Our Home at Glen Alps

So, in catching up with the blog, I've finally got to a point where I can introduce our new home at Glen Alps! We are the first caretakers at Alaska's busiest state park trailhead, with duties at three other nearby trailheads as well. The caretaker residence was just completed in September of this year, and we moved in on September 30. It's been a great privilege and an occasional challenge as well! With glitches from the major (like not getting a phone line for seven long and isolated weeks - no cell reception either!), to the minor (like the kitchen cabinet lazy susan not turning), and everything in between (snowblower not working, front entry not being insulated and the door freezing shut, refrigerator not staying cold, garage floor drain stopped up, etc, etc, etc), we are FINALLY feeling like we can relax and make ourselves at home for a few months. Whew!

We have good neighbors in the Glen Alps subdivision just up the road. We got to socialize with them at the neighborhood Christmas party and think they're a great bunch. They are all very happy to have caretakers here, and comment how much more controlled the situation is here because of us. Just our presence makes a big difference in keeping the partiers and troublemakers away. We rarely have to call in law enforcement to intervene in anything - it's been pretty calm!

Here are some shots of the home, which is a 2-story, 1-car garage building. The actual residence is only 1 bedroom, 1 bathroom, just over 525 square feet, with a nice-sized covered deck. Pretty compact, but a real castle compared to the RV! The doorways are very wide, so we can move Tallis around in his portable crib at night to give us all the space we need to sleep soundly and happily. There is also a ranger office, a visitor contact area, and the basement (all garage) is reserved primarily for search and rescue vehicles and operations. It's located in quite the public area - a busy parking lot, but because of how it's built we are rarely disturbed by people or noise, or even violent wind storms. The walls are 15 inches thick - concrete! (come here if you need a bomb shelter any time) - and the residence is located in the back, away from most of the craziness. It's been a dream come true for us to be here, and many people express great jealousy when they talk to us - we feel very blessed to be the first residents!









Just a few days after we moved in, Courtney shot a little video of us in our happy home!



Since we finished moving in, I've been trying to get some photos specifically of the inside, but my prime opportunity just hasn't come. I will at least post some photos taken inside to document other things. For instance, we hosted the Chugach State Park holiday party a week before Christmas. You can see at least how the kitchen looks and an idea of the living room. Simple, but comfortable and homey for us. If you want to see more, you'll get little snippets of the place in future posts, I'm sure!





Tallis took to the new home immediately, with so many things to explore and discover. He's very content here. He probably appreciates most having a real bathtub, deep windowsills to stand on, lots of lower cabinets to get into, closets to dismantle, a piano to play, and a big open living room floor space for his things.





Glen Alps also offers a lot of outdoor opportunities, which we have yet to take full advantage of. (First we were busy getting moved in and getting our rhythm with our duties, now that it has snowed I have a hard time hiking while pregnant - my hips are too loose for the unstable footing.) But we do get out sometimes! Before the snow fell I took Tallis out to the overlook several times to play in the rocks, which he loves. What a glorious playground view, eh?







We also go out on the trails from time to time. Before he could walk and before the snow fell, we would take him mostly in the stroller. He would stay entertained as long as he could hold a stick in one hand and a rock in the other! Once it got cold, that took a bit more creativity on our part, as we had to put the rock inside one mitten and insert the stick through the snaps on the other mitten!



Overall, he's an excellent little guy to take on a casual hike!

We are happy to be at Glen Alps, and especially happy to be getting our system and rhythm figured out to take us through the rest of our volunteer term. Wouldn't you clean some outhouses and pick up litter to have neighbors and a view like this? (Picking up dog poop, though, is another issue entirely!)