Moose Crossing!

Mama Moose and Twin Calves

I spent my two last Saturdays in Alaska fishing at the mouth of the Tanalian River, knee-deep in the ripping current. To my right, in deeper water, spawning salmon undulated in the current like rusty torpedos. They have travelled hundreds of miles to spawn in their home waters.

On my way back to the lodge that first  Saturday afternoon, I turned off the Lake Clark runway onto a dirt road. Right in front of me was a mama Moose and her twin calves. They ignored me completely and vanished silently into the woods like three brown ships.

In another few weeks, I'll be heading back to the Lower 48 and to my own home waters. It's hard to believe that my time in Alaska is almost over, and that I'll be saying good-bye to moose, salmon, and sunsets over Hardenburg Bay.

Sunrise over Hardenburg Bay

It's been a remarkable summer and I've certainly seen the wonders of God in nature and in the souls of man.

I've been invited back to guide next summer and Lord willing, I'll return. I imagine that this will be my last blog for the summer. Samaritan Lodge will be hosting the SP Soldatna, AK, staff next weekend. Then we'll clean and winterize the camp before flying out on for Soldatna/Kenai on the 19th.

I'm going to travel and visit family and friends in September and part of October, so I hope to see you soon and have a good long chat about your summer. Much love, Elizabeth

My Samaritan Lodge "Bonus" Daughters (Warning! Spiritual Content Ahead!)

Isaiah 54:1 "'Shout for joy, O barren one, you who have borne no child; Break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud, you who have not travailed; For the daughters of the desolate one will be more numerous than the daughters of the married woman,' says the Lord."

I promised to introduce you to some of my co-workers and friends. These three beautiful women have become my dearest friends and adopted "bonus" daughters.

Natalie works in the Tanalian Dining Hall and is a remarkable pastry chef. She is reserved without being shy, calm, affectionate and funny. She is also my favorite Banana-grams partner! We greet each other every morning with an enormous and enormously lengthy bear hug. It's the best possible ritual and I don't know how I started the day without her all these years!

Natalie, Katie and Val

Katie is the assistant cook at the Bunker (staff dining) and my next door neighbor. She is a spunky, focused young woman whose dream is to serve with Samaritan's Purse full-time. She packed her first Operation Christmas Child box as a 6-year-old and determined then and there that she wanted to work for SP. She's another hugging buddy and often lifts me off my feet when she sees me. We frequently curl up on her bed or mine for a good long chat at day's end, though those have slowed down a little since she started dating one of my fellow guides Carlin!

Val's husband Jay is a resident of Port Alsworth, Alaska, and works full-time for Samaritan Lodge as a Jack-of-all-trades, though his background is in landscape architecture (Atlanta, GA). I call him our SL Transformer, for he drives all our heavy equipment as if he's part man/part machine. Val is in-and-out of the lodge along with their Chesapeake Bay Retriever, Susie Q, and has become another Banana-grams addict and adopted daughter. She has a quirky and playful sense of humor, feels things very deeply, and is a gifted artist. I'm hoping to pull out my watercolors and spend a Saturday painting with her before summer ends.

I once told God: "If I'm going to remain single, then you had better send me on Adventures." Well, He has sent me all over the world on incredible adventures. I have ridden in rickshaws and on riverboats in Asia. I have flown in rickety airplanes in Africa. I have hung over the edge of the Andes Mountains in a Toyota Landcruiser. Now, I spend my days on floatplanes and small boats in Alaska.

But, I haven't always been reconciled to my singleness, no matter how loaded with adventure. I have mourned the lack of a husband and family -- and if I'm honest, even railed at God at times. But I have grown content and secure in the knowledge that He loves me. And I know that He's good. And the words of Isaiah 54 have come true for me out here on the frontier: for though I have never borne children, I have many daughters. 

A Great Day with Greta!

If the woman on my left looks familiar, it's because she's world famous for her work as a commentator and television personality for FOX News. She's been dubbed one of the "100 Most Powerful Women in the World".

Friday morning, Greta Van Susteren joined our veteran couples for a day of fishing. Franklin Graham handed her a rod and pointed at me: one of the 100 least powerful women in the world.

Fortunately for both of us, she didn't ask any questions about politics, and (providentially) she caught two fish right off the bat. To say that I was relieved is an understatement!

Though her intellect and political savvy is certainly intimidating, Greta is lively, open and and not the least bit intimidating.  This petite fireball is as low maintenance as they come. She is also an engaging story-teller and has a wonderful and often self-deprecating sense of humor. She instantly found common ground with the veterans and their spouses.

