After a long and exciting day, my mind was feeling a little mushy like the tundra I was looking out upon. At the end of our 11 hour ride, we attended field station orientation, unloaded the truck, and settled into our Arctic homes. I was assigned to a WeatherPORT tent.
A row of WeatherPORT tents in my Arctic neighborhood!
Home sweet home!
A lot was going through my head after the incredible day I just had and finally seeing where I would be spending my summer. In the back of my mind I thought it was strange to have Cliff Bars, or even lip balm in a tent in grizzly country, but I did take comfort in knowing it is a very busy camp with enough activity to keep most curious critters at a distance. On the other hand… I did just hear about an incident that happened a few days ago that involved a bear wandering through camp for the first time in years. Eventually exhaustion won the battle with my wandering thoughts and I dozed off…briefly. Hearing a series of heavy exhaling, I sat up in bed. Where did that come from? I could swear it was right outside the back of my tent. A few seconds later, and I heard it again! This time followed by some long sniffs! Not knowing what to do, I decided to scramble to get dressed and walk out the front of the tent. I walked about 20 feet before making a very wide circle around my neighbor's tent to look at the back of my tent. That's when I saw it! I saw another door on the back of my tent!
The back of my tent. No bear!
It seems my bear was just a colleague with a pretty solid case of sleep apnea. Apparently what I thought was the back of my tent was really just a divider wall. This is going to be fun!