Childhood Memories

Over the past week, we have been enjoying Tom Springer's book Looking for Hickories. In his book, one of his essays recalls a time when he was looking for fossils in his backyard. This essay specifically made me think of all the things that I experienced in nature as a child.  

Like Springer, my younger sister Lauren and I were convinced that dinosaurs had to be fossilized in our backyard, specifically in our turtle shaped sandbox. We would dig and dig and dig and dig and if we found a rock that somehow got buried in there, we would run it up to the house, interrupt my mom or dad with whatever they were doing and hassle them to tell us whether we had indeed found a dinosaur or not. Of course, in order to not shatter our hopes and dreams and have to spend the rest of the evening counseling my sister and I through the pain of learning dinosaurs were certainly not buried in our sandbox, my parents would always tell us with a big grin on their faces, yes. 

When I became a little older and grew out of the sandbox phase, a friend of mine from across the street and I started what we liked to call "the bunny hunters club". At our nightly meetings during the summer, we would set a "trap" in order to catch the bunny, which consisted of a cardboard box with a few baby carrots in it. We would then run up into my tree house and wait for a bunny to come along. We were never successful in actually "hunting" a bunny as we liked to call it, but we remained hopeful that one day we might actually get one. 

One last childhood memory that Springer's book made me remember was the planting of a blue spruce with my grandpa when I was around five years old at his home in Holland Michigan. At the time that we planted the tree, it was smaller than I was. He told me then that when I was older, that tree would be much taller than I was. I didn't believe him. To this day, whenever I go to visit my grandmother's house, I look into the backyard and see the giant blue spruce that we planted. He was right. That tree is much much taller than I am now. 

Kalamazoo Nature Center Experience

When I was a kindergartner, one of our first field trips was to the Kalamazoo Nature Center. I didn't remember a lot of that trip, but when I walked into the lobby of the Nature Center last week, I began to remember things. Now, to start, I remembered things being a whole lot bigger the last time I was there. I guess growing a foot or so makes a difference. 

To start this trip, we began by looking at the different exhibits inside the Nature Center main building. The first thing you have to do, of course, is to become bug sized. I remember when I was little being freaked out when I walked past the "magic mirrors" and watched myself getting smaller and smaller. This time, I laughed hysterically. Once bug sized, there are little areas to explore with the different animals that Michigan contains. Before this point, I really didn't realize all the different wildlife America's High Five State actually had. For me, seeing all these animals opened my eyes to how cool and diverse the state I call home is. 

After exploring the exhibits and listening to a short but interesting presentation, it was time to take a walk through the prairie the Nature Center has grown. This was a very neat experience in that I felt like I had traveled back in time to how Michigan used to look before the towns and cities sprung up. All of a sudden, a certain calmness fell over me and for the first time in a long time I lost all stress and was just able to enjoy being outside instead of being inside studying and stressing about the large amounts of work I have to do before the week is out. This experience in the prairie also made me realize how much I miss being able to go home at night, sit on my back porch and watch the sunset over the lake. That peacefulness is something that I never really treasured until now.

After the walk through the prairie, the group split up and a few of us took a hike down to the river. Here I noticed that the leaves had started changing colors. If this wasn't a wake up call to how I need to slow down, I don't know what else could be.

Fall used to be my favorite season. I loved going to football games, drinking apple cider, and raking leaves. One of my favorite scents to this day is the smell of burning leaves. But over the last few years, I have been so busy with school and other things that I haven't really had a chance to really enjoy fall. So, I made a decision right there on the trail to the river that this year I am going to enjoy fall the way I used to. 

After another hour or so at the Nature Center, it was time to go back to school and go back to the stressful life of a college student. But, after classes that day, I went out and bought a rake. I made a vow to myself that at least once a week I would go outside in my backyard for at least and hour this fall and rake leaves. This way I know that I can begin to truly enjoy fall the way that I used to. 

A Moose Rant

So, a few weeks ago while reading Bill Bryson’s comical book A Walk In the Woods, I came across a few lines in the book which seemed somewhat out of place from what I’ve learned and experienced out in the wilderness in Alaska. Let me sum it up for you. If you can't tell by the title of this entry, it has something to do with moose.

            Bryson first says that “hunters will tell you that a moose is a wily and ferocious forest creature” and then proceeds to call this accusation by the hunters “nonsense”. I get the ferocious part as being nonsense because when I think of ferocious things I think of crocodiles or things with fur and warts that gnash their teeth and live under the bed. But, on the other hand, I do understand where the hunters are coming from. For instance, early in September 2010, a toddler was trampled while playing on a beach with her brother in Denver Colorado. I don’t know if you can actually call this encounter with a moose as being “ferocious”, but you can for sure call it terrifying.

