Leg 2: Arrival

We made it!!!!!

This was taken at 4:30 am in Juneau when we were on our way to the ferry.

On the ferry ride at 5:00 am. Yup, it was this light!

Oh boy, talk about a culture shock for us. I (Audrey) quickly learned that I hate to fly...hmmm... Air Marshal? Maybe that should be put on hold. I was sick all Sunday as we flew and all Monday as we went on the Ferry. Maybe I should invest in motion sickness pills next time I have to do that! Oh it was horrible, it was a nightmare (name that movie)! We were picked up at the dock by a man holding signs with our names on them, just like the movies! We were then shown town and brought out to our camp. Here are some pictures of our cabin and yes, I honestly did shed a few tears. I think most of my tears were from being sick, but both of us thought "What the heck have we gotten ourselves into!?!?!?" Alas, here we are. Honestly though, once we started chattin with people and making ourselves more comfortable and more oriented, we have been so much better. Each day is better and each day we become more comfortable with how disgustingly dirty we are. :)

Our time with the horses has been most excellent. We help take care of 34 horses who all have a mind of their own. In the morning we herd them from a large, open arena to a smaller corral which makes catching and haltering them so much easier. We help saddle nearly 20 horses on our slow days and all of them once the days begin to speed up. We are rock awesome horse-women! The horses are wonderful and so calm. Granted there are the few who are stubborn, but we work with people who are amazing with horses and quickly the horse calms down. We are learning so much and having a blast while doing it!

The other day we were told by management that we couldn't use the pre-chopped wood for our group campfires but only for our wood stoves at night. So, Layna and I decided to see how good our hunter-gatherer skills are. First off we attempted to take the ax and cut down a tree...we quickly learned that we are not lumberjacks! So we looked around until we found branches and sort to fill the fire pit. But it wasn't enough...then we found the motherload! The motherload of all plywood! A huge pile of old plywood which was scraps from making our amazing little cabins! So we put a bunch on a 2x6 and hauled it over to our fire pit. Cheer for us all you want, but the guys in camp hacked down trees. Let's just say our outdoorsy skills will increase daily and we will be better hunter-gatherers next time we update. At least I hope so.

Strange thing about Skagway/Dyea, Alaska is that there are no grazing animals. That means no moose, deer, elk, or caribou. Nothin. The reason being is that this valley is surrounded by glacial ice sheets with only one pass which is about 30 miles long and completely barren. So the only way to get here is by walking on the highway or by water. So the only animals here are bears (black and grizzly) and huge hares. It is strange coming from a place where all we have are grazing animals.

We have yet to see a bear, they won't really come until the salmon start running in the next month or so. We're excited to see that because we're told it is quite the sight! Grizzlies everywhere!

Now for the pictures! This is where we live :)