Day 21: July 10--Homeward Bound

Shane and I awoke early on our departure day and went out to breakfast with Andy for a debriefing session, while the crew leaders put out an awesome spread of eggs, potatoes, and BAGELS! for the students on the Island C. I know they were looking forward to hanging out with Tom, Mike and Allison one last time before leaving. When we returned, everyone was in the salon joking and laughing and perhaps pretending they didn’t have to leave today. But it was time for the seniors to leave—they’re flight left Kodiak several hours earlier than ours—so we had to spring them into action. We made plans to see them during our five hour layover in Anchorage; then Mike, Tom, Allison and Andy took them to the airport where they said their goodbyes. We took one last picture on the fantail of the Island C with the whole group, including Andy’s dog and our beloved mascot—Gauge. It took a number of timed photos to get him looking at the camera, but everyone was determined that he be in the picture.

Meanwhile, Hayley, Jon, Michael, Emily, Shane and myself packed completely and made a plan for our last few hours in Kodiak. We ended up sending some postcards and then walking through two of the museums in town. One told the story of the native people of Kodiak—the Alutiq—and the other was a house owned by one of the first Russian families that moved to the island. The Alutiq museum was particularly fascinating. It was in a very small space, but covered quite a bit of history nonetheless.

We arrived back at the Island C with just enough time to load into the van and head to the airport. It’s always a strange feeling to say goodbye to people that you’ve grown so close to in such a short window of time. I’m quite sure we all hugged the crew leaders and Andy several times. They worked and played their hearts out for and with us over the last three weeks, so with looks of appreciation and hopes of keeping in touch, we watched them stroll out of the airport and back to their lives in Kodiak.

We touched down in Anchorage on time, and were soon in touch with the seniors who already had downtown Anchorage wired. Only New York City kids would be so resourceful, I decided. They had arranged a central meeting spot and done a tour of restaurants to find the best one for us. The downtown area was not the cute, quaint, rustic neighborhood I was expecting. Yes, I watched Northern Exposure back in the 90s, and yes, I wanted to see something like that town during my time in Alaska, but to no avail. It was just your average, commercial downtown with a couple of strips of tourist shops and seafood restaurants.

After dinner we headed back to the airport to catch our series of flights home. We arrived back at La Guardia the following morning around 11:30, and our bags were miraculously some of the first to loop the carousel at baggage claim. Everyone’s parents were happy and relieved to see us back safe and sound, and we parted with hopes of a reunion dinner in early August.

A huge thank you is definitely in order to all of you that have taken the time to read our blog over the last few weeks. While this will serve as a meaningful chronicle for those of us who were on the trip, I don’t know if we could have been as diligent with it if it weren’t for knowing all of you were back home keeping up with us.

Happy Summer!

Melanie and Shane

Day 20, July 9th: Our Reminiscing Day

We decided to wake up a little later than usual after a long night of sea-bound traveling. It was definitely worth the rocking of the boat in the night to see those beautiful, green mountains of Kodiak again. It was also extraordinarily kind of Trevor and Andy to sail through the night for us and we thanked them both for their generosity. While they got some well-deserved sleep, we gathered in the common area and ate a quiet breakfast while watching Shawkshank Redemption.

At around 12, we decided to head to the Chowder House to quickly stifle our cravings for fish and chips and milkshakes. Jon seemed particularly happy to be there, laughing and joking to everyone in his vicinity. Though it was raining (what a surprise), it was refreshing to be back on human inhabited land; Everyone’s mood seemed lifted by our return to solid concrete streets, or perhaps that was simply the effect of our tasty, Alaskan seafood.

After lunch, we re-boarded the Island C and spent a good bit of the afternoon pulling all of the marine debris we’d collected out of the hold and into a staging area on at the town dock. Haley rallied our spirits by giving the clean up her all, despite our rainy conditions. Andy later told us he thinks we collected about 5,000 lbs, though we won’t be sure until we weight what we collected properly.

Once we finished with that, we did some quick housecleaning and headed into town for showers, which Ethan later told us was his favorite part of the day. After we were all dry and clean, we decided to spend some leisure time eating nachos and playing pool at a Mexican restaurant in town. Justin and Michael seemed to particularly enjoy playing, and as usual Tom’s infectious mood made it easy for everyone to relax and have fun.

