Octopus envy

Its my weekend again! This week was very busy, I worked am shifts so I had to be at the sealife center at 7am. I also started working at the gift shop so as soon as my rehab shift is over I have usually around 15 minutes to shower, change my clothes, then head on over to the gift shop to work. Work at the gift shop is unbearably boring. A 4.5 hour shift there drags on forever, while my 10 hour shifts in rehab fly by. I've never had a job that I don't care about at all. I've always had jobs that have to do with things I like, namely animals. So I've always at least somewhat enjoyed them and cared about doing well. Gift shop is just counting down the hours until I get home. Sell some things, fold shirts, dust shelves, it drives me crazy being there. I can't believe some people work in retail their entire life. That is something I would never be able to handle. But it does actually pay me money which is nice.
We got a fur seal into the rehab center! I got a call from the Fish and Game department that said someone had dropped a baby in a cardboard box at their front door! So we arranged a pick up for it and now we have a tiny baby fur seal which are so cute!

this is what they look like!

He is sooo adorable! and when he calls out he sounds exactly like a goat, and sometimes he just sounds like a demon lol. its very hilarious and adorable. So he will be with us for many months and it is possible that he can be released as long as he doesn't imprint on us too much! 

I got to do my very own necropsy on a sea gull yesterday also! which was really awesome. I love dissecting. Didn't really find anything interesting but ive never seen the inside of a bird before yesterday! 

Earlier this week I decided to try going up the runners trail of Mt. Marathon to see how far I could get up. Its SO MUCH fun. you actually have to climb up over the rocks and roots which is the best part. I wasn't going to go up to the top but I kept seeing cool things and wanting to go just a little bit farther. by the time I reached the skree slope near the top, it seemed a shame to turn back now. So crawled my way to the top. I was so exhausted crawling my way up the slate rock, but when I got to the top I had renewed energy and I romped around on top of the mountain for alittle bit, enjoying the view and exploring. I went down the jeep trail (the switchback, less steep one) just for a change of pace. It was a gorgeous clear day and I spent about 2.5 hours on the mountain. 

Today I went on an octopus encounter! which is a tour they have at the sealife center where I basically get to play with and feed an octopus shrimp. So fun and their little suckers feel so funny on my hands. Octopuses are awesome. Each of their suckers can hold up to 20lbs. crazy. 

This is lula, tending to her eggs

This is thumb! hes great!

Caineshead adventure

After ice climbing last weekend, I thought the rest of my break would be uneventful. I was wrong.
I had a very tame monday, spent some time at the library and then went to see the Lone Ranger with my roommate, Katie.
Tuesday morning I woke up to someone knocking at my door around 10:30am. It was my friend Emily telling me that they were leaving for a backpacking trip to Caineshead recreation area in 20 minutes. I didn't have to work until 3:30pm the next day so I leaped out of bed, threw some random items into my pack and left with them. It is the least amount of time I have ever spent packing or even thinking about a trip before going on it. It was pretty exciting. Also I had pretty much zero food which I didn't really take into consideration. The thing about this hiking trip is that it is totally dependent on the tides, the trail is along the beach so you have to go at low tide and you cant come back until it is low tide again, which happens twice a day. So low tide was at 11am on this day. Low tide the next day was at 2:30, which is my mind was a perfect amount of time to make it to work at 3:30. I might have to jog at some points along the trail but I could make it no problem. Not true. but we will get to that fact later.
The trail along the beach was awesome, we saw lots of interesting critters in tidal pools and just about a million jellyfish. the trail was about 7 miles out there and took a lot longer than I had expected. By the time I realized that I would be horribly late to work, there was no turning back, I was stuck out at Cainshead until the next low tide. There was no point in worrying about this fact, there was nothing I could do at that point. then I realized that the next low tide was actually at 2:30 in the morning! so i could totally just not sleep and go back by myself then right? it never gets that dark in alaska right? hm... more on that later. So I just enjoyed the day. Caineshead is BEAUTIFUL and we set up camp and ate some lunch (lunch = my leftover dinner rice eaten with my snowboard bottleopener). Caineshead used to be a military base so there are a lot of cool forts and bunkers along the hike. We got to explore the inside of one that was under the ground. It was so creepy and drippy and dark inside and definitally looked exactly like an abandoned mental hospital. It took quite some courage to get through it.

