While in Alaska

Independence Day in Wiseman, Alaska

// July 7th, 2009 // 2009: Adventuring, 2009: The Workplace

Fourth of July has come and gone. Most of the Coldfoot staff including Cory and myself headed over to Wiseman for an Independence Day celebration. When I arrived, I was surprised by how many cars were packed into the parking lot of the miner’s museum. By 3PM, the music had already begun and a fair amount of people lounged under the tents setup to shelter the food. The atmosphere was just as I expected; a large horse freely roaming in the field, a free keg of Coldfoot pilsner (yes, we have our own beer named after us), droves of bearded miners accompanied by their evidently used pickups, and Jack Reakoff, the unofficial mayor of Wiseman, grilling caribou. I tried caribou for the first time and thoroughly enjoyed it. Like moose, there’s hardly any fat on it. When we weren’t socializing, meeting all kinds of interesting people, we were playing an intense game of volleyball. At one point, later in the evening, Mark, one of our coworkers, led a tour through Wiseman. I imagine that the guests saw quite the spectacle since at that point; many had a bit too much to drink. Not only did they get to see the village but they saw a real Wiseman party in action. In fact, the word is that a knife fight took place among a couple angry miners. I personally didn’t see it but everyone seemed to be talking about it. Luckily no one got hurt. As it got later, I decided to head back to Coldfoot. Initially, I had planned to camp out at Wiseman but it was wet and I fortunately found a ride back. I rode back with a visitor center employee and it just happened to be one of my interviewers for the Coldfoot job. She formerly worked for Sukakpak in the human resources department. The evening certainly proved to be a peculiar 4th of July considering it was my first time without fireworks. It’s kind of hard to see fireworks when there’s light 24 hours of the day. Nonetheless, it was a great time had by all and a great experience.

While the evening was packed with excitement, there was also a bit of unease and confusion. Right upon arriving at the event, we heard news that two of our coworkers had left for good. A waitress and a maintenance worker decided to pick up and leave Coldfoot without telling anyone. Not only is it disrespectful and inconsiderate to leave without submitting a two weeks’ notice but rather disheartening that they would leave without even a goodbye to their coworkers whom they spent so much time with over the past couple of months. Although this is my first seasonal job, it is my understanding that such an occurrence is common in this type of workplace. For many, the work is temporary and they feel unattached and unobligated to stay. If I were to offer any advice to anyone considering a seasonal job, especially at Coldfoot, definitely think a fair amount about before making such a drastic decision as leaving. I have to be completely honest, within a few weeks of being here; Cory and I considered heading home early. The work was tedious and often unexciting. And after being at school, we wanted to simply relax at home in our own beds with our families and friends. We spent an extensive amount of time discussing the situation and we came to the realization that we didn’t have the right mindset. All we thought about was home. We weren’t as open minded as we should have been and sometimes just downright pessimistic. We stopped and thought about how lucky we are to be here. Sukakpak picked 35 of us out of over 300 applicants. Since we changed our mindset and realized that we are in a very special place, we grew closer to our coworkers, attended more tours, explored on our own, and even began to have fun on the job. It may sound silly that it took us that long to realize that we’re in a unique special place but sometimes when all you think about is home, you miss the simple things. I’m not trying to say that you should force yourself to like something you don’t, I’m saying that sometimes you need to step back and think about the reason you chose to work at such a place. At the time, it’s easy to not realize that the nature of such work can teach you a lot about yourself. I’m confident that I’ll look back someday and be glad that I worked at Coldfoot for the whole season and it’s not far off to say that it will be a life changing experience. So the lesson is: before you quit, start thinking more positively and be more grateful for the unique position that you’re in.

The other night, a fellow Twitter follower stopped by the camp on his way to pick up a friend who had hiked a portion of the Brooks Range. Ken (@sdoownek ) came into the café to say hello. It’s always great meeting those you typically only interact with online. In the rare case that any other followers take a trip up the Dalton, definitely stop in to say hi. Also, a gentleman who recently toured Coldfoot on a Princess Cruise found my blog and sent me a little comment a few posts back. It really makes my day to see this kind of thing.

Today is our Friday. After work, we begin our 3 day weekend. We’re considering going down to the Yukon River Camp to do some fishing. Our camp manager told us that we might have a chance of hopping on a boat and fishing independently on the Yukon River. We later spoke to some Yukon employees and the chances of that happening are looking slim. However, they said that there is a “mountainman,” as they called him, who lives by the camp and is always looking for people to accompany him on fishing trips. It would be a tossup whether he’s around or not so we are going to do a little more investigating before embarking on such an adventure. As always, I shall keep you posted on the happenings of Coldfoot.

My camera cable seems to have gone missing. I think someone may have taken it by accident. Until I find another, this post will be pictureless. I’ll try my hardest to get them uploaded later this evening!