For the Love of Words: Summer 2013 (Part 2)

Forest Fair Week!

July brings about one of the most fun summer events... Forest Fair! This year's forest fair was a blast. A team from Sevierville, TN came up to work alongside Chugach Resort Ministries. They helped out preparing the park for the fair, volunteered at the kids booth and t-shirt booth, and helped with the post-fair clean-up. They were amazing workers, and it was so good having them here! We had a cook out during our Bible study right before the Fair started. We met a new guy from Oregon named Alex (friend of Megan's roommate, Kara) who made his way to Girdwood and came to the cookout. He had made some serious adjustments to his huge van (taking seats out, building a bed frame so he could travel/sleep in it) and drove up looking for adventures all over Alaska. He introduced himself to me as the "funniest guy you'll ever meet" and quickly became a good friend. He spent a majority of the summer in Girdwood, and was totally telling the truth- funniest guy I've ever met! Megan's two best friends from home came up for a visit as well- so there was a lot of activity happening!

After the excitement of Forest fair, and some recovery time, we realized how quickly the end of summer was approaching... especially for my interns. I asked them what "Alaska experience" they wanted to do before they left July 31st. The guys wanted to canoe/kayak Portage River, camp, and fish... The girls wanted to go backpacking. Tyler took Ben and Nate floating down the river two days; they maxed out on red salmon! Tyler helped them filet, package, and get the fish sent home so they could enjoy it with their families. Unfortunately, I was working those days, and didn't get to tag along and take pics to share... Fortunately, I was able to take the girls backpacking and I have a ton of pics from that!

The Beach!

Last year, Scott told me about this sweet trail in Seward that is only accessible at low tide (the rest of the time it is buried under water). Ever since he mentioned it, I have been wanting to backpack it. After some talking/planning with Tyler, Alex, and Megan, we made plans to take the girls (Mary Kathryn and Aryn) one weekend before they left. We could not have picked a more gorgeous weekend! Tyler and I hiked out ahead of the rest to get camp set up and a fire going. The others were not far behind, and we all hung out pretty late that night. It was hard to sleep in the next morning, and we were all up and moving fairly early. We hiked out to an abandoned war bunker, had lunch, and then made our way back to our campsite to pack up, eat some more, and wait on low tide to hike back. We hiked about 13 miles in the two days. Great fun!