Mountain Vixen is not extinct!

Domestic Goddess... Alaskan Style!

Yep, still hard at work being a hunter gatherer in the rough Alaskan wilderness of... Girdwood. That's a joke, really, because Girdwood is kindof an up-and-coming vacation destination merely 45 minutes from Anchorage - and accessible by highway, which is actually kindof a big deal in such a vast state, covered with huge glacial rivers, bogs, mountains, and other natural features that make road access nearly impossible. We live in a condo with a sauna, a fireplace, and have 3G internet service. I didn't even have cell service in California! But still, we are trying to embrace the bountiful opportunities to hunt, fish or otherwise supplement grocery-store dependence. Resident fishing and hunting licenses are so cheap, it really does make living in Alaska a tad bit more affordable.... and a lot more adventurous and engaging!

We went to the Russian River one more time, and I've never seen so many people disappointed (myself included) to catch so many huge fish! The river was literally streaked red with a highway of spawning sockeye. When salmon are in the ocean, they are bright silver on the outside, with firm red flesh inside. However, the effects of freshwater and the long-distance travel up rivers to spawn takes quite a toll. When they start to change from silver to scarlet red bodies with green hooked mouths, they are getting "spawned out" - they are burning the oil from their flesh, becoming mushier and not yummy.

So, these spawned out sockeye ruled the river when we were there. For every 5+ red fish I landed, I hooked 1 silver fish. Hooking a fish does not always lead to landing a fish, especially when they are feisty and acrobatic! We didn't fill our bag limits but did manage to get 4 more fish between the two of us.

With the sockeye season winding down, silver (coho) salmon season is supposed to be starting. Been a slow season, and the fishing technique is much different than the "fly fishing only" style for sockeye. Silver salmon are more opt to strike bait or lures, so cured salmon eggs, spinners and spoons are the way to go. But the silvers have had a slow start. We went to the "locals fishing hole" on a creek nearby, where you can actually see the fish hanging out in the slack water. It wasn't looking promising, but finally got one on some eggs! What a big beautiful fish! I got the only fish of the day, killed and filleted it myself! It's very satisfying to get natural, sustainable and healthy food myself... I don't enjoy taking the life of the fish, but I thank them every time.

We splurged on a Big Chief Smoker and a chest freezer to hold all this fish (and hopefully meat!), so Tim took a turn at smoking his first batch of fish...

Tim's first batch of smoked salmon, DRY BRINE:

• 2 parts brown sugar to 1 part pickling salt
• ?? amount of celery salt, not much
•  Let set in fridge for 12 hours. Dry brining (vs the wet brine I did) draws the moisture out of the fish, so though you start with granular sugar and salt, you end up with a syrupy fish-soup!
• Dried for 2 hours
• In the Big Chief Smoker, it is set to one temperature (165 degrees) so we arranged thick pieces on the bottom racks (closest to the heat coil) and smaller pieces on top.
• Hickory wood chips: for the small pieces, ended up with 2 pans of wood = about 2.5 hours of smoking; for large pieces, used 3 pans of wood and the longest pieces took 6 hours

They turned out amazing, of course. Less salty than mine, because he used less salt than I did. Plus, I didn't have the luxury of electric heat and precisely set temperature! So I'd still like to think mine could hold its own again Tim's. ;)  Next time, we plan on soaking the wood chips more from the get go, to slow the initial temperature increase and keep a little more humidity.

Despite all this fish, we still had yet to actually cook up a straight up, fresh fish fillet! It has all been frozen or smoked. So tonight, as a treat, I cooked up something special with my silver salmon:

• Sauteed some zucchinis, mushrooms, and garlic in olive oil with a little hint of Tony's creole seasoning
• Took a big fat silver salmon fillet, threw it on a skillet with olive oil, med-high heat
• Peppercorn, sea salt, simple. Cooked it on each side until almost done; right before I was ready to take it off, threw in some balsamic vinaigrette and honey to glaze the top when I flipped it
• Also made a little more reduced balsamic/honey sauce for the side, in case Tim did/did not want more

Yeah, it was freaking DELICIOUS. So I'm writing down the recipe so my family and friends can try it if I am able to give them some fish!! :)

It's raining cats and dogs outside, so tonight I fed my sourdough starter so I can make some homemade bread tomorrow, and Tim and I decided to have a little competition. His smoked fish vs my smoked fish! Tonight we both came up with our own little concoctions - his a dry brine, mine a wet brine. I don't know if he will let me disclose his "secret recipe" tomorrow, but I'm ready to kick his butt!! May the best salmon win! ;)

To Smoke a Fish

I know, it's been months and months without an update - and I choose to write about smoking fish?! So much has happened over the summer, it almost seems trivial to try to sum it up...but documenting my efforts at smoking fish for the first time, now THAT I can do!

Catch fish. Fillet them. Vacuum seal. Freeze. Now what? We don't own a smoker!

My very first effort, and this is what I did. I'm hoping to modify as I go, so I  need to take good notes!

Smoked Sockeye, Take #1:
Used 2 tail-end fillets, a little larger than palm of my hand, about 1" thick at the thickest. Didn't want to experiment with our bigger beautiful chunks of fish!

Brine:

Found a simple "recipe" online at WWW.SMOKER-COOKING.COM. There are a million variations, but I wanted to keep it simple. I used:

• 1 quart water
• 3/8 cup brown sugar
• 3/8 cup canning (pickling) salt
• 2 chopped cloves of garlic

Put salmon in brine, and let soak for about 3 hours in a bowl in the fridge. Afterwards, I pulled them out and dried them overnight, about 10 hours. I don't have any good racks for drying, so I just put them in the over (kept the oven OFF, and closed, so the dogs wouldn't get to it!). Supposedly the brine allows the fish to dry at room temperature without spoiling. Rest assured, the fish did not smell or look bad in the morning! It did develop the "pellicle" I kept reading about - a slightly tacky coating left by the salt once it dries. Supposedly this helps the smoke adhere to the fish?? Sure!

Smoking:

This was the tricky part, since we don't own a smoker and only have a broken propane grill. Yes, the propane part is broken... but I figured I could still use the grill itself to set up a charcoal smoker. I bought some charcoal briquettes; however, I have read some stuff afterwards that lump coal is the preferred material, due to better flavor and less additives. Oh well! I set up charcoal on one side of the smoker, lit it and let it sit and burn for a bit. Next time, I think I will let it sit a little longer because I don't think I had them going quite evenly enough.

Once the coals were going, I threw some alder wood (soaked shortly in water) onto the burning embers. The idea is that you keep the coal and wood on one side of the grill, then put the fish on the opposite side to get the indirect heat. Once the wood was smoking (didn't take long), I put the fish on and closed the lid. And waited...and waited...

Just kidding. I did have to mess the with coals to get it a little hotter, and add more wet wood chips every 30 minutes or so. If I had gotten dialed in with the coals better, I probably could have minimized the time opening the lid, and having to move the grate aside to deal with coals. For the first 2 hours, the temperature was about 200 degrees. It was smoking the fish, and I had thought 2 hours would be long enough, but I was aiming for an internal temperature of about 140 degrees for the fish (as I had read online). The last hour, I added coals and blew on them for a bit to get them hotter, and the temperature reached 225 - and the fish reached 140. It sure LOOKS good... Now for the taste test!

Taste:

Yum! It tastes like smoked salmon! Now, here's the catch - I'm not like, a smoked salmon expert. I don't know if I prefer it less or more salty, or wetter or drier, or whatever. It's definitely edible and made me happy. It is a bit salty, but I enjoy salty foods. It's on the dry side of smoked, so next time I will try to make some more moist fish and compare. Time to put it on a cheddar jalapeno bagel with cream chease!

