'Go on a trip worth writing about.'

One normal day, one good day, and one great day. I believe my days are worth writing about! How about yours?

Monday 11th of June
It's still very early when my alarm wakes me; 5.45. But it's already very light outside, the sun has been up since 4.00 One look outside tells me it's gonna be a rainy day. I get dressed; wool underwear, brown Carhartt pants, green volunteer shirt, my own gore tex boots and bright orange rain gear. I pack my bag with multiple extra layers, food, water, camera, emergency package, bear spray and hard helmet. A quick cereal breakfast and trip to the wash building, and off I am!
I leave my cabin at 6.45 and walk up to the 'trails garden'. The entire Trail Crew meets in 'the shed' in the garden every day, for a 'good morning talk'. Today, we are welcomed by some seriousporcupine poop. Dan (Trail Crew supervisor) welcomes us and announces that one of the first SARs of the season is in motion; Search And Rescue. Two hikers went missing by Eielson Visitor Center yesterday, and the first response is containment. Six crew members volunteer and head out: a possible 24 to 72 hours in the wilderness. If the hikers aren't found within the first 24 hours, all of us will be send out immediately. Chances of hypothermia and dehydration are very big in these weather conditions.
My crew drives out to the Savage River Loop around 8.00. We're missing both our Crew Leaders, they are out on the SAR. Our trail is a half hour drive on the park road, which runs parallel to the Alaska Range. Driving on this road is often a highlight of people's holiday - for me, it's my commute! It's very rainy and incredibly foggy when we get to the Savage Trail Head. We unload tools from the truck and spend 15 minutes warming up and stretching. We hike out to our workplace, and simple 10 minute walk by the river. We spend our day working on drainage rock work; the multiple drainages from our new trail need to be strengthened with rocks so the water won't wash them out. It's very hard work: we dig big holes in hard and muddy ground with a pulaski and shovel, move heavy and big rocks around with rock bars, shape them with a single jack hammer, try to fit them like a puzzle (imagine the puzzle pieces being at least 25 kilo's), crush other rocks with a double jack hammer, fill any wholes up with crush, even it out with mud and tundra, and voila - another drainage is ready! Building a drainage usually takes a couple of days, and can both be very fun or frustrating. We take three breaks during our day, and hike back out to the trail head for shelter for each of them. I take a couple of photo's every now and then, and whenever the work gets too hard or frustrating I like to look up and admire my 'office'. I wonder how many people work in surroundings like these... :)
We drive out around 17.00, back to the trails garden were everybody gathers at the end of each day. Good news: the missing hikers have been found! They simply underestimated the different hiking here in Denali, but are doing well.
By 17.45 I am back home in my cabin in C Camp. I relax for a little bit with some salt crackers and Harry Potter (:p), shower, make a pasta diner, eat and do the dishes. The wash and water facilities are in the wash building, just down the path from my cabin. Kind of like on a camping. It's fun to run into other people and do dishes together. I spend the last part of my evening in the Rec Hall, using the (crappy) internet and watch some TV with a few other C Campers. That's one of the great things of living in C Camp: there are always people walking around, hanging out, watching a movie, baking stuff or simply 'being' in their cabin - and you can always knock on somebody's door. I go to bed around 22.30, exhausted, and try to fall asleep while it's still bright light outside.

Tuesday 19th of June
Another trails day! Today the sun is shining in a bright blue sky as I head out to the trails garden. Days like these are rare and precious in Alaska, and are to be used to the fullest. We have a short morning meeting (no porcupine poop this time), anxious as we are to get out on the trail in the sun we drive out at 7.15. Good morning Alaska!
Today is an exciting day, as it will be the last day we work on our first reroute. Our first task done! I spend the morning working on the very last rock work of 'my' drainage, crushing some rocks for trail coverage (swinging a 12 pound double jack hammer is really hard work), and revegetation; we replace the tundra mats that we cut out for the new trail on the old trail. It's so hot today (slightly over 20C feels like 30C in Alaska), that during lunch we sit by the river and dip our toes in the freezing cold glacier water! So lovely :)
I spend more time crushing rocks and working on the revegetation in the afternoon, but eventually have to hike all the way out to the Savage Box (check point on the park road) where I hope to find more water for our crew. Thankfully I can fill our water bottles here, our afternoon is saved! I also run into Matt, a friend from C Camp and a Wildlife Tec who came to check out the area. Yesterday we had a slight commotion and bear jam ('traffic jam' becomes 'bear jam') caused by a female grizzly bear walking around in the area. My first grizzly on the trail! She went far up the hills though, and I am good to hike back out again. We end our afternoon by hiking down the trail further to our new workplace, and setting out the new reroute. This involves quite a bit of thinking, looking, measuring, debating, and 'testing out'. This new reroute will be our longest this season; over a 100 meters! Once done, we hike back out to our truck (now almost a half our walk) and drive down to the very beginning of the park road, where we get ourselves some serious ice cream to celebrate finishing our first reroute! And also just because it's 20C, the sun is shining and ice cream is awesome ;)
My evening is somewhat chaotic and busy, but fun nonetheless. After a quick shower and leftover diner I walk over to the Denali Kennels, a short 10 minute walk through the forest and Headquarters area. I go here about four times a week to walk 'my' husky dog Chulitna. I 'adopted' her a couple weeks after I arrived, and have walked her ever since. Chulitna is ecstatic when she sees me. She very well knows that I come to walk her, and shows her enthusiasm by barking like crazy, running in circles, jumping up and down her little house and (when I approach her with her leash) giving me paws - basically slapping me quite painfully as she doesn't really know what she's doing. Chulitna may be an older lady (she's a little over 9), she's still very strong and can easily pull me over. So I hold her on a leash and keep an eye out for things that get her excited ('Oeh! Some other dog peed here! Let's run over, smell it and then pee on it myself!') or aggressive (Jipperdy japperdy pups or other proud females). I also keep an eye out for wildlife, as moose can always be walking around in the area, and they don't do very well with dogs.After the walk Chulitna is a lot more mellow and calm, and I usually stay with her for a while to brush her, sit with her, cuddle a bit and get my face licked. Lovely Chewy, I already can't imagine leaving her!!!
Once back in C Camp I head over to Jessica's and Jakara's cabin, where I also find Matt. Matt is going to be my model for tonight, as he is part of my 'Boys and Beards' photography project. As I told you before, most of the guys here are growing some serious beards, and I decided to photograph them to create an interesting portrait series. I've been pestering Matt about this for weeks on end, and tonight I finally get to shoot him! He jokes around, poses a bit awkwardly and follows my instructions until I'm satisfied. I'm excited about sharing the final series with you when they're done at the end of the summer! I hang around a little bit more, ask Matt and Jakara advice for my upcoming NOLS course, check my email and such, and go to bed too late around 23.00. I can't seem to go to bed earlier, there is always so much going on... :)

