Peggy's Weather Report from Hallet Lake Camp:
Time: 6:05 amTemperature: 11.3 C or 52.3 FHumidity: 66.5%Wind: .6 km/hr from SouthClouds: Cirrus Cumulus StratocumulusCloud Cover: 30% scatteredLight level: 1932 Lux Peggy's Weather Report from Tolsona Wilderness Campground Office:
Time: 5:30 pm Temperature: 21.5 C 71.0 F Humidity: 55% Wind: .15 km/hr from North Clouds: Cirrus Cumulus Stratocumulus Cloud Cover: 90% overcast Light level: 1360 Lux We met at the kitchen tent for a quick breakfast at 5 am. Chris and I were to fly out from Hallet Lake first at 6 am when Jerry arrived. Hallet Lake can be very, very windy, so it was possible that we wouldn’t go. I packed my bags and tent before breakfast so I would not have to rush. The equipment had been prepared for travel the night before.
A little after 6 am Jerry landed on the lake and came for the first pick-up. He said it would take three loads this time. Chris and I loaded with our gear and got in. Jerry boated around the lake setting up for take-off and we could see that it was a bit choppy. Jerry didn’t take off until we got to the very end of the lake. I thought he was going to circle around again, but he did take off just over the trees and down a canyon. He knew at that time, he was only going to be able to take one more flight today. Views were so clear and Mt. Drum to the north reminded me of the Cascade peaks, snow-covered, clear, and sun shining only on it. We landed back in Tolsona and Chris and I helped unload and start to load our truck. We had over an hour wait before Caleb and Heidi would join us. I started charging my computer using the cigarette lighter adapter in the car and started typing journal entries; Chris slept.
When the plane returned with Caleb and Heidi we found out that the conditions had worsened considerably and Jerry brought back the people and none of the gear or food; too much weight. No third trip. So we cannot drive to Valdez to prepare to go to Allison.
We drove to Tolsona Wilderness Campground, where we stayed before going to Greyling, and set up camp. They had showers and laundry! We had our first shower in 9 days! What a treat; 25 cents for five minutes. Great to have clean clothes as well.
The campground had wireless internet if you sat on the porch. They also had a Shitsue dog that would sit with you and your computer; she was obviously the mascot of the campground. I took my laptop to the porch, got online and started working. It was the first time I had a chance to see the PolarTREC website in well over a week. I wasn’t sitting in a tent with my laptop on my lap and sat phone extended in my left hand, connected to it trying to send single photos to PolarTREC through a modem connection, saying "please, go, please, go, and then cheer when one photo was sent.” Now I could send some of my backlog of journals and photos on at what seemed like light-speed to me. I became the greeter of all who came to the campground, as I sat near the front door. The rest of our team went to buy food, since ours is by the lake we left.
That afternoon we found out about a hike to a mud spring from the campground, so we took the trail. Heidi literally jumped into the mud when we got there. There were prints of all kinds of animals in the mud: moose, caribou, and coyote. The mud spring was about 120 meters in diameter, a mud hole surrounded by taiga forest. The mud flow from the hole increased tremendously after the 1964 earthquake. Cold salty water flows through the winter, and the hole is a source of water for the local animals as most water is frozen at that time. The brochure from the campground states that the gas bubbling up is 55.2% methane coming up from coal beds from the Lower Cretaceous and Upper Jurassic formations underlying the central Copper River basin. The gas pushes silt to the surface creating a mound of gray, sticky mud.
GPS Mud Spring: Latitude: 62.11492 N Longitude: 145.94889 W Elevation: 639 m
After spending a little more time on the internet, I joined the others to go to Glennallen, about 10 miles up the road for dinner at the Caribou Restaurant. First restaurant food in 9 days, too. I had salmon, potato, vegetables, clam chowder. Very tasty! We returned and went directly to sleep because tomorrow may be a very busy day!