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Thursday, May 19, 2011

Two weeks in

Okay this is my first real update since arriving in Alaska. The people here are freakin great. I have been learning a lot about the local area. So far everything is crazy. Crazy awesome. The Tonga forest has the most biodensity of any forest in the world - Yes more than the Amazon jungle. That means there is a ridiculous amount of things living out here. The ziplines that we guide on shoot right through the center of all of it.

Everything here is bigger (sorry Texas). The first time we went outside, I thought I was in Jurassic Park and that perhaps pretty soon velossa raptors and brontosauruses were gonna show up. I have yet to see any, but we do have plenty of black bears and bald eagles. They like to sit around staring at the creeks, waiting for the salmon to arrive. There are also giant beards everywhere. I feel that being here might be exactly what I need to finally grow my own.

The last week and half has definitely been one of the most difficult training programs I have ever taken part in. I had no idea how technical and random this job was gonna be. The actually guiding is not too difficult, but the tech and the different rescues can be something else. I found myself upside down clipped in to the center of 500ft cable suspended 115ft above the ground performing a lanyard fall lower down rescue. Funny what finding a summer job on the internet can lead to. Surprisingly, that particular rescue is actually one of the easier ones.

We had testing yesterday. Guiding is easy, but the rescues can be a doozy. There is about 30 different steps to each of them. None can be missed and none can be out of order. Sarah passed with flying colors. She seems to be doing awesome out here despite her permanent migraine condition. She says its because we are outside and get to work with our hands. So awesome. I sadly did not pass a couple of my rescues the first time because of two small errors. However, after a bit more practicing (and some beating the crap out of my dresser), I passed this morning without errors. Finally we are certified guides.

I need to mention the people out here. They rock my socks. Everyone has been super welcoming and quick to help you out. Despite us all being from different place, it seems we're all quite like-minded. Most came out here the same way we did - through the internet, and most have traveled some pretty epic adventures already. I'm sure if we added everyone's trips together, we'd find that this group has been to the whole world. Something to note also: everybody here is awesome at cooking. Sarah and I try but our efforts are weak. We came in the other day and our friend Nick was baking massive loafs of bread and simmering home-made apple butter. Others are usually cooking some 89 ingredient recipe with cheese that I have never of. I really hope to be a better cook by the time I leave, that would be nice.