Dog Camp 2015, Living on the Mendenhall

Hello everyone!
Thank you for being patient with me this summer. I have been wanting to get a post up about life on the glacier and the fun things I do on my days off, but as you previously saw with the fire my spare time has been minimal.

I want to welcome and thank all of the new viewers to my blog! I have handed out over 500 business cards in 2 months to my guest on the glacier and can not wait for all of you to learn about how I chased my dreams and how anyone can reach their goals through perseverance.


Since May I have been living on the glacier with 19 other people working 12-15 hour days everyday and getting about 24-36 hours off a week. We have no running water or electricity which means no plumbing and no showers. When the sun shines it burns everything even the inside of your nose due to the reflection off the snow, sunglasses can never be taken off or I get instant headaches from the amount of light. When it rains we still work and everything stays wet for days. We crawl into damp sleeping bags at night and put on damp work clothes in the morning. When the clouds engulf us we don't have tours so we don't get paid, yet we still work, however we do get to relax a little bit.  This is the ultimate camping experience! Though all of that may sound like horrible living environment, it has been one of the greatest summers I've ever had!

The group of people we have this summer has been incredible. We work well together and get along even better. The girls are amazing it is so refreshing and beautiful to be surrounded by strong independent women who embrace each others strength.

So a typical day on the glacier, if the sun is shining: We are in our dog lots by 6am to feed, scoop poop, water, and zinc and visine the dogs. Yes, even the dogs need sunscreen and eye drops to protect against the sun. Once our lots are done which usually takes 30-40mins we go have breakfast made by our fabulous cook. This leaves us with about an hour or so to get ready for the day and tours. We can give tours every 30mins from 8:15am- 7:15pm everyday of the week. Correction, Mondays don't begin until 12:15, but Mondays we spend our morning moving all the the tents in camp and raking dirty snow so don't worry we still get stuff done. Busy days can be 10 tour days, my most is 11 in one day so far. I love getting to meet so many people from all around the world! So far I have had guest from New Zealand, Australia, Brazil, Singapore, Chile, Mexico, India, China, Porto Rico, Columbia, Cuba... the list goes on. It has been amazing to share my passion of dog sledding with so many and to help them understand these dogs love their job more than I love my job. That's saying a lot as I have always wanted to be a dog musher. As the last tour leaves everyone in camp hits the trails with 5 gallon buckets to begin clean up duty on the trail. this can take about an hour to do a 1.5 mile trail. Then it is time to care for the dog lots feed, check waters, scoop again, meds, etc. Once dog yards are done we usually have our family dinner around 9pm.  After dinner 3 people work together to do all the dishes and the next day they will be in charge of "honey buckets".  Lunch, don't worry I know I missed that, most of the time it is a run in and grab something and eat as you walk back to your dog lot. I have amazing handlers that occasionally on busy days will bring me lunch to make sure I get time to eat, love those ladies!

So there it is a typical day in dog camp. However when it rains nothing changes besides you have full rain gear on and still feel soaking wet :P   WXCL days can be nice, when the clouds are to low to fly we can sleep a bit, do yard work, read, relax, run the dogs for fun... what ever we choose as long as the work is done.


We do have a lot of fun though, the girls are awesome and decorated my dog lot for my birthday last week, and we have small theme parties to enjoy the down time. glacier gaudy glamour party was one, we have camp wide snowball fights often, had a Harry Potter read out loud time... We have become family up there and I am beyond grateful for everyone up there who has kept my spirits up in the mist of the struggles I've faced this summer.

When I am down in Juneau for my days off we try and make the most of the short time we have. I have been sea kayaking, ice climbing, and exploring.

Here are some good photos from the summer thus far, enjoy:

Not everyone, but still some amazing people of dog camp 2015

Welcome to fog camp...

We had some snow this summer mixed into the rain

Dozer and Bodie ready to work

Eagles everywhere around here

We so strong!! 

My summer home

Full moon early season

Tent moving

My handler and I for a run

Always representing my roots! Wisconsin flag in my dog lot

America Pride

Back to work

talent show

Scooping poop on the trail first week when we were sinking into the snow

Mendenhall Lake

I live up there

Ladies Night

They trusted me to cook breakfast for camp one day...

Tanning on our ice beach

Muskrat joined me inside for a night when he had a bad infection on his leg

Carvase

Our door broke during a huge wind storm... duct tape to the rescue

Full poop buckets

My girl India

Muskrat my boy

Yarrow

Black Bear dumped the trash he was right behind us and we didn't notice for a few minutes.

Stockeye Fire

As many of you may have heard by now a wildfire swept through my Alaska home town of Willow June 15th.

I came off the glacier that Sunday and learned about the fire and that it was just 5 Miles north of DeeDee's property. I began checking the news to find out everyone was being evacuated from our neighborhood and the community. I can not even explain the feels that began.

I called Dee to try and learn more. She told me she was at Martin Buser's kennel with all the dogs and that she absolutely loved my friends and didn't know what she would have done without them. I was slightly confused. I learned that 4 of my amazing friends from rugby were driving down from a tournament up north and as they drove by the fire and road blocks immediately turned into my neighborhood and went straight to jaimee and Justin's to try and help. Once they finished at their house they went to DeeDees where they help her load all 52 dogs up and evacuated them.

These ladies are my angles, they grabbed my Lucy girl right away without hesitation and told Dee they would keep her. They even went to Martin's to help set up and unload all the dogs. They went their almost every day for over a week to help care for the 300+ dogs evacuated at his kennel. They have even been back to help start the clean up processes at DeeDees.

