Full Sail Ahead!

How am I already 3 weeks behind on blog posts?? The good thing about this is that I have been so busy and having so much fun that time has completely flown by. The bad thing is, I know a lot of really cool stuff has happened, but I'm inevitably going to forget a lot of it as I try to encompass the events of the last 3 weeks into one post. But I'll give it my best shot. 

Windflower, or Northern Anemone

Why YOU should Find Your Park

The first time I realized how much I appreciated my country was when I set foot back on US soil after a semester abroad in the UK, sophomore year of college. Don't get me wrong, I very much loved my time in London. But four months abroad completely opened my eyes to something I had never seen before -- something that truly sets America apart from any other country in the world: Our public lands.

Yosemite, 2002 (throwback to age 12!)

Coming back to the US, I couldn't wait to be in nature again, to soak up the hot Florida sun, to summit mountains, to paddle rivers, to hike the trails. The concrete canyons of London had certainly taught me many things, not the least of which was how lucky we are in the US to have some 640 million acres of federal land at our disposal, most of which is available to the public (that's about 28% of our entire landmass). Of that, 84 million acres are managed by the National Park Service.

Discover Denali

By now, most of my close friends and family know that I'm heading back to Alaska this summer, and certainly you do, if you're reading this blog. But I have been surprised to find out how many people have either never heard of Denali, or don't know what it is. Now, I fully realize that my idolization of the park is completely due to my NPS geekery, and I didn't know that much about Denali before I joined the park service either, but that being said, I feel it is now my duty to enlighten you to its splendor and to the reason why it is undeniably awesome.

Map modified from NPS AK Region map

First, you should know where it is. See map above. It's kind of in the middle of the state, but the entrance is on the north side, closer to Fairbanks. Most of its 6 million acres are designated or eligible wilderness, meaning that the land is mostly untouched and undeveloped, is accessible only on foot or by non-motorized vehicles, and with back country permits. That is to say, it's pretty wild.

Rained in at Kuzitrin

The week started out promising. By noon on Monday my supervisor and I were suited up in our flight gear and walking across the tarmac behind the Bering Air hangar for our first helicopter trip out to Kuzitrin and Imuruk Lakes. It was partly cloudy, but the ceiling was high with a vivid blue sky above. 

My view

When I saw the chopper we were flying in, I couldn't help but laugh -- it was smaller than the car we had driven to get here, with a big bubble window around the cockpit, giving the two front seats a wide view all around. As the photographer, I got copilot's seat.

Connecting the gold dots

(dramatization)

When I was flying into Nome from Anchorage the other day, I was seated next to a lovebird-ish couple in their mid-60s. I chatted with the wife a little bit and found out that they were from Ohio and had never been to Nome before. "We're here for 2 months for a GPAA program," she said so proudly that I didn't bother to ask what GPAA stood for.

Well, I soon forgot about the conversation -- until today when I suddenly connected all the dots:

First, when my supervisor was initially giving me a tour of town, she mentioned that Nome is in the middle of a sort of "second" gold rush, triggered by the Discovery Channel show, Bering Sea Gold, now in its second season. Apparently after its first season, people started flooding to Nome to make their fortune through gold dredging in the Bering Sea and Norton Sound, since the Discovery Channel "characters" were doing so well.

The second "dot:" So yesterday when I was at the Nome Visitor's Center, a man was asking one of the rangers about where it was legal to use metal detectors for gold panning on the public beach, because he had heard it was illegal everywhere. The ranger later found out from the DNR that it actually IS legal, but DNR had released this interesting statement to Nome prospectors online:

"The DNR has received numerous inquiries this month about how to obtain a gold claim offshore of Nome, Alaska. These inquires are from viewers of the Discovery Channel’s reality series - ‘Bering Sea Gold’. Many of the viewers who have contacted DNR have indicated they would like to acquire their own gold claim in the Bering Sea so they could mine their claim like the miners in the series....

...Regardless of what the Discovery Channel Series may convey, gold claims in the Bering Sea are not available for the public to acquire. The only areas for the public to mine are the above two recreational mining areas. ..."

And the final "dot" that brought it all full circle: today during lunch break I thought to Google this "GPAA," that my airplane buddy had mentioned, and bam!: Gold Prospector's Association of America. She and her husband were coming to Nome for a nearly $16,000 "Alaska Expedition" to pan for gold with this organization.

Bad drawing of a gold pan

I didn't realize before I came here that gold mining is such a prominent industry in Nome. In fact, it's the primary industry. You don't really think of gold mining as a modern thing, but here it is nearly as booming a business as it was a hundred years ago. People are literally coming from all over the country to seek their fortune in this tiny bush town where it's not even legal to do the kind of big dredging that will get you enough gold to pay off the expenses of coming here.

What an amazing place this is! I have so many more stories to tell already, but I think those will just have to wait. Tomorrow there's a lot going on -- the Midnight Sun Parade, followed by the annual mock bank robbery, then the Polar Bear Swim in the Bering Sea, Folk Fest, and a tundra hike in the evening (which is only a figure of speech here -- it'll be bright as day all night!).