Effect International

The sole purpose of setting this blog 6 months ago, was to show the progress, development and success of a new organization named Effect International. Effect was started by yours truly and some of my good friends and colleagues that have done humanitarian work in the past. If you're not familiar with our organization, here is some info. (If you're familiar with it, skip this part)

Effect International is a non-profit organization that empowers communities in developing countries to create sustainable infrastructure by providing opportunities for education and healthcare. For children in developing countries like India, opportunities for education are merely a dream. The right to receiving adequate healthcare and an education are reserved only for the elite, privileged, and prosperous individuals. Effect International’s objective is to deconstruct the Socio-Economic hierarchy that bars individuals from achieving their full potential. This is done by creating educational and healthcare opportunities which would otherwise be unattainable.

Effect International’s fundamental project is in Bihar India. Bihar is the poorest state in India where:
83 million people live in an area the size of Illinois.
60% of the population live below the poverty line.
90% of the population live in rural areas.
Over 45 million are illiterate.

Bihar is in dire need of schools where children can be given the opportunity to make their full potential a reality. Communities receive little to no support from the government of India leading to an overwhelming amount of children without access to academic facilities. Without education many children are destined to live a life of abject poverty with the array of struggles and hardships to which it is associated.
Effect International is providing these children with new opportunities by facilitating adequate schools and materials for proper education from grades one through ten.


You've probably heard the phrase “I'm just fine.” FINE meaning: Freaked out, Insecure, Nervous and Emotional. That's how I feel sometimes about this project! JK

Tomorrow Rachael Senft and I will be leaving SLC to India. It's about a 29 hour flight and 10,000 miles. We've been preparing for this logistics project for over 5 months now. I feel like we've got a lot of things dialed in and planned for a successful trip. We will return on January 7th. I would like to say thanks to Bushar Zaman, she is an amazing Phd Civil Engineering graduate from USU who has planned and carried a lot of our work in India. She is a success story of one person being educated and in return, empowering hundreds.

I've had several people ask me..."So what are you actually doing for this first trip?" To answer some of you.... We are doing a community needs assessment in several cities in India and Nepal. Since Rachael is the expert (graduated from Social work 09), she will be doing most of this. We will also be meeting with govt. officials, police department, lawyers, potential donors etc. The biggest hurdle we have to jump over is obtaining the right legal documents. We are registering ourselves as an NGO (Non-Government Organization) in India, but we also have to obtain a FCR license. This license is extremely difficult to obtain, and we can't use any foreign money unless we obtain it. Our goal is to "use" another NGO's license for a few years until we can obtain our own. That being said, we will be meeting with several NGO's to determine which one will allow us to use their license.
In Nepal it's a bit different. I met a professor at Utah State University named Narayan, who is our newest board member. He has been very gracious and helpful to set up travel contacts, places to eat, sleep. We'll also be visiting several small villages to determine how we can help with future educational needs. Mainly we'll be visiting Kathmandu, Pokhara and Pakawadi.

Rachael and I have decided to travel light. We are only taking our backpacks so that we can travel quick and efficient. I'll try my best to update this blog for the duration of our trip; however, I'm not sure how often we'll have internet capabilites.

Thank you for your support, and Merry Christmas!!

The things toursists say!

Skagway Alaska is nearly 100 percent tourism, which offers ample amount of jobs, opportunities and headaches. It's a love hate relationship with the average 40,000 tourists a week that visit Skagway. Love because the tourists offer everyone jobs and money and hate because they do stupid things. Here is the list of stupid things that were said to me or others this summer, enjoy!
(I didn't make any of these up, they are all true!)

Driver what is the elevation of Skagway? (Skagway is a port town)
What is the Temperature?
Is it "really" colder on the glaciers?
Does it snow in Alaska?
Why is it raining? (me) Because you're in a rain forest! (tourist) Really?
Do people really ski those mountains? They look way too steep?
What are the chances of it raining today? (Me) Sir this is Alaska, anything is possible.
While driving over the Skagway river bridge a tourist asks... Why is the ocean tide so high?
(Me) Sir that's a river! (Tourist) oh?
Is Skagway a "real" town or is it fake for us tourists?
Does Princess cruises own all of these stores?
What kind of rocks are those? (driver) It's granite carved by the glaciers. (tourist) What's granite?

