I am sitting in one of three trailers owned by Alaska Icefield Expeditions (AIE) in Skagway on my first day off. Sean and Noah and I just got back from a fun little hike up to Lower Dewey Lake where we sat on a cliff over the lake and looked across at the wall of pines with layers of white mountain peaks jutting up behind the ridge. The town is 4 streets by 20 streets as it is set in a nice little valley. Just over the mountains to our east is Denver glacier and the dog camp that is my home for the next several months. The camp is starting to come together. We just put up some of the last dog food tents yesterday when we had no tourists. It was so hot up there that we were in t-shirts and shorts and were applying sunscreen like there would be no tomorrow. Kate is one of the mushers up on the glacier and is the daughter of a prominent Iditarod runner. She has done the junior Iditarod and lives in what they call up here one of the 'native' villages. She is a really solid kid and I have a lot to learn from her. She and I painted about 30 of the 270 dog houses white yesterday and I have the paint on my arm to prove it! We have to have everything on the glacier painted white because if not the sun beats down on it and the snow melts around it. I did not believe it at first but even something as small as a few dog hairs laying out the snow results in a huge hole in a matter of days.
Our houses are these long,
arched, white weatherports. Ours is called the girls ghetto and it is the only living tent that has a door on it. There are four of us who live in there. Each of us has a plywood board to sleep on but my sleeping bag and thermarest do plenty to keep me warm and comfy (although I did learn the first night that I have to sleep with my nose inside the bag otherwise I wake up to ice crystals on my bag from where I have been breathing all night!). Aside from that the common hang outs are the 'Com Hut' which is where the desk and our photography stuff is, the kitchen which is where all the tasty stuff is and our cook Karen reigns supreme, and there is the lounge which has a propane heater and tables where we eat and boxes of toys and games for us. Apparently once they get the snow cats moved up there they will space our tents out more but until then everything is set up really snug. Apparently they have been dragging their feet on getting everything set up for us this year. We don't have uniforms yet and apparently are still missing a few buildings. But the dogs are there, and the trails are groomed, so business moves forward. We have had two days of tours so far and I think this will certainly be manageable.My daily routine is as follows: We wake up at six am to the barks of hungry dogs. Once they are all fed we pile into the kitchen and eat our breakfast to a chorus of 'my belly is full' howls. Seriously. All the dogs start doing it in unison, it is so funny. Then we are responsible for breakfast KP (kitchen Patrol). After that, I and the other photographer, Cherisse, go unpack our totes of photo gear, turn on the generator, turn on our two photo printers, start rolling batteries in our hands to warm them up and then look at the board of tours and split it up. Usually two helicopters come in every half hour and each chopper carries up to 6 people. Each dog team pulls two sleds so that makes for 3 tourists and a musher. My job is to scamper out about a quarter of a mile onto the glacier to a certain strategic point from which I can easily shoot sleds on either of the two trails we have (North camp and South camp). Then I wait for the sleds to go by and snap a quick photo then tootle back to the Com Hut and print the photos, put them in black mats that have our emblem on them then plastic baggy them and by the time I make it back outside the tours are back and I just walk up to the different groups and offer them their pictures and $20 bills come at me like they were pocket change. Cherisse and I alternate so I won't have to handle more than one tour an hour but it is certainly enough to keep me busy all day. That is the routine until about 6 pm when we finish our last tour, take account of the money and send it down on the last helicopter and pack the rest of our stuff up. We finish with that at about the same time as the mushers and handlers finish up with the dogs then all 25 or so of us pile into the kitchen to see what we can do to help supper finish up faster.
After that we hang out, have book club or chat or sometimes watch a movie and then are in bed by probably about 8 or so. Because we had no tours yesterday Jacques, our French musher who has been doing this for 5 years, took Cori, Kate, Sean and Noah out to one of the ridges on the snowmobiles and we looked out at the stunning scenery.
Right below us we could see where the glacier turned into a stair of ice waterfalls beyond which the pine trees stood all the way down to the edge of the ocean inlet. Beyond that the landscape rises into cacophony of white mountains across which the different hues of sunlight and different layers of clouds travel. On into eternity. Or at least into Canada.The glacier is set in a valley between two walls of mountains the tops of which are jagged and proud. Below the rock faces the snow starts but there are open spots where you can see that the glacier has smoothed the rocks and below that is camp. One of my favorite parts about camp is that on the mountain right behind camp, and the way I face all day as I take pictures, is a portion of rock with 5 high points all side by side. In my mind they are five old men, regarding us with humor, bouncing back the dogs' barks and our laughs...but I digress. So Jacques took us out on the snowmobiles and we did some SERIOUS sledding! The snow was crystal hard because it has been hot all day and was getting cold so it was all turning to snow so I tell you my friends, we flew. I had no idea how inexperienced of a sledder I was until I was faced with those hills. There are certainly a whole lot of new skills for me to learn, develop and cultivate up here. I am excited! On our way back I was ridding dog sled that was being pulled by the snowmobiles and learned (the hard way) how and when to lean so the sled doesn't tip and I must admit I have yet to master the art of using my foot to slow the sled without digging my toe and getting whipped off onto my face. I have the scrapes on my cheek and nose to prove it =). Well, we are getting ready to go for dinner at the Fish Company so I am going to wrap this up. I will try to figure out a way to upload pictures but as of yet I have not devised a way to do so. I intend to update this regularly. We will see how it goes.
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