Departing Toolik
I have been at Toolik for almost five weeks and I sadly said goodbye this morning and headed south on the Dalton Hwy. I did have a little time to hang out with the two other polarTREC teachers Sue and Nick into the wee hours of the morning (who needs sleep anyway?).
Green up has already happened on the south side of the Brooks Range.
As we headed south, the tundra and forests came alive and so did the mosquitoes! I departed just in time to miss the legendary mosquitoes. There was a lot of construction as we drove the 357 miles down to Fairbanks.
This flagger was prepared with her battery operated mosquito swatter.
Change in the Tundra
In the time I have been at Toolik there has been drastic change in the landscape. I wanted to share some of the change with you.
View from outside my room when I arrived on May 8
View from outside my room at 3am on June 8
A comparison on the drive up and drive back
View heading into the Brooks Range on May 8
View heading out of the Brooks Range on June 8
Our water track sites also saw a lot of change during the melt. We have a camera deployed at one of our sites and it is taking photos once per hour. Once I download and edit the images, I will post the video here.
Midnight Sun
It was pretty incredible to experience 24 hours of daylight. It definitely led to less sleep, which started to take its toll on the last couple days. I tried hard to keep my eyes open on the drive down, but I did have to take a couple naps along the way. Throughout my time, the sun was also higher in the sky than I imagined it would be during the day. At night it does come closer to the horizon.
Midnight sun at 3am at Toolik
On to Chugach Farm
Although my Toolik Arctic adventure is over, I am not quite done with my time in Alaska. I am heading to see my sister, Allie Barker and her partner, Jed Workman at their off-the-grid farm in Chickaloon, AK (http://chugachfarm.com) for a week. It is pretty amazing what they do up there and will definitely warrant a journal entry. I won’t have much or any access to the Internet, so check back in a week or so. Bye for now!
As we headed south, the tundra and forests came alive and so did the mosquitoes! I departed just in time to miss the legendary mosquitoes. There was a lot of construction as we drove the 357 miles down to Fairbanks.
This flagger was prepared with her battery operated mosquito swatter.
Change in the Tundra
In the time I have been at Toolik there has been drastic change in the landscape. I wanted to share some of the change with you.
View from outside my room when I arrived on May 8
View from outside my room at 3am on June 8
A comparison on the drive up and drive back
View heading into the Brooks Range on May 8
View heading out of the Brooks Range on June 8
Our water track sites also saw a lot of change during the melt. We have a camera deployed at one of our sites and it is taking photos once per hour. Once I download and edit the images, I will post the video here.
Midnight Sun
It was pretty incredible to experience 24 hours of daylight. It definitely led to less sleep, which started to take its toll on the last couple days. I tried hard to keep my eyes open on the drive down, but I did have to take a couple naps along the way. Throughout my time, the sun was also higher in the sky than I imagined it would be during the day. At night it does come closer to the horizon.
Midnight sun at 3am at Toolik
On to Chugach Farm
Although my Toolik Arctic adventure is over, I am not quite done with my time in Alaska. I am heading to see my sister, Allie Barker and her partner, Jed Workman at their off-the-grid farm in Chickaloon, AK (http://chugachfarm.com) for a week. It is pretty amazing what they do up there and will definitely warrant a journal entry. I won’t have much or any access to the Internet, so check back in a week or so. Bye for now!