One of our drivers was next to the Fraser Lakes in BC, Canada (several miles away from the ocean). While driving, another motor coach was heading the opposite direction. The other motor coach has huge printing of whales on it. The driver says, "Hey everyone look a whale!" As he looked into his mirror all of his tourists were smashed against the window looking at the lake. Driver says, "umm folks, jokes on me! First off the whale was a printing on the other bus and second that's a fresh water lake!

White pass railroad has to give safety annulments before each ride. They always emphasize safety with your fingers for many have been lost. An impatient husband was trying to get his wife into the train cart and while she walked through the door he slammed it, with one finger still in the door. Her finger was chopped off. Screaming downsized to shock where she eventually was laughing and making jokes about her one lost finger. This particular day had such bad weather that life flight could not get fly a helicopter, all medivac planes couldn't fly. She won her self (and husband) an ambulance ride to Whitehorse Canada (3 hours a way) and then a flight to Seattle. Expensive trip eh!
( I never heard if they saved her finger.)

Employee Jokes

We have an older couple that work for Holland America. The husband drives busses and the wife does Hollands finances and is also a Dock Rep. She helps with the madness on each dock where our shops dock. The wife was helping drivers park their motor coaches and her husband got on the radio and says "Hey, where do you want me to put this thing?" Wife says, "You shouldn't say that on the radio!"

During a driving meeting we were checking the oil, transmission fluid, antifreeze level, etc. Another employee asks, "So how do we check the gas level?"

Goodbye Alasaka:( (for now)

All good things must come to an end for a season. Tomorrow I leave to drive home towards Idaho. My experience in Alaska has been amazing. Being here in Skagway for 4 months has brought me closer to God, friends, nature and myself. My experiences have been timeless and I'm excited to come back next year.

Chilkoot Trail

The Chilkoot Trail is the famed Alaskan gold rush trail that thousands would hike over on there route to Dawson city in 1890's. Several cities, bridges, dams were built to accommodate but it was short lived. The White Pass Rail Road was built in Skagway and made the trail and cities obsolete.
Today it is a popular hiking trail. About three thousand people hike it ever year.
After work on Saturday I had to catch several of my friends that left earlier in the day. I was by myself and cranked it up the trail. I was slowed down by the Game Wardens wife which told me that fast hikers could do it in 5.5 hours and that I'd better have a good head lamp because it was going to get dark. That was around 5 pm. I knew I could make good time and turned into Sheep Camp at 9 pm. An hour before the sun went down. I was able to hike the 13 miles in 4 hours and 45 min.
The next morning we had the hardest section of the Chilkoot Trail which is the Golden Staircase. When the pioneers went through the pass they carved ice steps into the steep pass to make it over. Lucky for us it was summer but the weather wasn't that great. As we got closer to the summit the clouds were getting thicker and thicker and by the time we hit the Golden Staircase we were getting pounded with thick rain. I was leading at this time and when I reached the summit I was completely soaked and to cold to wait, I continued down the trail. After some time I could see 2 members of our group in the distance so I found a larger rock to hide behind and waited for them to come. We continued to hike to Happy Camp. I was curious before the trip why it was called so and I knew why. There was a warming hut there and we were the first ones in camp to use it. This was very uplifting for our drenched bodies. We added one hiker to our group, Chris from Poland who gave us good company for the remainder of our trip.
We were able to dry out a lot of our gear and headed to our camp in Deep lake. We logged another 10 miles that day and we're the last group to leave Sheep Camp and the first ones over and done. We were all happy with our efforts this day and ate a lot of food around the dinner table and exchanged a lot of stories.
The next morning we woke up at 5 am to be on the trail by 6. We had the final 10 miles to finish the total 33 miles to Bennet Lake. We were all ready to make it back and put up a good pace of 3 mph. We arrived at lake Bennet at 10:00 am, 4 hours before the train would be leaving back to Skagway. Lucky for us (not knowing) they serve hot food at the train station special for back packers. We had all you could eat ma & pa food!! All but smiles around the table.

Since I've gotten to Skagway I've heard a lot about the Chilkoot Trail. It was really cool to re-walk the paths of the pioneers and to enjoy the beautiful Alaskan backcountry.
Unfortunately, doing the marathon a week earlier and the 33 miles of the Chilkoot have left my knees extremely sore. I will be taking a break to recuperate for a few days and then start cycling again. I'm excited to compete in the next two triathlons in September!

Juneau Marathon

On Top of Robert Mt.