Emily, Cheryl, Kaitie and me

Its pretty. 

we made it!

our campsite, their tent and my hammock

The scary underground fort

We made it to south beach which was completely different from the beach we camped by but totally awesome. We waded in and sat by the water checking out the cool rocks. The tide must have been rising because after sitting there for a while we got hit with a HUGE wave out of nowhere. At that time we decided to hike back to camp and make fire and dinner. Our fire spot was unreal. Right on the beach with the mountains surrounding the beach in front of us and the woods behind. coolest spot. 

This whole time I had been planning on packing up and leaving at around 1am so I could catch the 2:30 am low tide back. As that got closer and it got darker (yes it actually is starting to get dark here now) I started to get nervous. But it was the only way to make it back to work in time. It also sounded like an exciting idea, hiking along the beach in the dark. So at 1am I said goodbye to my hiking buddies and took my stuff and started heading back towards seward. The first part of the walk back was a .5 mile bit through the woods so I could get to the beach trail. I knew that would be the hardest/scariest part but thought once I got to the beach on the otherside it would be a little lighter and not as terrifying. I set off through the woods singing colors of the wind at the top of my lungs to warn off any bears that might want to eat me. walking through the woods was PITCH BLACK and the scariest thing I have ever done. My flickering headlamp was making scary shadows and I kept losing my footing and hearing sounds all around me. I was relieved to get out to the beach on the otherside. But that was short lived as it was just as scary walking down the beach in the almost complete darkness. The rocks were slippery because the tide had just receded and I was slipping all over the place. My voice was getting hoarse from singing colors of the wind over and over and I was terribly thirsty but also too scared to stop and take a drink. The walk back seemed to take forever and everything looked different in the dark. I wasn't seeing any familiar landscapes and every single large rock on the beach looked like a bear to me. on multiple occasions I felt like I was being followed and then I would practically scream the song in that general direction to ward off whatever ghostly thing was following me. I started wondering if I was going to make it back and cursing myself for what a stupid stupid decision I had made. Yeah sure I'll hike home alone in the dark in grizzly bear country. smart. I couldn't turn back without going to through the wooded part again which terrified me even more and I couldnt stop in case the tides came in and trapped me. I started seriously wondering if I was going to make it back and started getting exhausted from the 13 miles I had already hiked that day without sleeping at all. It was such a relief to make it to tonsina point at the end of the tidal trail. At that point you at least don't have to worry about the tide getting you, but to make it back to seward you have to do a 4 mile section through to woods. I decided to set up my hammock here and at least wait until it was light out to make the rest of the journey home. It was still pretty dark out. I was still scared about curious grizzlys but I was so exhausted that I fell asleep instantly and slept until 7am.
When I woke up I shot out of my hammock and started searching along the beach for the injured seal I had put on the beach last night. Where on earth could it have gone?! I searched through the tall grasses on either side of my hammock and frantically tried to remember where I had left it. I was going to be in so much trouble at work when they found out! It took me a good ten minutes of panic and searching for it to dawn on me that I am a completely insane human being. I had to sit back and seriously consider if I had selfishly removed the hurt seal from my hammock to the beach so I could lay in it. After careful consideration I decided, no. that doesnt make any sense at all. It must have been the remnants of a very strange dream.
When i finally got back to seward 4.5 miles later I was so exhausted. I slept all day until the start of my shift. but I made it on time!!  P.S. Mom if you are reading this I'm sorry that I did something not smart and dangerous but I promise I learned my lesson and won't do it again! :)

dark hiking. The tiny lights in the distance is Seward. It was a long journey

Finally set up my hammock, exhausted and still a little terrified.

Everything is so much less scary in the morning. what a nice place for a little nap.

Work has been slow lately because we have few animals and the ones we do have are on their way to being able to be released! I got a two hour break the other day that I spent making cookies with Maggie. We had a large amount of dough that didn't fit on the cookie sheet so we took it out to the parking lot to eat it in the sunshine. This is seemed like a perfectly normal thing to do but from an outside source we were two strange girls sitting in the parking lot with a ginormous pot between us eating out of it with spoons. 

