Alaska Navigation

> Gallery

> Volunteer Diaries

> Volunteer Feedback

> FAQ

> Resource Pack

> Fact Sheet

--------

> Bookstore

GVN Home > usa > alaska > diaries

Chiachi Wu writes...

...about her experiences while volunteering in Alaska.

Northern Lights
It was a long, long trip from Taiwan. Even though it was about midnight; I could still see the mountains and snow. They are so magnificent. And far, far away, you can still see the sunlight almost below the horizon. I'm in Alaska now. Mandy picked me up at the airport. It was really nice to see her there holding a paper which had my name on it - Mandy showed me the northern lights in the sky. There were some white patterns. She said it must be a good sign that I saw the northern lights on my first day here!

Glacier Blue
This morning we went to Mandy's place to pick up some food of mine. Jarrow, Mandy's Siberian husky, is a very pretty and lovely dog. Almost every person I meet in Alaska has a dog, a big dog, not like my lovely Pomeranians. We left Anchorage about 11:30. The scenery was so beautiful on the road. We stopped at Portage Glacier where Mandy used to climb to reach a glacier 14 years ago. We stopped at Moose Pass for our lunch in about 2:00. I had my first deep fried Halibut and it was delicious. We arrived at Seward SeaLife Center at about 3:30 and met Jenelle and got my pass card. While we were waiting for Jenelle and Becky, Mandy and I went to visit Exit Glacier. This time, I could get so close that I could even feel the melting water drop on the ice! We were so lucky to have a sunny day. It was really magnificent. Its blue color was so beautiful. We didn't have much time to stay there, but if I have the chance, I will definitely come here again. Jenelle is the intern and volunteer coordinator of SeaLife Center and Becky is another volunteer here, she has been her for a month. I stayed tonight with Valerie and Teneal and their lovely dog, Lika. We talked about Teneal's food experience in Mongolia and Valerie's in Africa. It was so interesting. We also planned to go fishing together on Saturday which will be so cool! I can't wait!

SeaLife Center
It was cold and raining. I met Jenelle in SeaLife Center in the morning. She took me to meet my boss, Anne. She is a very nice person. She wanted me to help her to combine her data and GIS to make the researches more practical and even show to the public for educational use. The goal is very promising. I hope I can really do something while I'm here. I met a lot of people today and went to the behind of the scenes tour. It was a guided tour that shows you and tells you what is going on in this research center. It was very interesting to know that the animals' names this year are all following a spice's name. So we have Curry, Dill, Ginger etc. After the tour, I spent my time sitting in front of Harbor seals and Puffins watching them swimming in the water gracefully. I moved to Seward Waterfront Lodging today. It is only 3 minutes walking from here to SeaLife Center and it is just on the coast. Greg, the owner, is very friendly and hospitable. I'm sure I will have a great month staying here. In the evening I went to buy milk from the supermarket and met Joseph and Irene (the owner of the Arctic Adventure Hostel) on the bike trail. What a surprise :)

Start to work
Except for lunch, I stayed in the Lab and fixed my eyes on computer all day. It was almost like the days when I was doing my project. The goal of what I'm going to do is how to use GIS to present the researches here and even applied it to educational use. However, there are lots of problem I need to deal with at first. What kind of map and projection is good for use? Do we need to set up a grid system? If we do, we may need to change the vector system to raster. And, it seems hexagon is better than grid system, but I don't know how to create it. All this I want to make sure of in the beginning because I hope we can set up a well-designed system that helps people to do a long-term research and need not to worry about the difference of different interfaces and changing formats. It was very time consuming and boring. However, it helps me develop the abilities to think and to solve the problem. One month is kind of short to do something. But, I'm trying. Evening was quite relaxing. I talked to my Mom and my sister, missed the food from home and my lovely dogs.

Not a BEAR day
After picnicking (I mean eating my sandwiches) on the coast, I decided to try Mt Marathon trail. It is famous for its July 4th marathon race every year. The race's trail is very steep, so I tried to go the Jeep's road. It is still steep, but still in a reasonable range. After 40 minutes, the slope calms down, the tree line finishes and bushes start. I found some berries here. I'm not sure what are they, so I think it is better not to eat them. The view begins to broaden here. You can look back at resurrection bay and the mountains across the bay. Even more, wild flowers are everywhere and they are so beautiful. About 15 minutes easy walk along a creek, the slope becomes steep again. I stopped there, since there is no clear sign which shows how far the trail is. I arrived at the trail head on 4:30 pm. I spent two and a half hour round trip there. Some people just after me said they saw a little black bear showed up on the trail. Well, I didn't see it. Maybe it is good not to meet a bear, but� I went to the Small Boar Harbor. Greg told me yesterday I can come here around 5:00 pm and I can see a lot of people coming back with their fish. It really is!!! I saw many people hanging all the fish they got today on the hook and got photos under a sign "Caught in Seward, Alaska". The fish were most Halibut and Silver Salmon. There were still some that I can't recognize what kind of fish they are. There is a big Fish Cleaning Area where people cut down the meat and throw away other parts. I found they basically cut the meat on both side of the fish and throw away the others (bones, tail fin etc.). In my opinion, it is quite a waste. There is still lot of eatable meat on the bone!

