Stages

I had a great visit with some of my family who were nice enough to tough it out through the 12-ish hour flight to come see me (and Alaska) and they were well rewarded with some very nice weather. It even warmed up for them a couple of the days- that's saying something this 'Summer'. I want to try to get my niece to do a write up for their trip to post on here as a guest writer. :) I think her point of view would be interesting. Barring that, maybe I can convince my sister (or both- that'd be uber-cool).

Anyway, I'll leave that write-up to them. I was thinking today what it really means to be an Alaskan. I've heard a lot of different ideas on the matter- one is that you have to be here twenty years to be, another is a bit too crude to repeat but two of the three things it takes to be an Alaskan are peeing in the Yukon River and killing a bear- I'll skip the third. When you talk to people about stuff going on in the State, they'll often preface their opinion with 'I was born and raised here' or 'I've lived here 15 years' or something of that nature. As if being in one place for whatever chunk of time inherently gives them more knowledge- like it's gained by osmosis through the snow or from breathing in the clean air for long enough. I know from personal experience that just being somewhere for the majority of your life doesn't mean you necessarily know much about that place. You *could* if you were really interested and got hip deep into some real research, but I lived in rural Illinois for the first 18 years of my life on a farm and I still could not tell you when corn, soybeans, or even the vegetables for the garden are planted. Most of the time it depends on how muddy the fields are and a whole lot of other conditions that are less than ideal, but still, I don't really know even though I lived through it.

So, I don't think that just existing by chance or by choice in one place for a certain span of years makes you a part of it. I think it happens in stages. Some of those stages can happen around you just because you're there and others you have to go out and actively walk through them. Well, more like hike through them around here. Here's the list I've come up with so far. I'll add to it as I learn more of them. Just FYI- I'm somewhere between Stage 1 and 2 since I haven't been through a whole winter.

Stage 1: Rookie - A rookie is someone who hasn't lived through a winter- that's it, the long and the short. If you come up here every summer, working the tourist season, for 40 years, you are still a Rookie. You've got to be able to shrug at driving in the 12, 14, 18 inches of snow that fell last night to go to work, because work and school aren't canceled here for that little snow. You have to warm up the car every morning for 20 minutes because 10 degrees isn't really cold enough to mess with getting a block heater. You have to learn how to fall by the experience of eating it on the snow and ice at least once a week. You have to understand that if you wear heels to work anytime other than the Summer you are a moron and people will look at you funny (you can carry them with you and wear them once you're inside, but people will still look at you funny). After you get through all that and more, you can hit Year 1.

Stage 2: Year 1 - A Year 1 Alaskan is full of wonder. It's an amazing place even if you hate it, you can't deny how gorgeous it can be. You are freaked out on your first, second, third and fourth hikes and then just very, very alert for the next twenty or so. You learn how to drive in all the different conditions, but after Break-up (which you learn not to bother calling Spring), you actually would rather it be Winter because it'd be less annoying. You get S.A.D. and think that you're just kind of tired and sick of the cold. You are nice and helpful to the tourists because everyone is nice up here, but you still mutter 'tourists' behind their back. It's hard not to since they're the reason you have to have a reservation at a restaurant you got a table at in five minutes a month ago. You listen to everyone tell stories (and boy, do they) because you realize you've got a steep learning curve and want know how to hit a moose without it coming through the windshield and how not get mauled by a bear *before* you find yourself in those situations. You clue in to the fact that things really are different up here, even though it sounds really, really condescending when the lifers say that.

Stage 3: Year 2 - By now you know how to fish, you know all the different kinds of salmon and maybe even have a favorite. You can dip net and are getting the PFD. You sweat when it's hits 60 and turn all the fans on in the house because it really does feel that hot after you get used to it being that cold. You know when SAD is hitting and you have one of those lights or hit the tanning beds (there are a million tanning places in Alaska and no tan Alaskans). You don't bother with anything more than a coat unless it's below 20 degrees. You only bother with ski pants and hats and gloves if it's below zero and you're going to be out for a while. You know what gaiters and grippers are. If you go to the Lower 48 in the summer, what you used to think was nice weather is now God-awful hot makes you just want to be back in Alaska.