I didn't sleep at all Sunday night I watched the news as the fire took everything. I was informed nothing was left of DeeDee's, my friends whose lost their house in December again lost everything they had rebuilt, and other friends in the subdivision. I could even grasp the realization of what was happening. I had to return to work Monday night.

Work was a blur... All I wanted was to be with my willow family. But Wednesday brought a miracle. My friend who is a state trooper went by the property to check on things and out of nowhere I got a picture of Chase's ashes. I was in shock and very confused.  He then sent more pictures asking if the boxes were mine.

The fire destroyed everything on DeeDee's property except the building I lived in that had the majority of my belongings.... The freezers attached to it burnt and scorch marks were found on the build but it never caught on fire....  My friend told me Chase must have been watching over it for me.

Words can not begin to explain the emotional rollercoaster I have been on the past couple of weeks. I am grateful for my belongings that survived and that Mike and Dee have a place to live in still, yet completely heartbroken for the lost of the kennel and their home along with my friends homes. 

I do not know what I would have done without the amazing friends I have made this summer. They have kept me going and made me laugh on a daily basis. I'm still sick but finally getting a bit better. The support they've provided here is immeasurable.

To my lady ruggers, my sister's thank you, from the bottom of my heart, thank you for your incredibly selfless acts of helping to save all those dogs. For sending me loads of pictures of my fur babies that I miss so much. I don't know how I would be getting through this without you.

To the guys who discovered my stuff survived, thank you. Thank you for removing it to a safe place away from possible looters and the possibility of the fire coming back.

For everyone, family, friends, strangers that reached out to offer me support I can not thank you enough!  Your love is humbling and immeasurable. I feel so incredibly blessed.

I am proud to call Willow home and proud of the people in the community who always come together to help everyone.

To the firefighters, police, evacuation helpers, everyone. Thank you for doing what it took to protect and defend Willow. The fire is finally contained and people are beginning to move back to their properties.

I still have not made it back there yet and realize this will all become real and hit even harder once I do in a few weeks. 

I will add a few photos that were all sent to me by friends. 

Please continue to send prayers and live to the people of Willow, and the rest of Alaska as more wildfires burn throughout the state.

A friend was amazing and began a go fund me account for me when it happened, but after finding out my things made it I want to give everyone the chance to cancel their generous donations. Or unless otherwise directed I will split the funds between DeeDee, Jaimee and Justin. They have been beyond amazing to me and both need to rebuild their kennels.

Dog Camp 2015

IFor the last month I have been working for Alaska Icefield Expeditions in Juneau, Alaska. My official job title: DOG MUSHER :)

I give daily dog sled tours on the mendenhall glacier here in Juneau anywhere from 2-10 a day. I have a dog lot of 35 dogs that came from Montana that I am fully responsible for as well as I pick my teams each tour and teach people about this amazing life.

I have really enjoyed meeting people from all over the world and getting to share what I love with them. 

To get here was a long 3 days of traveling with 65 dogs from Happy Trails Kennel.  I road down with Tim who will be a rookie in Iditarod this coming year. 17th dog kennel also traveled with us with their 45 dogs. We had a very eventful ride with the truck dying for a few minutes and blowing 3 trailer tires in Canada to a 5 hour ferry ride with 10 dog trucks!  It felt great to finally reach Juneau.

We had to hang out at "the station" for 3 days until the weather cleared up for us to fly the dogs up.
The station as we call it was an old gas station that has been turned into our summer home for days off. It has bunk beds, showers, laundry, bathrooms, and a kitchen for us.

To get to the glacier we take a helicopter. So when dog day finally happened we flew 280 dogs up 8 at a time plus our gear. Then built all their houses in snow that we punched through past our knees. It was a very very long day.

Dog Camp, as it's call here on the glacier consists of 8 dog lots and 13 tents. We have a kitchen tent and a wonderful cook who makes us amazing meals 3 times a day and at least 1-3 roommates. 19 of us up here all the time getting 1-2 days off a week.

We have no running water, no electricity. Luckily the light from the moon reflects beautifully off the snow it never seems dark out.

We have 2 portapottys that have 5 gallon buckets that get dumped in a barrel twice a day. Once that barrels are full they are slung up and flown off.

We do dishes at night with all the water that is flown up. Every Wednesday we have our food flown up.

Every Monday we have to move our tents so they stay level as the snow melts. We actually hook up ropes and 8 people pull it into place.

Living on a glacier is intense but so magical. I catch myself many mornings questioning if this view is real. I am grateful for this job opportunity and do enjoy being unplugged from my phone most of the week.

I do get enough service to text during the day and when the generator is on I'll have some data on my phone.

 

Please take a minute to look at the new shopping and contact tab.

I fly back to Wisconsin this Thursday for the first time in a year to celebrate my friends wedding.  I will get another post up soon to explain more about the dogs and how we care for them, but as I said before my computer broke so I'm doing this all on my phone.

Thanks for following and sharing my blog always up for answering questions.

Take care!

Hawaii

So I decided that I needed a mini vacation before I began my summer job as a dog musher on the glacier. I took 5 days and went to see some friends in Hawaii. It was the perfect trip and just what I needed. Sunshine warmth and sleep. Got out on a boat went swimming and ate lots of fish. Here are a few photos. Also my posts will be coming from my phone for now since my computer just broke so I'm sorry for the delays and short updates.

I also have a shirt for sale for my blog to help raise some money to buy the text books I need for school. You can find the link under shopping tab.