Friday 22nd of June
I wake up early in Will's cabin in Toklat. Jess and I took the last bus out yesterday, spend the evening with Julie and Ross, and crashed at Will's place for the night. Awakening in Toklat feels like camping in Chamonix all over again. Toklat is small, squeezed in between mountains and an impressing broad river, and it's a very beautiful morning with a blazing sun in a bright blue sky. Alaskaaa!
Jess and I have a quick breakfast (outside in the sun of course), gather our gear for the day, hike out towards the busses with Julie and Ross and off we go! Ross has planned another awesome off-trail-hike for us in Denali's wilderness, so excited! We get dropped off just before Stoney Overlook, and start our hike with half an hour of tundra crossing and bush walking. The grounds are quite dry and it's slightly downhill, so we move fast. We talk loudly, our voices carrying far to scare off any possible wildlife. But then the hike really begins; Ross picked out a nice little peak for us which requires a 2000-something feet climb...
The first part climbing is up dry rocks, grass and tundra, which goes just fine. The second part however, is incredibly steep up wet slippery rocks and hardened snow, and goes slightly less fine. Falling or sliding is not an option, so we take our time to make our way up. I have to kick my boots very hard in the snow every step I take, to make sure my footing is stable and I don't slide down a couple hundred feet. It's seriously challenging and pretty damn hardcore, but we all make it safely to the top and godsallemáchtig what is the view worth it! WOW!!! I think this may be one of the best views I've ever seen, anywhere. We celebrate our mountain victory with delicious summit cupcakes from Julie, some well deserved lunch, relaxing and even a small nap! That's gotta be the best nap ever, have you ever woken up to such a view..?! :D
We descend to the ridge line, which we will be hiking out east. Descending from the top is almost as hard as climbing it; we very slowly and slippery make our way down a very steep, rocky and muddy slope. It's almost too steep, and I'm glad when we reach the ridge line. We hike along the ridge for about two hours, going up and down and meanwhile admiring the view.
Then we start the last part of our descend, back to the park road. This quickly turns into a very unpleasant scenario, as Ross (our 'guide') and Julie get split up from Jessica and myself. Jess and I end up in a ridge which is impossibly steep and filled with more hardened snow, rocks, mud and water. We struggle our way down, but after almost 7 hour of serious hiking our bodies are becoming very tired. Legs shaking, unstable footing, no sight or sound of Ross and Julie and our PMA (positive mental attitude, your biggest survival friend in the outdoors) is quickly going downhill - a very dangerous combination. So we decide to take our chances, and vertically climb over the ridge in the hope of a better terrain. And yes, we are lucky! On the other side awaits us tundra and grass! We stagger our last way down the mountain, pretty much tear right through the knee-deep river and scream our way through head-high bushes to scare of bears, and finally get back to the road 8,5 hours after our hike started. We! Made! It!!! We throw ourselves in front of a bus and ride back to Toklat, where Ross and Julie await us with the best American pancakes I've ever had. All is well of course, and we laugh about our adventure.
We pack our bags and drive out east in Ross' car, much more comfortable and faster than catching a park bus. The ride home is pretty calm and with very little wildlife, that is... Until we hit Mile 7. Mile 7 is very close to Headquarters, and here is the place 'where things go to die'. Basically a scrap metal yard in the middle of the park. However, a couple years ago this also became the place 'where the newest wolf den is'. So every time when I drive by, I automatically turn my head to look up the little road to see if there's something out there. And this time, as I turned and looked - I saw a wolf. I quite literally screamed 'Wolf!!!', Ross hit the brakes and turned the car right around. By then the wolf had crossed the road and walked down a dried out river stream, but as we drove up, rolled down our windows and shut the motor off, he stood still and stared at us for a full 10 seconds, before finally disappearing in the woods. WOW!!!!! What an amazing first wolf sighting! To see a wolf in Denali is quite rare, and even more so to see one so close and so long! We are all completely awed and amazed, and I can't quite believe it. I keep saying 'We saw a wolf!' over and over again. What an amazing icing on the already wonderful cake, what an amazing day again... :)

Right now I'm standing on the verge of a very Big Adventure. Something so Big I believe (hope) it will influence my life forever. In just two days I will begin my NOLS course; my backpacking and sea kayaking course with the National Outdoor and Leadership School. I will spend two weeks backpacking in Wrangell St-Elias National Park and two weeks in the Prince William Sound, both in the south of Alaska.
My classmates and I will learn to survive in the outdoors, become team leaders and members, live the true Alaskan life. Off the grid, into the wild.