Last Snickers Presentation!!

On the way to Anchorage, gorgeous day!

So today was not only the last day for Snickers, the porcupine, to be in the spot light at the schools but today also marked the very last of all of our school programs. Yeah!!! :) Me and Erin were so re-leaved.

And so was Snickers by the looks of it. After three programs at Abbott Loop Elementary we headed home. 

View from the gas station in Girdwood on the way home.

I got some news that was hard to cope with tonight in regards to my grandma and her cancer. Instead of joining everyone else on a hike I decided to stay behind at the center. I just needed some alone time. I pulled myself together and decided to go for a short run. When I started walking down the road at the center I saw Mike messing with the fence to the elk enclosure. He called me over and I helped him move the elk to another enclosure. I spent a good part of my evening riding around on the front of the four wheeler chasing the moose, and elk. It was alot of fun. It helped get my mind off of things and it also felt good to get a lil muddy. The only thing was I had on my running pants and tennis shoes so now my shoes are covered in mud but mostly elk poop sludge. Gotta love it. Once we were done I went for a short run and sat at the point for a while and soaked in the Alaskan atmosphere. Whenever I am upset about something the outdoors, no matter where I may be, has always been that one thing that I turn to to make me feel better. There is a sense of calmness when you actually decide to stop an observe nature. Everything continues to go about it's business oblivious to what is going on in my life or the entire world for that matter. Sitting there looking up at the mountains, with their peaks hidden amongst the clouds, and across the Turnagin Arm, I realized how small I really am. 

Last Bones and Fur!!

So today was our last day doing our Bones and Fur program. We went to Sand Lake elementary in
Anchorage and did four programs. It was a long day but like always, really fun. Something that happened before we even got to the school, was a moose crossing the four-lane highway right as we got to town. Soooo cool!

Me holding a Sitka Black Tailed Deer skull

Anyways, all of the classes were really well behaved and our last class was a Japanese emergent class. The kids could speak and write Japanese. Very impressive! My favorite question of the day was how I got my job working with the center. I love sharing my story about how I got here. I am living proof that dreams do come true and I want to encourage anyone to follow theirs too!

Answering questions

Me passing out clue cards.

Once we got home back at the center me and Erin fed the animals. And we got the news about a new addition to our Musk Ox herd. While we were waiting for the quail to un-thaw for the owls, we drove down to their enclosure to see it. I never really got a good look at it but it was still alive which was good. Musk Ox tend to be very aggressive and are known to be bad mothers sometimes as well.

The Baby is the dark spot by the log

 The baby was getting picked on by another cow and we were told by one of the guys that works at the center who was trying to distract the cow away from the baby by throwing fruit, that she had tossed the calf in the air a few times already. They are so dangerous to go in with that we can not intervene. I hope that it does okay. Time will tell.

After taking care of the "kids" and grabbing a bite to eat a few of us decided to go on a short hike to the Byron Glacier. It was a nice way to end the day.

This is where snow slide off of the mountain and over a creek.

The glacier

The snow on the trail was so deep that it was kind of difficult to walk. Snow shoes would have been a great help. Too bad none of us had any! 

Well, goin to get ready to for bed. Have three Snicker's (the porcupine) presentations tomorrow. I'l let you know how they go.  

Two Days Off!

As my last day off for a while is coming to a close, I am preparing my self for the drive into Anchorage tomorrow for a day full of programs. I am ready to go though. The last two days have been very relaxing. Yesterday was beautiful outside! I actually put on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt. Felt so good not to have a coat on! I made some calls home, bought some souvenirs to send back home and then worked on getting some mail ready to ship out for today. It was so nice that me and Erin decided to go for a bike ride. We threw some stuff in our back packs and off we went!

We weren't going to go very far but the scenery kept drawing us farther and farther down the trail. We saw some gorgeous streams which, I kept stopping every five minuets it seemed to look for trout.

 We also came across a  "moss forest." Just look at the picture and tell me it is not.

We ended up biking to the Portage Glacier. Round trip it was probably a lil over ten miles. I haven't been on a bike in forever so just hoping on one and riding that far was quite a trip. It was a blast though! We want to do it again. When I get back to Ohio I am going to dig my bike out of the barn and take it out more often. It was great exercise and beat's running any day! We concluded the night with all of us hanging out and watching a movie. 

