Jack’s weather report:
Wow!.....it was near record temperatures today in Barrow as the string of beautiful days continue. It was in the 60’s by this afternoon.
Today actually began yesterday when I woke up for my last turn at taking diurnal measurements of carbon flux. I say that because I did not go to sleep last night. I had wanted to stay up to see the sun at its lowest point on the horizon. I also wanted to savor every moment of being in Barrow, Alaska.
3:30 a.m.on July 6th....as dark as it gets.
Paulo, Dave Lin, from UTEP – University of Texas El Paso, and I sat around the lab all night talking about all kinds of things. We did walk over to the beach around 3:30 to see the sun. Here are our long shadows to prove it. Since the weather was so nice, we stayed there for around 45 minutes, continuing the discussions we began in the lab.
Long shadows at 3:00 a.m. on July 6th.
Adrian showed up around 5:00 a.m. complaining that he had been up since 3:00 a.m. and couldn’t sleep. He joined our discussion group and we continued until the cafeteria opened for breakfast around 7:00 a.m.
After breakfast I began the lonesome job of packing up for the journey home. It’s hard to describe the emotions of knowing your time in "the field” is over, there was definite sadness there, but this was tempered by the thought of seeing everyone back home.
Although I spent most of the day waiting to leave, the community of Barrow was still celebrating the fourth, now these people really know how to have a fourth of July party. The highlight of the day was the skin boat racing. Skins boats are used by the whalers during the spring hunt and are made of bearded seal skin. About seven crews manned their boats and with the signal from the starter they were off following the shore line to a predetermined point about a quarter mile away and turned around for the row back.
Skin boat and crew preparing to enter the water
Crews are lining up for the race.
Herman and crew finishing their race.
It was time to head for the airport for the first of several flights that will eventually take me back to my home in Spartanburg, South Carolina. A little time to fix my reservation and then we boarded the plane. Here is one last look at the tundra with the Arctic Ocean in the background.
One last look at the tundra with Elson Lagoon and the Arctic Ocean in the background.
I am currently on a plane between Fairbanks, AK, and Minneapolis, MN…..and I’m seeing the dark for the first time since May 29th.