5 Minutes Closer, Day by Day

I realized two things today:

1. As of today, we official have longer days than the lower 48! Each day, we get ~5 minutes more sunlight...bringing us that much closer to that amazing "midnight" sun!
2. I am already behind in my quest to post at least once a month! Slacker!

Aurora Borealis with Full Moon!

It's always ironic that I don't post more often; when I was busy and traveling more often (usually with less convenient internet access), fighting fires in Montana or exploring Colorado, I managed to post quite often. Then, I actually had the habit of carrying a notepad and actually physically writing my travelogue while I was on the trail, or in fire camp, or before bed. Afterwards, I would come home and transcribe my journal from paper, to computer. Why have I lost this motivation and consistency? It's a rhetorical question. I still have the thoughts and story in my brain; I found myself composing an entry while watching the Northern Lights last week. But I waited too long; the story is no longer fresh, the exact words and feelings buried under the rest of my week. I will try harder. But, at least I have photos to post. And as they say, "a picture is worth a thousand words"?? ;)

After some gnarly weather and sketchy commutes, I decided to discontinue volunteering at the SeaLife Center in Seward. Combined with the sometimes treacherous 2 hour-each-way commute, I was unexpectedly shifted to cleaning duck pens instead of mammal research; apparently they don't have enough work to need a volunteer right now, since the sea lion pups (and ducklings) won't be born until the spring and I will be back to work before then. Since I already do avian husbandry in Anchorage, it wasn't worth the risk or cost of gas money. I will miss the animals and folks that work there! I am still volunteering at Bird TLC, though it is quite slow in the winter. We have had a variety of patients rotate through; bald eagles, northern hawk owl, merlin, ravens, northern saw-whet owl, bohemian waxwings, redpoll, pine grosbeak, even a Pacific loon. I adore the owls, their gaze is so intense, and the feathers above their eyes almost show expression, like a human's eyebrows. It's hard not to personify animals, but owls...they look at you like the just KNOW things...!


I am very happy to say that I was officially made a probationary member of the Girdwood Fire Department in January! This means I have certain tasks - training, driving, etc - that I need to complete within 3 or 4 months before I become a full (Class A) member. I have to take a minimum of eight, 48 hour shifts a month and attend weekly trainings. I have still only been on a few medical calls at this point, which is a whole new realm to me. Getting your EMT certification gives you the skills, but until you have dealt with people who are actually in pain, it throws a new level of complexity into things. I haven't even seen anything exceptionally traumatic yet, we will see how I hold up when things get really bad. The Seward highway is known for it's horrible accidents, and it is only a matter of time before I have to deal with the "really bad" stuff.

I am going back to work in mid April. Yay! I think? Ha ha. :)  Now that my winter is essentially over, I am thinking of all these things that I had all winter to accomplish, but didn't. It will be nice to have a healthy income again, and I am really looking forward to the opportunity to work on my Squad Boss taskbook while on wildfires this season.

I am also still doing the Alaska Mountain Rescue Group prospective member thing, with trainings about 3x a month. This month was raising and lowering systems for high and low angle rescue. I've learned the stuff about ropes, pulleys etc before, but since I am usually in a support role, I never get to actually set the ropes up... I just carry the bags the ropes come in, and I'm really good at the carrying heavy stuff part ha ha. So it was good having more hands on experience.

Will refrain from making this into another novel chapter and stop...right.... NOW. ;)

Winter Solstice, come and gone - My first Alaskan winter

Typical "daylight" in Girdwood in December... makes for dramatic sunsets, but rarely get to actually see the sun!

The shortest day of the year - Winter Solstice - was only three weeks ago. On that day, we had about 5 hours, 28 minutes of daylight. Being nestled in this valley though, means that the duration in which the sun actually breaches the mountaintops and hits the ground is much much less. So while it may be daylight outside, glimpsing that bright orange globe in the sky has been a fleeting treat, mostly dependent on whether I leave the valley - usually on my drive to or from Anchorage once a week. Today, on a perfectly clear and bitterly cold day with 6 hours, 1 minute of daylight, the mountains surrounding Girdwood were glowing with light; days like this are few, especially given the barrage of snowstorms and blizzards we have been getting all winter! I followed the light, just for the sake of seeing the sun... and sat in the parking lot of the gas station for about 10 minutes, simply so I could feel it hit my face! Oh it felt so good!

Portage Lake...on a rare, cloudless winter day

It's not that I tried to be a lazy ass and just sit in the parking lot though. I did try to walk Logan. But, there are two problems. One, is that the poor boy is limping again. I have to take him to the vet, his front leg has been bothering him and it hasn't improved at all in a week. But his mood perks up when we go for walks, so I don't want to keep him cooped up in the apartment all day. However, it was so cold, his paws couldn't handle it! His cold threshold on his paws was about 14 degrees earlier this winter, but today was -4 degrees, and he's just not adapted to that temperature yet. It's interesting that this prolonged cold has made the hair on his paws grow thicker than it's ever been, and it's the first time in his life that he hasn't shed continuously all winter. For the most part, his hair is staying on his body! Which mean my apartment is marginally cleaner than normal. ;)

We add 3-5 minutes of daylight per day. At this rate, on March 17, I will have as much daylight as my family back in Detroit - 12 hours of daylight. From then, Alaska will continue to have longer days than Michigan until we get near 24 hrs of daylight in the summer! I can't wait to go into a manic state of sunlight overexposure ha ha. :)

Normally it isn't this cold... we have had a few cold snaps with temps in the negatives, but for the most part winter is fairly "normal" compared to our Michigan winters when I was kid. Granted, it seems like Michigan doesn't really stay in freezing temps anymore, but 20-30s is what we get here and what I remember as a kid. But the sheer amount of snow we have received is definitely far beyond anything I have ever experienced! We got snow on 29 of 31 days in December, and according to the Alyeska Resort website, 393" of snow since October 1, 2011! That's incredible!

We have another blizzard warning tonight, by the way.

Beautiful sunset on the drive down to Seward last week. Yes, I actually saw the sun!

I'm trying not to make every journal entry the length of a novel chapter! Not everybody likes to read as much as I do....but EVERYBODY loves pretty pictures ha ha!

Hibernation - Resist the Urge!



Sun? What sun?

 At last! An update, thanks to the purchase of a new laptop and ample amounts of caffeine here at the coffee shop. I tend to get easily distracted when I try to write from home, and my two other broken laptops were no longer considered mobile or reliable. I'm not sure if it's the ADD or what, but I always did my best college work and got more stuff done at the coffee shop; the habit still lingers even 9 years after graduating undergrad, go figure.

I have been in Alaska for about 14 weeks now. I've worked, I've played, I've seen the leaves change color and the snow fly. And I've been in my yearly winter "retirement" for about a month already! It has gone quickly and I'm amazed at how busy I have kept considering I don't have a job. I had hoped to get at least some intermittent work with the Forest for a few extra weeks, but with the federal budget the way it is, that thought went out the window. I fact, I may not be back to work until May (was hoping for at least April); I am a permanent seasonal and only working for 6 months is "normal", but I could always use a little extra cash of course. ;)

My fall was spent working and completing an EMT-Basic course with the local fire department. I am proud to say I passed! And that class alone has opened some new opportunities that I hadn't even considered. I was unable to get a job as a groomer or equipment operator at the resort, so I put in an application to join the Volunteer Fire Department...and that EMT class sure helped get to know folks. There might be a wait list, but I now attend weekly trainings in an effort to maybe get in sooner than later. If I do get in, eventually this means I'll get paid for those weekly trainings, and get paid if I go out on a call (but unpaid if I'm on call, and nothing happens). But the folks seem great and it will be good to be a part of something here in the community.

