"Freedom begins between the ears"

I have another day off, crazy! It is super cold in the old visitor center where we are allowed to use the computers for personal use, and again, I’ve forgotten my camera cord. I woke up at 12:57 and remembered I’d promised to bike down to Coldfoot with a friend at 1:00 as she had to work. I leapt out of bed and was dressed and ready to go by 1:01, but alas, I forgot my cord.

I’ve been crazy busy and it is nice to finally be able to settle in a bit. The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of activity which has included frantically packing everything I would need for the summer the night before my departure, a long day of flying and layovers, two days of training in Fairbanks followed by an entire day of shopping for food and other supplies, the long drive up the Dalton to Coldfoot, unpacking, more training, more packing, a trip up to Deadhorse on the Arctic Coast, bear safety training (which was probably 6 hours longer than it needed to be), and firearms training (for bear safety… I am now officially a USFWS designated carrier of a 12-gauge shotgun… Terrifying, I know).  That was a ridiculously long sentence… I am just going to start a new paragraph after that beast.

On the way up to Deadhorse we saw so many animals! Just south of Sukakpak Mountain we saw two grizzlies in the trees very close to the road. They stood up on their hind legs to get a better look at us. We saw what would be the first of many herds of Caribou on Chandalar Shelf. We saw a group of Dall Sheep ewes with lambs in Atigun pass, and several more later on (Dall Sheep are a white version of Bighorn Sheep, native to the Brooks Range). We saw more birds than one could even begin to imagine, growing more and more plentiful as we continued northward. Among the birds we saw were hordes upon hordes of white-fronted geese (I feel white-assed geese would be a more appropriate name as their fronts are actually gray), snow geese, a short eared owl, a snowy owl, some ptarmigan (the state bird of Alaska), and some tundra swans (my favorite of the birds we saw). We also saw an arctic fox who was riling up some nesting birds.

 While all of these things were cool, I really wanted to see muskoxen. We saw one on the way up, but I was driving and he was far away on the otherside of the road. I was beginning to lose hope, but then, driving through the fog shrouded oil fields, we saw them, three sturdy adults fairly close to the road. Some people find them boring, but I really like muskoxen. They had an air of majesty about them as their long skirts rustled in the breeze. Everything they do seems so deliberate. Two of the males began to butt heads while we watched quietly in the calm morning mists. Even this was slow and calculated. Although it was likely just to sort our a minor dominance issue between the two of them and lacked the intensity that would be present in the breeding season, they don’t typically have the highspeed clashes seen in other species like Dall Sheep.

Pictures to come later!

They probably just made the switch from netscape or something.

It is an absolutely glorious day in Coldfoot, Alaska in the land of the midnight sun. Today and yesterday have been my first days off after 12 straight days of traveling, training, provisioning, training, driving the Dalton, and training some more. Yesterday it was cloudy and rained all day, but today is beautiful. I still managed to enjoy myself yesterday despite the weather. I’ve grown to appreciate rainy days in paradise. The mosquitos aren’t out in full force yet, so it’s important to do as much as you can before the hordes arrive.

I haven’t had a chance to post any pictures yet as I have limited access to the internet and I have been crazy busy. I’m obviously at a computer now, but it’s really old and doesn’t have a memory card reader (unless you count a floppy disk drive; it has one of those) and I don’t feel like biking the 6 miles back to my cabin to get the cord.

The cabin I live in is pretty awesome, it’s dry (meaning it doesn’t have water) but it has a nice little kitchen, living area, and a couple bedrooms. It’s constructed of red cedar boards and therefore smells amazing, as you might imagine. I have two solar panels and a generator so I have electricity which is nice. It’s funny how fast that little place has become home.

I am getting hungry and the sunshine is calling my name, but maybe on a rainy day off I will post some pictures, and tell of my adventures on the north slope and the Dalton Highway, how I got my government truck stuck in the mud, and the arctic summertime.

I’m in Deadhorse, Alaska on the Arctic coastal plain. It’s 4:30 am here and there’s cellphone coverage.

- John Muir

Just chilin’ in the Anchorage airport for 2 or so hours while I wait for my connection to Fairbanks. Yay for free internet!

Let’s play the where the fuck is my ________________ game. 

So I am just now packing for Alaska… I leave tomorrow. I hate packing.

Also, although it may be effective, touching the shocking surface of your high voltage bug zapper isn’t the best way to determine whether or not it still works. it smells like burning flesh in my room now.