BOW 2012
I'm back from BOW! On Thursday we left late haha and drove to Wasilla. The weather was sunny and gorgeous the whole way down. Mt. McKinley was AWESOME..it always is, but definitely up close haha. I played hours of Angry Birds on mom's iPad..so addictive. :P We got to Wasilla late and had trouble finding the hotel but with the help of mom's iPad we eventually did. I hate Wasilla..it's ugly and laid out weirdly. Maybe next time we should stay in Palmer cause it's nicer. We got dinner and drove back to the hotel and there were the Northern Lights! So cool..I'd never seen them outside of Fairbanks before. After watching them we went to bed
Friday we got up and had breakfast. The weather was rather foggy but I figured it would clear off. We got on the Glenn Highway and where we were going it was sunny but further away it was foggy. WE ARE SUN BRINGERS! And there was SO much snow this year! Last year Wasilla hardly had any and the camp not too much either but it was PILED this year. Crazyy. We got to camp early and they said we had cabin Castle..the last two years we had Iliamna which was right across from the bathroom..Castle was above the bathroom so it was still pretty close. All the cabins are named after mountains..I'd never heard of Castle but apparently it's in the Wrangell-St. Elias mountains. We set up our beds and had lunch. Jennifer and Windy were there yay!
After lunch was our first class, which was ice fishing for mom and I. They drove us to Long Lake I think it was called. They showed us how to drill in the ice with their super powerful auger thing. There was a dad and his two kids there and both the kids caught fish! That made us hopeful haha. Our instructors had a couple tents (that were HEATED!) we could fish in and since it was darker in there we could see to the bottom of the lake through the holes! Cooool haha. Ice fishing rods are much smaller than regular ones. No one caught ANYTHING! The kids must have gotten them all. ;) That's why it's fishing, not catching. :P I prefer regular fishing, but I wanted to experience ice fishing too
After class was dinner and then skill stations..you went around to tables and learned things like bird calls, different furs, etc. There was tubing but I was to tired so I just went back to the cabin. I saw the Northern Lights over the mountains on the horizon. Yayy
Saturday was cloudy and snowy. After breakfast was me and mom's second class, Safety in Bear Country. We watched a video..it was interesting but I was so tired I kept falling asleep (other people at camp had the same problem haha). It was good info to know though..I feel more knowledgeable about bears now. We practiced shooting bear spray bottles filled with water..pretty powerful feeling
After that was lunch and then my next class, GPS. I brought the one I got at Christmas so I could learn how to use it. After we learned we did some geocaching..but mine said I was in Japan..I was 4000 some miles away and it would take 36 days to get there..wellll then haha. I must fix that :P
Then we had dinner and the evening program..that lady was back with her owl, Arc!! Yaaay he's awesome hehe. Me, mom, Jennifer, Windy, and Jen's sister (she recently moved up here) all went tubing. Luckily I was full of energy that night haha. The hill was pretty bumpy this time..kinda painful. :P It's now a complete BOW if you don't go tubing though! Especially since tubing the first year made me famous and the instructors are like to other girls "ask Heather about tubing, she LOVES it!" I'd never live it down if I didn't go. :P Too bad it was cloudy, the stars are awesome at the bottom. They had a bonfire at the top of the hill too! Niceee. Then bedtime!