For the past 5 nights I have been sleeping in my tent that I set up in the living room! Its been a good alternative to actual camping. and me and maggie spent the afternoon watching frozen planet in it to heighten the outdoor experience. I was offered an extension on the internship until mid september! I think I'm going to accept it! I love it here and I really don't want to leave yet!!

Bucket list

Things are just getting crossed off my bucket list right and left here! At the beginning of the summer I made a list of adventures/activites that I wanted to do before I left. That list is dwindling now. Last week I had a super action packed weekend. On monday me and my Australian roommate set off to climb Mt. Alice! This is the peak I see out my kitchen window every morning and the highest in Seward.

That peak in the middle is Mt. Alice

This was from earlier in the summer, it doesn't have so much snow on it now

 The trail is completely unmarked and only known about by locals. After very specific instructions on how to get to the trail and minimal trouble finding it, we set off. The day was perfect, sunny and warm and not too cloudy. The ascent wasn't too difficult and the first part of the trail was through a woodsy area over tangled roots and rocks.  We came to a nice clearing partway up and enjoyed the view of seward across the bay. Two different kinds of eagles, a bald and a golden eagle circled around over head. We sat for a few minutes just enjoying the view, it already felt like we were very high up. When we broke above the treeline we had a great view of seward all the way out into open ocean and down the resurrection river. It was already breathtaking and we weren't even close to the end. As we came to a field of wildflowers we laid in them, munched on carrots and talked about our future plans. I really like hiking with Sophia, shes always up for an adventure and is silly enough to do handstands on the mountain with me and have snowball fights. Sophia left for Canada today and she will be missed dearly, I will miss her contagious energy in the apartment. 

When we got up to the rocky part of the hike I got really excited, I love scrambling over rocks and climbing in areas that are slightly unsafe. The rest of the hike was like this, rocky with scattered snow patches. 

Us as we broke treeline. The resurrection river is the in the background.

Alaska is alive with beautiful wildflowers

Awesome scenery and awesome company

Unfortunately you can't get to the very top of alice, the climbing gets far too technical. But you can get to above the bowl area. When we reached a nice grassy area above the bowl we looked out over the bay, mountains and Seward and it was absolutely stunning. I was floored by how much beauty surrounded me. I felt like I couldn't possibly stare at it long enough to appreciate it. It was so breathtaking and I got really emotional and actually teared up at how awesome it was. If you know me well, you know that this is quite a feat. I do not get sappy or emotional over hardly anything. When I stood up there overlooking the everything my eyes instantly filled with tears. I can't even describe how much I was moved by it, I could have sat up there forever.

The bay

Climbing on rocks!

livin in the clouds

It is hands down my favorite thing I have done in Seward so far, which is saying a lot. 

That night I went out with the other interns for Karaoke night! We got up to sing American Pie which unfortunately for everyone in the bar, is about a nine minute song. I had over looked this small fact when I requested it and I felt like we were all up there for an impossibly long amount of time. It was still quite fun. I love karaoke. 

The next morning bright and early was our next adventure! We got the 9am shuttle into the Kenai Fjords national park and hiked up to the Harding Ice field. The harding ice field is basically exactly what it sounds like. A ginormous ice field. It stretches out as far as you can see and is right over exit glacier. the trail is 8.5 miles and it basically straight up hill. It was a rough day for me because my legs were already sore from hiking Alice the day before. Near the end of the trail it turns in to mostly snow and you slide all over the place. Its pretty treacherous because if you fall you slide down the whoooole way. The view at the top was definitely rewarding though. It was just ice as far as the eye can see. I can also now say that I have made a snow angel in July, which is exciting for me. The trail was great but somehow it was overshadowed by my hike up Mt. Alice. The harding icefield was also awesomely beautiful but it for some reason didn't elicit the same emotional response that Alice did. I'm not sure that I am capable of feeling that again, Its possible that I was just tired when I hiked up but either way it was the greatest. 

Emily, Katrina, Katie, Josh and I partway up the hike

Exit Glacier!

Hiking through snow!

Little "emergency hut" (basically and empty room)

My snow angel!!

Overlooking Harding Ice Field 

Exit Glacier and the ice field

Awesome weekend overall. Oh also we saw a marmot on the way up which was cool. He looked like a cross between a fat guinea pig and a weasel. He also seemed completely unperturbed by our presence even after we started coming closer and taking pics of it.

