Last day in the field!

Today was group threes last day in the field! We spent the morning visiting Ellie’s sites and setting up the GNSS at one of them while taking samples at the others. It was a productive morning. We headed back to Toolik for hot lunch which was spring rolls and vegetable fried rice which was really yummy. The rest of the day we spent packing up gear and our personal items and getting ready for the long travel day tomorrow. Overall we had a great experience in the field and it went by so fast! Wish us luck on our long travel day tomorrow! After this Ellie and I (Chris) will be heading back to Massachusetts and Nate, Emma, and Elizabeth and camping in Denali for the next week! 

Eighth day in the field!

Today we woke up a little later than usual because we all needed the extra rest after the very long day yesterday. We met up for breakfast, packed our lunches and packed up the truck. In the morning we started off with visiting some of Ellie’s sites and attempting to remove two of the sensors. We successfully removed one of them and set up the GNSS at it. After that we sampled another site and then headed to our site of the day, Thaw Pit 6. Unfortunately I (Chris) couldn’t go in the field with everyone today due to hurting my ankle while hiking through the tundra yesterday but the others trekked to our very last thaw pit of our trip! They laid out and shot all our points in roughly 2 hours, it was really windy so shooting points was more difficult but they got it done! We’re now headed to finish up Ellie’s sites and wrap up our second to last work day! Hopefully tomorrow we can make it back for hot dinner! 

Three sites in one day!

Today was a very long day in the field but very very productive! We woke up this morning a little earlier than usual and did our normal routine of getting breakfast and packing up the truck with our field gear. We then got gas and headed out at around 7:45am . We made our way to pull off point 10 where we unloaded our stuff and started our treck into the tundra at 9am. After an hour of hiking about 2km we reached our first site of the day, Thaw Pit 11! We very efficiently did the flagging and measurements in about an hour and a half, record time! We then moved on to the next site, Thaw Pit 13 which was another 400m walk, ate lunch there and took a rest before starting the measurements. This one took a lot longer to flag out because the sketches were difficult to decipher but we managed and also did this site relatively quickly. We packed up things and walked another 600m to get to Elliptical pool 8, our last site of the day. By then we were all pretty tired but kept pushing and we’re able to get it done in a decent amount of time. We all worked really well together and gave 100% effort until the end. We made the hike back to the truck and after about an hour got back to it at 7pm, so in total we spent 10 hours in the field! We were the first group to complete three sites in one day so I’m very proud of us for all the hard work we did today and thus far. After the last site we visited a couple of Ellie’s sites and got samples. We attempted to get a sensor out at one of them but were unsuccessful. By the time we got back to Toolik it was 9pm. We ate dinner together in the dining area and roughly planned for tomorrow. We were all exhausted by the end of it but did a very good job pushing through these last couple days in the field!

Fifth day in the field!

Blog:

Today was our fifth day in the field! We had the usual routine of meeting in the lab at 7am, packing up the truck and then heading to the dining area to make lunches and have hot breakfast. After that we hopped in the truck and took off to Ellie’s sites. We ended up having time to visit all five of them and after days of trying the river levels were finally low enough so that we could safely wade and take out sensors at two of her sites which was really exciting! At the other sites we did We attempted to take out the sensors at four of them and successfully took it out at two which is really exciting news! We then set up the GNSS at one of her other sites. We took a lunch break in the car and then headed to Elliptical pool 12. The site was very close to the road which was nice but it took awhile to take the pool measurements because they were larger sized. We managed to get it done in a couple hours and then headed back to Toolik but there was a lot of construction on the way back. We ate dinner and now we’re preparing for our big day tomorrow. We’re planning on visiting three sites tomorrow- Thaw pit 11, Thaw pit 13, and Elliptical 8 which are all quite a walk from the road so wish us luck! 

Day off!

Today group 3 had had a mandatory day off due to the all-day closure of the Dalton Highway preventing us from reaching our sites. We took advantage of this by going on a group hike to The Molar. After hot lunch at Toolik we packed our things and drove about 25 minutes south to a weir where another researcher from Toolik showed us their project and the components of it/ how it worked. It was really cool to see another researchers site and we learned a lot. After that we drove a couple minutes down the road to The Molar. We got out of the truck and started our ascent at around 3pm. It was quite steep but had beautiful views of surrounding mountains, ponds, and the Dalton Highway in the distance, and was definitely a great place to explore. We stopped a couple times on the way up to take some pictures and rest, and after alittle under two hours we made it to the top! We took in the views, snapped a lot of photos and of course showed off our headstands on the peak. Overall it was a great experience that we all really enjoyed. After that we made our way down and headed back to Toolik just in time for hot dinner which was noodles, pork dumplings, and tofu tonight! Super yummy and something we all needed after a long hike. After dinner we went to the lab to do some work and prepare for tomorrow’s sites. Overall it was a really fun day off but we’re ready to get back into the field!