Today the weather has not been as nice but it is not down pouring, windy, or snowy, so I'm not going to complain. I have just stayed around the center for most of the day. Some of us went to the nearby town of Girdwood to mail some things. I got two letters in the mail! Always makes my day when I get mail. We also went on a short hike on Winner's trail and was finally able to access a geo cash that had been frozen in some tree roots when we first found it. It didn't have anything too amazing in it though. When we got back we watched another movie, ( The Tourist) pretty good. and I just got back from feeding the birds and threw a pizza in the oven. It won't get dark until about eleven now. Which is about what time it is right now back home. Night Ohio.

Ok, so I know I have only done a few entries and that I haven't written in quite a while BUT I am going to try and do better. I'l try to bring you up to date. This moth has been a blur do to how busy we have been staying with all of our school programs. Sadly, we only have two more days of programs left in Anchorage. We will now be starting our school tours here at the center. Fun stuff!

We got treated to a whale watching tour last week. It was AWESOME! We did not see any whales but we did see sea lions, sea otters ( my favorites), and some cool birds too. We had a good time and met a couple of cool guys who worked on the boat. 

Almost forgot, we also went to the Sea Life Center before we went on the tour. It was soooo cool! I wish I worked there too. So we had an amazing time in Seward to say the least. 

Last night we had the opportunity to help clip Chimo, the Moose, hooves. It made my day! How many

people can say that they've done that?! That's pretty much all of the high lights. 

Skiing

This morning me, Erin, Kelly, and our trusty suburban that we named "Totonka" headed to Anchorage to do our "Bones and Fur " program for some kids at Begich middle school. They all became detectives as they explored the characteristics of the skull that their group was given. Using only clues such as: what the animal's teeth looked like, the position on the eyes, a sample of fur and some rubber scat were they able to figure out what their animal was. I think I had as much fun as the kids did. After grabbing a bite to eat we hit the Seward Highway and headed back in the direction of the center. I however, was not going back to the center, I was going to conquer the hills of Alyeska. Now, being a country girl from Ohio, the closest I ever got to "carving" down a mountain was strapping on my brothers plastic Walmart snowboard and sliding down the hills in our yard. This was going to be interesting. My coach would be Jeremy, a fellow employee at the center and avid skier. Kelly and Erin dropped me off and I geared up for the event. It was overwhelming just to look up at the mighty mountain. I rented some skis and boots and was ready for the bunny hill.

Just got my boots ( I didn't know how to turn the pic.)

 I fell twice on my first time down it and getting back up is quite a challenge. My first thought was "this is going to be a looooong afternoon." After a few more times and some tips from my coach I was doing alot better and feeling more comfortable on the skis. I was ready to try something different. We made our way to one of the lifts. Those things seem to speed up when you go to get on and off of them. When I went to get off of the lift I fell once again but laughed it off.

After I fell getting off of the lift

 The hill didn't look that bad, I could handle it. thats what I thought until I  got towards the end of it. There it was, this huge hill that I was certain if I headed down I'd go like 90 miles an hour down (not really, it would have just felt like it to me though). I fell, alot. It felt like it took days to inch my way down this summit which, in reality was "fun easy slope" for all of the pro skiers and snowboarders whizzing past me.

 I finally made it to the end! We concluded the afternoon by taking the tram up to the summit.

The tram

 The view was breathtaking! I couldn't believe that I was seeing it with my own eyes.

 So for my first time skiing I didn't do too horrible. I would go again in a heart beat and I look forward to the day that I can gracefully go down the trails. I just can never seen myself going down from the summit!

Two Weeks

It is two weeks today since I arrived in the great state of Alaska also known as the Last Great Frontier. It is an entirely different world than what I am accustomed to. I am so thankful to be here, when I look out my window from the comfort of my bunk and see Bald Eagles soaring against a snow covered mountain background  I still feel like I am dreaming. This has been a dream of mine since I was a child and I am finally here. In my two weeks I have seen Beluga whales, magpies, ermine, doll sheep, a sea otter, a seal, and of course eagles all in the wild. I can't wait to see what the rest of my stay has in store for me.