Indescribable Heavenly Joy

To say that I love Autumn would be an understatement. With all my heart and soul I embrace it when it arrives. I love the preparation that the forests go through for the coming winter. If you are out in nature enough you can actually feel and smell it in the air as well as your soul. The arrival of fall also means that another summer has passed and its time to relax and welcome with open arms the warm welcome of my friends and and family scattered across the west.
    It has been a slow fire season for me up here but I couldn't be any happier. Being immersed in nature in Alaska offers excellent opportunities to ponder life and reevaluate the necessities of it. Besides the fear that there is a huge grizzly bear hiding behind every bush waiting to kill me there are very few distractions to bring you back to reality. Millions of acres of open country for a man to roam in. I feel like I found something this summer that I lost a long time ago... A heart that is happy from the simple fact that I am alive.  When I first moved out west I was so enthralled by the very existence of nature. I had that awestruck look in my eyes like a blind man who just received his vision back while standing in front of Mt Everest. But over the years I became somewhat numb to it all. Spoiled by all the acres of burned country I have seen. All those years mopping up and looking at the ground. It hit me last week when we were on our final project of the year down in Wrangell - St Elias national park. I decided that its time for a change that would require me to to give up the security of a steady paycheck to pursue a deeply buried dream that I have suppressed for many years... Becomming a NOLS instructor.  A change that would put that sense of fullfilment back into my life. This is something I have been praying about for quite a while and waiting on a confirmation from the Lord about. The Lords timing is so perfect and amazing.
    So when I was down in Wrangells it came. On the drive in to the park I was alone and was listening to a randomly chosen sermon from a church that I used to attend in Whitefish. As it turns out this sermon wasnt so random and it was as if it was exactly spoken for me. Its been great to actually hear Him this summer. I know He has been talking to me my whole life but latley I have been able to be quiet enough to actuall hear what He has to say. I wont delve into the details because i doubt it would make sense to anyone but me.
     Then as if that wasnt enough one night after work a buddy and I got dinner and a beverage at the local watering hole. In making small talk with our very attractive waitress I found out that she happens to be engaged to a guy that I took a NOLS course with back in 2004. Crazy. Low and behold the guy lives part time in McCarthy and ownes one of the adventure guiding companys there in town. So he came down, had a beer and we cought up where life had taken us over the past eight years. It was almost as if what happened next was God himself being like " you think thats cool, check this out" and in walks a beautiful redhead that I took the NOLS emt class with two years ago. My mind was blown. Its truly amazing how the Lords timing works. Its good to be humbled by the awesomness of these experiances. Just when you think life is good, when you believe in the Lord He make it exponentially better. So with that, I have decided I am done making plans, and I am going to just go where the wind takes me. I will go where my heart leads me.

"Right where you are"

     In the words of Bob Dylan, " It's not dark yet, but its getting there." This state is finally growing on me. Maybe its the changing of the seasons that has brought with it a change in my heart. The weather is so inviting right now, beckoning me to come out and play  Bright sunny days for running around and cool crisp evenings that require a small fire in the wood stove. It all happened so fast too. I left for two weeks and when I returned the bugs were mostly gone, the leaves were changing and the sunsets were taking up temporary residence on the horizon once again. I had forgot how much I love the transition between night and day, not to mention the moon and stars. Up here in the summer you forget about the universe thats around you. You just get use to to the constant sunlight and lack of the alpine glow that I so dearly love.
     It has been a slow summer in regards to fire activity up here but I am welcoming the break from having my nose to the grindstone. I so enjoy having a summer in conjunction with working a fire job. My feet do a little jig whenever they are able to be free from the confining space or a fire boot. Life is to short to not wear sandals in the summer!

     So at the beginning of the summer I bought an old vintage 1980's motorcycle to commute to work on. I felt like I was in Easy rider on this thing. So free, out crusing on the open road. But shortly after purchasing it the hog broke down and I am not a mechanic so it sat for the rest of the summer. It will be a good winter project. Anyways my coworker also bought a bike this summer. However hers is a bit nicer than mine...2012 BMW GS650. Its really nice. So towards the end of the season after the newness wore off of it she handed me the keys and told me to go put some miles on it for the weekend. And that I did. I rode south till my heart was content then pulled over for the night at a view spot for Denali. It was there that I truly believe I felt the Lord speak to me. That evening while smoking my pipe and watching an unobstructed sunset over "the great one" I felt the Lord say to me "Right where you are". This was I believe in response to a question I had been asking myself all summer... "Was comming to AK the right choice?" It was good to hear confirmation on this. So with that I relaxed and settled in to one of the most spectacular sunsets I have ever witnessed.

