Autumn OTZ

 There's really nothing like a crisp autumn day to go outside and do some fieldwork.  Last week Pika and I headed up to Kotzebue for a late season field project.  For once I was working in snow that was not on a glacier.  How novel.

 The fun part of being in a 'town' instead of a remote village is that equipment comes from down the street instead of off a barge or plane.  It also means there can be novel ways of getting small equipment to the jobsite, like using bigger equipment......

 Pika and I were almost done jarring dirt when the afternoon jet took off overhead.  That meant that we had some time until the evening jet.  After we had all the samples packed up and checked in at the airport we had a walk around town.  We have been through here a couple times this summer and already seen the majority of the changes around town (they paved 1st Avenue!!).  The view never changes though; I still feel like I am standing on the edge of the earth when I look out towards the ocean here.  You can hardly tell the sky from the water most of the time.

 The view from the flight home is nothing like the small plane from Bornite a few weeks previous, but it is impressive.  The evening jet goes up to Nome before heading down to Anchorage, so we caught part of the flight in the twilight.

And there I am, partly decked out in safety gear.  The excavator was gone, so we didn't need hardhats anymore and we were done digging holes so we didn't need safety glasses anymore.  But my vest has better pockets than my jacket, so I opted to leave it on while we were taking our final field measurements. 

Bornite

The problem with doing fieldwork in Alaska in the fall is that you still get up super early to catch a 6am flight, but usually it's still dark outside when you land.  Unless you are lucky (?) enough to fly to Kotzebue this summer where there was construction on the runway and planes couldn't land in the dark. 

 

After waiting in Anchorage for over an hour, we got to wait in Kotzebue.  The weather was our major tour director, as it has been for me for the last two summers. 

 

I think this is the smallest mining camp I have stayed at yet.  They were in their final week of the season and trying to shut camp down when we showed up.

 

It's a little wet out here in places.  To me that just means it is warming up enough during the day the keep the water from freezing solid.

Did I mention it was a historic mining camp?  There were lots of interesting things around to guess about.

Did I mention it snowed every day?  Huge flakes too.  Mostly they melted during the day, but we were deffinately on the edge of the season.

 

Waiting for clear enough weather for the plane to come from Kotzebue.  It eventually got called off and we got a ride to Kobuk.  A very bumpy ride.

I think there might be some quilters in Kobuk.  This is at the airport......I guess I really should call it a landing strip? 

Most of my fearless field crew.  One of these people had their dog sitter bail on them while we were out here.  Guess who said they would take their dog...for a month....while they were away....

 

On the flight back our geographer / geologist nerdy sides really came out.  We each took an average of a hundred photos on the flight back.  It's only an hour and we were in the clouds and napping for part of it.

What can I say, I'm a sucker for patterned ground......

And who doesn't think snow and rivers are cool?  There is no elevation difference that I could tell from the air, so why is there snow only on part of the ground?  One of life's greatest mysteries....

Autumn Update

Summer has been long and short all at the same time. I have a couple trips to write up on their own, but until that eventuality comes I thought I would share a little Autumn with you. I'm still working on my MS, which means being on campus several times a week. We have been graced with some glorious weather lately and have a great view of the mountains from right outside the front door. The snow is advancing from termination dust to creeping down the range. Soon I will be excited about this.

Mostly I am working through counting ice worms in a new bunch of photos like this from the summer. They are now all labeled and filed appropriately on my computer. Looks like fun, no?

My weekly visits to Byron Glacier avalanche cones continue. Last week I got a treat and my girlfriend JBomb came with me. We turned it into a dog walk with KBomb and Dr Dre, my extra dog. They got along famously and I got another round of photos and videos. No snow on the glacier toe though so I couldn't re-sample for my missing isotope samples.

It was so sunny here for so many days in a row that Niwt and I snuck in one more paddle at the lake. The tundra swans are all over the area; three show up well here but there were about a dozen on the lake. They are draining the lake this week, so it was just in time.

I thought it was pretty cold out while paddling, but tried to tell myself it was just because the sun was going down. Then Niwt pointed out the ice forming on my boat and the shivering lab.

Twice this week - Monday and yesterday - Niwt and I attempted to retrieve my last datalogger from the field on Flute Glacier. Clear, cold, and sunny sounds like great weather this time of year. But the logistics of these trips are a nightmare. Some parts just are not a good idea to do in the dark or when covered by snow.

Even though we failed again, we didn't see any bears, just tracks in the frozen mud. We did see some goats near the peaks of the lower ridges, basking in the sunshine.

Such a gorgeous autumn view. I don't mind the snow coming now that I have accepted my fate of less data. Not bad to end the summer knowing you tried everything possible to cram as much data collection in as humanly feasible (while working full time). I will give another update as soon as the data playing allows. Hopefully before we have snow on the valley floors.