We carried on having fun all the way to Henry’s, a local steak & seafood house. There we ate and conversed light heartedly and simply enjoyed each others company. Melanie and Shane decided to cap off dinner by thanking the students for being real troupers throughout the trip and “not whining”, a sentiment which Andy, Bill, and our trail leaders agreed. Melanie and Shane then thanked Andy for the opportunity to be here and do such rewarding work for the environment. Finally, they thanked Tom, Mike, and Ally for being such wonderful trail leaders and positive thinkers, topping off their sentiments by presenting them with an Alaskan cookbook, which we all signed.

Finally, after a lovely night together in town, Andy and Bill went home and we went back to the Island C. Tom, Mike, and Ally left soon after dropping us off with promises to cook breakfast for us the next morning and see us off to the airport. Shane and Melanie went to bed, reminding us that we should do some packing and preparation for the next day. Then, once we were all set, we, the seven interns, stayed up watching movie scenes, rejoicing in our accomplishments, and reminiscing on our journey together. Jasmine was right; we will look back on this trip years from now and think how amazing this experience was.
We start our trip back to New York tomorrow, and we can’t wait to see the hopefully smiling faces of our loved ones back home (though we hope they excuse us for our probable jet-lagged stupor). See you then.

-Emily Diaz

Day 19, July 8th – Dances With Porpoises

This morning we awoke with a bit more of an eye to the weather. During our morning meeting we all brainstormed on how to improve our ability to stay warm and dry during the workday. After girding ourselves in long underwear and Gore-Tex, we set out again for the beaches of Carshan Point. Upon arrival, it was back to the task of searching out and bagging any and all marine debris we could find. We quickly finished up our section and Andy led Justin, Bill, Haley, Ethan, and myself over to the final stretch of beach through a series of old game trails. We ate our lunch quickly, and used the remainder of the lunch hour to bask in the sun that had finally cracked through the clouds. It was turning into a completely different day than what we had initially expected. Needless to say, we were quite happy with the unforeseen change in the weather!

Post lunch we continued to clean the beach, finding most of the debris up at the line where the stone beach ended and the spruce and fir trees began. Justin called me over after about a half hour, and took me on a hike that he, Ethan, and Haley had found a few minutes before. The hike led around and over a series of hills made of exposed granite rock faces, green heather, lichen, and moss. There was plenty of bear sign around in the form of scat, vegetation that had been pushed down or dug up, and game trails that led to several freshwater ponds just up from the beach. Faced with the prospect of running into a Kodiak bear, we trod carefully, listening intently to any sound that was out of the ordinary cacophony of birds and crashing surf. We finally reached the high point we had been hiking for. At the relatively flat promontory on the top, we had a commanding view of the surrounding two bays and the collection of small islands that dotted the waters in front of us. We stood and soaked up this view for a while until we noticed Bill, picking up several sizable pieces of marine debris from the beach below us. We carefully made our way down the rock and heather clad hill, stopping when we came across several piles of marine debris near the bottom. We made a pile of the debris on the beach and then walked back to our lunch spot. Bill led the way and we stopped off at several of the small ponds we had noticed from our lookout spot.

By the time we arrived at our lunch spot, Andy had returned with the skiff. We loaded it up with debris and then convinced Andy to take us to the beach we had just left. He agreed, but unfortunately the beach landing was not as smooth as we though. There were a lot of rocks, and we could not bring the boat all the way in. After grounding out six feet from shore, we dragged the trash over to the boat, loaded it, and attempted to shove off from shore. Between my shoving, Justin’s frantic poling with an oar, and Andy paddling like mad, we finally got turned around enough to safely head out to sea again.

