Umiat to Inigok

We spent a couple of days in Umiat prepping and packing our gear, met some nice locals and did a bit of work on a station I have deployed about 4 miles north.  Enough can not be said about the help and hospitality that Richard Kemnitz (BLM) provides us on these trips and his infrastructure at Umiat is indispensable.  After a few days in Umiat we were ready to head north to our camp at Inigok about 55 miles away.  We stopped and did maintenance on several radio telemetry repeaters enroute.   Man was it great to be back in Inigok.  We installed a new snow and ice monitoring camera on nearby "Franks Lake", worked on repairing things around camp and did snow surveys and station maintenance at our local sites.  To our dismay we found that a good portion of our fuel reserves that we cache at Inigok had been stolen during the winter.  Richard Kemnitz helped us to coordinate some locals from Barrow to deliver us one drum of fuel that should provide a safety cushion for our long traverse.  That fuel arrived about 10pm last night and just in the nick of time.  We spent a great few hours chatting with our fuel saviors (Crawford Patkotak and son) about life on the north slope before heading to bed.  Today we are off on the next leg of our journey, heading north and east toward Fish Creek.

Geared up and ready to go!

2-3 weeks worth of fuel, science and survival gear...

This is what happens when a bear decides he does not want your solar panel to function.  Lots to work on to fix the damage at this repeater!

This repeater with an electric fence fared much better this winter!

Sunset at Inigok about 10:30 pm our first night in camp.

The next morning at Inigok with the colors flying!!  

Install of the lake and snow monitoring camera.

Eric Yeager, the master of the snow tube...

Sunset at Inigok our second night in camp.

Fairbanks to Umiat

A few days were spent in Fairbanks gathering last minute supplies and meeting with collaborators.  I presented an overview of our work to our BLM colleagues as well and had very nice dinner evenings at some of my favorite local haunts…   Time in town was short however and further north I needed to go.  Eric Yeager (expedition partner) and I hopped on an extremely nice BLM Alaska Fire Service PC 12 plane for one of the best flights I have had in my years of working in this area.  We flew from Fairbanks to the remote Umiat camp north of the Brooks Range.  We have a depot of equipment and resources located there, established and managed by the infamous Richard Kemnitz (need I say more?).  The flight was fantastic, the peaks of the Brooks were just jutting out above the clouds and our view at 24K feet was spectacular.  A near perfectly smooth landing and Eric and I were on our own.  We head out into the field for the next two weeks or so, camping on the frozen tundra and traveling via snowmachine.  We will have very intermittent internet access but I will post when I can.  We plan to complete a loop around Teshekpuk lake visiting 20-30 permafrost and climate monitoring stations enroute.  We will download data, fix damage, complete detailed snow surveys at each site.

The Pilatus PC-12, what a spectacular aircraft.

Views of the Brooks Range peaking out from the clouds - ethereal…

Thanks to Pilot Bob for an extremely enjoyable flight, what a landing!

 On the ground in Umiat (www.umiat.com), a remote outpost along the Colville river north of the Brooks Range.  

Unloading the PC-12

All geared up and just about ready to head north

Denver to Anchorage to Fairbanks

Late late nights packing prior to the trip paid off and all my gear made it to Fairbanks with no problem. I followed the gear a few days later and stopped off in Anchorage on the way up for one night it town.  I gave a presentation to colleagues at the USGS Alaska Science Center detailing the work that we are doing on the Arctic Coastal Plain.  It was well received, I saw some old friends and made some new ones too.  A great stopover, wish I could have stayed longer!

My plane ride north from Colorado, two of my all time favorites plastered on this one…  

View from my hotel room in Anchorage - kinda grey but man, what spectacular scenery Anchorage residents are graced with every day.

Landed in Fairbanks after my quick Anchorage stopover and was greeted by this guy.  I take his (hers?) photo each time in this airport to send to my kids who are duly impressed each time.  Hope I only see these ones from afar while in the field!

2014 Alaska Spring Field Expedition

Going to try and revive my blogging… the excuse is my upcoming Alaska fieldwork.  Hopefully I can periodically post some photos and experiences from the land of the midnight sun… Just sent off my cargo after a few very long days of packing.  Had good help from Colter, Summit and Indie who all seem to want to go along!