Eagles can't be that much different than caring for chickens

For better or worse, November also saw the final dissolution of my 5 1/2 year relationship. As much as I'd like to crawl into a cave and hibernate until the spring, I'm trying hard to get involved with anything fun, that gives me good experience and helps me make friends and keep my mind off the break up. I'm going to start volunteering at a bird rehabilitation clinic and hopefully get to save eagles and owls! I don't want to lose the skills I learned at the wildlife rehab clinic in Colorado, so I'm very excited for this. I also really miss my chickens, but I lost them in the move/break up so I guess the girls are no longer mine. :(  But, I'm sure Tim is treating them well and last I heard, they were all providing him with plenty of eggs so they must be happy. :)

I also applied to the Alaska Mountain Rescue Group, since I had such a great time doing SAR on the Yosemite helicopter. The National Park Service was great because most field employees were able to participate on Search and Rescue, but the Forest Service doesn't do that.... so I figure AMRG would be a way to still play hero in the great outdoors. I went to my first meeting last week, and was pleased to hear that the board voted on my application and I am officially a probationary member! I was pretty intimidated because well, this is Alaska, and everything here is more hardcore...I didn't know if I was bad-ass enough to join their ranks. But they were "impressed" with my experience with the Park Service and Forest Service. I will be a probationary member for at least a year before I am considered fully qualified; it involves 2 meetings and 1 training a month, on top of responding to calls when I can. This week is avalanche rescue training.

So we have the Volunteer Fire Dept (but I'm not in yet); the Rescue Group; and the bird rehab clinic. But I have diverse interests. I also don't have a ski pass, and it is rough watching all the happy people sliding down the ski mountain behind me. So, I'm trying to volunteer with the adaptive ski center. After so many hours, I get $10 ski passes (instead of $60). I haven't done anything with them yet, but maybe later this week. Am I busy enough yet?? No??

I'm also starting to consider some other ways to get involved with wildland fire down south during these long cold dark winters in Alaska...but nothing has panned out yet.

Crow Pass Cabin

Speaking of long cold dark winters... Fact and fiction check. It is NOT pitch black outside all day, every day. The sun comes up. Right now, we get like 6 hours of daylight. The shortest day (Dec 21), we will get about 5.5 hours of daylight, and then the days get longer again so it's all uphill from there, right? :) But with all this snow, it seems brighter out for a little longer than that. And snow, yes we have gotten plenty of it thus far! I've been told it's not normally this epic - that freezing rain and ice is more the norm this time of year. I got to experience a little bit of that the past 2 days, but we should get more snow again here soon. We had a cold snap of 0-10 degree days and clear cold nights, but that too is apparently NOT the norm. So when it hit 39 degrees the other day, it felt downright warm! But I'd say 20-30s is normalish.

I did get my normal winter insomnia/weird sleep schedule that always happens around November. I sleep better here than I did in Michigan, however, where those overcast grey drizzle/ice days really made me get cabin fever. Here, my body adjusts itself to fall asleep around 2 am...and wake up around 10 am. Yeah yeah, I'm a slacker. Whatever. It's barely getting light outside at 10 am and I have no reason to get up before then! It suits me just fine! And then I do some p90x or go for a run. See, no hibernating or packing on the winter weight! I'm doing good so far!

Now, only 5 more months of retirement, volunteering, playing in the snow, and eventually doing a little traveling! Maybe even get a couple more journal entries in too, while I'm at it. ;)


I went to Denali too, but slacked off and never wrote about that either. But here's a pretty picture to make up for it. ;)

Making excuses, attempt 1

One would think that I would have tons and tons to talk about, seeing as how my dream of moving to Alaska has finally come true. Did I mention I have wanted to move to Alaska since high school? I've turned down a couple jobs over the years in this wondrous state...but they were all seasonal (which means no expenses-paid relocation) and the jobs weren't exactly what I was hoping for; and usually involved bad timing as well.

Although my new job isn't my "dream job", it's actually more along the lines of what I've expected and told many folks through the years: Jack of all trades, master of none. That's right, I do a whole lotta stuff. I liked to pretend (ok, there's reality to it too... it just sounded like wishful thinking for years) that my very random resume of jobs all was helping to gear me up for a job with the federal gov't in Alaska. "Because", my semi-rational mind was reasoning, "Alaska has less people per sq. mile of federal land to be managed. As such, employees would be called upon to do many random jobs, irregardless of position description."

In the 3 weeks I have been here, I'm not sure if it was a self-fulfilling prophecy or not, but that random resume of mine has come in awfully handy!

My official job title: Forestry technician. Ok, that's cool. I was hazard tree lead; that was a forestry tech. I was a wildland firefighter; that was a forestry tech. Now I'm a forestry tech, Recreation (aka "Rec Tech"). That must be cool and exciting right? Let's do the math:

 RECREATION=FRONT COUNTRY=MANY PEOPLE WITH CARS/RVS/SEMIS=EATING AND DRINKING=OUTHOUSES!!!

I tried not to oversimplify, but that equation just came forth like a bought of genius in Good Will Hunting!

So, front country is like the less glamorous but more abused side of public land. It means it is easily accessible. It means that, taking into account that most Americans do not really stray far from their cars when on vacaction, these areas get absolutely HAMMERED with visitors. And since we have the only public outhouses on the Seward Highway in our stretch of road, I get to see the worst of the worst of America's bathroom habits. I won't get detailed, because I'd rather not subject people I LIKE to the things that I must witness. I will say, however, that A: cleaning restrooms near kid's (and adult beer league) summer sports fields was thus far way more disgusting; B: Those poor people with IBS, please PLEASE see a doctor...C: If you, or your children can't poop into a giant hole on a toilet...clean it up, or don't ever EVER poop in a public bathroom, because nobody should have to deal with that. 

Sorry, getting distracted. This is the part where I add the disclaimer that "These are my opinions and do not reflect the opinions of any person or organization associated with me or mentioned herein". Anyway...

So yeah, jack of all trades, my main duties involve outhouses, trail heads, parking lots. I pick up garbage. I actually don't mind it. I enjoy the feeling of leaving a place looking better, and being environmentally "better" than when I left it. Give a hoot, don't pollute! Or as my sister said (she won a state contest with this) "Don't be mean, keep it clean!" But thankfully as crew lead, I am armed with a small crew of seasonal employees during the summer (my minions? maybe not), and they can share the duties while I take on the rest of my responsibilities, such as:

General maintenance, such as painting, building, fixing, creating things... everything from fixing thing on an existing outhouse, to helping design or create better trail heads, campgrounds, or parking areas. It might not sound sexy, but everybody who has ever traveled long distances know "bad" when they see it... though the "good" public areas may go consciously unnoticed, subconsciously they know it's well designed and user friendly! I'm most excited to be one of the only couple equipment operators for the district, and I think only two of us have CDLs...which means I get to help take the big boats out of the water for the winter. Our equipment fleet isn't huge but it's effective with a small loader, a mini-excavator (with bulldozer blade) and a 1 ton mini dump truck. I was HOPING for at least a 10 yard dump truck and a bobcat on top of all that other stuff, but that's ok. ;)

I've been getting trained (and helping get my muscle memory back, operating buckets and blades does take some finesse and sensitivity!) on a few things with the mini-ex and the loader. Just completed a drainage project off a major trail. I must say, it is quite different doing things with the FS vs the NPS... with the NPS, if there was a drainage problem with a trail, it would almost definitely result in a trail improvement (bridge; causeway; boardwalk; etc) or an altogether reroute. With the FS, though, they have less "rules" about what  can and can't be done. So, instead of fixing the trail...we dug a big drainage ditch through a talus field/avalanche zone, and built a berm around the outside to help. I'll admit...it pains me inside. To my "preservation" eye, it is not the right solution. It's not harmonious with the land; it uses blunt force to demand nature do a certain thing. But, on the other hand, at least I tried to do a good job with the ground moving I did. It's definitely the easier, cheaper, quicker fix. It was also a great chance to get back some of my skills on the equipment! I'm a little rusty on a few things, but it does seem that I have impressed folks so far with what I do know. It seems that too often, a woman comes a long to do these kinds of jobs (manual labor; equipment; firefighting... anything in a male dominated industry) and they SAY they can do it... but they don't know jack! And then they make the rest of us look bad! I don't mean to sound sexist...wait, I am a woman... but seriously, the stereotype is there, and it's for a reason. :(  It's good to buck the norm and actually be able to show them a woman CAN do the job!