Both groups returned to the ship around 2:30, and after we sorted and stowed the trash Captain Trevor and Andy decided to haul back the anchor and return to Kodiak. The weather report had called for a storm to head into our operating area, so Trevor decided to head back to Kodiak via Shelikof Strait which separates the Kodiak archipelago from the Alaska mainland. It would be a safer run, albeit a bit longer, but it would shelter us from the 30-knot gusts and 10-foot seas that were being called for.
Around 4 p.m. and again at 8 p.m. we had pods of Dahl’s porpoise swim up to us and play in our bow wake for over 10 minutes. Captain Trevor said it was the longest he had ever seen porpoise do that. We figured it was from all of our shouting and laughing at this truly wondrous sight. The arrival of the porpoise heightened our already joyful mood, and folks settled in to a series of informal turns in the wheelhouse trying to get a glimpse of another pod of whales or dolphins before it got too dark to do so any longer.

Jasmine and Ethan get the award for longest turn in the wheelhouse, with Jasmine getting the opportunity to steer for the better part of an hour. She did a great job, and kept us going in a straight line pretty much the whole time.

All in all it was a good day. We gradually drifted off to sleep that night, our heads filled with the majestic views of wild, unspoiled nature, pods of dolphins surfing in our bow wave, and the sheer cliffs of the Kodiak archipelago looming over all.

Day 18, July 7, 2010: Perseverance

On Wednesday morning, we woke up early to a gray rainy sky and ate a simple breakfast made by our trusty breakfast crew, Tom and Ally. We prepared ourselves for the day at a slow but steady pace and armed with yellow bags and super sacks, we divided into teams and headed to the beach. While we faced torrential rains, we still had a productive morning. Team 1, consisting of Tom, Mike, Jasmine, Jon, Melanie, Michael, and myself, slashed nets and box tops while Team 2, consisting of Shane, Hayley, Ethan, Justin, Ally, and Bill (Andy’s father), continued to find bottles and cans of foreign origins.
On separate beaches, we broke for lunch, making up fun games to stay warm. Team 1 preferred to jive and hike through the unexplored forest while Team 2 played Shane’s special shark game and had a bunch of laughs. However, due to the continuous rain, we decided to call it an early day and headed back to the Island C. We then spent a few warm hours inside watching Mystic River with hot tea and popcorn.
Later in the afternoon, a ninja crew made up of our strong team players, Andy, Mike, Tom, Ethan, Shane, and Justin, took the skiff to collect our day’s load from the beaches while our skillful Island C team made of Hayley, Jasmine, John and Ally packed and stored our haul in the Island C’s storage hold.
Finally, after a long day, we raised anchor and sailed to the less turbulent waters of the Carry Inlet. We sat down to a warm dinner of grilled cheese and Melanie’s mother’s vegetable soup created by our amazing culinary crew, Michael, Melanie, and myself. Mike’s quote of the day, the first verse of the Circle of Life from The Lion King, lightened everyone’s mood and perception of the day. Reciting our day’s favorite moments became an eventful activity when both Hayley and Ethan shared the glass balls they’d found while sifting through driftwood on the beach earlier this morning. Everyone clapped and cheered, as they passed them around and Trevor, the Island C’s captain, informed us that if we find just one more glass ball we will have broken the Island C record for most glass balls found on a single journey.
Now we’re sitting in the common area while Tom plays the guitar, Shane and Melanie read, Jasmine and Mike manipulate the Rubik’s cube, Justin, Ethan, John, Hayley, and Michael play Apples to Apples and Ally creepily reads over my shoulder (hint hint, Allison). I’m signing out. We’ll be leaving Shuyak Friday morning and seeing avid readers of the blog very soon. Till then, buenos suenos.

-Emily Diaz

Day 17, July 6th The Return of Marine Debris….

The morning began with a breakfast visit by Travis, the ranger we had met yesterday. What an interesting guy. He was out here with only a few other interns for company for virtually the entire summer. He had very little contact with the outside world, and was subsequently pretty glad to see us and get some time to hang out and talk.

After breakfast was cleared and Travis had departed, we got underway for the northern tip of Shuyak Island for the final days of beach cleanup.

While steaming north, we were treated to a maritime law lecture from Andy’s dad, Bill Schroeder, who is the founding partner of a maritime law firm in Cincinnati, Ohio. The talk focused on pollution and who is ultimately responsible for it based on the commonly accepted boundaries nations have with the oceans that border them. It sparked a pretty interesting debate, especially with the BP oil spill fresh in everyone’s mind.