Kayaking
Such a beautiful day! I found some counted Harbor Seals data today. I think I can try to combine it with CTD (conductive, temperature and depth of the ocean). Hopefully, I can have the CTD data of many years. Then, I can try to compare if the temperature change has had an effect on the seal population. Anyway, the most exciting thing of the day was kayaking!!! I went to kayak with Greg, Andrew and Marina. Our guide was Kat. She was so professional. She said she has been a kayaker since 14! The ocean was so peaceful and was easily to paddle on. It was hard to explain the feeling when you float on the ocean, moving with the waves. The water was cool and clear. We saw a lot of birds and fish jumping up from the water. We rested on the shore and visited the tidal zone there. Lots of mussels and seaweed there. It was really a wonderful trip. I only hope my arm can be stronger. And next time I can kayak longer.

Party for interns and volunteers
I'm so glad I went hiking yesterday. It is rainy, windy and cold today. But a rainy day makes you really concentrate on your work and I had a lot of fun yesterday. Seems I had a very good today. I followed the result of the Glacier Bay project and made some modifications. Since the software is improved now, it is much easier to do this. What I did is basically use a 2D coastline map of Aialik and input another data layer with temperature and depth data in it. First locate the study points by their X and Y axis (longitude and latitude) and then create a Z axis to show the depth. The temperatures are shown by a serious dot and the graduated color shows the temperature difference. This works! Anne seems pretty happy about this result. She wants me to create a 3D bathymetry map in the beginning. But I have some trouble doing that. I'm still trying to figure it out. Anyway, I got something done today. And my next step is trying to add a time scale in it. It means the color of temperature should change with time if I can make it. This is good for a rainy cold day. There was a dinner party this evening for all the interns and volunteers. Jenelle is the person responsible for this program. After this, I heard lots of people said they really had a good time and Jenelle really did a great job. We had good food, very delicious coconut halibut and very yummy chocolate cake. Everyone got a gift (I heard this is Jenelle's style. No one would leave with only two hands~). I got a ticket for Anchorage Zoo!

Day Harbor trip
Finally, I got on a boat on a beautiful day. Anne needed to change the video tape and camera memory disk for the wildlife watching system. It was a really enjoyable trip. Fish and porpoises jumping out of water; sea gulls, puffins and some other birds diving with the waves or flying in the sky; sea otters taking a nap on the tide; curious harbor seals peeking at us once a while checking out what were we doing. We checked the cameras and changed their memories before the winter. They are all powered by sun with sun panels. Hopefully they will survive during the bad condition in the winter. Anne said the behaviours of harbor seals in the winter are unclear. These cameras will help us understand more. On our way back, Justin tried to fish. We all hoped he could get a Halibut, but only a dog fish (shark). In the harbor, we went to refill gas of the boat. Cool! A gas station on the sea!

Start my journey
As I hoped, the sky started to clear this morning. The scenery is beautiful along the coast. Sunlight bright in the break of the cloud. I had a little walk and got some pictures. My last day here. Jenelle asked how I feel. I said, it is a really complex feeling, on the one hand I feel sad I'm leaving the lovely place, but on the other, I'm excited to go to Denali. Everyone says it is so beautiful especially the Fall color. I had a very pleasant trip with Jenelle on our way to Anchorage. We talked a lot. I like her very much. She is a bright person always with smile on her face. We should keep in touch. She dropped me at Arctic Adventure Hostel. I went to buy some food, souvenirs and my first stove in REI! It was on sale and cost 29.99! I told to Mandy about this. She said she wanted to buy one for herself, too. I met her around 5:30 and we had a dinner date. She brought me to BEAR TOOTH which was so great! I had Blackened Halibut Burrito which was suggested by Mandy and it was great!!! And also a glass of polar pale ale beer. They have many kinds of beer here and all made by themselves. I'm not good at alcohol at all. Only half of it made me feel dizzy. Mandy heard that I'm planning to camp in Denali. She lent me a tent and a sleeping pad! How nice!!! Now I'm ready for camping!

It was nice to meet Joseph in the hostel again. And I went to bed early because I needed to wake early to take my shuttle to Denali tomorrow.