Thursday, August 17, 2006
Ivotuk Slog
Well, the snow and mist are upon us. We got off to a lazy start but probed the thaw grid, a 1km x 1km grid with measurement spots every 100 meters doing the whole thing is like walking seven miles across the tussocks but we split it up. I got the far half of course but it did have it's perks like hanging out close to the Ivotuk mountains:
So, what the heck is the thaw grid right? It's a square shape like I said and we stick a steel probe into the tundra and see how long it is before it hits ice. Go to the next spot and repeat. Pretty monotonous but it's nice getting out across the tundra like that. Today saw some neat dewwy plants and Dimitry and I alternated chasing caribou back and forth between us so that was cool. Wrapping things up later tonight and then hopefully have a free day tomorrow and a plane coming in Saturday. I sure hope the weather improves...
The fall colors are upon us though and we through away the ice in the cooler today. Who needs it when it's no warmer than a fridge during the daytime anyway.
Here's another little weird plant I noticed today:
Well, perhaps more later if anything cool happens...
So, what the heck is the thaw grid right? It's a square shape like I said and we stick a steel probe into the tundra and see how long it is before it hits ice. Go to the next spot and repeat. Pretty monotonous but it's nice getting out across the tundra like that. Today saw some neat dewwy plants and Dimitry and I alternated chasing caribou back and forth between us so that was cool. Wrapping things up later tonight and then hopefully have a free day tomorrow and a plane coming in Saturday. I sure hope the weather improves...
The fall colors are upon us though and we through away the ice in the cooler today. Who needs it when it's no warmer than a fridge during the daytime anyway.
Here's another little weird plant I noticed today:
Well, perhaps more later if anything cool happens...