After lunch we were in sight of the northern tip of Shuyak, and we dropped anchor in one of the nameless bays that comprise this part of the craggy coastline. We set off in the skiffs in two teams and began to comb the beaches looking for marine debris. The beaches here had much more marine debris than Dead Bird Beach, and we only proceeded through a third of it before it was time to end for the day. We piled our collection of nets, line, fishing gear, and buoys into the bags and sacks, and left the majority of them above the high tide line for pickup later that night.

Dinner was comprised of Jasmine’s specially made sesame noodles and chicken. The students from last year began to regal us with their stories of folks finding Japanese glass balls on the beaches last year in this same spot, and just how difficult that was. Turns out that these balls were handmade on Japanese fishing boats in the 50’s and 60’s for use as floatation for certain types of nets. The glass balls are relatively small; so tiny they can fit quite easily into the palm of your hand. To find one is rare indeed.

As the discussion turned to favorites for the day, we settled in to hearing about the cool things people had seen or done that particular day. This had become a nightly ritual by now, and was something that the students looked forward to as a way to cap off our day.
Eventually, it was Melanie’s turn. She had two favorites, the scenery and…. when she found a glass ball!!!!! We all jumped up and shouted while Melanie did a little victory dance. I swear they must have heard us back in Kodiak we were all so loud.

After dishes were done, we sent out several ninja/wizard crews to go and pick up the debris we had to leave that afternoon. While Ethan, myself, and Justin accompanied Andy on that mission, Jon, Michael, Emily, Mike and Tom went out to kayak and explore the bay we were in. We stormed up on the beach grabbed the bags, transferred them to the skiff and then hoisted them onto the Island C for storage. One of the nastiest items had to be an old refrigerator that someone had tossed overboard years before. It was so rusty that we probably wound up losing half of it into the skiff on the ride back over to the Island C.

Finally, we were done for the evening. Everyone had returned home and we were anchored securely for the night. A very satisfying day, given that we had cleaned up so much trash in such a short time. So long for now!

Day 16 - July 5th – Dead Bird Beach

This morning we awoke and prepared ourselves for our first day of marine debris cleanup. Andy had made a presentation about marine debris to us the day before while we were underway. What he had to say was shocking. Marine debris is an umbrella term for any piece of trash that is thrown or lost overboard from vessels at sea. The majority of this debris is plastic in nature. Since plastic floats and takes a long time to degrade, it poses a hazard to navigation and a threat to the health of sea life for decades. Although it is common practice to dispose of metal, glass, paper, and food scraps at sea, precautions should be made to insure that the material sinks (example: punching holes in bottom of glass jars and metal cans) or it is dumped out so far it has little chance of reaching shore. Plastic, which is illegal to throw over the side in the first place, tends to congregate in two very specific places in the Pacific, called gyres, due to the prevailing currents and wind patterns of the Pacific Ocean (for pictures and related news copy and paste the following link http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/09/photogalleries/pacific-garbage-patch-pictures/photo2.html).

Occasionally, due to seasonal storms, plastic debris will be blown from these gyres and wind up on beaches that face the direction of these wind and wave patterns. Dead Bird Beach happens to be one of several beaches on Shuyak that have this dubious honor. Dead Bird Beach earned its moniker after oil soaked birds from the Exxon Valdez disaster washed up on it after that horrific spill in the late 1980’s.

We skiffed over to the beach, where we met with several Alaska State Park Rangers who had come over from a nearby park to assist us. We broke into several teams, and split up to cover the entire beach. The beaches in Alaska are vastly different from anything one sees in New York City, Long Island, or the Jersey Shore. The latter are beaches filled with fine to coarse grains of sand derived from quartz, and are part of a network of barrier islands that stretch from Texas to approximately Provincetown, Massachusetts. The former are comprised of boulders and cobbles that have been rounded by incessant wave action as well as abrasion, and are relatively large, in some cases a couple of feet or more across. Dragging fully loaded bags of trash up and down these beaches is no easy feat as the students (and I) will be quick to tell you.

