ALISS: Arctic Lake Ice Systems Science

Spit Spot Bounce

4/24/2016

You never know what you’re going to wake up to out here on the tundra. Our plan yesterday was to arise early to blue skies and head East about 40 mi towards lower Fish Creek, knock out a bunch lakes, and make it back before Arctic sunset. We carried out this plan, but in a world of white as it was foggy. This caused us to ride slower and still get bounced by occasional large drifts or tussocks that we couldn’t distinguish from the rest of the white landscape. The one advantage of occasional jarring bounces is that it gives you an adrenaline kick that send a wave of warmth thorough your often cold body.

We got back to camp by 10 PM, made PF Chang, and were in tents by midnight. Today we’ll break camp, make it clean and tidy for the next arrivals in late May. BLM runs this camp and it was Matthew Whitman’s design for this dome where we eat and enter data (plus internet for blog posts), which makes it very liveable, warm, and dry.

Next we head for the North shore of Teshekpuk Lake at Qaviarat to reunite with companions and expand the team to six. It will be a bouncy ride to say the least and we’ll probably stop at a few sites to take measurements and a break from spotting spits on the tundra.