Getting sidetracked again, damn ADHD! As I was saying, I have random duties. I am also the ONLY qualified helicopter crewmember on the district, so I get to help with heli ops. I have a few fire quals, so I was offered to go out with the handcrew to Montana (they ended up in Oregon) to fight fire and work on my squad boss. They are paying for me to get my EMT (think ambulance) certification starting in 2 weeks. I may get to help out with trail work, ecology, biology, fisheries, etc. In the future, I will be taking the train to sites that are ONLY accessible by this train (google Whistlestop and Alaska Railroad); flying out in helicopter; and taking the boats to help with remote cabins, building trail, constructing salmon and wildlife habitat, or helping with exotic plant surveys or eradication. Those are just a few projects suggested that may happen within the next few months! Everybody does help out everybody up here! It's like my little dream come true! Except I'm certain that there weren't ANY outhouses in my dream. But that's ok. I'm making the best money of my life, had a paid relocation, and live in an incredible place! It's great to know that my experience at: fisheries; ecology; botany; wildlife; manual labor; construction; CLD and heavy equipment operation; master's degree in conservation; wildland firefighting; helicopter crewmember; maintenance; habitat surveys; recreation opportunity spectrum; "green" living (I am going to revamp the front country program to buy more eco-friendly products...that's right, environmentalists are invading the forest service LOL)... will all come in handy at this job!

Which comes to the title of this journal: Making Excuses. I was going to list all the reasons why I hadn't updated my blog. But look, I updated my blog!! No photos included, but tough shit. Click on my link to the right for my picasa albums, I think that might work. But yeah, I ended up typing a lot of SUBSTANCE instead of a lot of EXCUSES so now what do I do?! If I don't fall asleep first, I'll try to come up with my excuses in the next journal update. ;)

AlCan AllDone!

Writing random notes from phone so I dont forget while on the road. This in not a complete journal entry but I'm busy and lazy at the same time.

- Trying to get a motel in Jasper on a summer Saturday night without reservations is literally impossible.  Thank goodness for Hinton, a town 45 min away.

- From Grand Prairie to the west, it literally looks just like the Midwest - first like Nebraska,  then even more like Michigan.  All the hardwood trees but without the corn.

- Canada in general is ridiculously expensive. Cheapest gas: Grand Prairie.  Most expensive : Muncho Lake? I'm pretty sure it was the equivalent of almost $6 a gallon. $4 for a 1 liter pop. $5 for smal red bull...

- Gas stations don't carry fountain pop, much to my dad's dismay. Trust me, he looked!

- You can see threatened wood bison somewhere between Fort Nelson and Watson Lake. They are neat. I don't recommend driving that section at night though - there were quite a few dead ones on the side of the road, and they will mess your car up bad if you hit one!

- The most beautiful part of the drive was in Kootenay, Banff and Jasper National Parks in Canada. Going over the continental divide again past Watson Lake is also beautiful but lacks the glaciers.

- We did not see grizzly, caribou, wolf, elk, etc. We did see black bear, wood bison, bald eagle, and some random deer. I want my money back!

- I realized I have a pet peeve of somebody hoarding everything from travel guides and maps (that we don't need and don't even look at) to general area propaganda given out at visitor centers, and letting them pile up in the car! It's just more crap to throw away later!

It's finally happening! A-L-A-S-K-A or BUST!

I'm sitting in a great coffee shop in Groveland, sweating in the heat during this holiday weekend. Actually, I wish I could have worked overtime, but these days it seems I need more personal time than money to plan my next big adventure...

I'm moving to ALASKA!!!

Wow, it's still hard to believe that I will be starting my long DRIVE to Alaska in exactly 4 weeks. After years of applying for jobs, getting a few interviews, and even turning down a couple jobs over the years, everything has lined up and I'm getting my entire relocation PAID FOR to boot! Being a permanent federal employee is finally paying off, and I'm also getting a promotion... in Alaska... !!! Anybody that knows me, knows this has been a goal of mine since I was in college. Soon, I will call Girdwood Alaska my home. Did I mention there's Alyeska ski resort there, and I will have winters off to ski and snowboard? Yeah, pretty sweet.

Me+Tim=5 years (!!); Beard+Tim=4 years

I can't wait!! Though I love working for Yosemite. I'm sad I don't have much time to actually explore the park, but with the hours we have been working (and other stuff) it just seems like I don't have enough hours in a day. Hence, I have missed out on 2 days of OT this weekend, as well as more OT last weekend as I took off to celebrate my 5 year anniversary with Tim in San Francisco, as well as take him to the airport for his trip to Alaska.

The new job is still considered a forestry technician, but as I am wildland firefighter right now, I will be considered a "recreation tech" at my new job. From what it sounds like, I am responsible for all front country recreation areas in the Glacier District of the Chugatch National Forest - picnic sites, campgrounds, trailheads, and interpretive signs. Ok, so there will be some garbage and fortunately only a couple outhouses to deal with, but it sounds like it will be a combination of maintenance, as well as improving sites. I will get to drive heavy equipment and dump trucks again, have a small crew of folks, and it will nice to have a job where I get to roam about the forest (instead of being stuck in one place, like I was stuck at the engine station, or even at the helibase). And another perk - I still get to do wildland fire! Of course, it depends on workload and how active the fire season is, but the district ranger is very supportive in allowing me to maintain my fire experience, as well as participate in training and career development.

I've been impressed with everybody I have talked to from the district, everybody is personable and easy to talk to. I've already been warned that there are many folks from the midwest that work at the office, and they were excited to have a Detroit Lions fan... so they can have somebody to pick on during football season! I'll be surrounded by Bears, Vikings, and Green Bay fans! That's ok, I'm hoping the Lions are as promising as they looked last season. ;)

The only slight downside is that I was hoping for a more natural resources/wildlife oriented position, but at this point I think I still don't have enough experience to land such a job in Alaska, without already being in Alaska. But, everybody knows I love working with my hands and having a job with such varied duties is great for my ADHD! There are also a few wildlife rehab places relatively close (I will be 30-40 minutes from Anchorage, on the Turnagain Sound, and 1 1/2 hrs from Seward) so I could always try to volunteer.

Now for the perks - all of my stuff still in storage in Estes Park, CO will be moved to AK, with minimal cost to me (since I live in CA). I will drive to CO from CA, drop off some of my stuff at my storage unit. They have a moving company come and pack up all of my stuff - including my motorcycle - and move it to Alaska for me. I get a misc expense budget, as well as money to cover my housing/expenses for the first 30 days in Alaska - and trust me, it is a VERY GENEROUS stipend. I also get a housing hunting trip paid for, which includes lodging, rental car, gas, and per diem, which I plan to take in a couple weeks. Not bad, eh?

Unfortunately, getting myself, Logan, and my truck will be a little less convenient than I hoped. The ferry out of Washington to Whittier does not have any room for a passenger vehicle in the month of August (and I'm supposed to start working around Aug 10th). So, I must drive the ~3500 miles (on top of the trip from CA to CO) through Canada. Fortunately, mileage, lodging, meals etc are all paid for (except the part from CA to CO). There are some logistics I am still trying to work out, like when I will get to CO to allow the movers access to my storage unit, and my dad will fly out to CO, drive with me to AK, and then fly back to MI... It's complicated, but not nearly as complicated as I figured it would be.