My weekend was a short one, immediately following our return from hiking I had my first overnight shift. This shift goes from 11:30pm to 9am. I had no idea how my body would react to the lack of sleep and the weird hours. For the first few hours it was alright, I felt pretty good (the 4 cups of coffee didn't hurt). Around 3:30am I started crashing. I started singing loudly to try and keep myself awake and walking around a lot. The overnight shift is nice in the fact that you are by yourself and you can work at your own pace, but throughout my week of overnights my body really did not respond well. After my over night shift I couldn't sleep at all. I ended up getting only three hours during the day, and that was even after I had to drug myself with tylenol PM. It didn't help that the sun was shining and it was super beautiful outside. My mind just wont let me sleep when there are fun things happening outside. So for the first two nights I was extremely sleep deprived and I realized this fact when I took a load of laundry out at work and just stuck my face in the warm towels. I sat there for at least ten minutes with my face in the warm sea otter laundry before I realized that this was a very strange thing to be doing. After two shifts running on no sleep I was finally able to sleep during the day. It was unavoidable and I basically was sleeping before I hit the bed after my second shift. I only slept for six hours or so but it felt so much better than three. I'm glad that my week of overnights is over and I can stop being in zombie mode and adopt a more normal sleeping schedule. 

Last night was unexpectedly awesome. I spontaneously went ice climbing on exit glacier with a guy who works at a guide shop! It was amazing and the weather was perfect. he had all the gear ready for me and we hiked up and onto the glacier! It took me a while to get over the fact that I was actually standing on the glacier! so awesome. After a quick crash course on ice climbing we went right to it. I learned how to set up an anchor and some knots. We did three climbs. Theres nothing comparable to being lowered into a glacier crevasse. The ice gets bluer as you get deeper in to it and the walls are dripping. In one I had to flatten myself to get down inbetween a slab of ice. So awesome. Ice climbing was not as difficult as I imagined, its all about getting good foot holds by kicking your spikes into the glacier edge, also the ice picks. Then its just pulling yourself up from there. Its so exhilarating. I loved it. to get to a really good climb we had to walk over this TINY ice slab with deep crevices on either side. A little terrifying. we drank from a little glacier stream, some of the coldest and most delicious water I have ever had. We walked down the front of the glacier instead of taking the trail back to get to the car which is totally illegal because someone died doing it last year. As we were walking down he casually mentioned that he could lose his job if he was caught. oops. Midway down the glacier by a small glacial river, he dug into his bag and got out a water bottle. Margaritas! We hacked into the ice a little and put a handful of glacier ice into some cups and had ourselfs delicious glacieritas sitting on a glacier over looking the mountains and resurrection river below. Coolest moment of my life. Yesterday I touched a glacier, climbed into its crevasses, drank glacier water,  had glacier margaritas, and walked the whole length of it to the bottom. So successful. 

standing under an ice bridge

Setting up an anchor

So there you have it! My week of endless adventures! There is no way that I will ever be able to top this so you might just wanted to stop reading this blog now. haha. 

I lost the lake but then I found it

I am currently sitting in the library in Seward staring out the window into the torrential downpour. It has been raining non-stop since I woke up this morning and the forecast shows no signs of letting up any time soon. Seward weather is finally here. I had a good run with the sun for a while, but it seems to be taking a permanent vacation. I played outside in the sun, got burnt a couple of times, and actually wore shorts on two different occasions. I am pleased with the amount of time I got to spend in the sun and while I'm sad to see it go I'm also excited to see the real Seward weather! Speaking of real Seward weather, I feel like I'm becoming more and more of a real resident of this town. I know all the good coffee spots, got a library card, know how to show you on my hand where In Alaska I live, got a safeway card (with an outline of alaska on it) and actually gave an Australian couple directions the other day. If you know anything about me and my sense of direction you probably know that I most likely sent them in the entirely wrong direction, but It still felt good to say that I actually live here.
 Time passes strangely here, the halfway point of my internship came and went without me realizing and now I have only five weeks left here. It baffles me how fast the weeks fly by now. I didn't even realize at work yesterday that it was my friday until I was leaving the shift. This weekend will be a lot more subdued than last with all the rain. Last weekend I had lots of adventures in the sunny Alaskan wilderness. Monday me and my roommate Sophia drove to Exit Glacier (the only entrance to Kenai Fjords national park accessible by road). We hiked up the mountain a little ways until we came to a great view of the glacier and we sat on a nice rock together and just soaked up the beautiful view. We could see tiny humans down below trekking along the ice, which is still something I would like to try. The view was just 360 degrees of raw wilderness and mountains. One of the most beautiful places I have ever been. I can honestly say that I am the absolute happiest when I am hiking, especially in such a gorgeous place as this. I always feel like i'm just filling up with happiness like a balloon and soon i'll just float away into the blue sky and wispy clouds over the mountains and trees. such a great feeling.
Tuesday I did an awesome hiking trail called Lost Lake! It was 14miles round trip and covered all sorts of different landscapes. It started out in forest then came above the tree line exposing an expanse of snow capped peaks and many waterfalls running down them from the snow melt. Later the scene changed again to trekking through evergreen forests and mosses. Lost lake was nestled in the middle of a circle of mountains and was fed by snow melt.

