Arrival

The Talkeetna Mountains in the distance

I flew into Anchorage around 8pm Wednesday, and was picked up by John Wilber, the Chief Ranger for the Matanuska and Susitna Valleys. My flight from Texas took me over the Canadian Rockies, and their snow-capped peaks reaching above the clouds gave me a slight preparation for the beauty I would soon see during my descent: flying over the Prince William Sound, I beheld the Alaska Range and the Chugach Mountains rising like a massive and ancient city wall around Anchorage. It was still light; during the summer months in this part of Alaska the sun is below the horizon a maximum of 6 hours each day (the night gets shorter as we approach the summer solstice, June 21st, when the sun dips below the horizon and then immediately rises), so it never gets fully dark but rather “dusky.” John picked me up outside baggage claim and I hoisted my camera bag, guitar, backpack and mini-backpack full of mom-made baked goods into the back of his Alaska State Parks truck, and off we went. Anchorage is the largest city in the state, though the capital is Juneau. It has a few skyscrapers but really isn’t a “big” city; the population of the whole state of Alaska is only 640,000. As a point of reference, the population of Charlotte, NC is around 630,000. As we drove north I bombarded John with questions, and he politely answered with the patience of a man who has been interrogated similarly before. The day was overcast (the Alaskan spring is short, wet and generally nasty, but summer foliage is just now peeking out and summer is on the way), but as we crossed the Knik River a slant of promising golden sunlight valiantly fought its way through the clouds and cast a warm glow on the white peaks of the Alaska Range, and the grandeur of those mountains filled me with an awe held but a few times in one’s life.

We rode along Highway 3, one of Alaska’s few long roads. (Despite being larger than the three next largest states of Texas, California and Montana combined, our country’s biggest state has fewer miles of road than Rhode Island.) The forests here consist of mainly Paper Birch (Betula papyrifera), with white spruce (Picea glauca) and black spruce (Picea mariana) filling in between. Around 9:30 we pulled onto the Nancy Lake Parkway (which runs through the park and provides access to camping sites and boat launches), and John drove me around for a brief roadside tour.

The Nancy Lake Parkway

He hoped we would spot some wildlife, and soon enough, a Common Porcupine (Erethizon dorsatum) waddled across the road in front of us. (I picked up a useful Alaskan wildlife book, so I’ll try to accurately identify any species I spot.) It being my first porcupine sighting, I was excited, but John said he hoped to show me a bear or a moose. And sure enough, after seeing one of the campgrounds and a few of the lakes (the park contains over 15), on the way back we were lucky enough to happen upon a moose (Alces alces). John said it was a two year old female, and probably had recently been pushed off on its own by its mother. Seeing us, she leapt over a downed tree and ran into the woods a bit, then stopped and turned, staring at us while we stared at her. Moose are majestic, beautiful creatures, and hopefully I’ll get some photos to show you later on. We rode on to my house for the next three months, the Tippe Building, which is located near the park entrance about 150 feet away from the Ranger’s office. I was introduced to my roommate Jacob, and I moved my gear inside to my bedroom on the lower level. Though it’s been too cloudy for me to yet see it, supposedly on clear days we can see Mount Denali (McKinleyi) from our kitchen window. The building has a gas stove, heat and electricity, but for running water we make a short trip to the building next door.

My home

My roomMy kitchen

It was around 11pm local time (still daylight outside), which meant 3am back home, so after waving John goodbye I quickly made my bed and fell into a deep, Alaskan slumber.

