Alaska Wildflowers (if you're into that type of thing)

It's amazing how a land that can be so harsh and desolate in the winter can also be the perfect biome for so many beautiful flowers and plants come summertime. Up here at an elevation of just over 2,000 ft., where the tundra is covered by snow for 7 months out of the year, we have a short window of time to enjoy and research the flora around here. From mid June through August, the flowers make an incredible effort to grow, bloom, and wilt just in time to go to seed before they are covered in the first snows of the upcoming fall. 

So during the short summer season everywhere we go hiking we are surrounded by millions of flowers, ferns, and berry bushes. Some people do not care too much while others take extra time to enjoy the hearty little plants of the arctic.

While guiding our hiking trips, we are usually in a mindset of looking for wildlife, so it still takes us by surprise sometimes when we turn around to chat with the group and someone is pointing their camera at the ground.  Getting down low in the tundra, using the camera's macro setting to photograph a plant. It's really great for us to see our guests enjoy the small, simple things. To share in these moments while someone is photographing a flower they've only ever read about and seen in books is a very special part of what we get to do out here at Caribou Lodge.  It has also caused us to slow down a bit and experiment with our own camera settings. Here are some photos we have taken from around the lodge.

Arctic Lupine

Alaska Violet

Pink Plume

Arctic Lousewort

Labrador Lousewort

Alpine Bog Swertia

Arctic Aster

Northern Starflower

Moss Campion

Arctic Iris

Northern Ground Cone

Wedge-leaf Primrose

White Bog Orchid

Fireweed photographed at Caribou Lodge with Denali in the background

Our First Year In The Alaska Wilderness

It has been exactly a year since Alyssa, myself (Zac) and the girls hopped in a ski-plane with over 1000 lbs worth of personal effects, uprooted from our home in Palmer, and moved
into the Alaska wilderness.

Not your average U-Haul... All loaded up, moving into the wilderness on 4/17/17

We were prepared for some culture shock and eventually settled in to the new home and lifestyle, but honestly it started out a bit rough. We got here just as winter was turning to spring, so being outside was no fun. You could not walk anywhere on the property without sinking up to your butt in soft rotten snow. Riding the snowmobiles was quickly out of the question as the patches of mud soon became larger than the patches of snow. We also knew in the back of our minds that less than 3 weeks after we moved, our first guests were going to arrive, so the stress of our first tourist season loomed closely.

Chloe and Eiley adapted easily and loved having mom and dad around all the time. They missed extended family that we left in Palmer, but overall, they have done great living out here.

Taking advantage of a hot summer day

A successful day picking blueberries

Alyssa didn't seem to go through many extreme changes because she's always been home with the girls and mostly missed her time with friends at church or the gym. I think the hardest part for her was getting used to having me around 24/7.  I did a pretty good job of driving her crazy.

My problem was that for the first time in over 7 years I wasn't waking up to an alarm clock, rushing out the door, combat driving to work, or answering phones and dealing with customers all day at my office job in Anchorage. So I think I went through the most culture shock. I would wake up not knowing what to do with myself.... no phone calls, no traffic, no demands. Honestly, I didn't like it. It wasn't that I didn't like living here, I just didn't like having nothing to do.

Another thing that almost drove me crazy was a ringing in my ears that lasted about 4 weeks after we moved. Every night as I lie in bed, I swear I could hear a lawn mower or generator ever so faintly; it sounded like it was across the lake 400 yards away. I would ask Alyssa, "Hey, are you up? Can you hear that?"  We went through this several times until that ringing left my head. She would try to be nice and say something like, "No, hun. All I can hear is you. Just try to ignore it."  Easier said than done for someone who would rather punch a bear in the face than sleep in a bedroom with a ticking clock. I can't stand undeviating, soft noises when I'm trying to sleep or concentrate.

A quick family road-trip to Seward

Having Joe and Bonnie out here was our saving grace. It would have been a nightmare first year  without them. Having people to visit with and show us the ropes around here was priceless.
As summer arrived we found a groove as best we could. Bonnie, Alyssa, and Caitlin (Alyssa's twin sister) worked well together in the kitchen and shared duties as equals. Joe spent a huge part of the summer building their cabin so they wouldn't have to live in the loft above the shop anymore. That left me with doing about 95% of the guiding and hosting. It all worked out well.  Whenever someone wasn't busy working, they found time to play with Chloe and Eiley, so the girls almost always had a parent, uncle, or aunt to play with them. Some of the girls favorite things to do was go down to the lake and throw rocks, hike, or pick berries.