That's probably more details than most people care to know, and probably a little confusing. We'll just say my last month in CA is going to be hectic - going to my friend's wedding in Oregon, trying to work as much overtime as possible, and planning a move that I must make quickly. Tim gets back to CA from AK ironically 2 days before I plan on leaving CA. Yeah, it sucks.

Back to planning and researching my move in this sweltering heat. Traveling across the Canada border with a dog and a firearm mean special considerations; trying to find apartments to check out during my house hunting trip; and figuring out if I can register my truck in AK while I am house hunting (my CA plates expire 7/31, but I am leaving the state probably on 8/2 or 8/3, so I'd hate to pay CA when I'll be in AK so soon)... all on an old computer that freezes a lot, is not fun. Just sayin'.

A day in the life of...helitack

Hello!
I'm bad at updating anyway, but the fact that I don't have 3G cell service yet alone frequent internet access on a real computer makes it even more difficult. My "newer" laptop has a broken screen, so I have to attach an external screen - making it big and bulky, so I keep it at Tim's and get online here every other weekend or so. I have an old laptop, but the closest place with free wi-fi is 45 minutes away in Sonora... plus, the battery doesn't work and it MUST be plugged in to function, so getting stonewalled at Starbucks with power outlets is a real bummer. I now have access to a Forest Service computer, but it is shared by a lot of folks and I can't access a lot of websites. So, I sometimes feel like I'm living under a rock. :)

My first month of working on the Yosemite helitack crew has been great! Lots of training, and lots of... snow. Our helibase is at about 6700 feet elevation, which is cold and windy enough to make for some surprise weather - like a foot and half of snow in mid-May. In fact, we were supposed to get snow this weekend - guess I will find out tomorrow!

What exactly do we do? Well, the first month has been filled with training and recertifications of all kinds - for us, the pilots, the rangers, everybody involved in fire or aviation. The most unfortunate and disappointing part is that the NPS allows their people to short haul and probably start up rappelling again (The Forest Service stopped all rappel and short haul after a fatal accident in 2009). However, us four Forest Service apprentices are not allowed to even do short haul, per our forest FMOs direction. :(  So for a few days, us FS folks helped take photos and document the evaluation and training process of the rest of the crew (and the rangers) got to try out new belay devices, ropes and harnesses as they practiced rappelling off the tower. That was pretty painful to have to watch while everybody else had all the fun! But we still learned a lot and maybe one day, I will be on the right crew, with the right agency, at the right time...


We have two pilots that rotate days off - 12 days on, 12 days off. We also have a fuel truck driver and two mechanics, in addition to our helitack crew. The pilots needed to be recertified in the different kinds of missions that they fly in the park - short haul and rappel, specifically. First, the pilots must fly a few tests with a 150' rope and a heavy weight on the end, hovering and holding the weight for a certain amount of time within a box or circles painted on the helibase. It's apparently very tough. Once they pass those tests, they can do live tests - which means with actual people attached to the short haul rope, or an actual person rappelling out of the helicopter. FYI, "short haul" is when a fixed rope is attached from the bottom of the helicopter, and a person or two and/or a litter (the backboard thing that injured people lay on) are attached to the bottom. Both pilots passed the tests and we are good to go!

From there, our crew needs to know how to load the helicopter for different missions, most commonly: Search and Rescue, or Fire. Depending on the mission, we bring different items along... the short haul bags, the litter and wheel, the body splint, medical bag, the bucket, etc. We are on 7 day staffing, so our 12 person crew alternates days off and I think we typically have like 6 people working per day. So here's a typical day:

Arrive at work and put our head bag (contains our flight helmet), nomex and hardhat on the pegs for easy and quick access. Take the different carts (each loaded with gear for a different mission, like fire or SAR) and put them out for easy access. Load up the helicopter for low elevation fire - which is typically in CalFire area, so they like to have a large bucket attached to a long line, our line gear, two chainsaws and kits, and hand tools loaded up. We load for this as we won't get any fires in the park for a while (with the snow and rain and all). The other likely scenario is a search and rescue in the park, which we load up as needed when the call comes in.

In the meantime, the pilot and manager work out the load calculations, which is how much the helicopter can lift given the elevation and temperature. Somebody then works up the manifest, which is a list of all the passengers and gear on the helicopter. We then do the typical morning briefing, going over the local weather in the park as well as down in the lower, hotter elevations. From there, we will either practice drills loading and unloading the helicopter, setting up the bucket or short haul gear, and at some point do our PT - which alternates between cardio (running or hiking up a steep nasty hill) or the dreaded deck of cards - each suite is a different ab or arm workout... at this point, it's pretty brutal with a string of push ups or a string of ab exercises!!

Sure, there can be a bit of down time, but we have to be immediately available to fly so we can't venture too far. Always miscellaneous stuff to do around the base...

We have gotten a few false alarms, almost getting called up for a fire down in the low elevations... we hurry up and gear up and get in the helicopter... and then dispatch cancels everybody before we are even ordered. However, we have already gotten to help with two SARs. One mission was actually reconnaissance for a rock slide on Half Dome, to make sure nobody was injured. I didn't get to fly that one; they only took a couple folks and picked up the geologist and some other people to check it out. My first helicopter flight was just last week, on a SAR for a climber injured on a climb called "Snake Dike" on Half Dome. He fell 100 feet but got away pretty lucky with just a broken ankle. It was too far and too nasty of a hike for a foot rescue, so they called up the helicopter... We loaded up the short haul and SAR gear, and 5 of us flew down to Awahnee Valley to unload gear and set up a ranger to do the short haul rescue. First, we did a recon flight around Half Dome - AMAZING!! The waterfalls are raging right now, and we flew right at the top of the rim of the canyon... then we flew up real close to Half Dome, hovering and opening the doors to find the injured climber... it was an incredible view!! Anyway, for the actual rescue, only 2 people were in the helicopter while the ranger did the short haul, they attached the climber to the short haul as well, so we were waiting in the valley to catch the patient when they came in. It took less than 2 hours and had a happy ending. :)  And I got my first helicopter ride!!

Anyway hopefully that sheds some light on what work has been like so far. At this rate, I am sure I will have more stories to share soon!

Overdue update

From Return to CA Road Trip - Badlands Nat Park, Park City, Estes Park...

It almost seems ludicrous to try and cover everything that has gone on over the last 3-4 months, but it's a lazy Sunday so I'll give it a shot.

I spent part of my winter at the Advanced Wildland Firefighting Academy, and yaaaaay! I graduated! The Advanced Academy was more fun than Basic - in part because I wasn't simultaneously trying to complete my Master's degree, but also because the atmosphere was more laid back and everybody knew each other already. I really enjoyed our Fireline Leadership class, taught my something called Mission Centered Solutions. I'm not supposed to disclose too many details about it, but the instructors were excellent at role-playing and we had multiple incident scenarios that we played out in the field, and in the classroom. Other classes included Basic Air Operations, Firing Methods, Intermediate Fire Behavior, and Fuels Management. We didn't have physical fitness testing this time, and very little time for paid PT. I had a great roommate so that made dorm life better. Of course nobody from my engine came down for graduation, which was fine by me. I'm not much of one for pomp and circumstance and ceremonies anyway, didn't even attend my bachelor's or master's graduations and I think neck ties (which I was forced to wear as part of my official uniform) are absolutely one of the stupidest human clothing invention. It was fun, but I'm glad it's over!

After graduation, I went back down to Tim's, packed some stuff, and the next morning Logan and I were on the road for Steamboat Springs, Colorado. My friend Matt was having a bachelor party and, being "one of the guys", I was invited to the ski-extravaganza. It was probably a 20-ish hour drive, and I found a great place to board Logan in Steamboat while I stayed at the condo. Unfortunately, after a successful drive all the way from California to Colorado, I ended up going off the shoulder right outside of Steamboat and broke my truck! At the time, I thought the damage was much worse than it ended up being - I thought I wrecked my shock along with some other steering components. Let me just say that I'm sorely disappointed in Geico and it was going to take DAYS for an adjuster just to LOOK at the damage. I was able to drive it to the condo and swapped out my spare tire and it drove much better. I was heading to Estes Park after Steamboat anyway, so I decided it was ok to drive and took it to a dealership in Fort Collins; bought a used rim and paid for an alignment, and all ended pretty well considering!


