Friday dawns with bright blue skies and crisp cool air. We head out at 7:45 AM for Creamer’s Field, a local bird sanctuary that was a one time dairy barn. Given the perfect weather, we spend time with a wildlife specialist there, Melissa Sikes, walking through the pasture area and boreal forest. Along with sighting several different bird species, we learn about geological formations and various aspects of the boreal forest.
Melissa Sikes addresses the PolarTREC teachers as we prepare to enter the forest.
From Creamer’s Field, we load up and drive to the Permafrost Tunnel a few miles out of town. We are welcomed by Matt Shurm, a snow research scientist. After an introduction to the geology of the area and the importance of permafrost, we grab hard hats and head into the tunnel. The tunnel is maintained at -5° C with a huge refrigeration system. Beyond the obvious chill that you experience when you enter the tunnel, there is also a very distinct odor in the tunnel. Image the smell of decomposing material that dates back to the Pleistocene Age. Or imagine if you soaked a towel in dirt and then wet it and put it in a bag for several days. Now open the bag – and there you have it – the smell of the tunnel.
Claude Larson prepares to enter the permafrost tunnel.
Once you acclimate to the tunnel, you are reminded to stay low. Standing upright can cause you to brush against the top of the tunnel and cause a shower of Pleistocene dust to rain down on you and generally down your back. Within the tunnel there are a series of fossils that are sticking out of the walls and ceiling. They date back 20,000 to 14,000 years. Interestingly, the fossils are trapped is what is essentially layers of dust. So if you imagine that each week there is a bit of dust on your furniture and floors and you decided not to dust the house for a month, there would be a layer of dust covering the surfaces. Now imagine you didn’t dust your house for your entire lifetime, how thick would that layer be? Think ahead and imagine that you didn’t dust that house for a thousand lifetimes; that would be quite a bit of dust. This is essentially how the Fairbanks region formed.
The PolarTREC teachers enter the tunnel and get their first chance to see the fossils and permafrost formations in the tunnel
Fossils stick out of the walls of the Permafrost Tunnel that date back 20,000 to 14,000 years, during the Pleistocene Age.
The road trip is not over, we debrief from our visit in the tunnel, pile into the fifteen passenger van and head to the Alaska Pipeline. The pipeline itself is an awesome sight when you stop to think that it travels for over 800 miles from Alaska’s North Slope all the way to Anchorage.
The Alaska Pipeline Visitor Center has a nice mile marker pole to reference.
The pipeline is 48 inches in diameter and over 800 miles long.
We also take the opportunity to go off trail and collect moose nuggets. Yes, those are exactly what you think they are and not only did I collect them, I have them in a plastic bag and plan to take them home.
Claude Larson holds some moose nuggets collected near the Alaska Pipeline.
The group stops at the ARCUS office (Arctic Research Consortium of the United States) for lunch and the opportunity to shop in the local bookstore and sport specialty shop. Kristin Timm is nice enough to take Chantelle Rose, another PolarTREC teacher and me to a local quilt shop so I can stock up on Alaskan fabric for an art quilt I am planning on making once I get home.
We spend the afternoon back at the hotel conference room honing our skills with the computers and websites that we are learning about while we are here. Everyone is eager for the day’s orientation to end because we have something else entirely on our minds. We asked and the PolarTREC people answered our plea to take a visit to the Chena Hot Springs Resort. The year round resort has a natural geothermal hot spring and ice museum. Raija, an ARCUS staff member and our designated van driver drives us to the resort – with one moose spotting on the way. We have a great time at the ice museum, staffed by world champion ice carvers and then enjoy a long soak in the hot springs. It was a terrific evening after a long week of training. With one day of training left, we are glad to have had this opportunity to take in a regional point of interest. The drive home is mellow after our long soak in the hot springs at 104.5° F. The group also got to see a large moose buck on the way back, always a welcomed sight for those of us who don’t experience this type of wildlife back home.
The Chena Hot Springs Ice Museum illuminated in various colors of fiber optic light.
Claude Larson sits at the entrance of an igloo inside the ice museum.
Speaking of home, there’s one more day here in Fairbanks. I’ll keep you posted on how we make the most of the day.