Kayaking in a T-shirt Under Blue Sky in Seward by Alex Wakefield

My name is Alex Wakefield. I grew up in Hudson, WI and currently to still live there as a senior in high school. I work as a nanny and in my free time, which is very little, I like to baby sit, hand with friends and family, horseback ride, and to be outdoors. I came to Alaska with Green Edventures because it has so much to offer. It also has been a life long goal of mine. I’ve learned a lot.

July 10, 2010

Seward, AK

The morning of our kayak day started off with waking up with a blue sky and the sun shining downJ. After getting fitted into PFDs we headed down the road to launch the kayaks for a 6-mile journey to Caines Head State Park. Along the way we saw many kinds of birds, but we also saw sea otters up close. One I remember I could see eating an urchin.

As we paddled towards our destination, we got to see the coastline in detail. I was in awe that just 6 miles of coast has so much to look at. When we arrived at Caines Head, we parked our kayaks on the shore and headed on a 2-mile hike to the WWII bunkers. The view was amazing. We saw all of Resurrection Bay and across were snow covered mountains.

After eating lunch, we headed back down and journeyed back. My favorite part was not only getting to explore the bunkers but getting to be right on the water and enjoying being on the water in just a t-shirt! Overall, this was an awesome day and 16 (roundtrip) miles of fun.

Day with the Kenaitze, Alaska by Student Camden Droppo

I am your average outdoors man, I love to go fishing and hunting. I am going to be a junior at our high school after this summer. At the end of my freshman year I heard about this trip to Alaska, and it obliviously got my attention. My first thoughts we yeah right like I’d be going to Alaska in High School with out my parents. The funny part is here I am now writing my blog in our hostel at 1:30 in the morning. For any kids that read this take the chance to come up to Alaska. It will be something you will remember forever. For me the reasons I came up here was to experience the different cultures, go see how you feel climbing a glacier that makes you look like an ant from distance. Through this trip my favorite parts was visiting the Kenaitze and hiking to the bowl on Mount Marathon.

July 12, 2010
We forgot to set an alarm for today. It was funny I woke up at 7:55 a.m. I was still the first one up to eat like I usually am. Today was my day I was looking forward to this week. The main part was going to net salmon with the Kenaitze tribe. We first drove an hour to our first stop at K’Bec. It was a Kenaitze National Park just outside of Kenai. There we took a tour with one of the girls in the tribe. She showed us some old native homes which were called natish. In the homes it was a whole family including the grandparents. The grandparents in the family got there own room, because they deserved it from all the work they have done in their lives. Like me I got my own room too, but the kids in the tribes haven’t earned the right yet. It was interesting hearing our everything guide had to tell us. After our tour we got to do some arts and crafts. 

We made necklaces and at the end is an agate. It is said by the elders the agate’s are lucky and can bring luck to the one wearing it. I decide to wear this necklace at home as much as I can and test its luck out. We continued our to the town of Kenai. Our group got another tour of the town, and while on the tour of the town we saw a calf moose with its mom. They were being barked at by a dog and the mom charged at the dog. We had to leave to she wouldn’t charge us. We stopped by the Russian church, it looked very old. The priest looked very old school, with his long white beard. He told us about his beliefs and how their services worked. I am not a very religious person , but I enjoyed hearing what he had to say. Later after that we had some fun learning some dances. One was about a Raven and a man who needed an axe. The dances were more fun than I thought they were going to end up being. Finally the real fun was going to start. (Below: pulling in the nets)

We drove to the Kenaitze private beach where we’re going to net the salmon. Through the day we netted two hundred and fifty red or sockeye salmon, and one king or Chinook salmon. It was nice helping the natives catch there favorite food. In our free time we got to look for some of the lucky agates on ocean beach. I got to know two of the tribe girls named Allison and Josie (below).

 They were the girls who taught us the dances earlier in the day. The natives made our group a dinner, and it was amazing. They made salmon, chicken, rice, and this funnel cake like bread. After dinner we got to do all of the dances with the tribe. It was a lot of fun being apart of what they love to do. There was so much I could have put into this blog, but would end up being like five pages. I think I summed up the day by putting all my favorite parts. If I could I would come back and visit the tribe and those two girls I met every year. This was by far my favorite party of the Alaska Green Edventures Trip.

Mount Marathon Hike, Alaska by Green Edventures' Student Andy Klanderman

July 8, 2010

Hello, my name is Andy Klanderman and I live in Hudson, Wisconsin. Ever since my grandma and grandpa came back from Alaska in 2002 and brought me a picture book of Alaska I fell in love with it. It has always been my dream to go to Alaska and explore all of its wonders since then.(Photo right: Andy (the author) and fellow students Mac and Camden).

All the guys woke up this morning getting all ready for the day and then we realized that I forgot to change my clock so we got up two hours early. Started off the morning with homemade muffins and some cereal. After our stomachs were content, Tara told us we’re going to hike Mount Marathon, which was surprising for me because it’s only our second day here, but YES! J The hike was only a couple of blocks away from where we’re staying (The Moby Dick). We started the hike through the temperate rain forest which is really eerie. The tall pines block any sun from peeking in and the floor is layered with wet devil’s club (which is basically a pricker bush). As the group worked their way up the mountain, the view grew increasingly incredible. Tara told us that every look out was an even better scene than previous which encouraged all of us up the steep slopes. On the way up we were all looking around and usually guessing about all the different flowers (I got some really neat photos). We reached the bowl and it was like the gates of heaven opened. The sun shining off the snow peaks while the river rushes to meet the ocean below. The ridged rocks were extremely fun to jump on and be like a little boy again. (Photo below: Andy, Kelsey & Alex in the bowl at Mt. Marathon)

(Photo above: Andy sketching glacier features during a "class" on glaciology. We spotted two goats on the mountain and a few marmots roaming around. The decent down was a blast. Dane and I parkoured the entire way down and we felt like real MEN! (But we didn’t have any beard money) The group had the rest of the mac and cheese and chili. Next on our list was to visit a Native tribe called the Qutekcak (Cut-two-check). There we learned about the Alaskan Native Olympics game. It’s so intense. The sports represent the ways of the nativces. Camden made it and succeeded through all of the different sports. After the culture shock we had free time which we used to our advantage… of course. The guys went down to check out the harbor which again is like a totally different world. The smell hit us all hard when we sucked in the fish and salt water aromas. As our eyes were checking every sail and boat out we had to pinch ourselves to remind us that this is REAL and not just a dream. Once free time was up, we headed back to the hostel for supper (stir-fry). The last adventure of the day was Exit Glacier. We took the van over there which was nice because we got to see a part of Seward we haven’t seen before. We traveled through the hills until we got to the glaciers. It was like we were looking at a calendar-the river flowing free from beneath the glacier’s tight grip. Tara gave us some really cool and helpful facts about glaciers, but it was different than other regular facts because it wasn’t just word, we could honestly see what we were learning about. Such as fun filled adventure day! Thanks Alaska.