To my utter surprise, both of these photos made it onto Greta's blog today (see Gretawire.foxnewsinsider.com). The first one was taken by Franklin Graham as I was trying to dodge out of the photo. A comment on one of the threads said something like: "Looks as if the other girl is afraid she's going to be slapped by the fish!"

The second photo was actually the lead photo this morning along with the caption "Check out this pic! (and by the way, the women can fish!). 

Having my photo on Gretawire was certainly a highlight, though by 3:30 pm I was supplanted quickly by photos of hairy carnivorous mammals: bears, not presidential candidates!

Many of the photos show the veterans and their spouses having a wonderful time in Alaska. It's terrific publicity for the Operation Heal Our Patriots program and a wonderful "shout out" to our veteran couples. Thanks Greta for a great day!

Berry-Picking Time!

It's August, and berry season is about to begin in earnest. Everywhere you look, low or high, you find small globes of orange, red, black, white or blue fruit forming. This week, I'll throw a few dozen zip-lock bags into my pack and add "berry-picking" to the agenda on all my guided outings. Last week on the hike to Tanalian Falls, we found exactly four ripe (and very early) alpine blueberries. Each person had just one absolutely perfect blueberry.

When we go out on the Jay Hammond (our 34-foot boat), we often beach the boat temporarily. We stop just long enough to drop off a guide and our guests on a short gravel beach at the start of a trailhead to an unnamed waterfall. A ten minute climb upward through long grasses, Devil's Club (or Devil's Walking Stick), berry bushes, and other dense shrubs leads to a small but beautiful fall.

This past week, the current bushes were full of fat cherry-red fruit. In a few more weeks, the low-bush cranberries, high-bush cranberries, blueberries (or bilberries). blackberries, raspberries and lingonberries will be producing fruit.

The Dena'ina (a native tribe indigenous to the Lake Clark area) make Nivagi or "Indian ice cream" with berries. The traditional dish is made with "berries, lard (preferably moose or bear) or oil, such as seal oil, fish or animal meat, and a small amount of sugar" (Tanaina Plantlore, Priscilla Russel Kari, 1995). As delicious as that sounds, I think I'm going to stick to Ben & Jerry's!

I've become fascinated with local botany and enjoy telling folks about various plants and their many uses in the Dena'ina culture: for food, for medicine, and often, just for fun.

Last Friday, on our hike to Tanalian Falls, we discovered a dead birch branch covered with fist-sized, nut-brown, ear-shaped protrusions. Were they mushrooms? Was it a strange type of fungus? What was it? Upon my return, I turned to my Tanaina Plantlore book and found that they were Birch Polypore (Arboreal Fungus) or in the Dena'ina language K'evajegha, which means "against the ear".

With great delight, I learned that the only recorded Dena'ina use for the Birch Polypore was as ammunition for a child's popgun! You can be sure that I'll highlight that fun fact on my next hike. And if I can find a pop-gun, I'm going to give it a try...

Yes, even on a Saturday!

 July 27th...I spent my day off fly-fishing with friends at the mouth of the Kijik River on the southeastern side of Lake Clark. Though the * Sockeye Salmon are running, Carlin, Katie, Natalie and I were fishing exclusively for Arctic Grayling.

Grayling are part of the Salmon family and are "little" fish by Lake Clark standards. They have a beautiful dorsal fin that looks something like a miniature sailfish and stunning salmon-colored stripes on their fins.Wickepedia says that they top out at 30 inches in length. Mostly we catch fish anywhere from 8" to about 16" with a few rare ones in the 20-21 inch range. Today I caught a grandaddy of a Grayling. Really, it's not just a fish story! The tail sat at my fingertips and the nose came just short of my elbow. I'll have to get back to you on the official measurement!

We boated across the lake to reach the feeder stream and then walked across a gravel spit. As we waded up the mouth of the Kijik, the surface of the stream was dotted with tell-tale rings: fish mouths gaping, tails swirling, water boiling as fish rose to take insects off the surface of the water. The first cast that drifted onto the surface of the current was immediately taken by a fish and it was the same all day. They were rising to dry flies and would take almost anything you floated past their snouts but seemed especially enamored with Royal Wulff and tan Caddis flies. We caught fifty or sixty between the four of us, a spectacular day by any standard.

We only quit the river when the growling of our stomachs started to scare the fish off...

* I'll write more about Sockeye Salmon later in the week!

Chef Jean-Claude Mille - Chef, Photographer, Chaplain...and Landscaper?

