Peggy's Weather Report from Tolsona Lodge:
*Time: 9:40 am
Temperature: 13.9 C 56.8 F
Humidity: 74.5%
Wind: 4.3 km/hr from South
Clouds: Stratocumulus
Cloud Cover: 80% broken
Light level: 1779 X 10 Lux *
GPS: Tolsona Lodge Latitude: 61.10862 N Longitude: 146.03854 W Elevation: 637 m
I woke up before 5 am to steady rain on the roof of my tent. I really appreciate this great tent VECO (the company that outfits Arctic expeditions) provided me. I felt very comfortable, but I knew Caleb and Heidi were leaving to talk with Jerry about the possibility of getting the gear from Hallet Lake this morning so we can head to Valdez to join Dr. Darrell Kaufman, their advisor and head of the project. The next lake, Allison, is the one we will be coring. My job this early morning was to turn on my sat phone so that if there was a flight to Hallet, Chris and I could pack up the stuff at the campground to expedite our moving on.
I heard them leave about 5 am and thought about taking advantage of the internet at the park office. So I dressed for rain, got my computer with extra keyboard, cell phone, sat phone, camera battery charger, and headed down the road to the park office. I worked on journals again. They returned with news that we would not fly due to bad weather, at least for now. I kept working until everyone was ready to go to Tolsona Lodge for breakfast and a comfortable place to pass time until the weather cleared for a Hallet run to get the gear so we could continue with the expedition.
It got windier and Jerry will not be able to go get our gear today, so we will not be moving on. So it was a lazy day of waiting. I stayed at Tolsona Lodge working at the corner table. The others went to do some more food shopping and to get odds and ends at the stores in Glennallen, 10 miles down the road. They came back and Caleb and Heidi went for a hike around the lake and found, of all things, blueberries again. Only this time the berries were larger and the plants were a little taller than the ones we found near Greyling Lake in the Arctic tundra. They picked two quarts. That was the highlight of the day!
That evening we ate dinner at, you may have guessed it, Tolsona Lodge! We were about the only people there; the place was comfortable, the staff friendly, and we had a relaxing, enjoyable meal.
Then back to Tolsona Wilderness Campground for the night.