Mailing Packages to Me

Back to the Future

When cell phones first came out I wasn't interested in them at all.  Eventually I saw a reason to have one.  Then they became more than just a phone and everytime I went to renew my contract I had to argue with the saleman about the type of phone I wanted.  I just wanted to make calls.  Now my phone is a camera, video recorder, alarm clock, and a time keeper and oh yea, a phone.  I know my phone does more than that but those are big moves for me.  I even starting texting the last couple years to the amazement of my children.  So now that I moved into the future, I wanted to be sure I could pick up a cell phone on our first day there and keep in touch.  I currently have Sprint but they don't have hardly any coverage in Alaska.  If your in Anchorage it works pretty well but the rest of the state is a dead spot. So I brought up the 14 page yellowpages and looked up the cell phone dealership in King Salmon.  They had one year contracts for just $24.99 a month.  I thought good so far then here is what it includes.  Every call coming into my cell phone was free.  If I call out on my phone and I am in Alaska it will cost me 13 cents a minute.  If I call out on my phone from the lower 48 its only 6 cents a minute.  Now I am quiet.  13 cents a minute for me to make a phone call.  After a minute of silence, she goes.  "I know, we just tell people to get a calling card and call people and tell them to call you back and remember all the calls coming in are free."  While she is saying this I'm thinking no there not they cost me $24.99 a month.   I didn't even ask if they had text messaging as this is about the only way to talk to a few of my boys.  I'm not sure I could afford it, but I doubt its available.  So seems to me that having a cell phone in Alaska isn't a smart move.  Though Alaska's motto is North to the Future, after I leave Anchorage I will be going back in time.

Impatience

Twenty three days left before departure and I can't wait.  I still have a ton of things to do but I would just like to leave. It is hard to concentrate on the mundane tasks when I know adventure lies right around the corner.  I started packing some things last night. It felt good! Todays goal is to answer a few questions about King Salmon.  Only thing is with the three hour time difference I can't get started with phone calls for awhile. I am not good at being patient.

Lists

Yesterday, I spent the day creating lists.  I now have a list of grocery items I would like to have shipped to me to fill my empty Alaskan cubboards.  I have a list of things I am probably going to need for the field work I'll be doing.  I have a list of what I want to take on the plane, if possible and a list of items that will be shipped up asap.  I have a list of who I need to visit before I leave and a time schedule of when I can see them.  Last but not least, I have a list of things I should get done before I leave.  It was the list I started working on first.  The thing is, for every item I got done yesterday I added two or three more things.  Just so you all know, I will be on the plane list finished or not!

Questions, Questions, Questions???????

Sunday mornings we usually sleep  in.  This morning I just laid there while Ken slept, wondering about things in Alaska.

What will my new home look like?  Will it have a view?  How far away from the office is it?  Does the mail arrive at your door or do you have to go to the post office to pick it up.  Is there a post office?  Will we see wildlife life in the yard?

What time does the sun rise?  What is it going to be like to have the sun stay up for so long in the summer and be gone for so long in the winter?  Will we see the northern lights our first night there?  What does a starry night look like?  Will we hear the wolves howl? 

What will the grocery store look like?  Will it have bacon?  My dad told me he heard milk was $11 a gallon could that possibly be true?  What kind of frozen foods will they have when everything has to come in by barge?  How much is our diet going to change?  Will they sell fish, moose and caribou at the store for those of us that don't have a freezer full of food?

Will the taxi be big enough to get Craig, the animals and all our stuff to the new place after we land? Hopefully, it is a pick up.  How many buildings will actually be included in "the town"?  Will we be able to get our new cell phones right away when we get up there so we can talk to everyone?  Will the internet be set up at the house? Will I be able to tell Ken we made it in a timely manner before he sends out the troops to make sure we are safe? 