Pictures

Here are some pics of my most recent trip to Lake Clark National Park... Enjoy. LCNP

Socially acceptable

Now the last thing I want to be be is a hypocrite. However lately this seems to be the case. I will not try and beat around the bush here when I say that ever since I got to Fairbanks things have gotten a bit out of hand. I have definitely not been living the example of the the man I would like to be. While pondering this dilemma this morning I was reminded of a song by an old band named DC Talk. My parents wouldn't let me listen to secular music when I was a kid so I rocked out to the Christian contemporary variety. At the time I thought they were being ridiculous and unfair but hindsight I realize they were doing it to protect me from the crap that is on the radio. Anyways,  the song is called "what if I stumble" and the lyric that I was reminded of is,
"The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today
Is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips
Then walk out the door and deny him by their lifestyle.
That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable."


I fully feel like this is what I am doing and it makes me sad. Then if that wasn't enough as I was reading the Word this morning I came across a passage in Psalms 116 vs 18 that said "I will fulfill my vows to the lord in the presence of all his people" Even though it hurts to hear about our shortcomings in life sometimes thats exactly what we need. 


Back to the beginning and the reason I labeled this post "socially acceptable" is because of another song of good old DC Talk that I heard while searching for the first . The song talks about how we as society are allowing so many thing to pass as acceptable now a days compared to the old days where we stood up for injustice and moral values. I had a friend tell me the other night that I was old fashoned because I held the door open for her amongst some other things she noticed. What has happened to society as a whole? Where did chivalry go?    


So if your reading this I ask you for a favor. Please pray for me that I will pull out of this Fairbanks funk that I am in. 


And now for some fixie picks...
Hipster...

Old fashioned...

If it aint broken, don't fix it

The outlaw living in the woods

My home in the woods, and yes that is a 45lc on my hip. AMERICA!

Well I have been here for a couple of months now and settled into a pretty basic routine. Work, yurt, work, yurt. I would like to say that I am going on all theses epic adventures but I have not been. Gas is about 4.30 a gallon for the cheep stuff so driving anywhere is quite expensive. So far its been a slow fire season and the income isn't coming in as rapidly as previous seasons. O well, life isn't about money.
Local adventures are not out of the question but the woods are so infested with mosquitos and super marshy, so the fun and motivation gets sucked out of hiking pretty quick. So in my non active boredom I decided to buy a motorcycle. Its an old 1981 Susuki GS650E. I rode the bike for about a week then it started craping out on me then wouldn't idle at all. So now I have a big hunk o metal in my front yard that I tinker on from time to time. I didn't want it to but my yurt is turing into a typical Alaskan homestead complete with non running motor vehicles in the front yard.
  As you see in the pictures I did get to fly to this remote town in the middle of Wrangel St Elias NP to burn some piles at some remote historic cabins. This was by far the most breathtaking country I have ever seen. The glaciers were indescribably beautiful. A small glimpse of Heaven. I also did a trip up to the town of Eagle NE of Fairbanks to float the Yukon river. I didn't take any pictures of that trip though due to the overwhelming amount of mosquitos. I have never experienced them like this. The country was not nearly as dramatic as Wrangel but had a beauty in its own way. We saw two black bear and a bunch of moose. One was in the middle of the river swimming to the other side. Crazy. That river is at least a mile wide and flows pretty fast. He mad it though. Well thats about all i have for now. Be sure and check out the new pics on Photobucket.
  Seth Bently if your reading this, my next post will consist of something pertaining to fixies.

  Choss free, Jah love

Life in Fairbanks...

