If you're into prayer and you want a good challenge

I could really use a lot of prayer in the next couple of weeks and months. So if you're a pray-er (as in a person who prays, not the thing that they are praying) or you were thinking of picking up a challenging new hobby, I've got one for you! Some things I would especially love to have prayer for:

• That I wouldn't have overwhelming fear or stress as I start off in my new surroundings. An awesome woman of God, according to God, "She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come." (Proverbs 31:25)
• That I would find a church community that is deeply seeking God, and living out their faith in Him in the community. And whether I find a church or not, pray for my endurance and commitment in spending time with God on a regular basis.
• For good communication with all the teachers I will be working with, and that I would connect with the students in a way that allows us to have fun and learn, and that they would respect me.
• That my actions would speak louder than my words, so that people might see the love of God through me, especially since my words in German aren't going to be as eloquent as they usually are in English (haha).

I could think of a million more, but there's a start. Thank you sooo much! I sure do need it.

Stolen bikes, stress reduction, and packing euphoria

Well I'm one day away from leaving Washington. Last weekend I got to go to a staff reunion for Youth Dynamics Adventures, in Leavenworth. There were summer staff there from 25 years ago, including the founder. Unfortunately, no one from my first summer was there, so that was kind of sad (Next time we need to represent! You know who you are). But it was a great weekend and plenty of old friends, from my second summer and beyond were there. On Sunday I finally got to climbing without dealing with rain, hail, or getting lost. My friend Miranda and I climbed in the morning and I finally got to do Classic Crack, a famous crack climb in Icicle Canyon. Another friend, Kurtis came to join us after he whitewater kayaked Tumwater Canyon in the morning. Eventually Miranda had to get back to the ranch for a trip (she's on summer staff this summer).

Kurtis and I tried to find a 2 pitch 5.4 trad route that we saw in the guid book. To translate, that means it takes two rope lengths to complete it. Grade 5 climbing requires both hands and feet and as the number increase after the decimal, the climb gets harder. For example, a 5.3-5.5 is pretty easy, most beginner can start with 5.6 or so, if the climb is top roped (which means the anchor is already set for you). The hardest climb I've ever done is a 5.10 and the hardest climb ever done is 5.14. "Trad" is short for traditional, which means that instead of having an anchor already at the top, or having bolts screwed into the rock that you clip into as you climb (sport climbing), you bring pieces of gear that you wedge into cracks that act as mini-anchors as you climb. It is more challenging than sport climbing because it takes longer to place the gear, and you have to trust every placement that you make.

I am just learning how to trad climb so we picked an easy one. It turned out that to get to the offical climb we had to climb 3 pitches of about 5.4 terrain to get to the base of the actual route. So the whole thing took longer than we thought but it was really fun. The last couple of times I had gone trad climbing in the spring, I was really getting frustrated because I felt like I couldn't trust my gear, but I was trying to climb harder routes so I would get sketched out. I lowered off of the first 5.8 I tried trad, which made me trust that one piece of gear holding me. And I down climbed off of a 5.7 within a couple weeks of eachother. So I was starting to get pretty frustrated, especially since I can climb stuff like that easily sport or top roped. So maybe the two month break from it was enough to separate myself from the frustration. And I purposly picked something ridiculously easy so that I wouldn't get freaked out. It wasn't till halfway into the climb that I realized that I was just having fun, I wasn't worried, I wasn't scared. And I was learning. We would give eachother feedback on our anchors and gear placements, which was encouraging and I just got to pactice the transitions between pitches and good stuff like that. Oh yeah, and I finally got to use the cams I bought with my graduation money. It was pretty rad!

I completely forgot to take my camera out all weekend but hopefully I'll be able to highjack pictures from other people.

Last week I was getting pretty stressed out about my move to Austria. I'm excited about being there but I have this dread in the back of my mind that makes me wonder if it's going to be like my host family situation when I was in Germany. When people ask me what it was like bing an exchange student in Germany for a year, fun is not the first word that comes to mind. Challenging, testing, arduous come to mind first. Much of what was amazing about about that year is sort of soured by the difficulty I had geting along with my host family. I went in thinking that I was a pretty easy person to get along with and that I was flexible and willing and able to make things work even if they aren't ideal. I got along with the two littl girls and the dad but it seemed like there was always something I could do a little different or a little better before the mom would be content. This was exasperated by a couple of misunderstandings after Christmas time. The bike they were letting me use got stolen while I had it locked up at the bus stop and even though I said I would pay for it, she went on about how it was their son bike, they trusted me,... There were a couple other misunderstandings and by that point I was getting a bit depressed and was talking less, so that's when my host mom decided that using the silent treatment on me would solve the problem. She literally wouldn't answer me if I talked to her unless it was absolutely necessary. It was so absured. Anyway, I finally decided to change host families, and had a really great last couple months with the Mingers.

Even though I know that that was a unique situation (hopefully!) it makes me apprehensive about the coming year. I don't want to have misunderstandings with the teachers in my school, I want to get along with my landlady, I want to meet people and makes friends and find a good church and feel connected. It takes so much time though. Just about when you are starting to feel comfortable somewhere, it's time to move on. It happened when I was in Germany; I really got close to my friends on a trip we took on spring break, and I found a good church a month before I left. Then I started over again when I went to community college for a year. By the time I strted as Western I was ready to got comfortable somewhere and hang a round for a while. And I really did. I love Bellingham, the people, the place. I miss being there already, I miss all my B'ham friends and old housemates already. I love being in a town that feels like home, and that's what Bellingham is for me. Long runs on the Interurban Trail watching the sun set over the San Juan islands, BBQs and frisbee down at Boulevard Park, jazz night every Tuesday at Boundary Bay Brewery, with kayak roll session beforehand when my knee was still good, sitting on the fridge eating ice cream out of the container late in the night with everyone saying "I should be studying right now", sitting on the roof drinking wine coolers : ) and talking about our summers....so many good memories. It's hard to start over when you have something so good.

I think some of it is just laziness. Making friends is hard work, especially when you know that you have rad ones, who you have already convinced to like you, back home. You know, it's not easy persuading people to like a strange girl like me, they think I'm strange.

I had a couple restless nights last week worried about next year. Then I just happened to read in Psalms, "But you O Lord, be not far off; O my strength, come quickly to help me" (22:19) and "I will fear no evil for you are with me." (23:4) I forgot the big picture. I forgot, that my joy in life or feeling of purpose isn't dependent on my situation or whether people like me or not. And maybe it won't all work out the way I want it to, but that's ok as long as I let God guide me.

So as I was reminded of that, my stress and fear have diminished some, replaced by more excitement.

After sorting through all my things, deciding what to take what not to, what to have handy to mail later, and laying it all out on the spare bed, I packed everything into my two bags. I was afraid I would go over the 50lb per bag limit but I must have learned something from my last year abroad, because I can take almost 20 lb more of stuff if I want to! I packed far better that I thought. That means I can take some more teaching materials and refernces and maybe some of my ice climbing gear or snowboard boots. I am going to repack everything today and redistribute the weight, but knowing that everything will fit with extra room is such a weight off my shoulders (ha ha, but really)!

I'm really sad because there are quite a few people that I was hopingto see this last week or so that I didn't get to. I wanted to go to Bellingham and down near Portland/Vancouver. If I didn't get to see you, trust me, it's not that I didn't want to, I would have very much loved to see all of you guys, but alas, it will have to wait for another time. So know that I love you all, and that my love is not diminished by my not coming to see you. Although, I feel like a bad person. This is where I come in and say that you should come visit me in Austria : ) OK? All the cool people are doing it. 9 out of 10 Becca's recommend travelling to Austria for good health (the 10th Becca is an alter-ego, so you can pretty much ignore her).

Tomorrow I will fly from Tri-Cities to Seattle to the other Washington (DC) spend a week in Virginia and North Caroline with my mom's family, then on Monday the 10th I'll fly to New Hampshire for a week for Jon and Kristin's wedding, then on the 17th at 10pm I'll fly out of Boston to Frankfurt, Germany and then to Innsbruck where I will take a train to Landeck.

Woo Hoo!

Denali With Allie

*Sorry this post is pretty long, I'm trying to catch up from all my internetless time.*

My dear friend Allie came up to visit me on August 3rd and stayed until we both flew back to Washington yesterday (Aug. 20). Our plan was to head north from Anchorage stop near Talkeetna on assignment for YD Adventures, to meet Mike who works with youth in Alaska to check out their "facility" which involved a 5 mile hike without a trail to a cabin.

This is Allie standing on the soon-to-be porch of the second cabin. Note the strange color change on her pants. She had an unfortunate run-in with a bog on the way in. Mike let her borrow the rubber boots on the way out so that she would stay a bit drier.

Turns out, Allie has a certain afinity for being wet and sunk her boots in over the top. I should have brought her some hip waders, or maybe a whole dry suit would have been better.

After our hike with Mike. Allie and I continued North to Denali National Park which is just about in the very middle of Alaska. We were hoping to go backpacking for 5 or 6 days. It was drizzling off and on as we prepared to depart but we got our free packcountry permits, bear canisters, and tested my dad's vintage but never used Whisperlite stove. He got the thing for $5 at a garage sale. Those stoves cost $50 or 60 retail, so I was proud of his good find.

Those running Denali Park had the foresight years ago to see that cars would quickly overtake the park and spoil the true wilderness that was found there. So they have for a long time only allowed visitors to travel deep into the park either in the park buses that travel down the 90 mile park road or by foot, on the trailless expanses of tundra and mountains.

The park was originally set aside as a game refuge (named Mt. McKinley National Park) but in 1980, 4 million acres was added to it and the name was changed to Denali National Park. The park is now 6million acres, which make it larger than Allie's home state of Massachusetts! Isn't that just crazy?!

Most if not all of the rivers in the park are runnoff from glaciers melting. Glaciers carve out U shaped valleys, as opposed to the V shaped valleys cut by rivers which makes for very wide stream beds. All the jumbled rock is rock that has been sliced off the sides and bottoms of the valley as the glacier moved through, leaving behind a conglomorate of rubble. The river's channels change quickly eroding from one spot and depositing setiment in another in just days.

I'm so glad I took Geology 101! It is so cool to go out into creation and see the processes that my text book spoke of and unerstand how those rocks got there and why that cliff is a particular color.

At this point, all you need to know is that this picture shows the only clear skies we saw for a long, long time.

When the bus stopped for a break at the Toklat river ranger station, Allie and I went in to check out all the increadible souvineers we could waste our money on and the educational information of course, we heard some kids hollering outside. At first we just thought it was kids hollering like kids do, but we were suspicious. So we walked outside just in time to see this:

There he was, just lumbering by along the river's edge, as if there weren't 30 people watching him. It was pretty crazy; he was only about 30 or maybe 40 feet away! I was stoked to see him then instead of while we were backpacking. We also got to see some dall sheep from afar, and 4 Caribou running along the river.

The bus ride to our backountry unit, on the laid-back camper bus, took 4 or 5 hours even though we only covered about 70 miles. Then the bus just dropped us off on the side of the dirt road. If we weren't prepared for packpacking, that bus stop would seem like some sort of cruel joke. They said to get back, all we had to to was flag down another green bus. I hope they're right.

We weren't able to get our first choice of backcountry unit for our first night, so we had to camp on the opposite side of the road and then head into our unit the next day. Our proposed route would take us along Glacier Creek up and then into yet another unit to Anderson Pass or Red Mountain (7,165ft). Because there aren't trails, we get to do all our own route finding and pick our camp sites. This is a pretty unique thing for those of us used to hiking on marked trails that you aren't supposed to get off of. It means more independence and options for the route but it also means moving slower and a lot more thinking about where you are going.

So as the rain started to drizzle again, we tightened our pack straps and hiked out of sight of the road for the night, excited to finally be away from all the people. We set up our tent and then a cooking area. Becasue of all the wildlife, packpackers are required to make their camp site, cooking area, and bathroom all at least 100 feet away from eachother so that critters attracted to the smell won't come to your tent. Above, Allie (look for the orange speck) is working on dinner while I took this picture from the tent. It looks like she's sitting out in the middle of nowhere, huh?

Below you can see our quaint little home. The weather doesn't look too bad at the time of the photo but it rained literally non-stop from the time we exited the bus until we caught a bus back. We scrambled to make dinner as the rain got pushier and were releaved to have 5 minutes of dribbling while we ate.

Us and all our gear was pretty wet by the time we put stuff away and jumped into our haven of near driness. We went to bed early and after several long days with little sleep we were able to relax and sleep in. I think we were both hoping that when we woke up, things would look a bit better outside.

But this stuff, suctioning itself to our tent like a parasite, we saw as we driffed off to sleep. We saw blobs of it laying there in all it's polar glory when we woke up in the middle of the night. And we saw it accumulating still, when we woke up at 11am the next day.

As we lay there, making bets on which blob would be the next to lose its cohesion and roll off the side of the tent, we discussed our options and plan of action. It was precipitationg now, had been for at least 20 hours, and looked like it would be for the foreseeable future. This did not come as a complete surprise. The weather report said the first two days of our trip were supposed to have a CHANCE of rain and then it would just be overcast the rest of the week. We set out with the hopes that the report would be correct and maybe it would even be clear long enough to see "the mountain". Using our best cognitive reasoning, we deduced that if it said cahnge of rain for two days and we had had almost constant rain for those two days, that the report was maybe a bit soft. So we assumed that "overcast" really meant "scattered showers" or maybe "chance of rain". We also had observed that the weather seemed to generally be worse in the park than even nearby areas. We thought this could possibly have to do with the enormous mountain range directly south of us containing the tallest mountain in North America.

We also noted that we had one day to cross the road and move at least 8 miles to get into the area we had a permit for. Eight miles isnt' bad if you've got trail, but we didn't. And once we got out that far, if we decided to come back early it would be a looong day back. We couldn't just hike out a mile or so out of view of the road and hike parallel-ish to it in case the weather stayed jsut as nasty or got worse. And they do get snowfall in these parts in August.

As we pondered all of these exciting observations and predictions we realized a few things. One was that all this precipitation would be so much better if it was 25 degrees out and the precip was frozen too. You just stay so much drier and therefore warmer when the stuff is frozen. If it melts that's another story,but as long as it stays frozen, 25 degrees is way better than 50. It makes sense why people are most likely to get hypothermia when it is 50 degrees and rainy. Plus the fact that your average person does not expect to get hypothermia when it is 50 degrees out (or when it is 60 or 70 and then the weather turns).

On the other hand, we were well prepared, it was our only chance to backpack in Denali for who knows how long, and my big trip of the summer. It was also the first opportunity I had had in a long time to to all my own route finding. And I'm not one to be a pansy. I'm not the fastest or the best but the one thing I have always taken pride in since I was a kid was toughing it out. From the 25 kilometer cross country ski race I did with one pole becasue of my broken arm and cast to always picking the longest event in high school track and swimming. It's just my style.

On the other, other hand, by the time we had done all this thinking, and had gone back out in it to make breakfast, it was still raining. Frankly it isn't fun to be out in that crap when you don't have to be.

So we wussed out. We checked the bus schedule and hiked back to the road to conclude our one night backpacking trip. We got to the road and just kept walking along it to stay warm, not knowing exactly when a bus would come by. it was my first hitchhiking experience. Ok I know it's not really hitchhiking, but sorta. This bus wasn't a camper bus, but a regular park tour bus, so we got on with a lot of more mature (read:older) people that didn't look like they had ever put on a bakcpacking pack and seemed to be at a lose for how the heck we got out to were we were or why we would want to. Frankly I was asking myself why I would want to too.

You've probably heard of car camping, this is what car lunching looks like. We did a lot of that in our travels. This fancy site even included a little counter and stool. Oh and look, it's not raining, strange!

The rain continued to come and go once we got back to the park entrance but it was light compared to our backcountry experience. It was a bit frustrating but when we looked the direction of the park road and our former camp it still looked jsut as socked in.

Oh look, the "Yoda" as our family has started to call it, in all its glory. It's a manual transmission, which I somehow didn't get to learn when I was a youngin. So I learned how to drive stick (finally) on Thrusday, then on Friday I drove 150 miles, alone, to Anchorage to get Allie. That day we drove around Anchorage pciking up last minute gear and food. The highway stuff wasn't so stressful but driving in town was aweful at first. You'll have to ask Allie, but my skill has improved a lot in the last two weeks. I was excited to drive it, becasue it get better gas mileage than anything I have ever driven. Woohoo! Great for long road trips. We had that baby packed to the gills though with all our backpacking gear, rock climbing gear for later, food and a cooler, and extra dry clothes. It's a good thing it was just us two because no one else would have fit. We could have crammed to get one human in, but not any of their gear.

The Yoda has a lot of character. Aside from being an '82, it has a CB radio in it, complete with a big huge antenna on the back, a carpet velcroed to the dash (I guess the car came from Arizsona or something and the carpet protects the dash from getting too hot and deforming). When my fam bought the car my brother outfitted it with camo seat covers and steering wheel covers. it also is a bit finicky and won't always go into reverse unless you turn the engine off and then start it again. It's pretty hilarious. All it needs is a gun rack in the back.

The further we got from the park, the better the weather got. Plan B included checking our the schience and visitor center in the park then headin back south to find out if we could go rafting cheaply. Natualy we had to stop at the igloo. Pretty much it doesn't look like they ever completed construction inside but it was a campground and convenience store at one time. Clearly this is an Alaskan classic.

The day after we left the park we headed back to Talkeetna to stay the night at Mike's extra cabin again. As we drove south, I put Alllie on mountain duty. It was her job to watch to see if we could see Denali and if it was a really good view I would pull over. We saw a small white wolf cross the highway at one point. From left to right the moutains above are Mt. Foraker (17,400ft), Mt. Hunter (14,573 ft) and Mt. McKinley/Denali (20,329ft). The Talkeetna river is in the background. We sat around and watched the sun set on the beach listening to some guy play the guitar. This picture was taken at almost midnight.

Turns out the guy with the guitar was a raft guide and he offered to take us out the next day for free. He was guiding and they had room on the trip. We put in on the Chulitna River which then converges with the Susitna River and then the Talkeetna river. It supposedly goes up to class 3 but it is pretty much jsut one or two class 3 waves, if you can call them that. but it was basically a class 2 float trip. Beautiful though! And Jeremy, the guide who moonlights as a beach guitarist, knew a lot about the area and wildlife. The weather was great, and we saw quite a few eagles and several beaver dens. After the trip we got some of the famous baked goods from the Talkeetna roadhouse and ate lunch at Taco Mountain in the sun.

After that we rushed south to take full advantage of the good weather and find some rock climbing near Hatcher Pass.

We had a climbing route guide that we printed off the internet, and a simple road map, as well as some advice from the guys at Alaska Mountaineering and Hiking. We turned off where we thought the routes might be, realized our lowriding Yoda wouldn't be able to join us on the heavily pot-holed approach road (that would have been the perfect time to pull our my 4 wheel drive jeep). So we hiked in two miles or so, the rain started falling hard, then the hail. We did find out from the people in the car that nearly ran us over, that this was not the right road. But we did find out where to go. After 2 more hours driving, the later hour only covering about 3 miles on some crazy dirt road, in pouring rain, we found the trail to the rocks we were looking for. But rock climbing is not only not fun in the rain, it is really not possible. So we cooked up dinner and headed to bead early, hoping that the weather would improve and we could get up early and climb. Well, as luck would have it, it was still raining early in the morning, so we slept later. Mid morning improved some but it the Lord would still drop a few rain drops here and there for good measure. We decided to try and find the routes jsut to check them out, then if the weather got better we still had one more day to try and climb.

Well, ten minutes into the hike it started just pouring again, we hiked on and not long after that it started hailing. Off in the distance we say more of the same and decided to turn back. Since you get wet whitewater rafting anyway, we thought we would try our luck at finding more cheap whitewater since the weather jsut wouldn't cooperate.

To make a long story short, we went back to Anchorage, stayed with my bro for two days, tried to find mroe elusive Alaskan climbing outside of Anchorage with outh any success. We did see two big bull moose though and had a nice, strenuous hike.

After we gave up trying to find the climbing routes, and eager to try out my newly purchased cams, Allie and I found some crappy rock and I taught her what I know about placing trad gear.

We went out for pizza and beer with Jared and some of his friends to a place called Mooses Tooth, named after a famous (among climbers) alpine climb in Alaska. It is a cool place started by two guys from Seattle. For those of you familiar with Bellingham, it is a combination of Boundary Bay brews and "localness", with some of B'hams quirky outdoorsiness, complete with prayer flags and folks with dreads. It almost made me feel like I was home again.

The next day Al and I managed to go rafting on the class 3-4 Matanuska River Lion's Head run which had been recommended to us by several people including Jeremy the raft guide. It boasts 3 miles of continuous rapids. After the beautiful but disapointingly placid trip on the Chulitna, this run was everything I was hoping it would be. Again, when the weather didn't matter, it was fabulous, sunny and almost 80 degrees, the rapids were amazing and we actaully got to paddle instead of sit idly in the guide propelled oar boat. It was super fun. And we got to do it thanks to Jared who found our that the University of Alaska Anchorage outdoor program was doing it. And since it was summer, it didn't matter that we weren't students.

After all this fun and excitement, Allie and I had a mellow second week hanging out at the cabin. We finished all the plumbing for the whole house, got the water running into the bathtub, bathroom and kitchen sink, and got it all set up for when the new hot water heater and washer and dryer arrive. We also went hiking with Martin (the guy I met at the coffee shop) and had dinner with him one day.

I got to see both dad and Jared for the last time until I get back from Austria which was sad. Then Mom, Allie and I left Monday morning. I walked out to the river and realized I think I'm going to miss that place a lot. Probably more than I thought I would. I went there to take a break, release all the continuous stress of so many years of school, my job, and all the things that I love but do too much of. Most anyone who knows me knows that I like doing things, trying new stuff, being with friends, going on trips, but even all that wears me down after a while. When I graduated in June all I wanted was to not be on someone elses schedule for once, not have papers due every week, not have to lie up to so many peoples different expectations, but just be. I wanted to read some books, to learn something new (that I would't be graded on), to sit with God, and be with my family. I did all the things I really wanted to (except go climbing or backpacking :) )and none of the things I didn't want to. I have really gotten used to not being on a schedule. It's great, I love it. But now I'm heading back toward it. At least I've had a break from it and hopefully can go back to it refreshed.

Backpacking with my Mom

...except not actually. Since there are a lot of bears and other large critters around these parts, it's not so sfe to run around in the wilderness (or too far from your back door) without a friend, a gun or a bear-proof suit. I couldn't afford the suit (but I hear they make 'em), I don't have much skill with a gun, and I left all my friends in other parts of the world. But if figured that finding new friends would be easier than trying to work on the gun or suit option. So I hunted far and wide in the bustling community of Soldotna to find a hiking, climbing or mountain biking group. As time went on with no success in locating such a group, I pretty much asked everyone in sight. To make a long story, I have two success stories.

The first was that I foun a group of ladies that go hiking once or twice a week and backpacking once a month or so. But, they are my mom's age or older. In case you don't already know, my mom is about 55 (don't tell her I told you). But I was desprate. And it is a bit different going with people as old as your mom vs. actaully going with your mom (just kidding, well it is different but I would enjoy either). So I went on a backpacking trip with 5 ladies, jsut an overnight. For two of them, it was their first packpacking trip. I thought that was kind of rad. I wan to be trying new things like that when i am their age!

We took a side trip to a lake (Hidden Lake, i think) to eat lunch after dropping our packs at our intended camp. We stayed at a Forest service cabin that was build just a few years ago. I feel like there are a lot of these types of cabins in AK. Anyone can reserve them in a bunch of different places, but this is by far the nicest one I've ever seen. It was beautiful.

One of the big highlights of the trip though was seeing this sight on the way out:



Awww, a little black bear. But it only gets better:




Not just one black bear but a momma with THREE babies! Ya don't see that every day! It was cool.

My other friend-making success story happened at the coffee shop in Soldotna where all your free internet dreams come true. Pretty much this guy needed a place to plug in his laptop and I was sitting in front of the plug, so we started talking, ofund ou he was from Missoury and was here for a physical therapy internship. he mentioned that he biked to work every day. Again, to make a long story short, I was planning on checking out some mountain biking trails near town that eavening anyway, so i asked if he wanted to join me. So he did. I was a bit nervous going on to a trail, in the evening, with acomplete stranger, so I called my dear friend Stacy while Martin went to his apartment to get his bike and told her where I was going and if I didn't call her back in two hours, that i got kidnapped. I get this paranoia from my mother by the way. Everything turned out all right and I found out that he was a Christian. Not that that means he lwouldn't be a mass killer, but I feel like it might lower the chances. Maybe not. There are some crazy ones out there. Anyway.
This weekend, Rachel and Corbett, friends from college came to the cabin, today I learned how to drive stick and tomorrow I head north to Denali national park with Allie. Talk to you later!