Pictures

This a Ptarmigan - Alaska State Bird. They grow white feathers in the winter so they blend in with the snow and hid more easily. This one is starting to grow its dark feathers back. A sign that spring and summer are right around the corner.


There she is - Denali!

A red fox trotting down the road in Healy. Unfortunately this is the best picture we could get. We followed it down the road a little ways, it didn't seem to notice it was a little out of place.

April 20, 2009

Well I guess I have been a little neglectful with my updates, sorry. Not much else has been happening lately. Kevin is working everyday and I am working a little every couple of days. We drove up to Fairbanks for the day on Saturday. We did some shopping and looking around. A few of the other maintenance guys went with us, which was nice because 2 of them gave us some gas money and the other one paid for our lunch. We also drove back into the park on Sunday afternoon and Denali was out for a little better show than the last time. I hope you enjoy the pictures. We miss everybody and are really hoping you will all come visit us at some point over the next few years. Love you guys!

Sorry pics will have to come later, tech problems.

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter! I hope you are all having a joyous day.

The week went by fairly quickly. Kevin got a full week of work in and then some. The guys finally got the water back on Thursday. So, we were able to take showers and do some laundry. It’s amazing how much we take those kinds of things for granted until you can’t do them easily. The Internet was on Thursday, then was back off by Friday morning, but was back on by Saturday morning. Let’s just hope it stays on now.

I was able to work about 4 hours this week, which was spent in the bathhouse cleaning up so we could take those showers and use the toilets. Next week I hope to work at least 8 hours. In my spare time I have been taking a lot of walks and learning where everything is. Kevin is enjoying his job (as much as you can enjoy any job, b/c seriously who likes to work anyway?). We are just anxious to get the lodge open and get the summer started. The weather has been improving immensely since we got here. The sun has been shinning a lot and the daytime temps have been getting up to around the mid 30’s, thus melting the ice and snow slowly but surely.
Now on to the good stuff: Kevin, Ralph (the electrician working on the maintenance team) and I went in to the park yesterday. They have the road open to vehicles to the Savage River turnout which is about 15 miles into the park. Denali (Mt. McKinley) made itself slightly visible so that was spectacular to see. Here are some pictures we took along the way yesterday. For more information on the park you can visit: www.nps.gov/dena/index.htm

Just entering the park. Mt. McKinley is the very distant peak to the right of the picture (about 1/2 inch from the right side).

View of Mt. McKinley

View of Savage River while standing on the frozen river.

Kevin and I walked UP to this rock face and climbed up between two sections of it. This is at the Savage River turnout.

The view from the hillside.

Another view from the hillside.

This is the area we climbed up between the two sections of the rocks.

Me climbing!

View of Savage River from the highest point we climbed to.

Heading back down.

We saw a couple of moose.

There are actually 4 caribou in this picture. They are very hard to spot because the blend in with the hillside so much.

April 8, 2009 - update as of April 3rd

This is the journal entry I wrote last Friday (April 3rd). Now that the resort has the Wi-fi up and running (as of today - Wed. 4-8) I will get back on track of updating on a regular basis. Probably not everyday but at least a couple times a week.

Wow, what a week. It’s amazing how much can change in a person’s life in a matter of days. Well, remember what I said about that running water, well, that froze up on Thursday early afternoon. So when I thought we had at least a toilet to use, WRONG, now we are off to the port-a-potty when we need to go. Trying to stay on a positive note though, the port-a-potty is heated. (As of 4-8-09, the water is still not on, we have been able to carry buckets of water to the bathroom and use the actual toilets and flush them by pouring the buckets of water down them. If the water is not on by tonight it should be early tomorrow.)

We started Thursday by going over to the Murie Science and Learning Center (winter visitor center for the park) at Denali National Park for our new employee orientation. We had lots of paper work to fill out and all that new employee “stuff”. Then it was back to the resort for lunch and work. Kevin and the other maintenance guys got to work right away, however I was not allowed to start working yet. Since my official job doesn’t start until May 7 they are going to allow me work on the “Clean Team” prior to that. I was allowed to start that today. I got to work for one hour cleaning the bath house. Because the water is not back on and working yet there was not much we could do so that is why we only worked for one hour. It looks as though I will be working 2-3 days a week for the first couple of weeks, but at least it is better than nothing. Most likely starting mid April I will be working every day. (as of 4-8-09 I have not been able to work yet b/c the water is not on yet, we can't clean much without it.)

I know many of you must be thinking “What on earth have the Bowers’ done by quitting their jobs and moving so far away to work in an environment such as that?” Well to that here is my answer. . . . .

This is the view from our room. Plus, have you seen any of the other pictures I have posted. Although, I guess the mountains are not for everybody.