Every weekend I set a goal to update this blog with pictures and stories of my adventures in the north country so far. Needless to say, when the weekend rolls around I usually end up devoting my time else where, hence why there has been a huge gap.
     The weather is finally taking a turn for the better, and people seem to be shaking off the winter cobwebs and coming out of their hibernation. I am glad I didn't get here any earlier than I did, apparently it was a wicked cold winter up here with temps reaching -40 F. I like to think that I am hardcore at times but I have no desire to experience that in the town I am living in. If I was sacrificing warmth to climb a peak that is another story, but not in my everyday life. I was talking to a gal last night about the winter and she said that at -40 when you go outside and run the gel inside your running shoes freeze and if you don't have a respirator you will damage your lungs from breathing the cold air so rapidly. I have no desire to experience that at all.  Fairbanks is growing on me though. The farmers market just started up and I found a local coop of sorts that supplies fresher veggies than the local grocery stores offer.  Food is expensive up here and eating healthy is even pricier. I was greatly bless though by a friend who gave me a whole freezer full of Caribou to eat for the summer. He also tossed in a rabbit and a few assortment of fish. So I bought a little Smokey Joe and I am grilling on the reg. Life is good!
    As for what I have been up to since I got up here... Well so far I have had the opportunity to check out Palmer and McCarthy. Both are towns that were on the list to see and I was able to do it on the Gov's dime for work and this made it all the better. Palmer was absolutely beautiful. It sits in valley with mountains almost all the way around. One of the ranges is the infamous Chugach that many ski movies are shot in. I was there for a class for one week and my hotel room window faced them so I woke up instantly stoked each morning. When I left Palmer, a buddy from work and I drove to the Wrangell St Elias town of McCarthy. To get there you have to drive way into the park down hard pack road for 60 miles. Epic views all around. We were there burning piles for about a week and since it was in the mountains there was still a bunch of snow on the road. It was quite a taxing walking around in the snow with snowshoes on but the drive to and from the work site everyday made the hiking totally worth it. Since there was to much snow we couldn't use the truck and had to utilize 4 wheelers instead. It was hard to believe that I was working when I riding my quad home at the end of the day. I tried to take a video one day on the drive out to help you understand my disbelief but since I don't have the video uploaded yet but here is a brief description till I do. During the day the sun would melt the snow into a slushy mess and riding quad on slush is amazing.  So on the way out my buddies and I would stay in the back of everyone so we could basically drive around like idiots and see how much we could drift sideways before we tipped or got stuck. I pretty much had a smile on my face the whole time, and to top it all off were were driving towards Mt Blackburn (16,390 ft) and the Kennicot glacier.  I will upload picks when I find my camera cord.
   I am so glad that I made the decision to come up here, I wasn't sure at first but I know now this was the right decision. I am however heading back down to the lower 48 for the winter. The skiing would be epic up here just a bit south from where I am at now, but there is more to life than fresh pow pow.
   As of this minute I think I am headed back to Whitefish in the wonderful state of MT. While sitting at church the other day I was thinking back to my winter and how awesome Whitefish was and that I would like to possibly call it home for a while.  I also decided that having a church where you really feel like you belong at is essential for growth in your walk with the Lord and for me that church was Fresh Life. Its been long overdue for me to dive into my walk with the Lord and to not continue sitting on the fence dabbling in both aspects of life. I am not sure what verse it is but I remember reading once that God said for us to not be luke warm for if we ware he will spit us out of His mouth. Its time to settle down and be serious about doing my part in advancing the kingdom of heaven.  I hope that those of you reading this will ask yourself the same same question... What am I doing to advance the kingdom of heaven? As well as evaluate your current relationship with the Lord.  He is always there waiting with arms wide open, and all we have to do is accept Him into out lives and follow Him without hesitation. There are no shenanigans we have to go through, no saying hail mary 7 times to be forgiven or giving up of the sweet nectar of life (coffee) in order to call yourself a follower. Its simple, confess your sins to Him, tell him you believe in Him and that he is the one and only God and that Jesus was His Son sent to die for out sins and POW, you are forgiven.
   Well thats all I have for now. Like I said, when I find my camera cord I will put pictures up.

Greeting from Fairbanks

Well I finally made it! It only took me 42 hours to drive a total of 2,200 miles. I started to go crazy on the fourth day, so I pushed heard to make it to Fairbanks that night. I was met with open arms and a place to stay for the first few nights from an old okie friend. I don't have much to say so I will let the pictures do the talking...Trip to Alaska

Fresh Life

I realize I have not left the lower 48 yet and this blog is quickly becoming something other than just pics of my trip, but whatever. I was blown away by the amazingness (I don't actually think that is a word) of the Lord yesterday, and felt like I should share it.
      It has been a struggle of mine in the past to discern what are the actual words of the Holy Spirit being spoken to me from what are my own thoughts or destructive thoughts of the enemy. It has been a long and tedious process to try and figure this one out, and I am still learning. I had a moment yesterday however that is was almost as if the Holy Spirit had a mega phone and was speaking directly to me. The message was exactly what I needed to hear, but I believe it will be powerful to anyone else that listens to it as well. It is a bit long but I encourage you to listen to it all the way through. This church has been very influential to me this past season in my life and I believe it will continue to be in the future. Their use of technology to get the Good Word out is so awesome. Check it out!  The church is Fresh Life and yesterdays message is Unscrambling the Eggs. Enjoy.

