I’ve been in Alaska for 3 months now and will be soon returning to Utah and my beautiful wife in 3 days! I can’t wait.

setting up my tent never gets old

I decided to spend my last weekend in Alaska in my tent. I’ve now spent about a third of the summer in my tent. I hope to keep up this pattern of frequent camping when I return south. I spent two nights on the Pinnell Mountain National Recreation Trail which is located 100 miles northeast of Fairbanks in the Steese National Conservation Area. After spending my summer in trail-less areas, it felt odd to be following a well-established (and sometimes synthetic) trail. The trail crosses open tundra with views north to the Yukon River and south to the Alaska Range.

I had a brief but friendly encounter with a lone caribou. In 1935, a biologist named Olaus Murie watched for 20 days as the huge Steese-Fortymile herd traversed this alpine tundra country. He estimated that over 500,000 animals streamed past him, migrating to their summer calving grounds  north and west of Eagle Summit, where I started my hike. Once the largest herd in Alaska, it has since suffered two major declines and last migrated across the Steese Highway just south of the trail in the 1960s.

It is natural for caribou herds to fluctuate drastically in size, when dwindling food supplies or poor winter weather combine with heavy predation. Excessive harvest by humans added to the severity of the latest declines, so that by 1973 the herd had dropped to a low of 5,000. The habitat around Eagle Summit remains largely undisturbed.  The Steese National Conservation Area was established, in part, to ensure that habitat for this herd is maintained. An international effort to restore the herd began in 1996. As the herd grows, caribou may again be seen streaming over the landscape.

buckets of blueberries - the harvest of a good hike

I did not hike the entire 27 miles of the trail but instead took it slow, set up camp early, took several naps, and picked blueberries. I’ve been in what I call the “outfitter/guide” mode this summer with taking care of group gear and helping with other group members on my trips for the Refuge. This means that I am a highly efficient camper right now but I need to learn to slow down and enjoy being in the landscape more. This trip definitely helped. I am looking forward to returning to Utah and spending more time in the mountains outside of our home. I am going to plan a short one or two night backpacking trip when I return. Let me know if you would like to join me, I do have some extra gear!

On another note, autumn is already moving into Fairbanks! When I arrived, there was still snow along the rivers. I have seem many signs of fall: leaves changing colors and beginning to fall, school buses moving around town, the weather is cooling down, the geese and sandhill cranes are traveling south (they were heading north when I arrived in May), and the evenings are starting to get darker and darker each day (although I have yet to see true “night” or any stars this summer). All of these signs are telling me that I will be home soon. I’m sure that it will be a little odd to step back into summer where it will be warmer than my entire summer. For example, the warmest temperature I’ve had this summer is 87 and it is supposed to be 88 degrees in Utah the day I return. I’ll just need to take it slow and eat plenty of Aggie Ice Cream to keep me cool.

My last trip above the Arctic Circle was successful. We had a beutiful day for flying, except for the strong cross-winds at the destination airstrip located only a few miles from the Arctic Ocean. The wind was too strong for us to land at first so we made a stop at Kavik Camp. The camp is really a set of privately-owned trailers on state land just outside of the Refuge. The place serves as an oasis for those trapped by foul weather on the north slope. As you can imagine, the women that manage the camp have a reputation for talking alot due to the isolation.

Kavik Camp

We were able to successfully land on the second attempt. Before landing, I took several aerial photos to document the current extent of the exposed gravel. Once we had landed, I began to collect the location of old campfire rings, fire scars, a emerging trail, and rock cairns to map visitor use of the area. I also took cross-sectional area measurements at three locations along the airstrip. This is a measurement originally designed for measuring soil loss in trails but I adapted it to measure soil loss due to tire rutting in airstrips. A metric tape is stretched across the runway flush to the natural surface level and then depth measurements are taken at regular intervals along the tape. Each location was recorded with a research grade GPS unit so that future monitoring teams can take the measurements at the same spot. This will allow the Refuge to monitor rutting/erosion in airstrips and compare them to one another.

getting left behind

As I worked, the cross-winds continued to increase. When I was finished, the wind was too strong for the pilot to take off with all of us. We unloaded all of my survival gear including my tent and sleeping bag and loaded the two sightseers into the plane. The pilot was able to take off and quickly transported them back to Kavik Camp, where the airstrip was more in line with the wind and would allow for a full plane to take off.

When he returned to pick me up, the wind was too strong for him to land. He made five attempts but finally had to give up and returned to Kavik Camp to give the weather some time to change. It was at this time that I was really glad to have my survival gear and a loaded shotgun with me, especially since I was in the heart of polar bear country. Fortunately, the wind did eventually settle down enough for the pilot to land and take off again. Once we were reunited with the entire group at Kavik Camp, we returned south.

merging rivers

I have mixed feelings about completing my last field work task for the summer. On the one hand, this means that I will soon be returning to Utah and to my beautiful wife. On the other hand, I now have two weeks of office work. Besides writing reports for each of the field work projects, I will also be organizing permits, cleaning gear, and helping with a booth at the state fair. I’m at least looking forward to the people watching I will be doing at the state fair.

As a reminder, all of my photos from my summer can be found here: http://picasaweb.google.com/lisaanddusty/Alaska2010#

After 86 days in Alaska, Dusty will be home in 10!  And there will be at least one pregnant lady and two cats that will be very happy to see him.

With only 10 weeks until our due date, our time as a childless family is passing quickly and we have quite a bit to do to prepare for this little girl’s arrival.

30 weeks