Stage 6: Veteran - You've been through enough Winters and Break-ups that you can compare them and make judgement and worry about how the salmon will run. You have a chest freezer, a four-wheel drive and either a 4-wheeler, a snow machine or an RV. You go to nothing but chain restaurants when you go down to the Lower 48 then come back and gloat to everyone else. You never go down to the Lower 48 in the summer and always take empty suitcases for shopping at the stores we still don't have and to pick up stuff that's still cheaper down there. You compare this year's PFDs to PFDs in the past and already know what you're going to be paying off with it. You have a bank account set up for each of your kids' PFD/college tuition. You've got a ton of stories and tell them to the rookies and year 1 folks, but in a nice, non-condescending way because you remember how hard that was and how annoying the lifers were to you. You think about leaving, but aren't sure if anywhere else will compare. And anyway, how would you survive a summer anywhere else now? Surely you'd melt in more than a week at those temperatures.

Stage 10: Lifer - You have an RV, 4-wheelers and 4-wheel drives for every family member, snow machines, skis, snowshoes, and a garage just for all your gear- not including vehicles. You don't live in a ritzy house, because all that other stuff costs a large chunk of change and who wants to be cooped up inside anyway. You have a cabin for fishing or hunting or snow-machining and you have a buddy that has one for each of the things you don't. You have halibut honey-holes and know the best stretch of river for each kind of salmon. You have a buddy that will take you out on his boat when he doesn't have a charter, or who will give you a discount when you have family up from Outside. You get annoyed with the new people still coming in even though it means more stores and cheaper prices. Because more stores and cheaper prices mean *more* new people will come from Outside and that just means more people fishing, hunting and hiking. More people that don't know that Things Are Different Here. You talk in a lot of Capital Letters and if you are a jerk, you start off opinions with 'I've lived here thirty years...'

Second Denali trip

My friend Ang came in from Chicago last Wednesday for a visit. She tooled around town a bit, seeing the wonder that is Anchorage (Heh! That's fairly sarcastic) and driving down to the Portage glacier on her own. Then on Friday we drove up to see Denali. We stayed at a B&B in Healy Friday night so that we could catch an early bus into the depths of Denali. I reserved a campground at Wonder Lake which is as far into Denali as you can go- about 60 miles on a dirt road that winds around a lot of mountains. It takes about five hours on the camper bus (that doesn't stop often) to get there.

We set up camp at about 1pm and went off on a hike. We went up a ridge and looked down on the valley and Wonder Lake. Then, we went down to the lake along an animal trail that wasn't really much of a trail at all- lol! The mosquitos were ridiculous but they enjoyed feasting on her blood way more than mine. Heh! Wonder Lake is super deep- up to 220 feet! That's like a 22 story building down. Crazy. There's not much that lives in there- some lake trout and loons and a couple other things. Not sure if it's because it's so cold or what. I'll have to look that up.

We hiked around for about five hours or so and it only started raining as we were heading back to the camp grounds. A ranger gave a talk about Denali that was very interesting. The park only has 39 mammals species living there- a low number compared to other national parks, especially considering how much bigger Denali is than most parks (6 MILLION acres), but they also have all 39 of the original species. You know, until global warming kills them all.

On the bus trip in, we had a brown bear (no one calls them grizzlies up here- no clue why) walk right past our bus! That was really cool. We also saw eagles (golden and bald- the bald on the way up), caribou, ground squirrels, artic hares, ptarmagans, and we heard some loons. No moose in the park, but we saw a couple on the road driving to the park from Healy.

