How's Alaska?

This is easily the most frequent question I have been asked over the past week. I guess I ought to have expected it though. Not many people I know have been to Alaska, let alone MOVED there. So, before I start diving into stories of the road-trip up here and other July occurrences, here is how Alaska (at least my part) is.

First, it is still summer here, but barely. The locals say that when the last of the fireweed blooms, it signals the end of summer. The fireweed is at it's topmost and final bloom right now. So, interpret the plants how you'd like.

The highs lately have been in the mid to upper-60s with the occasional breach of 70. Lows are in the low to mid-40s but sometimes it feels colder. Basically, whenever I go somewhere I bring enough clothes to go swimming in AND in case a blizzard hits. It's the ONLY way to be sure. It's been horribly cloudy lately so the panorama of the Wrangell Mountains has been very limited. I'll be keeping an eye to the East for a clear day though, cause it is bound to be spectacular at some point.

Unlike Boulder, where the Westerly flatirons made sunset come quickly in the valley, here the mountains are to the East with relatively flat land (for a while at least) to the West. So, it is 9:15 P.M. now and I wouldn't need my headlights on. It'll be rather dark within an hour. However, I heard someone say we lose about 5 minutes of daylight a day now. So, daylight is a depleting commodity.

The Wrangell-St. Elias National Park & Preserve is directly to the Southeast of me. It is the largest National Park in the U.S. and is also one of the newest. 9 of the 16 tallest peaks in North America are in the park. I climbed 3 14,000 ft. peaks in Colorado. If I want to try anything over 8,000 here, I'm going to need a helluva lot more equipment and probably some formal mountaineering training and practice on glaciers. The nice thing about the park is there are very few regulations. All you really need to do is leave your itinerary with someone so they know when to start a search party and you can just walk right in. I would like to do a week-long backpacking trip sometime.

Heading North for about 5 hours is Fairbanks. I am going to wait to explore that area until NMU goes up there to play hockey in mid-November. The city of North Pole, AK is also nearby Fairbanks. If you would like a postcard stamped from the North Pole, let me know and I'll make it happen.

2 hours driving South takes you to the Prince William Sound and the port city of Valdez. It's pronounced Val-deez because the year American settlers arrived to the Spanish explorer-named town was the same year we started the Spanish-American War. It was simply more patriotic to mispronounce the name and it stuck. I went there today and it was all rain and fog. There are some glaciers nearby and the Thompson Pass through the Chugach Mountains is very pretty. I'm sure I just caught it on a bad day.

180ish miles to the West lies Anchorage (and Palmer and Wasilla). Many people in Glennallen head into one of these towns every few weeks to buy bulk groceries and other supplies from Costco or Sam's Club. I don't really want to support either of those businesses, but I will need to find somewhere cheaper than the grocery store in town. It is fully stocked, but the prices are out of control. It will be emergency only/when cravings strike. The drive to Anchorage is absolutely gorgeous. Whenever you come visit, we will have to take it from the airport to here and you will just be amazed. Glaciers, mountains, rivers...it is so cool.

Glennallen exists because a couple different highways merge here and so there is a stop sign. Basically, if you want to go to any of the major cities or to Canada by car, you will need to drive through Glennallen. Glennallen has a post office, library, fitness center, satellite campus of the Prince William Sound Community College, the Alaska Bible College, a church every 1/6 of a mile, a Radio Shack, a Wells Fargo, and assorted other restaurants/gas stations/RV parking which cater to the summer traffic driving through. Many of these businesses shut down in winter, so I'll have to explore them all soon.

Black spruce, white spruce, and aspen trees are all around. Because most of the ground in the area is permafrost (which means the ground never fully thaws), the ground doesn't soak up moisture completely and you get a very soggy top layer that is very cushy to walk on sometimes. There are a TON of mushrooms everywhere and mosses too.

Black Bear and Grizzly Bear are in the area, but I have only seen black bear so far. They are Brown Bears on the coast cause they are so easily fed, they are rarely hostile. But, they are Grizzlies in the interior because resources are scarce so they become edgy, I guess. I have also seen some moose. I really wanted to see a puffin when I was down in Homer, but didn't see one.

The school is pretty new. It is one building and two stories with Elementary (K-6) on one side and Jr. High and High School (7-12) on the other. There's a VERY nice gym, a nice commons area, and they are paving the parking lot for this year. My room, office, and area are kind of an ugly color, but very modern and well-organized. Of course, it's going to take me a while to figure out where everything is and how to use them. I have a Promethean board, which is sort of like a Smart Board, that I am looking forward to learning how to use and integrate. Hockey plays outside, which is a drag cause I wanted to do some hockey pep band. If the interest is there, we could do a brass band...Basketball is big here too as both boys and girls won the regional title last year. I will definitely be doing pep band for that. The auditorium is very nice and the stage has flys and rigs and all sorts of cool technical things I have barely ever worked with but am excited to learn about.

My apartment is ok. It is much too big for me as it is a 2-bedroom. But, I can walk to school (about 2 blocks) and a few other teachers live in my building. I don't have to pay for heat, I don't have to worry about pipes freezing, I don't get a garage, the water is VERY rusty (one of my first purchases was a Brita pitcher), the carpet smells, it's an ugly yellow color, but it's mine. All mine!

If you still have questions about Alaska, let me know! I'd love to learn to answer if I don't know it already. I'll probably do another post like this once winter hits, as I'm certain you'll all be dying to know what that is like up here.