning we will leave our camp set up and we will try to get to the summit by sunrise and have breakfast on top of the mountain. And finally we'll hike back down, pack up camp and hike out continuing to follow Montana Creek Trail until we reach Montana Creek Road.

I apologize for throwing all this information at you. I'll try my best to get you a map of what we did once I return. Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Kristina have a fantastic time at the Halloween dance..don't do anything I would do!! :)

53 days

I've tried not to say it. I've put it off for a while now. I didn't miss home at first. But I really do miss it now. It didn't really hit me until my Dad told me that he's been counting down the days until I come home: 53 days.

I miss being able to run home if I forgot something. I miss coming home and having Maggie greet me at the door, tail wagging with her ears curled back. I miss Maggie pestering me to let her outside, and inside, and outside, and back inside. I miss Roscoe bounding into the house in search of Maggie's chews. I miss my car and being able to get up and go anywhere whenever I wanted to. I miss going on walks down Main Street in the winter time with my Dad, and having him stop and buy a small hot cocoa from Dunkin because my hands are cold. I miss crawling in bed with Mum on a Saturday morning while she was watching the Today show. I miss riding around in my Dad's truck and listening to him tell stories of when he was my age. I miss fighting with my Mum and storming away, and then coming back a few hours later pretending like nothing even happened. I miss my Dad lecturing me about the importance of family and what family traditions he wishes to create. I miss smelling my Mum's cooking right before a big family gathering.

sea kayaking..

So my trip, although it was long, contained very little sea kayaking. I believe the first day we spent about 4 hours on the ocean paddling and the last two days we spent roughly 3 hours paddling. The ocean was rather calm, only 1-2 foot seas every now and then. We saw two helicopters and one boat from far away the entire trip. I think we got roughly 12 hours of sleep each night, and when we weren't sleeping or paddling we were setting up camp, taking down camp or cooking camp food. The first night my tent mates weren't very helpful in trying to keep the rain fly off of the tent, so the tent was pretty wet the next morning. The second night was dryer, but they left one of the screens open and we had about 20 slugs inside of our tent in the morning. I wasn't pleased either way. I'm not disappointed that we didn't do very much paddling, simply because the weather wasn't great. But I am excited to come home and go sea kayaking next summer!!

Echo Cove Boat Launch

All the xtra tufs!

Just arrived back at Sawmill Creek to stay our second night here!
Man, I am cold, wet and dirty..

Low tide at Sawmill Creek

Sawmill Creek washing out into the ocean

Taking a second to enjoy the view at Sawmill Creek

Our tent..filled with slugs, headed home today!

This is a whisper light, I cooked 4 meals and many pots of boiling water on this thing.
I might even consider myself a whisper light pro by now!

Cooking tent, the rain finally let up.

Huddled in the cooking tent under a clear sky,
boiling water so we'll have hot nalgenes by our feet at night,
listening to Ben Howard,
what a trip.. :)

dirty paws..

I've been dirty before. I think the longest I've gone without a shower was probably 6 days this summer when I was hiking in Baxter State Park. But at least we had the natural water slides that we could wash off in. Not here, it's constantly raining and you're on a beach that's made entirely from glacier silt and glacier silt gets everywhere! Silt in your shoes, in your pants, in your zipper, in your water, in your food, in your mouth. If there is some sort of crevice I haven't covered, silt will find it's way there. My hands feel like a baby's bottom right now with all the exfoliating the silt has done for me. Now, I'm sure this isn't what you wanted to read, you want to hear all about how amazing the trip was and how much fun I had kayaking. And the trip was amazing and I do really enjoy kayaking, but in the end this trip just made me want to come back home and kayak in Maine. I've lived in Maine for 21 years and I've never fully appreciated everything that Maine has to offer. And let's be honest, Alaska is wonderful, but it can be downright miserable sometimes. I want to come back to Maine, buy a kayak, and kayak around some of the calendar islands with a few friends. I want to do this when the weather is nice, when I can lay out on the beach to dry off, and sleep under the stars at night. I do believe it's important to put myself in these conditions. Conditions such as, swimming in a 34 degree river, being caught in a strainer, flipping kayaks in the middle of the lake, all in the pouring rain. But it is these conditions that will make me get out in Maine and truly enjoy everything that Maine has to offer. I hope you enjoy the photos there are all Anna Gutschi's photos, some of them I took but all the credit goes to her. I will try to get my own photos posted tomorrow with more information about my trip!

Auke Lake

Practicing flips, assisted and self-rescues

Trip to the Mendenhall Glacier

Beached by the Mendenhall Glacier, not far from the ice caves

Headed back across Mendenhall Lake

Mercede and I are singing away

At Echo Cove boat launch, getting ready for out 3 day trip!

Day 1 of our trip, Schyler in back and me in front

First campsite at the end of Berners Bay
Kayaks are pulled far away from the tidal zone close to out campsite,
in the background you can see all of us cooking breakfast

Silt beach photo taken by me

photo taken by me

Dirty paws, dirty face

Stausi and I in the double,
I don't know how I always ended up in the double

Second Campsite at Sawmill Creek in Berners Bay

Me, preparing breakfast

Annie cooking the breakfast I prepared,
mmmmm..cinnamon dumplings 

Head home..