It’s been a couple of years since I last updated my blog, but I suppose quite a bit has changed. I was working as a flight attendant until April 4, 2012. I went to many more amazing places in the time that I did not update, most specifically a month-long solo trip to Italy and Switzerland. I also went to the big island of Hawaii for 9 days and couch surfed.
But… back to the present… those of you that have known me for a while know that I have always dreamed of doing seasonal work. That means, for example, teaching English abroad, working on a cruise ship, being a white water rafting guide, working on a farm abroad in exchange for room and board, orrrr being a zip-line guide. Well, the one that I wanted to do the most and try first is zip-line guide, and I made it a priority to get a job. What?! How?! Why?! Let’s back up again. I have been dating Ed for six months now, and back when we were just friends, we both said “I want to do seasonal work” blah blah blah. Then, in November, I found out that I would be going back on reserve (on call work schedule) at my company for an indefinite period of time. I did not plan to be a flight attendant forever. I did not really want to drive to Milwaukee to sit ready reserve (on call); I told Ed that I was planning to quit. He asked what I was going to do and I replied, “I don’t know, maybe become a server.” He suggested that we actually go for our dreams and go into seasonal work in the same town somewhere. After quite a bit of consideration, planning, and back-up planning, I decided to go for it. I told him my “town” would be somewhere in Alaska. He scoffed at the idea at first, but after a little bit of research fell in love with the state. I made it a goal to become a zip-line guide in Alaska by the spring, and his goal was essentially the same. So we began applying to every zip-line company in Alaska and while in Mexico on my birthday trip, I got an offer at Alaska Canopy Adventures to be an assistant canopy guide (zip-line guide) in Juneau! By the time we landed in Atlanta for our connecting flight, Ed had a voicemail for an interview with the same company, and he had an offer within the week. I sold all of my belongings except the essentials going to Juneau and a few storage bins in Ed’s parent’s basement. Ed sold his car. We’re in… all in. We decided to take a dream road trip on the way to Alaska and our first stop is Denver.
The worst part of the drive is over; this is the only time we have to drive overnight. I am such a morning person and Ed is definitely a night person; it really amuses me. On the way to Denver, we stopped by the University of Iowa, in Iowa City, where Ed attended college. He showed me where he used to live and a little bit of his campus. I proudly put on my University of Georgia hoodie while we walked around though! Illinois, Iowa, Nebraska, and east Colorado are all pretty flat and boring. I have done this drive a couple of times before and it never tends to intrigue me. I need to find something exciting along this route for the next time… if there is one.
Once we got to Denver, we stayed with a friend, Amanda, who we met in Mexico on my birthday trip. She graciously let us spend the night and even arranged a dinner with her boyfriend and two other couples we met in Playa too. I had a delicious bison burger. Man, do I love bison. I attempted to show Ed where I used to live in Commerce City, CO, but got lost and only made a big circle. I say the roads changed! I also lived in Aurora, but after the debacle in Commerce City, I didn’t feel like trying to find it. The next stop = Grand Canyon!
So on the way to the Grand Canyon, we apparently go through Moab, Utah, which is where the Arches National Park is located. We decided to stop in for three hours and take a peak, and I am very glad we did. We saw a couple of areas such as balanced rock and courthouse. Plus, we did a three-mile hike to the Utah famous delicate arch. This is the arch that is found on Utah’s license plate. It was super windy and dusty along the way, but well worth it once we made it to the top.
The rest of the drive through Colorado, Utah, and Arizona was gorgeous. I loved watching the Earth change from flat lands to green snowy mountains to dry mountains to desert. I honestly love this drive; I feel as though I could stare out into the distance forever and never get bored. I have been to all of these states before, but never to these parts where humans have taken over and destroyed the land. I feel like my eyes are just tools to take in the nature as it was created.
We pulled up to the Grand Canyon, which is the place I was most excited to see along the road trip around midnight. It was around 35 degrees but dry, and we set up our tent worry free. We went to sleep and I checked-in to the campground at 9:00 am and got some trail information for the canyon. I woke Ed up and we decided to hike the Bright Angel trail to Indian Gardens, which is the farthest that is recommended in one day due to elevation changes and distance. It was 9 miles and supposed to take between 6-9 hours. We packed our bags, ate some food, and went to find the trail.
Okay, we had been in the Grand Canyon national park for about 14 hours, but unless you are along the rim of the canyon, you cannot really see it… so I was beyond ready to see the picturesque view I knew existed. We found the trailhead and there it was; the Grand Canyon. The Grand Canyon… the most beautiful creation I have ever seen in my entire life. I literally cried when I saw it. I could not believe something that amazing actually was in front of me and I was about to experience it. Wow! I am blessed. Now, that is something I could stare at forever. I knew I had to start hiking though because I had many hours ahead of me, but luckily, I was staring at the canyon the whole time.