Are all the government employees housed together?  If they are, will you be able to have a private  life?  When I worked at Devils Tower all the employees were housed together and on your days off you were told to get away from the park to give yourself a break from everyone.  Where will I go to get a break?  Will I be able to get around without getting lost?  Do I need to get an Alaska Drivers License right away when I won't have a car?

These were the things going through my head while Ken slept peacably.  I  can't wait to get all the answers!  If you ever have a question don't be afraid to ask?  I'll try to answer them all, yours and mine.

Brown Bears Mythical or real

I have been backpacking since I was 16.  Back when brown bears were found on coastal habitats and grizzly bears were 100 miles inland.  Now they are known to have the same DNA so the grizzly bears became brown bears.  I have hiked through the northlands of MN, the Black Hills, the Bighorns, Yellowstone numerous times, the Tetons, Glacier National Park several times and the Sierras.  Never have I come across a brown bear.  I have seen plenty of black bears.  I even worked with them in MN where I worked with a professor who was doing a heart study on the black bear population.  We would set traps for the bears and when one was captured we would tranquilize it and do a ultrasound of its heart.  Once we caught a pregnant female and I got to see the cub inside her stomach.  It was totally cool.  Yet I never have had a chance to see a brown bear.

A few years ago we drove up through the Canadian Rockies National Parks on our way to Alaska.  Every quarter of a mile were signs that said beware of wildlife and usually there was a picture of a brown bear on the sign.  Did we see one?  NOPE.  We were in Alaska for 10 days and everywhere we went people would say "you just missed a brown bear".  One night in Juneau we arrived at our camp sight way after dark.  We quickly set up our tent and zonked out for the night.  I awoke to the sound of water splashing.  Not knowing what to expect I crawled out of the tent. We had set up camp four feet from a stream where salmon were running.  Not just one or two but quite a group of salmon.  When I surveyed the rest of the camp site it was surrounded with salmonberry bushes and the berries were large and ripe.  You could not have asked for a better calling card for brown bears.  We spent three nights there.  How many bears did we see?  0!!!!!  After that trip we started saying that brown bears were just mythical creatures.  We had to admit they were real after we finally saw one in Yellowstone last year.  We saw a female and two cubs in a valley and we sat on the hillside just watching the cubs play while the mother ate.  It was Awesome.

Yesterday I read the book "River of Bears" by Tom Walker and Larry Aumiller.  This book talks about the brown bear population on the McNeil River just north of Katmai National Park. The book was about the history of the brown bear in that area.  Like Katmai, the brown bear population there is quite high and also like Katmai they come first over human visitors.  As both places keep human influence at very low levels the bears have gotten use to humans and tend to ignore them.  Which leaves visitors with a chance to see the bears at a very close range.  In the book it describes some of the experiences people have had.  For instance, a couple were able to see a mother nursing three cubs just yards away from them.  After finishing the book I had chills.  I am going to be able to experience these things first hand.

Katmai has over 3,000 brown bears.  The males and subadults should have left their dens by the time I get there.  I wonder how long it will take me to see one when I get there.

Health Care King Salmon Style

When I was interviewed for this position, I was asked if limtited medical services bothered me.  I said no. This morning I searched the medical services in the area on google. King Salmon is a town of 443 people.  The chamber of commerence site listed a mental health clinic, a health clinic, an alcohol counseling center and a physical therapist.  Wanting a  little bit more information I asked google for the number of doctors in King Salmon.  Only the physical therapist came up on the list.  According to the city data site King Salmon has emergency services which have limited highway, airport, and float plane access.  Services are provided by volunteers and a health aide.  I tried one more site to find a list of doctor(s) in King Salmon.  I tried the yellowpages.

King Salmon yellowpages is 14 pages long.  If you were to take all the Anchorage businesses out of it, it would probably be two pages, maybe.  No doctors were listed.  I'm not sure who runs the health center, maybe the volunteers.

Todays plan make appointments to see all physicians so I know I'm set when I get there.  Buy a great first aid kit.

Just a side note: The town can't be too bad, no lawyers were listed either.