The Whitefish Wrap up

     Well my time in Whitefish is coming to an end. It has been an amazing winter even though the snow hasn't been epic. The Flathead valley is for lack of a better word "magical" as a friend put it. I think he hit the nail on the head. People up here are so full of life. They acknowledge you on the street and seem to be overall happy to be alive. There is a lot to be said for that in the modern day we live in. It nice to be up here away from the mainstream way of living. To live of the land and to work for your food and warmth is quickly becoming extinct way of life. Now your probably thinking that your so happy for all the modern day convinces that enable such an easy existence, but stop an think about it for a minute.  A lot of us, not excluding myself create unneeded drama and chaos that don't do anything for us except stress us out. Or we start delving into destructive habits and extracurricular activities that we don't have any business getting involved in.  Lets break free of that, and get back to the simple way of living.
    I have been very blessed to live the places I have lived and experience the full life the Lord offers. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't thank Him for this. If the Lord can shower me, the ragamuffin I am, with the amazing grace that he offers, then He can do the same for any of you.  He loves each and everyone of you with more passion than you can possibly imagine. If you haven't already stop reading this now and give your life over to him and experience the amazing adventure He has waiting for you.
      Here are a few picks of the past season I have been through. Enjoy!

 

 

Answers

I probably should fill in the blanks that I left out of the first post.  First and foremost.. Why is Ted Nugent heading up to Alaska with me? Well The Nuge himself is not, however his wise words and witty satire will be. To further dig into why I even own this book we will have to go back a few weeks to my journey down to Salt Lake. Whilst visiting SLC, my good friend Brian hosted an epic bromance reunion complete with MAN BREAKFAST, about every cut of meat from a pig that's edible and a gentleman's drink of High West to wash it all down with.  Brian lives tucked back in a side canyon up out of the valley that requires the grace of God for me to get to. His driveway is long and steep and in the winter is shaded from the sun just enough to allow a consistent layer of ice to cover it. America cannot make it up there because there is not enough room for me to turn her around once I reach his house, and I am alright with that. The one time I did make it up there I had to reverse the whole way down in 4 low. By the way there is a cliff on your left and a steep wall on your right, so there is no room for error.  At night though when all his neighbors have come home and the road is clear, we shoot down in the manor of a solo bob sledder practicing for the Olympics, crashing into snow walls that are just high enough for this purpose but not for stopping a out of control vehicle.  Anyways one evening after skiing we were all milling around his cabin waiting for dinner to finish cooking. Waylon Jennings was spinning at 45 rpms attempting to make a few extra bucks rerecording an already horrible song.  Now Waylon in my opinion has put out some solid gold tracks in the past, but when he started singing about leaving a cake out in the rain and not being able to bake it again because he lost the recipe, I lost a bit of respect. I couldn't take one more minute of this and in the process of heading over to change the record, I noticed a book in Brian's library protruding just enough from the others to catch my eye. It was as if the Nuge himself was reaching out to hand me this very book. It was as if I had just pulled the sword out of the stone and Excalibur was now in my hands.  Brian instantly looked up from his methodical rib rub down of exotic spices and stared at me with a worried yet joyous look. I think he sensed the disturbance in the Nugeforce. With out me even asking he said  "Go ahead, take it back up to Montana with you". He knew what had to be done. He knew it had to be passed on.  This is the story of why the Nuge is heading up to Alaska with me. 

     As for why I am heading up to AK in the first place, I got a job working for the Parks service out of Fairbanks starting April 9th. I was going to take the ferry out of Bellingham but there isn't one running around the time I need to be up there. So I will be driving the 3000 miles alone. One man and his two brothers on the open road to the unknown. 

    For those of you who know me you are probably asking yourself "Why that heck does Sam have a blog ? I he becoming a hipster ?" Negatory is the answer. I have a blog because I believe this will be an epic adventure and I would love to share it with those interested. All the pristine wilderness and unforgettable scenery will be posted here frequently once I start this journey. So check back periodically for pictures of breath taking landscape and my thoughts on life as I start this new chapter in my life.  

Stranglehold

I received an email the other day that I believe will radically alter my life in a positive way. No, it wasn't from The Nuge inviting me to his spread for a weekend of redneckery, but rather from the National parks servise stating that " You are reading this memo because you have been offered a position with the National Park Service." I read this joyfull piece of news for the first time while sitting inside the summit house at Whitefish ski resort. I had just sat down to eat my brown bag lunch consisting of an almond butter/nutella sandwich and one of the many Hammer bars that I took from the Hammer booth on demo day here on the mountain. Your basically a sponsored skier if when the rep leaves you stuff your pockets to the brim with the free bars he is passing out. It's only considered stealing if you take the whole box, so I left one. Anyways... There I was mauing down on my sandi when I read this. I gave big fist pump and a hoop then met up with Rob and made some turns in the smooth like butter snow we have been blessed with. Besides being overwhelmed with the feeling of skiing fresh pow the rest of the afternoon I was extatic dreaming of the great Alaking adventure that would soon begin.
     It dosent have anything to do with this post but I figured why not compliment this first awesome entry with equally great song. So without further ado I give you The Nuge performing his finest... Stranglehold