However, I didn't know it would be that cheap while I was in Steamboat, and I opted to save the $100/day for a ski pass to pay for my repairs. :(  It was still a good trip and it's always great to see Matt. It was a pretty mellow bachelor party, and involved delicious microbrews, watching the Gold Rush and Cops marathons on tv, the hot tub, Strawberry Hot Springs, walking around town, and just relaxing. After a few days there, I got Logan and continued on to Estes Park for almost a week of playing in the snow, seeing friends, and checking on my storage unit (Yes, I still have stuff stored in Colorado!). The weather gods were kind and dumped tons of powder while I was there! It was apparently TOO much for good skiing in the park (and I'm not very good anyway) so I took Logan snowshoeing up Lily Mountain. Any trip to Estes wouldn't be complete without a few trips to eat, drink and be merry at the Rock Inn of course :) . It was good to relax before my next push east to...

Michigan! Yep, almost 2 months of hanging with the family. It was good to be back! Despite the overcast skies and typical suburban culture that annoys the crap out of me (soccer moms in huge SUVs that run stop signs in subdivisions, for one). I got a cheap membership to the gym so I could get in shape for fire season, saw some of my wonderful lovely long-lost friends, and spent a lot of time with my mom! My friend Beth even had her baby while I was in Michigan, so I was able to see little Alex a couple times. And my family is full of hockey fans, so it was fun whooping and hollering with them while watching the Red Wings on TV. It was pretty low key and I'm disappointed that there were certain things I didn't get to do, but oh well. Hopefully they enjoyed my time back, even though I harassed them about exercising, eating healthy, etc etc! ;)


In the meantime, I had been slated to be on the Yosemite helitack crew... as such, I had found a sweet cabin in Groveland. No surprise, I get a message from my old district saying that I was slated to go to a different helicopter (Bald Mt)!! What?! I had been told since October that it was Yosemite, and then suddenly in March (while I'm trying to find a place to live in Groveland, thinking I am still going to Yosemite) they jerk me around. Not cool at all. The person giving me the news was like, "Oh they said they told you months ago!" Which was NOT the case. So then, it was a matter of finding out if I could be put back on the Yosemite ship. I really did not appreciate getting jerked around without ANY input or contacting me at all. I'm not the first person they have done that to, but it doesn't make it right. It took weeks to finally hear the decision as to where I was going - and thankfully it was in my favor, still in Yosemite. However, in the meantime the realty company needed an answer about the cabin, so I had to forfeit it... which meant I was totally high and dry with a place to live. Fortunately, they have barracks in Groveland and due to budget cuts, no other divisions hired any women this summer so they had room for me. I'm still upset though, because I had intended on getting a place so I could have my dog all summer, as well as have visitors - like Tim and Neota! And as of right now, I still haven't found a place to live that is affordable, like that cabin was.

I was told early April I was still on for Yosemite, but they didn't have a start date for me. I told them I was in Michigan and had to make the 2700 mile drive to get back, and I needed at least 2 weeks notice so I could pack and get back west. I was finally given a start date of May 9th and made my plans accordingly. Of course, they found a way to screw that up too... and ended up trying to give me 3 days notice, telling me on a Friday that I had to start on Monday, 2 weeks earlier!! You can imagine just how happy that made me. In the end I started a week later. And people wonder why I don't want to stay at this forest... So far, their communication, concern for their employees, and general attitude about jerking people around has left much to be desired! But at least I ended up on the crew I wanted this summer.

The drive back was fun, but getting the news that I had to start early definitely altered the pace of my planned drive. I had hoped to take my time, enjoy it, not stress out or keep to a schedule, but in the back of my mind I knew the sooner I got to California, the sooner I could unpack, repack, and get everything in order before work. I did manage to make a side trip to Badlands National Park in South Dakota, and saw tons of wildlife - antelope, coyote, deer, bighorn sheep, etc... I then stopped and saw my friend Gregg in Wyoming; he had just landed a new job in Montana and was moving in a few weeks. The timing was perfect, who knows when I will see him again after he moves! It was a short visit but was great to catch up! I had intended on a short trip back through Estes but it was out of the way, since my impromptu visit with Gregg changed my route. Next time, Estes, next time! And then there was Utah... and I FINALLY got to see my friend Steph in Park City! I wish I had a week to catch up and hang out with her, because her and I always have so much to talk about! Park City seems like a pretty awesome town and it was great to see the life she and her boyfriend are forging out in Utah! Went to the brewery, talked and talked and talked, walked the dog and talked more LOL... great hospitality and I was sad to leave early the next morning. I really can't let that much time go by again without seeing her!

And onward I drove, finally reaching Tim's place. I had only seen him like 2-3 times since I left for the fire academy in mid January, and let me reiterate that long distance SUCKS and I hate it! But I think we are getting good at it LOL. The young chickens are now full sized hens, the plots around the house are now sprouted with carrot tops, birds have nests in the rafters, and the green grass of the hills is now crispy and yellow. Guess it's springtime in the central valley! Tim had trimmed up this HUGE, old grape vine on the property - we call it the "vineyard", though it's just one very prolific plant, with two vines that are so far 20 feet long! The fig tree has green fruit, the pomegranate tree has red leathery flowers (the "petals" are the same tough, waxy red skin that the ripe fruit has, which I think is neat), and the cacti were blooming. I will hopefully take pictures of these things "on the farm" in the future. :)

From CA 2010 - Fall and Winter

Next journal I plan on talking about my new home of Groveland, and what it's like being a Forest Service employee on a National Park Service helitack crew - which, by the way, seems like it will be amazing! I also recently had an interview for a job in Alaska; will know if I was selected in a couple weeks, but if I am... do I give up this awesome summer??


 I'll throw some random pictures in here too, to break up my long-winded text. :)

 From CA 2010 - Fall and Winter

Random Observations of the Poultry Kind

What better way to spend an evening at the advanced fire academy, than to update my journal. Totally random stuff regarding my first year of chicken-keeping:

- Chickens get lonely if they are by themselves... but they will quickly learn to consider you and your dogs to be their family, and follow you everywhere.

- They will eat almost anything. They especially love berries and pomegranates. Ours even eat leftover pork. Because they are like dinosaurs - little velociraptors!

- Marsala, the Rhode Island Red, may have started laying at 5 months of age. We aren't certain, because by the time Tim realized she was laying eggs, there were already 16 eggs inside her nest box. I still don't know how he didn't notice all those freaking eggs, poor Momma hen!!

- They say that in the winter, egg production drops off. Well Marsala must not have gotten that memo. She started laying in October and laid an egg almost every single day ALL WINTER. She averages 6 out of 7 days or so. It's amazing.

- We have 3 nest boxes in the coop; Marsala will lay eggs randomly in either end nest box, but will not lay in the middle one for some silly reason.

- She does not lay an egg at the same time every day. Sometimes its like 9-10 am; other times it is in the afternoon.

- A freshly laid egg looks wet, but it dries magically within seconds.

- Marsala laid a completely shell-less egg! Apparently it just happens every once in a while. It had nothing to do with nutrition (she gets oyster shells for calcium, a good layer feed, etc) and she laid normal eggs before and after the freaky squishy egg. It was pretty weird looking, held together with that thin flexible membrane... I had to poke at it, because it was neat.

- The two younger chickens are finally "friends" with Marsala, and they all hang out together...but make no mistake, Marsala is still the Big Momma and nobody messes with her.