Today we got up at 7..though technically 6 cause of daylight savings time. :P The weather was AMAZING. The mountains were super white against the blue sky. *drools* After breakfast was my fourth class, bow fishing. I was curious about it. Well..you have a bow with a reel on it which the arrow is attached to. You shoot it like a regular arrow and all the string comes out and spears on a fish. Obviously we couldn't go out and do it since everything's frozen so we just practiced on fake fish on targets. Luckily I took archery two years ago so I was pretty good. I think I'll stick to regular fishing though..seems less barbaric
Thenn we had lunch, saw a slideshow and then it was time to leave. I think mom and I were the last to leave haha. The weather was so lovely..then we got to the Alaska Range and it was CRAZY windy..it had to be at least 60 MPH! There was so much snow blowing around the mountains were obscured like it was foggy! Wowwww. After we left the mountains the weather just got blah and cloudy. So weird..everywhere else was sunny! I got home and I was like..boo, back to reality! Heh
I shall post my pics tomorrow hopefully..now I'm going to bed :P
Friday we got up and had breakfast. The weather was rather foggy but I figured it would clear off. We got on the Glenn Highway and where we were going it was sunny but further away it was foggy. WE ARE SUN BRINGERS! And there was SO much snow this year! Last year Wasilla hardly had any and the camp not too much either but it was PILED this year. Crazyy. We got to camp early and they said we had cabin Castle..the last two years we had Iliamna which was right across from the bathroom..Castle was above the bathroom so it was still pretty close. All the cabins are named after mountains..I'd never heard of Castle but apparently it's in the Wrangell-St. Elias mountains. We set up our beds and had lunch. Jennifer and Windy were there yay!
After lunch was our first class, which was ice fishing for mom and I. They drove us to Long Lake I think it was called. They showed us how to drill in the ice with their super powerful auger thing. There was a dad and his two kids there and both the kids caught fish! That made us hopeful haha. Our instructors had a couple tents (that were HEATED!) we could fish in and since it was darker in there we could see to the bottom of the lake through the holes! Cooool haha. Ice fishing rods are much smaller than regular ones. No one caught ANYTHING! The kids must have gotten them all. ;) That's why it's fishing, not catching. :P I prefer regular fishing, but I wanted to experience ice fishing too
After class was dinner and then skill stations..you went around to tables and learned things like bird calls, different furs, etc. There was tubing but I was to tired so I just went back to the cabin. I saw the Northern Lights over the mountains on the horizon. Yayy
Saturday was cloudy and snowy. After breakfast was me and mom's second class, Safety in Bear Country. We watched a video..it was interesting but I was so tired I kept falling asleep (other people at camp had the same problem haha). It was good info to know though..I feel more knowledgeable about bears now. We practiced shooting bear spray bottles filled with water..pretty powerful feeling
After that was lunch and then my next class, GPS. I brought the one I got at Christmas so I could learn how to use it. After we learned we did some geocaching..but mine said I was in Japan..I was 4000 some miles away and it would take 36 days to get there..wellll then haha. I must fix that :P
Then we had dinner and the evening program..that lady was back with her owl, Arc!! Yaaay he's awesome hehe. Me, mom, Jennifer, Windy, and Jen's sister (she recently moved up here) all went tubing. Luckily I was full of energy that night haha. The hill was pretty bumpy this time..kinda painful. :P It's now a complete BOW if you don't go tubing though! Especially since tubing the first year made me famous and the instructors are like to other girls "ask Heather about tubing, she LOVES it!" I'd never live it down if I didn't go. :P Too bad it was cloudy, the stars are awesome at the bottom. They had a bonfire at the top of the hill too! Niceee. Then bedtime!
Today we got up at 7..though technically 6 cause of daylight savings time. :P The weather was AMAZING. The mountains were super white against the blue sky. *drools* After breakfast was my fourth class, bow fishing. I was curious about it. Well..you have a bow with a reel on it which the arrow is attached to. You shoot it like a regular arrow and all the string comes out and spears on a fish. Obviously we couldn't go out and do it since everything's frozen so we just practiced on fake fish on targets. Luckily I took archery two years ago so I was pretty good. I think I'll stick to regular fishing though..seems less barbaric
Thenn we had lunch, saw a slideshow and then it was time to leave. I think mom and I were the last to leave haha. The weather was so lovely..then we got to the Alaska Range and it was CRAZY windy..it had to be at least 60 MPH! There was so much snow blowing around the mountains were obscured like it was foggy! Wowwww. After we left the mountains the weather just got blah and cloudy. So weird..everywhere else was sunny! I got home and I was like..boo, back to reality! Heh
I shall post my pics tomorrow hopefully..now I'm going to bed :P