Nonetheless, we patrolled the entire beach, packing out close to a thousand pounds of trash with us when we left after lunch. Once we were back at the Island C the process of loading the marine debris began. The small yellow bags of trash we had collected could go into the hold below decks, while the bulkier items had to be stored on top of the deckhouse or along the fantail near the stern. We had to use a boom crane for the really big stuff, which was a lot more fun then loading stuff in by hand. Finally, we had loaded all of the debris, and we skiffed back over to Shuyak for an afternoon of hiking and exploring the Alaska State Park and Visitor Center. The Visitor Center was a large log home built with timber from the site, and served as an informal headquarters for the staff of rangers and interns living there for the summer season. The property, which looked like it encompassed about an acre of land, also contained several smaller cabins for living quarters, a bathroom and sauna, and a fuel depot. After poking around and surviving several falls on the slippery front porch, we hopped back into the skiffs and headed out with Travis, the ranger on duty, for Hill 508, the highest point on Shuyak Island. 508 stands for the elevation of the hill that was the central focus of the hike.

The hike was remarkable. The trail was very primitive, only a foot across in some spots, and wound itself through a collection of mossy slopes and glens that looked to be out of a movie set of George Lucas. The tree were enormous old conifers, with their lower branches completely encased in wrappings of moss. The moss itself grew everywhere and completely carpeted the ground as far as the eye could see. By the time we had reached the summit, the rain had begun to fall again, so we were only able to grab a quick glance of the Island C swinging at her anchor far below us before the clouds closed in again.

After that, it was back to the beach and off to the Island C to try and warm up and dry off. Not bad for our first day doing beach cleanup.

Photo Update

Hi folks!

We are back and safe, with many exciting adventures to share. Please check out the blog which will be updated throughout today, and our pictures link. The link to pictures is found on the first page of the blog and now features many photos taken by our expedition photographer Justin Stewart (or J-Stew, or Team 1, as he is also affectionately known). Just click on one of the three pictures shown and it should take you to our gallery. Thanks for keeping up with us!

Day 15: July 4th Independence Day

On America’s birthday, we all woke to a warm breakfast of cheesy eggs and homemade bagels. Thinking that we were going to be underway in the next hour or so, we were surprised by Andy’s announcement that we were going to attempt to squeeze some whale/bear viewing before lunch. Split up between two skiffs, we were eager to start our adventure. Andy operated the skiff I was in, and captain Trevor operated the other. After perusing the nearby shores, it didn’t seem too promising that the bears would be coming out for breakfast. Andy slammed our skiff into maximum throttle and we motored out a mile away. At first we saw an innocent sleeping otter, simply floating on its back. While pausing to take advantage of the photo opportunity, we still kept our ears open for any other creatures that might say hello. We skimmed the waters for a little bit longer and there it was…that soft blast of mist in the air: WHALES! The whole skiff was silent, minus the periodic oohs and ahhs. The scene was the epitome of magnificent. There were at least three to five whales feeding all around us; at certain moments it was confusing to decide where to look! Afterwards we all returned to the Island C, enthusiastic to share our photos with others.

We proceeded underway while eating black bean burritos and watching Rush Hour 3. The ship stopped a couple times for people to fish. Jon Sabin caught a humongous ling cod…apparently you’re not supposed to touch its gills or mouth and the only way to pick it up is by its eyes. GROSS. I didn’t think Jon would pick it up for the picture, but he did!

Some of us began to feel queasy again and decided to go to sleep, but those who decided to bite the bullet of seasickness were rewarded by seeing Orcas (killer whales). Andy hadn’t seen Orcas in a few years!

I happened to be one of the nappers, and woke up to an abundance of classic July 4th food: grilled burgers, hotdogs, bbq chicken, grilled pineapple, watermelon, rice crispy treats and homemade chocolate chip bread (desserts were made by Hayley and Emily)— talk about a feast! Once everyone were revived from their food coma, we all crowded in the dark to watch the movie ‘Crash’ (not really an Independence Day movie, but oh well). Everyone thoroughly enjoyed it, but the festivities were not over yet.

