Embracing the Unexpected : 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: