Safari Training

This past week I had some training for my new job as a "Trip Leader" for Alaska Wildland Adventure's (AWA) Safari Trips. There are nine of us in my department and we traveled on a mock trip to be sure we were all familiar with the locations where we will be guiding this summer. The weather was unbelievable and didn't rain once the entire week, which will probably be the last time that happens all summer.

Our trip started out in Cooper Landing at the Riverside Lodge on the Kenai Peninsula. This is home base for AWA and where most of my trips will begin. The lodge located on the Kenai River with world class salmon fishing and some fun rafting trips out the backdoor.

From here we went southeast to Seward to catch a ferry out the Kenai Fjords Glacier Lodge(KFGL), which is located in the middle of Kenai Fjords National Park. KFGL is actually on 1,700 acres of Alaska Native land that is surrounded by the park and my company was lucky enough to be selected to build and operate this brand new lodge. The lodge is on the shore of a protected lagoon off the deep fjord of Aialak Bay. There are a couple hiking trails that have been developed, but the big activity is kayaking the upper lagoon that is fed by the Pederson Glacier. One afternoon we were able to kayak through the icebergs and get fairly close to the toe of the glacier. Black bears are prevalent and when we were not in our kayaks we needed to announce ourselves around any forested corner to scare away any unsuspecting bear.

After two nights in the wilderness we traveled north to Anchorage for a night and then conintued on to Talkeetna, the gateway to the Denali. We were up early and made the 3.5 hour trek in time for a flight seeing tour of Denali, which at 20,320 feet is the tallest mountain in North America. With a beautiful day on hand we were lucky to circumnavigate the mountain and land on a glacier inside the park. We flew in an Otter Plane and I was able to ride shotgun for half of the trip!!

Later we had dinner with the Denali Arts Council, which is a group of locals that cook dinner for small groups visiting the town. The family that took us in was amazing and avid hunters. There was a huge Grizzly that was mounted in the middle of their living room. We learned later that is was the 84th largest ever recorded and the 15 year old daughter had killed it! She already has some pretty amazing travels and stories to tell.

After dinner we enjoyed the midnight sun at the local tavern, The Fairview, but the next morning was early to rise. We were up by 6 and broke camp to head to Denali National Park. Here we finished up our training and camped at Savage Basin before heading back home. It was a pretty amazing trip; hope you enjoy the pictures!!