Most trails start at the bottom and go up… but… if you’re already up, you can only go down. So we went down. It was a really weird sensation to go down 4.5 miles before reaching our destination of Indian Gardens. It was a gorgeous view the entire way and very interesting to see the changes in the rocks, colors, and shrubbery. I was very surprised to see how green the Grand Canyon was—the pictures you see look more like the Arches National Park, but it’s actually really green. We sat for about an hour and had lunch at the bottom of the canyon, before turning around to hike 4.5 miles back up to the top. We made the entire trip in seven hours. I desperately want to hike the Grand Canyon rim-to-rim now.
The next day, it was very overcast, but we stopped along several viewpoints and then climbed up in the historic water tower to get a 360 degree view of the south rim and the Colorado River. That night, it was supposed to snow, and we awoke to about 6 inches of snow around the tent. We packed everything up, took a few snowy canyon pictures, hit the gift shop, and hopped in the car hoping to make it to Yosemite.
The worst of the snow was actually right at the Grand Canyon. Within 45 minutes, we were out of the snow and just in a little rain. The ride from Arizona into southern California was once again breathtaking. I am beginning to think I could be a truck driver when I am done with my seasonal job hiatus. Most of this area is unpopulated and towns are extremely sparse. At one point, there is about 100 miles between gas stations, and well, we needed gas. There was a solar-powered gas station in the middle of the desert in Essex, CA, where nothing else exists. The gas costs $5.39 a gallon for regular unleaded. There is a sign inside that says “it costs us a fortune to run this gas station in the middle of nowhere so don’t complain.”
We looked up the road conditions for Yosemite and saw that only one road was open into the park—140. So we decided to go that way, into the southern part of the park, and call to make a hotel reservation in a little town close by since our camping and road situations were uncertain. We had dinner at Outback Steakhouse in Bakersfield, CA, and then continued on to Mariposa, CA. We stayed at the Mariposa Lodge and I definitely enjoyed the heat, shower, bed, and free wifi! It was nice to splurge and have steak and hotel day. The front desk clerk at the hotel was so interesting too. He told us about all these secret hot spots to hit at Yosemite and he was so animated. For those who know him, he reminded me of an older Nick De’More. I am planning to write a complimentary letter for this man’s great service.
The next morning, we got up and went to Yosemite! I wanted the Grand Canyon and Ed wanted Yosemite. Now, I definitely loved it too, but nothing can compare to the Grand Canyon (for now). There was a landslide along 140 that took out part of the road and California Transportation has made a small portion of the road into a one-way road. There is a traffic light set with 15 minute increments for one-way traffic. It’s a little scary to imagine a landslide happening. Yosemite really reminded me of Georgia; it made me miss my friends a little bit extra than normal. We drove around and hit some viewpoints, especially the ones recommended by our friend from the hotel. We saw Bridal Vail Falls and the famous postcard picture shot from tunnel view. We went to the visitor’s center and found out that there was space available at the walk-in camping area, Camp 4. We went there next and set up our tent. This park is in bear country too so all food and anything with a scent (i.e. toothpaste, hairspray, gum, etc.) has to be put into a bear safe storage container. We have an ENORMOUS bin of food in the car. It took a while for us to carry everything to the camp site and put all our food into the container, but once we were done, we hiked up Vernal Falls, Lower Yosemite Falls, and went to the Ahwahnee Hotel.
The next day, we hiked the Upper Yosemite Falls trail. It was 7 miles and supposed to take approximately 6-8 hours. Upper Yosemite Falls is the tallest waterfall in the United States and the fifth tallest in the world. The trail began right at the base of Camp 4 which was nice. Unlike the Grand Canyon, this one goes up first! It started out really rocky. There were giant rocks everywhere. Plus, tons of little tiny creeks and waterfalls could be found all the time. The higher we got, wetter it became. The water turned into slush. The slush turned into snow. We had some pretty cool views of the upper and lower falls along the trail and even a couple of rainbows. However, once we got to the top, the view of the waterfall was a bit disappointing. There was not really a point where I could see it. Yet, the view of the rest of the park was stunning. We sat on some rocks at the top and had lunch. We were warned that a thunderstorm was coming so we hurried up and began the trek down. It took us six hours to complete and we never saw any rain. One really interesting point is that along the trail, I saw three guys coming up behind us—I recognized them from the Grand Canyon! These three guys from Sweden did the exact same trails in the Grand Canyon and in Yosemite. Talk about a small world! Plus, I met a couple that lived on the same road I grew up on AND a man that worked at the University of Georgia where I graduated college. Waking up early and headed to Portland, Oregon.
