I hung out with reindeer last night...oh...and I slinked deep inside the earth in a permafrost tunnel...oh...and I touched the Great Alaskan Pipeline...
On Dasher, On Dancer, On…
The excitement never ends here in Fairbanks. Yesterday afternoon the PolarTREC folks arranged for us to visit a reindeer research farm. Our guide (the lead researcher) informed us that it was his job to take the joy out of Christmas (jokingly). Reindeer were been domesticated (that means they are like cattle, no longer wild animals) thousands of years ago. They were selectively bred for by early people for their red meat and their warm hides. There continue to be large ranches of reindeer in western Alaska, "Similar to the old wild west as it would have been in Montana with cowboys and rustlers and land wars..." he said.
We also visited a permafrost tunnel. Permafrost is the permanently (perma) frozen (frost) ground that lays under much of the Arctic. Scientists are interested in researching permafrost from the underside (deep inside this tunnel) to see what type of effects a warming earth might have on its delicate ecosystem. It was cold, dirty and smelled funny...which is probably why I liked it so much!
On our way back into Fairbanks we stopped at the Great Alaskan Pipeline to take a look. The pipeline is used to pump crude (oil) from northern Alaska to southern Alaska. After it makes its way south it is loaded on oil tankers and taken to refineries. The Pipeline is known and one of the United States' greatest engineering feats so I was glad I got to stop and see!
All for now...Stay warm!