Sunset

Harison and the funny sign in Juneau!

Last Saturday I ran my first marathon in Juneau AK. This is a small (42 people) marathon that runs on the shore line road. I thought it would be a flat course but I had the chance to look at it before Saturday and it was a hilly road. I was actually excited because I had been training in the hills and knew I would do better in that environment. When the race started the leaders took off at a quick pace. I got tucked in the front middle group and slowly we were all spread out. I had a descent pace and could only pass people on the up hills. When I hit the turn around sign I was feeling pretty good and hoped I could maintain the same pace. I was able to keep the same pace until mile 24, I hit the wall hard and my pace slowed down to 11 min miles. They didn't improve and it was a long 2 miles to the finish line. I finished at 3:53.16, which was under my original goal of 4 hours. I loved the race and I'm excited to do more.
When my legs start working again I will switch my training over to compete in some Triathalons. The Bear lake Tri is the first week of September.
While I was in Juneau I had the chance to see a lot of the sights and go on a float plane and zip line excursion. Super fun!

Training

Training this summer has been a lot of fun! It's been the most intense muscle aching work outs that I've had, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Skagway is at sea level with mountains towering over 7-9 thousand feet so all the trails, roads, rails are all up. Which makes it calf burning city! My main motivator is getting back into competitive shape. The reason the training has been so fun is mainly because the sun is up for 20 hours and all of the landscape is breath taking
I have been trying to determine which marathon I would run this August. I was torn between the Yukon River Trail Marathon (which is considered the hardest in North America) or the Juneau Marathon. I finally decided a week ago to do the Juneau marathon for many reasons. But mainly I was worried about doing one of the hardest marathons as my first one might leave a sour taste in my mouth. I've stayed on track with my training goals and have 3 more weeks to go for the Juneau Marathon!
Immediately after finishing the marathon I will be switch my training over for some triathlons. I have decided to do the Ogden Tri again, last year was a lot of fun and I know I'll be a lot stronger this year. And then the Extera Tri which is in the end of September. Both will be challenging but a lot of fun! I will only have 3.5 weeks to get back into swimming shape, but I figure my cardio should be pretty strong and shouldn't be to difficult....I hope!

This week has been good, on Monday morning a woke up early and headed up to Upper Deay Lake to summit the glacier mountains behind it. This would be my first real glacier climb. It was way intense at took about 4 hours to summit. The view up top was breath taking! I'm addicted now and have some other summit/glacier climbs in mind before I leave.
On Tuesday I decided to take a break on my knees and did some cycling. The only real road here is towards the summit of Canada so I grabbed my passport and made the long trek up the pass. It's only 15 miles but its a slow steep pass that will make your legs burn! I forgot to dress appropriately for the ride back down. It was really cold but exhilarating, you can get up to 50 mph coming down!
Today I was able to throw down some more miles to prepare for the marathon. I did 15 miles but, after 13 I started to get really dizzy and could barely keep the road in focus. I realized that I hadn't eating for over 8 hours and the GU wasn't holding up. The last two miles were pretty difficult. Learned a good lesson!
My parents purchased their tickets to come to AK! I'm way excited for them to come! They deserve a good vacation and I'm trying to set up some sweet excursions for them.
I know this was a long post but I lost my hard drive on the Mac and wanted to catch up.

Sunset

Sometimes when I look back at my past week I can't remember when and where I did what. Everything just becomes a blur. Sure glade I take a lot of pictures so I can look back and remember what and where I've been. This last week has been great. It was the first time I've seen the sunset for almost 2 months. Being so far north and at sea level with giant mountains all around it blocks the sun from actually setting (like it does in Id and UT). However, I was able to capture some good pics.

Bennett Lake, Carcross BC

I made it over to Haines a few days ago. Since I was 16 I've heard Haines AK, over and over in professional ski films like TGR. When I decided to work in Skagway I was excited to learn how close Haines is. I jumped onto the fast ferry with my friend and 45 minutes later I learned why it was so famous. The town and mountains were everything I had imagined big mountians tucked under a beautiful small town. Actually Haines is 4 times larger then Skagway and has been rated over and over again as one of the best small towns to live in. Once you go there you'll know why!