- The younger girls might start laying in the next couple weeks... wonder what color eggs our Easter Egger will lay! Could be green, or pinkish, or blue! 

- I'm a big fan of chickens.

- I still think they are like little dinosaurs.

Two sisters in the Sierras

Since I was on light duty all summer, I wasn't available to go out on fire assignments. Things just fell into place, I took some time off, and voila! One of my sisters came out for a visit earlier this month. It's very rare that I am able to have visitors in the summer - I work my butt off and try not to take much time off, since I don't work in the winter - but I had a pretty lame summer and needed a familiar face and some fun adventures to make up for months of not being able to hike or run.
Linda's visit was the prime time to do all the touristy things in the area that I had yet to do myself. And we only had five days to do everything. Needless to say, I kept her busy. :)

How to have fun in the central Sierra Nevada mountains, according to me:

On the first day, hike 5 miles around the South Grove in Big Trees State Park and show Linda the biggest trees she has ever seen in her life. We took a ridiculous amount of time taking ridiculous photos. Tree hugging was mandatory. Quote of the hike: " If I squat down, does it make the tree look bigger?" (The trunk is 30' around... I think it's gonna look big however you pose!)

Since we took so long acting like dorks in the sequoias, we got to downtown Murphy's for wine tasting a little late and only had half an hour. I took her to Lavender Ridge, where I am a member... so wine tasting was free. :) I wanted her to try the great wood-fired pizza at Firewood,which was delicious as always. The hike, pizza and wine were a good warm-up for our bigger adventure on day two...

Day two, Yosemite! 2 1/2 hour drive, plus some extra time for excessive photography. Our goal for the day was to hike the Mist Trail, and  - depending on how my ankle felt - make a smaller or bigger loop with the John Muir Trail. It was a steady uphill hike, but I was disappointed to find the first couple miles of our hike were PAVED. I guess when a park has millions of visitors a year, they must build trails to take the abuse... but still, I was very happy when the pavement began deteriorating and we were left with a more natural, rock-strewn trail. There were a lot of people on the trail despite the fact it was a Thursday, but I expected the crowds on this popular hike. Vernal Falls was the first stop, and I knew water levels were low so it wouldn't be at its full force, but looking at photos of the falls in the spring, it's pretty amazing how different it can be between the seasons. Since the falls weren't raging, we didn't get the "mist" that this trail is known for, but it was still beautiful. Instead of turning around right at the top of the falls, we continued uphill and eventually made it to the footbridge. From here, Nevada Falls were barely visible because obviously, these falls weren't raging either. But it was still a nice view of Liberty Cap and the falls next to it, and at that point I really wished I had fancy photo lenses so I could get the entire view in one photo!

And of course, we got thunderstormed on. Even though I hadn't seen a drop of rain since MAY, it just so happens to rain when we go on our hike. Linda and I have a history of being chased off mountains by lightning and thunder so we had to laugh a little about it. As a result, we did a shorter loop than I had hoped, and went down the John Muir Trail near the footbridge instead of continuing over the top of Nevada Falls. And FYI, the Muir trail is open to horses and, although it had less stone steps than the Mist trail, it was not as nice of a hike in that section. It was probably around 4 miles round trip. On our way home, her boss had urged us to find a place called Rainbow Falls off hwy 120 and jump off. It was cooling down and getting dark, but we found the pull off and checked it out. Ok, let's jump! It's only like 25 feet down! So Linda goes up to the top of this waterfall first. She goes to jump and then freaks out. I'm recording it all on my camera and egging her on, it was SO FUNNY to watch her freak out! Ok, let me show this pup how it's done! So I go up there. I was ready to jump, but she couldn't get my camera to record. I tried to talk her through it, and by the time she got it working, I lost my nerve! I couldn't do it! The water was so cold, I was convincing myself that if I jumped in my body would freeze LOL! We both chickened out, and we are still angry with ourselves. Next time, we will jump!!

That was an all day endeavor, so we played it low key on Friday. I made Trader Joe's beer bread (yum!) and we stayed lazy until the afternoon. I had never been in a "real" cave - you know, the kind with stalactites and stalagmites and is deep underground and stuff. The caves I have been in at Pinnacles National Monument are "talus" caves, formed by big jumbles of huge boulder... no stalac- or stalag- things, but lots of bats! The Motherlode has an abundance of caves to choose from! It sounded like the Moaning Cavern in Vallecito would be a great choice for the cheapest tour offered - ~$15 for a 50 minute walking tour. Other alternatives included much more awesome - but much more expensive - options to rappel into caves, crawl around with a headlamp and hard hat, swim through underground pools, etc... but we didn't have the $75-150 for those tours (depending on which cave you choose). ;)  I was worried it would be lame, since it was "family friendly" and so cheap. We were not disappointed! They offer the walking tour every hour without reservations; so it was just Linda and I, and our tour guide. The natural entrance to the cave is a small gaping hole in the earth, plummeting straight down into the main chamber (which bottoms out at 165 ft, our final destination). The visitor center was built around it, with a small, humidor-type room housing this hole. A few ropes and climbing gear showed us this is where the rappel tour would enter - it was the original way miners explored the cave for gold (none was found). A display next to the opening was full of very old human remains, artifacts, "neat old dead stuff". Apparently as long as 13,000, clumsy unfortunate souls had been falling into the hole and never coming out again; their bones piled up below!


Then begins our decent down 234 steps, to the "improved" entrance that was built after the miners figured out they wouldn't get rich from the fake gold and a vertical hole in the ground. Wooden steps through a narrow tunnel lead down to a metal spiral staircase and you go around and around and around and around! It follows down alongside the "Chocolate Waterfall", a seep of iron-rich water that has formed a blob of weird formations all the way down to the bottom. There's a couple huge stalactites and some big round white thing called the "igloo". It was so hard to get a feel for how huge everything was until a rappeller came down from above, to our platform at 165 feet below the ground. The "adventure" tour would continue down some smaller tunnels even further down; the deepest part of the cave is off limits though (415 feet below?) because apparently the carbon dioxide sinks to the bottom and, over time, has filled up the bottom depths! Weird huh?

The coolest crazy part was when they turn off all the lights in the cave. The "darkest dark" you will ever see. Yikes.

That was fun! We still had time after the cave tour to go wine tasting and swimming! Back to Murphys, this time to Milliaire and Twisted Oak. Yay free wine! Then I took her to Candy Rock, the awesome local swimming hole on the Stanislaus River. And we had an absolute blast! Even had brought Logan (he waited in the truck during the cave tour) and outfitted him in his hiking harness so I could have a good handle to help him over the boulder and onto the slippery rocks in the water. He did much better, but we did squeeze/push/pull/lift him into some surely uncomfortable situations and I felt kindof bad! We played in the waterslide and then did a "double rainbow guy" freak-out when a double rainbow appeared over us! OMG IT'S A DOUBLE RAINBOW! Linda made a spoof video, now if she'd only upload the darned thing!

The next day (Saturday), I had trouble planning. What I really really wanted to do was take a long whale-watching trip out of San Francisco to the Farallon Islands. However, to make the 8 am departure, we would have to leave around 4 am. Yuck. Plus, I wasn't sure if I had somebody to let the dog out. By the time I had gotten confirmation, the tour was sold out! The other companies out there are even more expensive ($125 vs $75) and we didn't want to spend that much. Instead we opted to whale watch out of Monterey, through the same company Tim and I had used back in March. This way, we could bring Logan!

