# Alaska horseback riding in the rain



## Tengu91 (Aug 21, 2018)

Right.
So, this may not count as what's typical or expected of stories in this group, but I feel it's one worth telling and I want to tell it now while it's still fresh in my mind.
I quit a good factory job and sold all my shit back home to move to Alaska. I'm only here for the summer, working in a seasonal position at a fancy hotel resort in the middle of nowhere. At our jobs and in front of guests, we're some of the most professional workers you've ever seen. Once we clock out? Colleges don't party this hard...
One of the reasons guests come here to experience the "real outdoors." It's typical lodge vacation nonsense. Trail rides, gold panning, nature walks...All that garbage. I work in guest services, answering phones and selling tours, but I party with everybody here. Not all of us share the nomadic spirit or have vagabond aspirations, but we all one day decided to pack up our lives and move the furthest away from home we've ever been. As a result, we're all incredibly close. I can only compare it to something similar I felt while in the army, only here it's a family of change instead of a brotherhood of war. Equally as powerful, many times more beautiful.
One of the excursions we offer our guests is horseback riding. Being a pretty chill guy, I get along great with the head horse tamer. Only a few hours ago, he lead me and another crew of workers through thick Alaskan underbrush in the middle of the night under thick cloud cover, just to see his horses. We waded into the field, knee deep in mud, just to pet them. Suddenly, the horse trainer had an idea.
"One of y'all should ride them."
To cut a long story short, I ignored my common sense and trusted my gut. I rode a horse BARE BACK through a few acres of mud, in the middle of a rainstorm, hooting and hollering and having the best time of my life. Sometimes I try to psychoanalyze myself and see why I do the things I do, or aspire to the things I aspire to. And in the end it all comes down to one simple belief.
I will never be anyone memorable without first doing anything worth remembering.

In four weeks I'm hoping a train out of Winnipeg. See you all on the road.


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## Cornelius Vango (Aug 21, 2018)

Fuck yeah dude. I've been in Alaska for the summer, too. Where you at? I'm heading back south in the next few weeks.


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## Tengu91 (Aug 21, 2018)

Cornelius Vango said:


> Fuck yeah dude. I've been in Alaska for the summer, too. Where you at? I'm heading back south in the next few weeks.


 I'm near Trapper Creek, just at the edge of the Denali State Park. Loving every minute of it!


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## Cornelius Vango (Aug 21, 2018)

That's awesome. Gorgeous country! I'll holler if I pass through that way.


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## Tengu91 (Aug 21, 2018)

Looking forward to it! I'm going to be somewhere in Manitoba in about 3 weeks though. Hopefully I'll meet some cool people in Winnipeg!


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