            Bryson makes another inference that I find interesting when talking about moose and highways.  Bryson says “if you are driving down a highway and a moose steps from the woods ahead of you, he will stare at you for a long minute...then abruptly try and run away from you, legs flailing in eight directions at once”. Here’s the thing about moose and any other animal, domesticated or wild, for that matter. Their actions are totally unpredictable.  For example in July of this year, a man died after hitting a moose on the highway with his Jetta. This moose didn't run away. In fact, you could say that the moose actually ran into the man's vehicle. Another accident that I am familiar with happened in 2005 when I was in Alaska. A woman was driving down the highway when a moose ran out of the forest in front of her. Not able to stop in time, the women hit the moose totaling her car. Fortunately for the moose, he walked away with a minor scratch on his hip.

            After telling you all these horror stories about the moose and giving them somewhat of a bad rap, I feel as though I should also tell you how amazing of an animal a moose really is. Here are 10 Interesting facts that I have compiled for you about moose.

1.     Moose are a deer.

2.     Moose live in Europe, North America, and Asia

3.     Unlike most species, Moose gangs or herds are lead by a dominant female, NOT male.

4.     Moose are vegan meaning they only eat plants

5.     Moose hair is hollow helping them to float

6.     A moose can swim up to 6 mph

7.     An adult male moose eats about 9.770 calories a day to maintain a healthy body weight

8.     Moose only have teeth on the bottom of their mouths

9.     A moose calf can weigh anywhere from 25 lbs to 35 lbs when they are born

10.   A moose call is called a bark or bugle

(For more facts visit http://users.rcn.com/jpebble/moose/funfacts.html or http://users.rcn.com/jpebble/moose/funfacts.html)

To finish, I would like to say that moose are some of the most incredible animals that I have ever come encounter with in the wilderness. To say that I didn't enjoy seeing one when I was in Alaska would be lying. But I would also be lying if I said I wasn't a little hesitant to move when I came across a mom and her calf on a trail when I was hiking in Alaska. It was awesome, but I would have much rather been viewing this moose from the comforts of my conversion van. 

A Day of Firsts

Today is a day of firsts. First of all, it is the 21^st of September. It is also the first day of fall. As I sat down to think about what I could write for my first blog, I came to one conclusion. I felt that it would be fitting on this day of firsts to write about my first trip to the “The Last Frontier”: Alaska.

            Back in 2005, I was in the eighth grade at Marshall Middle School. During that time, I was the typical eighth grader. I was on the morning announcement crew, was a bassoon player in the band, and was on the honor roll. But, of all of these things that I participated in during the eighth grade, the most important was the opportunity to be involved with the 2005 Alaska Great Lakes Project.

            My eighth grade science teacher, Dale Rosene (aka Ishtar), and another teacher (Gary Holsen) from Palmer, Alaska, started the Alaska Great Lakes Project (AGLP) back in 1989 in response to the Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound. The first trip took students from Marshall Middle School to Tatitlek, Alaska, to do comparative beach studies between the beaches of the Great Lakes and the beaches around Prince William Sound.  For three summers, this same trip took place and the investigations continued. In 1993, Ishtar went to Alaska to try to come up with a way to continue the trip but was interested in adding leadership opportunities while keeping an environmental focus. Thanks to Ishtar’s travels back to Alaska, the trip evolved into what it is today. The trip is still focused on the environment but at the same time allows students a growing experience where many learn who they are and become stronger leaders.

(For more information on the trips beginnings and to see pictures of this past summers trip please visit http://aglp.com/2010/index.html )

            So, on June 8, 2005, I left for my first trip to Alaska.   Now this was the beginning of a long list of “firsts” that would occur over the course of the three weeks that I was in AK. To begin my list, this trip marked the first time that I had ever been anywhere without my parents. To say the least, it was a little nerve racking. For the first time in my entire life, I was experiencing what it was like to be out in the world by myself without my mom and dad two steps behind guiding my every move. But, to say the least, it made me mature very quickly.

            During the trip I saw my first moose, whale, caribou, ground squirrel, sea otter, and porpoise. I hiked my first glacier and mountain. I attended my first midnight baseball game where they never turned the stadium lights and for the first time I went sledding in the middle of the summer. And for the first time in my life up to that point, I experienced the true beauty of nature.

            Up to that point I had never really known what nature held. But, being surrounded by the mountains and the pure majesty of the natural wilderness really opened my eyes to what true beauty is.

So, on the autumnal equinox 2010, I begin my journey in exploring the true beauty of the town I now call home…

Whale Flukes From my Trip to AK Summer 2005