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....