Not to mention things will only be getting better as we accomplish more tasks of de-winterizing this place. Also, here is just a few of the benefits we get just for being employees: FREE river rafting trips (dry suits are provided); FREE bus rides into the park (normally costs over $50 per person); FREE flight seeing plane rides; FREE rides on a real dog musher sled pulled by a team of dogs that raced in the Iditarod; and FREE visits to the Cabin Nite show (a two hour dinner and show activity).

Still, I am sure some of you think we are nuts, and we have wondered that ourselves, however this is an adventure of a life time for us. It excites us just to know that 10 or 20 or 30 years from now we will be able to look back at our lives and not have say: “What if?” We truly hope that each of you will be able to live out your dreams some day as we are doing. Just remember, it’s not about everyone else when it comes to living your own life, you can’t live your own life if you let everyone else tell you how you should live it.

May God bless each of you!

Pictures

This Igloo used to be a lodge but closed in 2007 (according to the Milepost 2008). It is along the highway heading north toward Denali.

This is out front of the lodge we are working at.

The lodge we are working at with the view in the background.

This is the dorm room we are staying in right now.

But the view makes it worth it.


This is the Nenana River that flows through the area where the lodges are located outside the park.

The town of Denali (a.k.a. The Canyon). It is a ghost town right now because nothing opens until mid-May.


We went on a walk on Sunday, April 5 with two of the other maintenance guys here on sight. Alan is on the left and Ralph is in the middle, I am on the right (just in case you don't recognize my coat). We walked about 5 miles today.

Another shot of the Nenana River about 3 miles down river from the other picture above.

Info from April 1, 2009

I actually wrote this on my computer on Wednesday night but this is the first time I have been able to upload from my computer. Hope you enjoy.

We left Anchorage this morning headed for the McKinley Chalet Resort in Denali, Alaska. What an exciting day. We are finally going to make it to the final destination for the summer. The day started out so beautifully; relatively few clouds, the sun rising above the Chugach Mountains and the temp in the low 20’s. We had breakfast at the hotel then got the truck all packed and ready. We left about 9:30 and drove north up Highway 1. The traffic was not too bad as we left Anchorage and only got thinner from there. We drove through Wasilla where we changed from Highway 1 to Highway 3 “The Parks Highway”. It is a nice town and they even have a Super Wal-Mart. After leaving Wasilla we drove into the clouds and snow. Gradually the road started getting more and more snow on it until it finally had succumbed to the elements and was covered. We had snow off and on the whole rest of the trip, we can’t complain though, it is so beautiful, who cares! All in all, the trip was fairly uneventful, except the 4 moose we saw. Two of them we saw were together and it appeared as though it was a momma and maybe a 1-2 year old calf. It was definitely smaller than the other one, but it wasn’t small by any means. These animals are absolutely enormous. If a grown man were to stand next to one, its back would be as tall as the man, and the head would tower over him.

We arrived at the resort around 2:00 in the afternoon and met Kevin’s boss, Curtis. The head of landscaping was also here and we met her, Jeanne. Jeanne showed us our rooms that we would have for the first few weeks and introduced us to the other 3 people that were here. All 5 of these people are year round employees and live in the town of Healy, AK which is about 11 miles north of the resort. Two other men showed later that night as well that are also on the maintenance team. So, altogether there are only 5 of us actually living here on site as of right now. Over the next few weeks we will all work to get the rest of the employee housing open and ready for the rest of the employees to show up. They will start filtering in, in about 3 to 4 weeks and we should be fully staffed by mid May.

Now concerning our living arrangements, I have to say, they are not the most wonderful of situations, however it could be worse. The water is at least on and running in the bathrooms but there is no hot water and the water is not suitable for taking a shower let alone drinking. The water has been shut off all winter and was just turned on Wednesday so we have to allow time for all the crud to blow through the lines. The hope is that by the weekend we will have hot water to take showers. For the time being we can drive to the little town of Healy and take showers there. There is a gas station/truck stop there that has a laundry mat and shower house. They are much like the shower houses at a camp ground so we are used to that sort of thing. These arrangements are only for the next 2 to 3 weeks and will only improve from here. The room we are in is a typical room for employee housing but we will not be in this particular room for the whole season. Since there are only 5 of us (other than the managers that will be arriving starting Thursday) on site and using only 4 rooms they only opened these 4 rooms in one dorm. We are hoping and praying we will get into the 900 housing which are the suits where 2 rooms share one bathroom. The rest of the buildings use the common “bath house”. Unfortunately the 900’s are reserved for supervisors and returning staff, so it is doubtful we will be one of those.

I think that is enough for this posting so I will stop for tonight. I will update as I have more to share. I will get more pics on later.

April 1, 2009

This is going to be short, sweet and to the point.

We have made it to the McKinley Chalet Resort where we will be living and working this summer. We are two of the 8 people on site as of today. It is very exciting. I am actually using the computer in the maintenance dept. office so I can not attach any pics at this time. When the Wi-Fi is up and running I will upload pics from my camera of our surroundings.

Hope all is well with each of you, stay tuned for the next exciting update.