We all congregated on the deck to shoot flares that have already expired (don’t worry, parents, it’s totally safe, and Andy notified the Coast Guard ahead of time). Crew leaders shot rocket flares while the rest shot hand flares. We attempted to shoot everything successively and then sang The Star Spangled Banner. It’s 12:30 am and the generator is off. The boat is making absolutely no noise, so I can pretty much hear every single conversation occurring right now. All I see are the soft white rectangles of everyone’s headlamps since there’s no electricity. Some people just pulled a prank on Shane and Melanie (mind you, it’s completely dark right now)— breakfast crew has to wake up in 7 hours— Hayley and Emily are about to attack me…I think it’s time for bed. Hope everyone had a great Independence Day!


-Jasmine

July 3rd - Day 14: En Route to Shuyak Island

Today began with an air of renewed excitement amongst our crew. We all slept well back on the Island C and the anticipation of our sea voyage to Shuyak inspired high spirits. Shuyak is the most northern island in the Kodiak archipelago. It takes between 8 to 12 hours by boat to get there from the town of Kodiak. Since the Island Sea makes about 7 knots (9 mph) at top speed, our arrival time was predicted to be closer to the 12-hour mark. It took a few hours for everyone to adjust to being on the water, but luckily the seas were relatively calm—maybe about 2 feet at the most. Thankfully, most folks did not experience much in the way of serious seasickness. Most everyone was just drowsy and felt the need to get some sleep.

By the afternoon everyone had awoken from his or her naps just in time for some humpback whale viewing. They were so close to the boat that you could here the sound of them spouting water through their blowholes. At this point we were over half way through the trip, and were coming close to our anchorage for the night in Kitoi Bay on Afognak Island. Afognak is the second largest island in the Kodiak archipelago and is just south of Shuyak Island. Both islands are largely uninhabited, being owned in their entirety by native Alaskan tribes who only allow resource extraction, fishing, some logging, and ecotourism to occur. On the way in to the anchorage Trevor scouted out an underwater shelf on a steep incline that he thought would be a perfect place to find rockfish and ling cod. The sun came out for us, right on cue as Andy prepared the fishing gear. Andy and Trevor taught us how to “jig” for rockfish and within minutes we were plucking them out of the water. Shane caught a tiger rockfish, which we were told is very rare. Trevor estimated that it was 80 years old! Most everyone caught at least two fish within seconds of their lures hitting the water, and for the next half hour the decks were a blur of flapping fish and smiling kids.

As we continued into the bay to our eventual anchorage for the night, Andy showed us how to clean a fish, but only Tom and Mike (our crew leaders) took to it. The fish went straight from the cutting board outside into the oven in the galley and before long we were eating our afternoon catch. What a life!

After dinner we dropped anchor and loaded into two skiffs to motor around the bay in pursuit of some bear watching. Besides being one of the safest anchorages on the way to Shuyak Island, Kitoi Bay is also home to a very large salmon hatchery. In these parts the presence of salmon usually equals Kodiak bear sightings, and we were hoping that would be true tonight as well. For some reason luck was not on our side tonight. We even docked at the hatchery and hiked around for a while in hopes of a glimpse. While we never saw a bear, we did find a rope swing that everyone took part in. I got some great videos as our city kids careened out over the lake and back. I am so proud of the how well they have adapted to country life and now boat life! We returned to the Island C after 11PM, but of course it didn’t feel that late since the sun was still out. Between the whales, the fishing, dinner, and the rope swing, I’m guessing this was one of our best days yet.

Day 13: Transition Day

We rose early today, filled our backpacks, broke camp, and headed back to town. We are getting ready for our week long trip to Shuyak today. The crew leaders are grocery shopping, Shane and I are doing laundry, and the kids are writing postcards and texting friends back home. We’ll head out early tomorrow morning and will be out of touch until our return on Thursday. Hopefully we’ll be able to upload pictures of bears and King Salmon upon our return!! We’ll also upload pictures from our time at Anton Larson Bay from this past week.

Hope all is well down there in the Lower 48! Over and out.