Thursday morning I had volunteer training, held at the fire station in Wasilla. I had missed the first day of orientation, but was assured my absence would not result in a life-threatening lack of information. Leanne (I’ll have to check the spelling of her name) picked Jacob and me up, and we headed into town. At the 8:30am coffee social I met some of the rangers, staff and other volunteers from the area. Other than Jacob and me, all of the volunteers were middle-aged and up campground hosts, with retired couples making up a good percentage of the group. To my surprise, three or four of the hosts were from North Carolina. The orientation began, and the day passed quickly as we went over signage in the parks, rules and regulations, janitorial procedures, etc. Though much of the information did not apply to me as a member of the trail crew, it was good to get an all-around feeling for the parks system. Ranger Kim talked to us about bears and moose, which are really the only potentially dangerous species in this area (though I’m sure a porcupine could do some damage). We reviewed what to do when one comes upon one of these animals, a set of procedures which is extremely interesting. Though the best preparation for a bear encounter is to ensure that it never happens by singing, talking and otherwise alerting any bears in the area of your presence while in bear territory, if you do stumble upon a bear and are forced to react, DO NOT RUN! This will trigger a predatory instinct in the animal and will likely result in it chasing you. Instead, raise your arms, making yourself as big as possible while you stand your ground. If the bear does not advance, slowly back away, keeping your eyes on the animal at all times and continuing to talk calmly and firmly to it. If the bear perceives you as a threat (which may be the case if you disturb a mother with her cubs) and charges you, you must resist your seemingly logical urge to flee. I know, easier said than done when a 1,200 pound Grizzly is coming at you, right? But it is imperative that you do not run. Over 90% of bear charges are merely bluffs, and will stop short of actual contact. Once the bear stops advancing, continue to slowly back away. If in the unfortunate event that the bear actually attacks you, two different scenarios call for two different reactions. Though I won’t go into detail here, there are ways to tell if a bear’s aggression is defensive or predatory. If defensive, you should drop to the ground and lie on your stomach with your fingers interlaced over the back of your head and neck, playing dead. If the attack is predatory, fight back with all you’ve got. Try to wound the bear in the face, especially the nose and eyes, as these are its most sensitive areas. The Ranger recommended carrying bear spray, a kind of super-strength pepper spray, to deter any bears that come too close. But she also assured us that “bear-anoia” is a widespread epidemic among Americans, and that the actual threat of this quite human-tolerant species is much lower than popularly though: between 1980 and 1999, only 15 people were killed by bears in Alaska. And we have to remember: we’re invading their space, not the other way around.

In the rare instance of an aggressive cow or bull, a moose can be evaded with little difficulty if there are enough trees to circle around, though in a flat-out run they would easily overtake a human. Encountering a mother moose with her calf is one of these situations where you could count on aggression toward any stranger. But the real problem occurs when they come onto the highways. As you can imagine, striking a 1,800 pound bull moose at 60mph can end tragically.

Friday
Our trail crew supervisor, Chris, isn’t here yet, so Jacob and I had the first half of today to wander around and get to know the park a little bit.

American Robin (Turdus migratorius)

Under a clear blue sky we trekked down the parkway this morning and walked some of the paths to Nancy Lake, where we visited a few of the Public Use Cabins. (The park has 13 cabins available for rent, so if you’d like to visit…) Before starting down a winter ski trail (Nancy Lake SRA is a popular cross country skiing destination in the winter), we spotted a young moose similar in size to the one I had spotted on my first day. About half a mile down the trail I caught sight of what I believe was a Ruffed Grouse (Bonasa umbellus) before it scampered into the brush. After we returned to Tippee, I gathered some Fiddlehead Ferns (Dryopteris dilatata) to throw in with my pasta for lunch.

Fiddlehead ferns are immature wood ferns.
They are high in potassium, iron and Vitamins A, B and C, and can be sauted,
cooked, battered and fried, pickled, frozen or canned.
The taste is similar to collard greens, I think
(Be sure to pick the ferns while still tightly coiled; mature ferns are toxic)

We later headed to Nancy Lake Campground with Vic, the Natural Resource Technician for the Willow area, to do some work on the pump well there. Tomorrow morning brings my first full day of work, so I’ll sign off for now. It takes a little longer to get to sleep when it looks like it’s 6pm outside.