Most importantly, we got to see Mt McKinley. He was hiding from us most of the time- it was pretty cloudy during the trip, but he's visible near sunrise and sunset, so we got to see him at about 11pm on Saturday night. The pictures don't do him justice- that is one HUGE mountain! And he was pretty far away from us- probably twenty miles or so. He was only out for about five minutes and then hid in the clouds again. You can click on the picture for the larger version:



Here's Wonder Lake from the ridge we hiked up when it was still sunny:


And here it is when we got down to it (about a half hour later):


Here's the brown bear we saw on the way in:




Polychrome Valley during this trip:


Polychrome Valley during Memorial Day weekend- clearly spring doesn't start until June in Denali:


We left early because I underestimated the ground hardness, mosquito badness and the weather disgustingness. After about two hours of sleep Saturday night, we woke up at about 5 am Sunday to the tent's rain fly leaking after being poured on all night (and evening). Since we'd seen McKinley and could hike in the Chugach after sleeping in a nice warm bed, we caught the first bus back out. It was full, so we weren't the only wimps. Next time, I'm bringing air mattresses or something. It got down into the 40s and that wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't been raining and mosquito ridden, too. You'd think the mosquitos would beat it when it was raining. Not so much.

Anyway, we hiked on Monday (again, in the rain, but at least we'd had a hot shower and a soft bed) in the Chugach and saw a couple of bull moose. They were close enough for it to be neat and far enough away to not be too scary. Here's a couple pics of that- the first to show how far away they were and the second with my camera zoomed:




More pictures of the Denali trip here.

More pictures of the Chugach hike here.

Whoo! Denali this weekend!

I was going to go hiking this past weekend in Chugach, and Buck and I were nearly out there on Saturday when I realized that I forgot the bear bells. That, combined with us getting a late start, made me re-think things. I was hoping that we'd be able to go Sunday, but it was overcast all day and looked like it was about to start raining the whole day. But it meant that I got nearly all the cleaning done for my friend Ang's visit.

She gets here Wednesday afternoon and then we head up for our Denali trek on Friday afternoon. We'll stay at a B&B in Healy Friday night so that we can catch the first bus into the campground Saturday morning. It'll make it easier to spot animals, too- then we'll know where not to go hiking. Hee! We'll have a map, compass, a survival kit, first aid kit, bear spray, bear bells, and a satellite phone (regular cell phones don't work out there, so don't be surprised when my phone goes straight to voicemail). LOL! I think we're fully prepared. :) And we're just day hiking- no camping out in the backwoods for us. Wonder Lake has sites for tent camping, so there'll be other people there. Hopefully any bears will eat them instead of us. I'll make sure to coat someone else's tent with honey to be sure. Heh! Kidding!

Anyway, awesome pictures will be posted sometime next Tuesday, possibly next Monday night depending on how early we get back. I figure two full days and one half day will be enough hiking for us. And if not, Ang can go hike the Chugach while I'm recovering on Tuesday. :)

Cool site

Our newspaper up here (Anchorage Daily News) has a site with a bear tracker on it. The Parks folks have put tracking devices on some of the bears in the area so you can see where they hang out. Click here for that page, but understand that just because you don't see dots, doesn't mean there aren't non-tracked bears there. Heh! It's interesting to see how much they congregate to the streams- not at all surprising, but it's good to know that as long as I'm hiking higher up and where there aren't berries, my chances of running into one is a lot slimmer.

Round 2: Buck 2 - Sheep 0

Well, we passed our second round of qualifications and Buck now has his AKC Herding Tested title. He shall henceforth be known as Sir Buck of Anchorage. All hail, Sir Buck!



He did a pretty good job on Sunday, except he kept splitting the sheep, which means that instead of going on the outside to push them to me when they were acting up, he'd zoom in between them and scatter one away from me. Not sure what was up with that- he's never done that in practice. So, it was either my nerves bleeding onto him and making him nutty or a new bad habit we'll need to break. That tends to happen though. As the dog gains experience, it also picks up bad habits that you have to get them to knock off. I've watched this with many of the other dogs in practices and just wondered when it'd be our turn for that nonsense. Heh!