Haines

I attempted to hike Goat lake yesterday..... I failed for misjudging the weather. Goat lake has a pipe line that powers all of skagway and there really isn't a trail so you hike on the pipe line all the way to the top in the Sawtooth mtn valley. After hiking a ways and forgetting that it had rained the night before deemed the pipe line very slippery. Plus I took my buddies dog Annie which couldn't get around the larger cliffs so we turned around and I drove to Canada to chill at Tushi lake. I will attempt it again!

The Alasakan Dream!

Looking into Upper Dewey and the Ocean

At 3:02 p.m today myself Christen and Dave stared at each other with the same look in our eyes not knowing if we were going to catch our train back to Skagway at 3:25 p.m. We still had a ways to go on the trail. Earlier that day we rode the White Pass Yukon Train (mainly for tourism) to be dropped off in the middle of no where to hike to Lottin Glacier. We only had 2+ hours to hike to the glacier and make it back to the train. We power hiked to the magnificently huge glacier and snapped a few shots and turned back the direction we came from. When we took our short break at 3:02 we knew that the rest of the trip would be a full on run. As we set off to go Christen bent over and started taking off her boots. I asked what she was doing. She said, "I can run faster with out them." I stuffed the boots in my pack and off we went with the barefooted girl. She ran fast and we made it to the train 2 minutes before it got there.

Christen running back barefoot!

There is always something adventures about running to catch the last train after a hike. If we had missed the train we would of had a 15 mile hike back to Skagway!

Lottin Glacier

Just two days ago at 9:00 p.m me and some other friends decided to hike to Upper Dewey Lake. Its only 4 miles but everything over here is straight up so its a very strenuous long 4 miles. We left the trail head after 10 p.m. I guess only in Alaska could you hike until 12:30 when there is still light. When we arrived at the lake we found one of the cabins that were built in the early 1900's empty so we piled inside for cover from the wind and spent the night.

Me filling up the Nalgene for the best water in the world! No joke!

Upper Dewey and the sun rising

The next morning was so beautiful. The sun was poking over the jagged mountains and made for some good photos. Christen and Casey Fromm left at 5 am to go to work and I stayed to push further up the trail. I hiked a few more miles and found a large waterfall gushing out with snow all around. I made it to the top of the waterfall and didn't want to mess with the unstable rocks so I traversed over the the snow, flipped my backpack around and rode all the way down! It was riot.

Waterfall and my tracks sliding on my backpack.

Alaska has been amazing so far, I've really enjoyed every thing up here. The people are chill, the scenery is breathtaking, the Church is strong, plus this place is perfect for training. I will be running the Yukon River Trail Marathon in August 2. (Thanks to my brother-in-law Luke who has put together my training plan and worked out some of my injuries.)

I logged more than 2300 miles by myself driving to Alaska from Idaho. I started early in the morning with a small radiator leak that stuck with me the entire trip. I made it to Missoula Montana where I took a break to ride some trails up Rattlesnake canyon. I was impressed with the amount of trails and folks that used them. It was a good hour mountain bike ride and I took off to make my way to Glacier National Park. The park was beautiful and quite with few tourists.


The next day I made it to Banff and Jasper National Parks which were breath taking. I've lived next to the Rocky Mountains my whole life but the Canadian Rockies are different, they are tall jagged mountains full of snow and glaciers. After I had traveled through these three parks I was getting lonely and ready to get to Alaska. The night before I stayed at a hostile because it was snowing and tents weren't allowed for the season. I had internet and bought Angles and Daemons the audio tape off of I-tunes for the following long day. I had about a 1000 miles left and wanted to travel a good distance that day. I was glade I bought the audiotape for it was my savior when I traveled the entire distance to Skagway Alaska.


Driving on the Alcan was interesting, its a wide two lane highway that's very desolate. I would go an hour before seeing another vehicle. Bison and Caribou where the main animals I saw but but I saw several black/brown bears, deer, elk, wolves etc.
When I finally pulled off the Alcan and headed towards Canada there was a lot of snow all around me. The mountains were huge and all the lakes were still frozen. You drop thousands of feet to sea level and turn the corner into Skagway. When I arrived the first thing I noticed was the smell of blooming flowers and trees.
So far my time here in Alaska has been what I always imagined Alaska would be like. Big and beautiful!

My first blog

For some time now I've been checking other peoples blogs religiously and figured it was time to start my own. This will follow the outdoor sports I take part in, the areas that I travel, and the progress I (and others) have made in humanitarian work around the world. My first real post about my trip on the Alaska/Canadian Highway to Skagway will be coming soon!