Just as we broke the tree line

The flowers here are awesome

Sitting and enjoying the awesome scenery

Taking a well deserved rest mid-trek.

Here is lost lake!!

When we reached the lake It was still half frozen even though the air around us was hot and humid. I immediately pulled off my socks and shoes and waded in. Instantly, all the heat in my feet evacuated and was replaced with an awful stabbing pain. it was SO COLD. I couldn't keep my feet submerged for more than 30 seconds with agonizing pain. So i guess I couldn't go swimming. That is another thing I miss about Michigan. I love swimming so much, and it just kills me that I live next to a gigantic body of water that I can't swim in. Every time I see it I get the urge to just jump in. I know this would be a horrible idea, so I refrain. But I do miss lake Michigan, and swimming EVERYDAY in the summer back home. 

Us at lost Lake!

Maybe you can't tell but im in excruciating pain here.

Us- dirty, sweaty, and exhausted after we completed the hike! (left to right: Eric, Kaitie, Me, Cheryl and Emily)

It was such a perfect day for the hike and I am really glad we were able to do it in such good weather. 

Lets talk about work! I had the coolest weekend. It started off with a rather unfortunate event. Our most recent seal intake- 06 (due to press issues and doners being able to name animals, we were not allowed to come up with names for our seals) had been diagnosed with Megaesophagus. Its a congenital disease where the esophagus swells and the animal experiences extreme gas and regurgitation. It can be treated with antibiotics and we had to be extremely careful when tubing the seal, but it is not something that can be cured.  We guessed that this is the reason why the seal was abandoned by his mother in the first place. Its just survival of the fittest and he was not worth the energy the mother would need to invest in him. Its a sad truth but it happens more often than you would think. Saturday 06 had an acute aspiration event and suffocated and passed away. It was really sad but he had been in really bad shape. Everytime he regurgitated a little would trickle into his lungs and he was slowly drowning in his own vomit. At least he is no longer suffering and there was nothing else we could do for him. After a somber Dr. Elizabeth told us the news we had a moment of silence for the poor seal. Later we had the opportunity to practice exams on him and learned to take blood. For seals the best place to extract blood is through the spinal column inbetween vertebrae. So it was really helpful to be able to practice drawing blood on him. The next day I got to assist with his necropsy to further test and know for sure the reason for his death. We did end up finding fluid in the lungs so most likely this was the ultimate cause of death. I was in there for three hours with Dr. Elizabeth helping to take tissue samples and often holding back large pieces of flesh for her so she could cut out organs and weigh them and section them into pieces. This may sound revolting to some of you but it was the coolest thing I have done here so far. I love learning about the anatomy and seeing how everything fits together. I was even allowed to cut some of the organs out and do some of the dissecting. It was a really great learning opportunity. It was wonderful also how Dr. Elizabeth explained everything she was doing and why. She is a really good teacher and I learned a lot while I was doing it. I was definitally covered from head to toe in blood at the end, so I had to shower to come back into the rehab room and resume caring for the otters. Speaking of the otters, I am in love with our little girl otter. She is the most cuddly and affectionate little girl. Also her coat is coming along very nicely so she is so soft. I love her so much!!