One of my friends from my dog group came to watch us Sunday with his wife and made a video for me. Here's that:



Oh, and to give some background on what the Herding Test is, here's what you are supposed to do: 1. Put your dog in a stay (with the sheep in the ring) 2. Have your dog gather them to you showing some level of control. Because it's the beginner level, you can help your dog by going toward the sheep so they don't have to work as hard. Most dogs confidence at this level isn't great, so you don't want them to fail and then get discouraged or worry the sheep because they get frustrated. 3. Walk in a controlled manner with the sheep next to the handler and change direction three times. This involves getting the sheep as close to cones on either end of the field as possible. How close depends on the judge, but the rules say you just have to change direction. 4. Put your dog in a stay and then have it come to you.

We had some trouble with that on Sunday because the first time I tried to get him to come, the sheep were still really close and he also learned from Friday's run that once he came to me, he wouldn't get to herd anymore. That's not much of a reason to want to come. Heh! When we would work on our 'come's at practice, he'd always get the reward of getting to herd the sheep more after he came to me. Otherwise they learn that if they come, the fun is over. Obviously, they learn that fast. :D

Anyway, that's our first step done. We've got a herding clinic with one of the judges tomorrow, so we'll learn some new stuff and have a new set of eyes instructing us. Then, it's back to practising to see if we'll be good enough for the next trial in September. I'll post some vids of a Samoyed, a German Shepherd and a Rottweiler herding this week.

Round one- Buck 1 - Sheep 0

Buck qualified for the first leg of his AKC Herding Tested title. He was a little nutty, pushing the sheep into running more than he's ever done, but he still did really well, kept good control of them and had a perfect 'come' to me away from them. Our run wasn't very long, so the video is pretty short - about three minutes or so (short is good). That can be found here:



I was telling my loser brother Eric that Buck just has to do good on Sunday to get his title and Eric (and my non-loser Aunt Sue) both said, 'so is he a Duke or an Earl then?' Heh! No, it just means that the AKC thinks he's awesome and if he was some fancy dog with papers and such, he'd have letters at the end of his name.

The judge also said that he was an 'excellent, excellent dog' and that he was one of the best dogs out there today (in our HT class). Good stuff! We'll let you know on Sunday if the dog below will be known as Sir Buck of Anchorage. I think he looks pretty regal.



Also, this is a link to the video I made of one of my herding buddies, Doug, and his cattle dog, Tucker, doing their PT (Pre-Trial) Test. That's the step above us and it's what we'll be trying for this Fall if everything goes well. Tucker did real well at it- they started training last summer and got their HT last Fall.

Herding trials this weekend

I had to take a minute to brag about my dog. Hee! Last night we went to our final herding practice before our trials coming up on Friday and Sunday. Buck's been doing well, but it's tough for me to describe what he does and why he looks better at it than some of the other dogs out there. My instructor, who breeds cattle dogs very well- she even has a grandkid who is a Cruft's Best of Breed- mentioned last night that she wishes she had a dog in her kennel that could wear stock like Buck does. Wearing is when you are walking with the sheep next to you and the dog is keeping them there by walking behind them.

It sounds pretty easy, but a lot of the dogs will get too jumpy and scare the sheep, or be too close and 'push' the sheep which makes them move too fast, or they get bored with it and don't focus well enough and the sheep get away from you. Buck is really serious about it- he has his tail down (when a cattle dog is playful and excited their tail is up) and his head down and just walks along behind them, or comes slowly up beside them if they are getting too far left or right, then he goes back behind.

Anyway, it's cool that this lady, who has seen so many herding dogs, thinks Buck is good. She thinks that we'll have no problems getting our next title at all (that would be the PT- we're going for his HT, or Herding Test, this weekend).

Oh, and he's also getting good at force barking. That's what a dog will do when a sheep challenges him instead of nipping. You don't want a dog barking constantly, but if they can get the sheep to do what they want with a few sharp barks, that's a good thing. Buck hasn't been confident enough until recently to get up in a sheep's face and make it do what he wants, so that was an awesome breakthrough.