When we first moved to the lodge Eiley hated being outside, but now it's hard to keep either of the girls indoors. Chloe (5) is so passionate about animals and nature that she absorbs everything she learns and has become very knowledgeable about many aspects of life out here.

Eiley really started to enjoy being outside more once she knew how fast uncle Joe could go on the snowmobile. She loves playing with Howie and sledding. Now that she's a little bigger (3), I think she'll have a great time outside this summer.

Flying to town in an R44 helicopter

Both girls love to help around the house.. from dishes and sweeping to stacking firewood, I think they just love being around adults and feeling like big helpers.

Flying home in a Cessna 206 float-plane

As I weighed the pro's & con's about life and making a living in the wilderness, I couldn't help but think that spending more time every day with my wife and kids was going to be worth more money than I could ever make at any job! And I was right. If drinking coffee with my wife, eating breakfast with my kids every morning, and on occasion staying in my PJ's until noon playing board games and doing puzzles with my 3 & 5 year old was currency, I would be the richest man in the world.

Then summer comes, and my job consists of hiking, kayaking, camping......and helping with dishes. I can't complain.

Alyssa & Eiley Kayaking, Summer 2017

Zac & Chloe Kayaking, Summer 2017

One concern of mine was wondering how all of our guests would treat our kids...or rather how our kids would respond to having strangers around all summer.  It ended up being a really amazing thing to watch. All summer the girls had fun interacting with guests from all around the country and all over the world. They did origami with ladies from Japan and played board games with people from Finland. Guests read to and played with them, and both of my girls made tips. I am not sure how many 2 year olds are getting gratuity for being a lodge host, but I'm sure it's not many...

I am just going to be honest: I was kind of dreading our first whole winter out here. There is a lot of it! We have had over 6 months with snow on the ground, but the experience has actually been pretty neat. We learned a lot and had lots of fun playing in the snow. We also broke up the long winter with a trip out of state to visit friends and family for Christmas. That was an important trip for me because it was the first time in 8 months that I felt excited to go home.  Now it's almost May, and we can look back at the snow storms, the crazy winds, the warm fire, and hot coffee, and it wasn't all that bad.

So, there you go. A quick look at how our first year living at the lodge played out. It has been fun, rewarding, hard, and exciting. It has taught us so much about ourselves, not to mention what it has taught us about running a business. It took me a long time to get to this point, but now I can finally say this feels like home.

Make The Most Of Your Trip To Alaska

While showing California's Yosemite Valley to some eager visitors, John Muir once said, “I fluttered around here for 10 years, but you expect to see and do everything in 4 days.”

Caribou Lodge Alaska. 15 air miles SE of Talkeetna.

His words ring true for visitors to Alaska as well. It is impossible to see everything Alaska has to offer during one visit. Alaska is breathtakingly beautiful, and there is no wonder why it is on so many people's bucket list- a land crowded only by mountains and wilderness. Glaciers still cover many of our mountains. As a matter of fact, more than half of the glaciers on earth are found in Alaska. Out of America's 20 tallest mountains 17 are found in Alaska. Denali, the tallest mountain in North America, dominates the landscape of the interior region and always seems to nudge something inside of you for one more look. Salmon can migrate up to 2,000 miles in our rivers and streams, and on their way to their spawning grounds many lose their lives to feed millions of birds, bears, wolves and humans.

Alaska is also a bird watchers paradise with 246 resident species and well over 400 documented species including those that migrate.

One of my first memories in Alaska before becoming a resident was during a drive between Anchorage and Seward. We saw dall sheep in the hills of the Chugach mountains on our left, while watching beluga whales in the frigid salt water of Turnagain Arm on our right. We had to pull the car off the road just to take it all in. The thought entered my mind 'where the mountains meet the ocean', and that was the day Alaska truly became a part of me, or at least who I wanted to be.

Guiding a hiking trip with a family visiting from Ca.

I have lived here now for over 12 years and have had many great experiences. Some have been with family, some with friends, and others with complete strangers, but the common theme in all of these experiences for me was the fact that no matter who I was with or what we were doing, I became passionate about showing the beauty of Alaska to whoever wanted to explore it with me.

