My bad folks. Sorry I've been slacking on the blog updates and thanks to everyone for getting on me about it.
I'm currently sitting in the Seattle airport in the exact same booth as when I was writing one of my original blog posts. I learned my lesson about the big backpack and this time I only have my computer bag with me. I trusted the airlines and checked all my climbing gear, so we'll find out if I'm ever going to see it again.
Back to my slacking. I can attribute the slackage to a few things. First of all, I lost my internet access at my cabin in Dyea, so getting to the internet became a much greater chore (about a 25 minute drive into town). Second of all, I didn't really have any more placeholders in my summer to write about. Things just kind of went on without any great big events. I'd hike into work and do my patrols and hike out and try to figure out how to kill time on my days off. "But you're in Alaska! Why aren't you out on epic adventures?" Primarily, because I was in Alaska, where the stakes in solo epic adventures are a little bigger. It's challenging to find someone who has the same 6 days off at a time as you do, or even the same 3 days off as you. In California or anywhere else, I felt comfortable enough with my surroundings to go out on backpacking trips by myself or to go and explore on my own. In Alaska, there are brown bears everywhere and traveling in the woods alone isn't always necessarily the best idea. The weather is also unpredictable and can be incredibly harsh, so if I were to get injured and not be able to hike out I could be in real trouble in a real hurry. So those are my excuses, take them as you will.
This summer passed by like a dream. It seems almost surreal that 3 months have passed since I graduated. If you told me it had been yesterday and I was just starting my trip up North, I'd probably believe you. I saw so many things including all of the wildlife, but it became commonplace to me so the daily sitings of eagles and seals lost its effect on me. Everything just blurred together, as I had a sneaking suspicion it might.
I'm currently in route to California, where I will pick up my car and finish my move to Flagstaff for academy. I left Skagway yesterday, got to Juneau last night, get to California today, drive to Flagstaff tomorrow, start academy Wednesday, drive back to California on Thursday for my friends' wedding, then drive back to Flagstaff on Friday night for academy on Saturday. It's going to be a wild week.
All of my past moves have been characterized by a moment of paralyzing panic somewhere on the road be it on an airplane or in my car, when it finally hits me that I'm about to do something new and unknown. I get totally overwhelmed and question myself as to why in the world I would ever voluntarily do whatever I'm on my way to. I guess my advice to my friends looking for adventures of their own is that the bigger the moment of panic is before an adventure, the more rewarding that adventure will be. I don't think I've ever been so nervous as when I drove up to Yosemite. That was the best summer of my life. I was fairly confident I was going to keel over and quit breathing on my trip up to Alaska, but I had a good summer there too.
I haven't had that this trip. Maybe it'll happen in the car tomorrow, but I don't think so. This time I'm confident in what I need to do and why. There is no question about my choice this go round. I've known for 5 years that this was a step I needed to take to do what I love. Sure, I'm a little nervous about the academy and having to "hang with the boys," but my training has prepared me for this. Again, this is all just talk at this point, we'll see how the drive goes tomorrow.
So now we're caught up. I had a good summer and now I'm on to academy. Hopefully I'll be better now that I have easier internet access, but life is about to get crazy, so no promises.
Miss everyone and give me a call if you're in the area!
Liz
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