Day 12: The Long and Winding Hike

We slept in a bit with the knowledge that the trail was done and we had only some little cleanup things to do in the morning. Justin and I (Melanie) made cinnamon rolls out of some homemade bread gone wrong the night before and—much to our surprise—they were absolutely delicious. The “huevos rancheros” created with the remainder of the eggs and salsa made for a filling breakfast. We then split into two teams. One stayed at camp and cleaned up some trash that had been left behind years ago when someone lived at this spot. There is an old collapsed shack in the woods behind our campsite, and the trash looked like an old burn pile in the middle of a gorgeous forest. Justin and Michael made up an entertaining story about who these people were based on the tin cans and bullet casings they picked up. It made for a great dinnertime story.

The other team headed back up to the geoblock site to finish up some drilling so things would be neat and clean for the project to resume next year. We only completed what needed to be done in what Andy projects will be a three year project. Some of us were curious where the trail would ultimately lead, so in the afternoon mist we began our hike beyond our geoblock finish line to the end of the trail.

It took a couple of hours to reach “the end” which was a black rock beach on yet another beautiful Alaskan bay. The hike itself was quite challenging. One of the main reasons the geoblock trail ITN is building is so important is that the ATVs have cut so many trails through the wetlands that the many areas were virtual mud pits. When the geoblock trail is complete, they will reseed these other “social trails” to restore the natural beauty of the forest. Jasmine was the mudpit’s first victim. Shane and I could hear the laughing far down the trail and when we came upon Jasmine, her left leg had sunk in mud about an inch away from the top of her boots. Before the boys agreed to pull her out, they took time for a photo op and video. A few steep hills later, Hayley met the same fate, although she sank boot deep with both feet. And like Jasmine, she took it in stride, laughed it off with the rest of us, and kept on walking. We are so proud of how tough our New Yorkers are in the backcountry of Alaska!!

The hike was quite challenging but the beaver lake, the bear tracks, and many scenic overlooks made it worth it. We felt like we were truly “in the wild.” When we got to the beach, the mist had become heavier, but we just put our hoods up and went about our rock skipping contests and beach exploration. We found a small wooden cabin up in the woods, another buoy swing, and an outhouse with no door. The cabin had a number of bunks in it, and on a high wooden table by the only window rested some sort of animal skull. It was a little creepy but mostly utterly fascinating. Talk about living off the grid! There was no one around though, so perhaps this was someone’s hunting cabin or something.

Down on the beach we found a complete otter skeleton! We speculated that a bear had gotten it and dragged it up on the beach, which would explain why it was so far from the water.

I could have sworn that our hike to the beach was mostly uphill, and was astonished by how many hills we had to climb on our way back. We were all pretty beat when we got back to camp. We ate a hearty dinner, and most of us turned in early. Another great day in Alaska!

Day 11: Goal Attained!

Today was an important day for ITN and for us. While the CGPS interns didn’t start the trail, we laid a tremendous stretch of geoblock and finished what needed to be done for this summer. The crew leaders were proud of our speed since we finished a day earlier than expected! To make things even better, it was a very dry day at Anton Larson. We even had some sunshine in the afternoon, and at about 9:30 that night the skies turned blue and we got the first direct sunlight we had seen since our first day here. Ethan and Shane went to work on a campfire right after dinner and soon enough we were roasting marshmallows and making Smores. It’s amazing how much fun you can have when the sun doesn’t go down. After an hour of sitting around the campfire, we walked over to a buoy swing that the crew leaders had rigged. Justin, our resident photographer, took some great shots of “the buoy swing Olympics” commentated by our very own Jon Sabin. We won’t be able to get Justin’s photos on the site until we get back, so let me explain a bit about what a buoy swing is all about:

Many fisherman use large round rubber inflatable buoys to mark their crab pots. They are about the size of a hippity hop (if you remember those) and a myriad of them are lost while fishing and wash up on the beaches here. They are then tied to trees like tire swings would be. The one at Anton Larson is particularly exciting because you have to climb a bank to get to it and then you swing out from the bank and back. It’s pretty safe though, because you can just sit on the ball and there is a line attached to the bottom as well, so you can be reeled back in if necessary.

After the buoy swing we rekindled the campfire and enjoyed the sunshine until after midnight. The light was incredible on the snowcapped mountains that surrounded us. I believe Justin spent some time trying to capture it on camera. All in all, a picturesque way to end the evening.