It was a long drive, but we got there early enough to take a detour through the Monterey Bay Aquarium, which is always awesome. Linda got to see sea otters, and we took even more silly pictures. Once again, the crew and other passengers on the whale watching boat treated Logan like he was a celebrity. :)  We decided to stand in the back of the boat with the dog...this is where people go when they are getting sea sick. People were puking left and right! I don't know what it was, but I think at least 10 people got sick and we were trying to avoid being in the crossfire! But we finally made it out to the whales, and WOW - there were humpbacks EVERYWHERE! We were surrounded by them! We even had a few of them come within 30 feet of the boat, and then one rolled over, it's huge flippers coming out of the water. While everybody was distracted, Linda and I were looking off into the distance and then suddenly a huge whale breached completely out of the water! I am glad she saw it to, or I don't think anybody would believe me! It was incredible. Logan did not get as sea sick as last time, and a deckhand was taking his photo for being such a good sailor. :)

All that excitement, and we were pretty hungry. Fortunately, many restaurants on Fisherman's Wharf are dog friendly! Once again, Logan was a welcome guest and received a dish of water and a bowl of Old Mother Hubbard dog treats when we decided to eat at Isabella's. The food was good but the bottled beer was pricey. Then was the long drive back to my house; Linda's last night here! Made it back late at night and woke up relatively early to take her to the airport.

We never did make it to San Fran, or even the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival that I really really wanted to see... BUT, I don't think it would have fit into our already-crammed week of adventure, and we would have probably fallen asleep after all the driving. ;)

And that is one way to entertain a guest in California. I will add photos to this later, but for now it is time to go to bed!

Spinning wheels, going nowhere

This blog title pretty much sums it up. No news is good news?? I am spinning my wheels and going nowhere, but at least I've got NEW wheels! Yes, the old Toyota "Trucky Truck" was fading fast. Compression had been going down on the engine, but at least one of the cylinders wasn't even functioning anymore. Translation = gonna need a new engine. It didn't just like, catastrophically break down, but it was running hot on any extended up-hill stretch of road, almost over heating on a trip to S Lake Tahoe for the day... was gonna need new brakes and repack the wheel bearings; needed an alignment and 2 new tires pretty soon... So I started shopping. I was hoping the Yota would last until next summer but vehicles don't always behave. I did 100% of my shopping and research online, and ultimately found the Capital One Auto Buying Website that helped me get the best deal on my new truck.

I really wanted a "timberland mica" (aka dark green) truck; red was my 2nd choice. There were only two green, 2010 Toyota Tacoma Access Cab V6 with the convenience/towing package in the entire Northern Cali area. The price was somewhere above $27k. I was able to use that Capital One thing and get the truck for $25,400. I also got $1000 downpayment assistance for being a recent graduate through Toyota Financial.

In other words, I think I got a pretty good price on a sweet looking truck. :)  With the insane California taxes and "gap protection" (had never heard of it, seemed like a good idea...if your truck is totaled, it pays off the difference between the insurance value, and the amount you still owe)... It was slightly above what I wanted to pay. I'm making it work but barely. $420 a month for six freaking years! I wish they had better incentives, like 0% APR or something, but alas Toyota doesn't seem as desperate as the Big Three. For the record, I did look at Chevy Silverados and I do like those trucks, but a full sized 8 cylinder truck was beyond my price range.

Of course I already scratched the new Yota up while taking her on some overgrown 4x4 roads. I'm not one of those people who buys something and then is too afraid to break it in! I bought a freaking 4x4 truck to take the thing on 4x4 roads! The only things I do NOT like are: the rear side windows don't pop out (like on the old one) so Logan can't poke his nose out; the back of the cab has a center console which I like in theory, but it makes it very uncomfortable for the dog; and the fact that I can't afford to buy a topper! I had no idea they were so expensive, I definitely need one so I can be ready for "random adventures" at the drop of a dime but we're talking like $1400+ for a nice one!

I am still working on the achilles problem. My frustrations have been that the doctor's office was putting the wrong claim numbers and stuff, and not even submitting stuff to worker's comp; or, waiting for authorization for stuff that they didn't need authorization for. Hence, it took 6 weeks to see a physical therapist - because they didn't even NEED authorization! Anyway, I started PT, then got results of the MRI I had to convince them to let me get - my ankle wasn't healing and still hurt, why not see what's really going on? So I found out I have a fractured talus, an irritated other random tendon, and apparently not much wrong with my achilles.

I went to the specialist, and I made it a point to ask the dr's office if I needed to bring anything with me. They said NO. I assumed this meant they had sent my MRI images electronically, as they did between the hospital and clinic. It said MRIs on the form they gave me. So I drive the 80 miles to Stockton, only to be asked, "Where are the MRI films?" Damn that doctor's office!! The specialist still saw me anyway. Did I mention both my Dr. and the Orthopedic specialist are University of Michigan alumni?? Without the films, they wanted to take X-rays. Before even seeing the x-rays, the specialist said I wasn't in "enough pain" for the talus fracture to be the issue; it must be my achilles. Do you see the dilemma?? I have pain in achilles, but nothing showed up on MRI. I have a fractured talus on MRI, but apparently not "enough" pain. I left frustrated, with an order to "have more patience" and increase PT to 3x a week. Come back in 2 weeks with the MRI.

Today was the 2 week - with MRI - follow up. Very clearly, there is a "lesion" on my talus. Achilles looks mostly normal, but a little thicker than it should be where my pain is. He isn't quite sure how to proceed, still doesn't think the biggest issue is this talus. Give it another month of PT, 3x a week (which I have only been able to go 2x a week due to the approval process through worker's comp). Come back in a month, if it's not a lot better then we need a different approach. He says he does not see any reason why it shouldn't be getting better, though was a bit surprised that I haven't made much improvement. I'd say it's maybe 20% better than when I went to the Dr in July...but that's only 20% over 2 1/2 months. So I'm in PT until mid-Oct with another follow up on the 15th. Another month. Another boring ass month.


Sigh.

At least the stationary bike actually does seem to be making my legs stronger and look better. I'm eating healthy and doing p90x 3x a week as well, and can actually do more pull ups than I could at the academy (up to 5, almost 6)!

Been pretty broke so no road trips or anything exciting lately... Though I am totally pumped for Michigan's first two football games, and my two favorite teams play this weekend - Lions and Eagles! At least I can still cheer for sports without aggravating my ankle! :)

Bearing the weight of not bearing weight

On this ridiculously hot day, I couldn't do the things I wanted to, and did the only things I could do. The fact that I can't run, or can't hike, is like being on a diet... I can't have it, so I want it MORE! Except, running and hiking is GOOD for you, and I still can't do them! And no swimming, thanks to Logan's self-conducted removal of his stitches and the subsequent giant gaping hole in his side. With my physical limitations and the emotional crabbiness of a child who can't have her favorite candy, all I wanted to do was lie on the couch, lethargic from the heat, and watch TV and movies. Animal Hoarders. Daily Show. Alice in Wonderland (Johnny Depp) movie. Fortunately, for once Logan and I were on the same page about being lazy, and he didn't even beg me to throw his football.

We laid there, panting, licking (figuratively for me; literally for Logan) our wounds and carbo-loading on comfort foods. I had been eating healthy - more fruits, veggies, protein, and less grains/carbs - and although it wasn't exactly "low" carb, it was less than my body is used to. I binged and ate 3 pieces of garlic chicken pizza for lunch, bacon for a snack (yeah, weird snack), and an entire box (2.4 servings of glorious carbs and cheese) of Annie's white cheddar shells.

Am I going to be one of those people that come back from an injury, determined to do something dramatic, like run a marathon?? Today, the idea appealed to me. But I also binged on mac and cheese, so maybe it was just one of those "I've been deprived and now I'm gonna make up for it in a HUGE way" days. Realistically, I'm pretty sure my ADHD would ensure I would get bored and start chasing butterflies an hour into a marathon; maybe watching clouds or daydreaming... which would probably result in another broken ankle from not paying attention and running into a parked car or something. ;)

My first summer in the Sierras, and all I can do is watch from the sidelines. Trails to run, mountains to hike... I was in pretty good shape too, going into this summer. It will be so hard to stay motivated and not routinely drown my sorrows in Annie's mac and cheese...