Beware! Chef Jean-Claude Mille with his
secret French sauce!

Would you believe that the man in the rakishly tilted fur-lined hat was once personal chef to the likes of Elizabeth Taylor, Milton Burle, and Frank Sinatra?

Jean-Claude went from seminary to culinary school to skid row and you can read his biography at: http://www.chefjeanclaude.com/

Now, Jean-Claude is an occasional landscaping sprayer person (everyone pitches in to get the lodge ready for the season!), but mostly he's the full-time Head Chef and Staff Photographer for Samaritan Lodge Alaska -- during the summer months that is. The remainder of the year he is a traveling chef/chaplain for the Billy Graham Rapid Response Team.

He runs Tanalian Dining Room like a Michelin 3-star-rated restaurant, along with his sous chef, Michael, pastry chef, Natalie, and the volunteer kitchen staff and servers, Mike and Melissa.

I never expected to find a gourmet French chef in bush Alaska and one of the best things: the guides are invited to dine with our guests for dinner and breakfast once a week. Yum!

* For those of you who are praying folks, Jean-Claude is in Anchorage tonight. He is having a simple out-patient procedure tomorrow and hopes to rejoin us in a few days. Please pray for a positive outcome and that he will be back in his kitchen soon.

The Attempt to Summit Tanalian!

Photo from left to right: Elizabeth (me!), Linda (Head of Housekeeping for Samaritan Lodge), Kelly (SL Administrative Assistant), Becky (5th grade teacher and SL housekeeping volunteer for one month), Pat (Pastor and SL kitchen volunteer for one month), Natalie (SL Pastry Chef for Tanalian Dining Hall), Michael (Natalie's brother and SL Sous Chef for Tanalian Dining Hall), Christina and Dan (spouse/Doctor for Tanalian Bible Camp). 

Tanalian Mountain. Difficulty: Strenuous. (http://www.nps.gov/lacl/planyourvisit/day-hikes.htm).

As Forest Gump would say: That's all I have to say about that! But, what would life be like without an attempt on the strenuous, if not the impossible. Doesn't the Bible say: "For with God, nothing is impossible?" And in order to prove the truth of that statement, you have to try the difficult, the strenuous, and the downright impossible. 

On Saturday at 8:30 AM, five of our staff, two volunteers, the visiting Doctor for Tanalian Bible Camp, and the Doctor's wife, all gathered in front of the Bunker to begin our attempt on Tanalian Mountain. Some of our group just wanted to make it to a spot called Traveler's Rest, some wanted to get to a much higher spot called "The Knee", and the rest of us wanted to climb along the topmost ridge and ride the sky at the summit. 

On our way to the trailhead, Spence (SL maintenance man and endurance runner) waved at us nonchalantly and said he would catch up with us in a bit -- after he had showered and gotten a bite to eat. He had decided that morning to take a shot at the trail record of 2 and 1/2 hours -- as he had nothing better to do with his day (!). Two hours later, he laced up his Soloman's, duck-taped a walkie talkie, SAT phone and bear spray together, and hit the 8.1 mile trail. He passed us coming and going and his final time was a stunning 2 hours, 29 minutes and 32 seconds. 

The rest of us took our time, stopping for lunch and taking a few additional breaks as needed. Ok, taking a few hundred breaks as needed. Remember? Tanalian Mountain: Strenuous!

Just below "The Knee", we collapsed onto the springy tundra and inhaled out our peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. Kelly pulled out her phone and checked her pedometer. Four hours into our journey, she had walked over 10,000 steps! We had walked over 10,000 steps.

Kelly, Pat and Linda decided to start down the mountain after they reached The Knee and I never got the final step count. But I'm dying to know the final tally. Somehow I'll have to figure out how many more steps we took to reach the summit. It's bound to take a highly complicated mathematical formula. So, I will ask Michael (degree: Aeronautical Engineering) to run the equations and get back to you in my next post. Or perhaps I will ask Spence to take Kelly's pedometer on his romp up the mountain!

Anyway, over 20,000 steps later, our band of nine straggled back to the camp in three smaller groups -- clocking in at 5:30 PM, 6:00 PM, and 7:30 PM respectively. I'm proud to say I brought up the rear at the eleventh-hour mark, lagging behind Spence by a thumping eight and a half hours, and, even more humbling, behind our wounded veteran's best time by two additional hours!

As advertised, the trail to the top was strenuous...but, oh the glorious view. It was worth every strenuous step. And I have a lot more to say about that. But it's 11:15 PM and I'll save it for another day.