Since 140 was the only open road, we had to go quite a bit south before heading west and then north to catch the interstate to Portland. Central California is pretty populated and has a lot of traffic. We had lunch at In-N-Out Burger in Sacramento. Ed had never been there before so I figured we should go and I always like it too… Speaking of which, I’m getting hungry (and off-track). After Sacramento, a took a nice nap! Then, northern California, specifically the Shasta area turned breathtaking again. We got a couple nice views of Mount Shasta.
I was very excited to get into Oregon, my 48th state. (Side note: I had this cool plan of Alaska being my 50th state, but it’s going to be the 49th. I’m missing Rhode Island. I broke my wrist in February and I was unable to work, which meant I could not fly for free. I had planned to fly to Rhode Island in February, drive through Oregon on this road trip, and then live and work in Alaska… you see the problem?) Oregon was gorgeous. Apparently there are two seasons—summer and rain. It rained off and on throughout the state, but I didn’t mind. It was so lush. Oh my goodness, the grass was the greenest green I’ve ever seen. I mean seriously, I’ve never seen a green greener than that. Ridiculous.
She seemed so excited to have us over as we were her first houseguests at her new apartment. I was super excited to be there too; she lives in the middle of downtown Portland so we got a really cool feel for the area. Portland is a very public transportation and bike friendly city. Metered parking for my car started at 8:00 am so I had to run outside and take care of that first. Then, we grabbed some breakfast at Byways Café downtown. Unfortunately, Basmah had to work at some point (noon) so she hopped on her bike and we split up. I later realized we forgot to take a picture together. I am really going to miss my favorite store, REI, while in Juneau so I went there for a bit. Later, we walked around the waterfront and downtown area a little more. My overall sentence: There are tons of bridges in Portland. I liked it though and want to go back when I have more time. After a quick oil change we’re off to CANADA!
So going through northern Oregon up to Washington was super quick and we actually crossed through to the other state on a bridge which was pretty neat. I really like this area though. It is still super green and luscious around here. The only major traffic we hit on this trip began around Tacoma and ended just past Seattle. It was cool seeing the Space Needle from the interstate too… I went up in there last October! So we kept on going through Washington and eventually made it to Border Patrol at the British Columbia line of Canada. It was kind of funny how they thought I was legit but definitely grilled Ed; they even asked for a second piece of identification. I mean, he’s pretty sketchy though, right? 😉 Just kidding, just kidding! So the agent there suggested we stop at a town called Hope for the night and we did just that. I actually drove the entire day and was thinking truck driving may totally be for me one day! We stayed at a little motel and got some good rest.
The next day, we took a picture of our head in a sign that says something like “Hope, Where Rambo was Filmed,” which is kind of cool, but that’s all there is in Hope. Then, we kept on. We drove until we reached Smither’s which was recommended by a gas station attendant… oh and gas was around $6 a gallon. Speaking of which, man it was challenging trying to figure out liters, kilometers, celsius… come on US, teach us this stuff! Smither’s was just as exciting as Hope, so we just slept.
Finally, the day had come. Only five hours to go until we would reach Prince Rupert and the ferry terminal to Ketchikan, Alaska. It was going pretty smoothly until about an hour into the drive when I got a flat tire light on my car. Now, British Columbia is pretty bare for the most part so it took quite a while to find somewhere to get that repaired. I eventually found a town called Traverse. I went to three shops before I found someone that could help me anytime soon, and obviously we did not have any extra time to spare. Wal Mart repaired my tire (or so I thought) within an hour and we were back on our way. We did allow three extra hours for emergencies such as this, and man I’m glad.
So, British Columbia really reminded me of southern California where it is desolate and the gas was super expensive. When you cross into the country, it is really green and full of mountains, but as you trudge north, it becomes more barren and rocky. There were a lot of landslides and even signs warning for avalanche very often. There were nets in place along many portions of the mountainside ready to catch the rock.
However, we arrived in Prince Rupert, had some Pizza Hut, and checked into the ferry. (I drove this entire day too). It was pretty cool driving my car onto the ferry and seeing how everything works. We wandered around and planted ourselves in the observatory for the night. This allowed for a glorious view of everything ahead. The ferry ride was pretty neat, but I’m really looking forward to the one to Juneau because we will be inside inlets most of the way and have more scenery to look at for that ride. Next stop, will be training to become a zip-line guide in Ketchikan, Alaska.
Rachel's Surfing the Sky 