With that said, I understand that planning a trip to Alaska can be overwhelming. There is so much to see and so little time to do it all. If you are looking to escape from crowds of tourists, connect with nature, and have a wilderness experience for hiking with chances to see Denali, wildlife, and maybe even northern lights (if you visit in late August or September) then Caribou Lodge Alaska is a great place for you to spend two, three, or even four of those hard-earned vacation days.

Watching moose in the valley below us while out hiking from the lodge

You won't experience all the incredible things that I have in just a few days, but you will see more of the real Alaska than many other visitors to my great state.

Remote Alaska wilderness camping in the Talkeetna Mountains

 -Zac Bramante

www.cariboulodgealaska.com

Flying, Hiking & Cooking delicious Steak.

6/26/16 marked my first solo day hiking trip with guests at the lodge. A family from Germany; the mom, daughter & two sons. Joe was going on a heli-drop camping trip with a group of 5 people and another booking came through for the same dates months ago so that meant Bonnie was going to need help.



Talkeetna Air Taxi coming in to pick up Joe

I flew in a day ahead of the 2 bookings so I could get the rundown from Joe on everything from the initial walk through with new guests, down to how to use the old barbeque to cook a perfect steak. I've done most of this before many years ago when Mike and Pam would fly me in to help, but shoot, that’s going on 10 years ago since I did any real "hosting".  On the morning of the 25th the Talkeetna Air helicopter came and picked up Joe along with just under 200 lbs. of camping gear and headed deep into the mountains so he could set up a base camp for the next 3 days. About an hour after Bonnie and I waved goodbye to Joe we headed down to the dock to tie up the floatplane that brought in our guests that were actually staying at the lodge. I showed them around, got them all settled in and a few hours later I put on my sous-chef hat to help Bonnie cook dinner. I took Joe's roll and cooked some "delicious" steaks. (That's what the guests said anyhow.) After dinner the guests retreated to their cabins and as Bonnie and I did the dishes we looked east toward the mountains and hoped all was well with Joe and his group. The clouds were starting to settle in the upper hills and we just knew they were going to get soaked. Or just stay under the tarp and in their tents...The SPOT GPS message he sent us everyday let us know things were going good. That’s a nice tool for us to have.


Panoramic photo of the lake taken from Blueberry Hill

 

After breakfast the next day I asked our guests how long of a hike they were up for and the oldest son said "um, at least like 10 kilometers or so" and with that we packed a hearty lunch and headed across the lake. I knew I would have to improvise a bit because Joe told me that the GPS clocked the usual hike around the lake at 3 miles (about 4.8 km) so I pretty much made up the first part as I went. It had down poured rain the night before and into that morning so the bushes were soaked. All 5 of us had water proof boots but that does no good when the water from the alder bushes hits your thighs and it just drains down through the pants onto the socks and INTO the boots... I had rain pants but I gave them to the youngest son because he was getting cold. The weather just kept getting better and better as we went but the bushes were still soaked. After a big detour to go see the middle fork of Montana creek and put on a few extra kilometers we headed north and had lunch on a little Ridgeline about 2 miles east of the lodge. We then rounded the lake and made it back to the lodge in about 3.5 hours. Overall putting on about 7.5 kilometers. The guests were wet, tired and happy….perfectly happy to settle for less than 10 kms. And me...well like I said, this was my first solo day hike so as we crested the front side of blueberry hill and the lodge came into view I just smiled to myself proudly and thought "I left with 4 people and I made it back with 4 people. Success."

 

Back when I was 15 and Mike and Pam started using me for my sweet wilderness skills.....and lawn mowing skills…and dish washing skills at the lodge I went on many hikes with guests, but I was always with Mike. Now that we own the lodge (and I think Mike would finally say I am more than just an “assistant guide”) it's a neat experience to have guests here and be the one showing them all of this great country knowing it's my back yard.

Trail Ridge Air coming in to pick up the guests in the De Havilland Beaver float plane

On the 27th after we said goodbye to our guests and they flew back to Anchorage, Alaska Bush came and picked me up to fly back to Talkeetna.  But first I was fortunate enough to get a scenic flight. 2 folks from Israel were on the plane when I hopped on so I was just along for the ride...  A pretty cool way to spend a Monday Morning.

 

The Talkeetna River 6/27/16

 

So then back to reality. I was so excited to see my wife and daughters, but I had to get ready for work the next day. Pack lunch, make coffee and commute to Anchorage…for my real job...sitting at my desk. Hey, someone's gotta pay the bills.