My 1st day off and more from camp

On my last day off I went to the foot of the Mendenhall Glacier. Cosmos and I hiked the Morraine Trail, which was extra beautiful due to the fact that it was misting out and the trail goes through the green and mossy lowlands. The mist and moss seemed to mute the edges of everything. It was like walking in watercolor. Then we went down town. I wanted to get some flower identification books because it is a completely different eco-system here in South east Alaska so I don't know the wildflowers here very well. I also heard there was a good bagel shop downtown so I wanted to buy some to take back to camp because 1. I am a bagel and coffee addict when it comes to breakfast and 2. Our camp cook really isn't very good. So at least I have another option when he makes us "light as lead" pancakes, oatmeal cement or mystery eggs ( so named because they usually have something leftover from the night before in them such as rice and pasta). Anyways the nice thing about downtown is that they let you bring your dog into many of the places. So I stopped at a bar that is open to the street and sat with Cosmos on the stool next to me and had some awesome tacos and a Alaskan Pale Ale (which is brewed here in Juneau) Everybody stopped and said hi to Cosmos . Infact anywhere we walked downtown people want ed to stop and pet Cosmos. It is funny because Matt brought some books to camp about Gold Rush Dogs so we could study up for the tourist. There was a Bull terrier named "Patsy Ann" who would hang around Juneau and great all the steam ship passengers when it docked. So Cosmos is just upholding the tradition.

After I had my fill of town, which didn't take long. I drove about 25 miles north of Juneau to Eagle Beach. There Cosmos and I went hiking along the beach and spent the night there. Sleeping right on the beach listening to the seagulls and the waves,

Life at camp just keeps getting better and better. We finally have most of the set up done. We have two carts now and expect 2 more. The carts are unlike anything I have ever seen before. Matt still laughs ever time he sees one of the carts go off on a run. I compare them to something out of a Hanna Barbara cartoon. The carts are stripped down Honda car chassis. The musher sits high up in the back on a boat seat and steers with a regular steering wheel. In front the are 3 rows of seats for the passengers, for a total of 8 passengers. There is a little hood on the front and a windshield. One is named Raven and the second Orca. The 2 others will be Puffin and Mad Jack ( named for the mechanic who built them). I have been deemed the camp artist even thought there are a couple other people with talent. So I painted the Orca to look like an Orca with the black top and white bottom. I also have been studying South West Native Tribal Art so I have designed logos in that style for the Orca and the Raven. I'm still working on the others.I painted them on the hoods of each.

Tours have begun thought we are still slow. Its a pretty easy job honestly. The handler seems to do most of the work. I have to entertain tourists, I take them through our historical and race tents in the fake Gold Rush Town and talk about mushing then I walk them to the cart where the handler has all the dogs hooked up and I drive the team around our trail. When the ride is over I take the tourists to pet the puppies and the handler puts all the dogs back to their houses. What a difference from the way things usually are at my kennel where I do almost all of the work! I'm going to be one spoiled musher come fall!

We were assigned handlers while I was gone on my last day off, I got the best one! Her name is Emily and she is from Talkeetna, Alaska. She is 16 years old and Matt and Sara's neighbor. She has her own team of Siberian Huskies at home so she is very experienced. Not to mention she is really a smart and sweet kid, a real hard worker, and a devout Christian, so she always has a positive attitude. And she is really into training the dogs, where as some of the other handlers are just into doing their job. She takes extra time to work with some of my dogs with problems such as shyness or line chewing. The bad news is that she leaves at the end of June and a different handler takes over for her, so who knows who I will get next. Emily is also my roommate along with the photographer, Caelyn. We definitely are the tent that has the most fun. Many nights we lie in our sleeping bags giggling about all kinds of things while the other tents "shhh!" us. We always answer with a good ole Waltons stye, "Good night John Boy."

Being that we are still slow we have had a lot of time "extra-curricular" activities. I am by far the most exploritive (is that a word?) of the group. They always make fun of me when I come back, "What did you discover this time Abbie?"

For example I had been looking from camp for sometime down to the valley where a HUGE cottonwood tree grows in the center. I kept thinking, " What a perfect place to sit and read." The branches are huge and spread wide so that there is a moss covered saddle. So one day I spent 2.5 hours cutting a trail through the thick Alaskan Brambles to get to it. It was even cooler than I thought, it is hollow inside. 3 people could fit inside the trunk. However I couldn't climb so I ran back to camp so I could build a rope ladder to get up to the saddle. Then I convinced the tallest one at camp, Sean to climb up it and tie the rope ladder around it. It's been deemed Abbie's tree but everyone goes down there now for quiet time. It is soft and perfectly formed like it grew just that way for people to enjoy reading or writing in it. One day I took all the girls down to it to see ( all of them except for Emily are scared to go very far out of camp because of bears.) We wandered off past the tree to see actually how far it was from the Sheep Creek trail which runs next to camp. On the way we found a huge little meadow full of chocolate lilies, buttercups and violets. We spent the day laying amongst the flowers. We made jokes that this was strickly a "faerie meadow" And no boys were allowed. It seems we have regressed slightly at camp. Weather it be climbing trees or being faeries.

We all climbed to the top of the Sheep Creek trail which goes the top of Mount Roberts on the back side. Eventually we want to try to make it over to the tram that goes to the top of the otherside from downtown. We were way above tree line and there is still a lot of snow up there. So we will have to wait a couple months for that adventure. It was fun though "skiing" on the snow on our boats. We would post hole up a ways and then slide down. I was laughing so hard I was crying.

I still get out by myself. I keep picking waterfalls that a raging down the sides of the mountain from camp and then trying to get up next to them. It is amazing sitting up on a rock watching the water rage into snow canyons while the fog creeps in from the channel. This valley is pure nirvana. Words cannot describe how nice it is.

I picked fiddleheads the other day for everyone to try. Fiddle heads are young fern sprout. The are tender and remind me a little of asparagus. I lightly breaded them and made a garlic Aioli to dip them in. Everyone loved them. But that could be just because it was nice to have some food the "cook" didn't make. Everybody likes it when the cook has a day off because then Emily and Amanda cook usually, and they both are great cooks. In fact he cook is so disorganized that usually someone jumps in to help. It is amazing how much other everyone else does the cooks job for him. I usually refuse to because I have a problem in that the cook gets paid more than the handlers and they are out busting their butts all day while he sits in the kitchen and reads his book. Then it is a huge task to make even a simple meal like Sloppy Joes. He can never make a meal on time or organize everything so that every thing is done at once. And usually there isn't enough made for everyone. But hey! If that's the only complaint I have here life is pretty good. I certainly not starving, its just I wish Emily could get paid more.

The dogs are so happy here. They get so much more attention then they would if I were back in Fairbanks working. I think we are going to have a real nice race season. My "sun pups" that turn 1 year old June 18th are getting some great training. Matt has some puppies here that are 6 weeks old. I think I am going to take the male. The are from excellent breeding, plus it will be nice to get a new line in my kennel. Even though I think they are related to Comet somewhere back.