Field day 5!

Alaska Field Day 5

Hey IGEA readers!! It’s officially day five of fieldwork!! We are halfway through our time at Toolik! This morning we had an amazing Sunday brunch before heading out! Toolik put out quite a spread consisting of salmon, various cheeses, a fruit platter, smoothies and breakfast burritos! Today went much smoother than previous field days of this week as we’ve really got down our fieldwork plan for each site. The weather was quite cold and windy but there wasn’t much rain or bugs so I would call that a win! We discovered a animal thigh bone and a caribou antler whilst flagging our points! Currently we are waiting to be piloted through the construction portion of the Dalton Highway which is a daily occurrence at the moment and can be quite time consuming if I am being honest but it leads to more bonding time! Tonight we’re planning on hitting the sauna, possibly showering, relaxing and making sure the lab looks spick and span since we’ve finally managed to get home before 8 PM! Shoutout to Ellie for the long driving hours!

Hope you have a great week!

IGEA Group 3 🙂

Fourth day

Today was another long day of field work for group 3. Again we woke up and prepared for the day, went to another one of Ellie’s sites to do GNSS and sampling. We revisited Elliptical 13 which was quite the walk (again) but we managed to get a ground water sample directly from the source so now we’re able to analyze it and use that result in our isotope analysis which is really exciting news! We drove to Thaw Pit 17, which initially we had trouble finding but we’re able to navigate it after going in the wrong direction for alittle while. We are starting to get in the groove and have a set plan of action when we get to a site so this thaw pit didn’t take nearly as long as the previous sites we’ve done. We now have a better system for marking the pool and tundra points and are able to uses the etrexes more efficiently. Afterward we visited Ellies sites and then headed back to Toolik for dinner and then some team bonding at the Toolik bon fire! Overall a very productive but long day in the field. 

Third day in the field!

Today was a pretty long day for group 3, but whats most important is we managed to power through. We started off with the same routine of loading up the truck, getting breakfast together, and packing our lunches for the field. We visited one of Ellie’s sites in the morning and she showed us how to set up the GNSS and we helped her take a sample. It’s really interesting helping with her research in addition to ours because it teaches us skills outside our own science objective like learning how the GNSS works. After that we drove to Elliptical pool 13. It was quite a walk to get there because we headed in the tundra at the wrong angle but we managed to find it and surprisingly the pools were a lot bigger than the previous elliptical pools we looked at! Because of this we faced some obstacles like determining how to cross the chutes and how to measure the water points in a safe way. Thanks to Ellie for taking all the water points in her dry suit with the help of the pack raft! It took longer than expected so afterward we went back to Ellie’s sites, grabbed some samples and the GNSS and headed back to Toolik to eat dinner and do end of the day tasks like unloading the truck and offloading data. Overall we powered through a tough day and made it work!

Field day 2

It’s time for another IGEA field day update! Today was day 2 in the field and boy was it’s a gorgeous day we had blue skies all around and even encountered 2 caribou while surveying! We’re starting to get the hang of everything we have to do everyday in the field so today was a slightly shorter field day than yesterday. We ate a well deserved lunch whilst traveling to Ellie’s research spots and saw a whole herd of musk grazing ox on the tundra beside the Dalton Highway, there were even a few babies!! As I am currently writing this blog post Emma and Nate are digitizing our data and we’re driving between all of Ellie’s sites. Chris and Ellie waded into the Sag at one of the sites and tried to get one of the sensors but we’re unable to today and are going to try again in the next couple of days. We’re all intrigued for dinner tonight which is Brazilian seafood stew and we might hit yoga or the sauna after wards! Overall todays weather was much nicer and hopefully our weather continues to be this nice!

Thanks for reading!

First day in the field

Today was group threes first day in the field! It was a long but rewarding day. We woke up and had a group meeting in the laboratory to go over last minute things like what we were bringing into the field. We then headed to breakfast together, loaded up the truck, got gas, and we’re ready to hit the road by 8:30! After about a 30 min drive we got to the site, which was Elliptical pool 1. We went over some last minute things like the mechanics of the Sat phone, how to use bear spray, and setting up the rod probes. After that we divided up the gear and headed for the site. It was only about a five minute walk and there we could see them… elliptical pools! What we had been studying for all of last semester was finally there right in front of us, it almost felt like meeting a celebrity. After taking in its beauty we split up into teams: Emma and I (Chris) were on team tundra and Elizabeth, Nate, and Ellie were on team water. Both teams first started out with using the Etrex gps’s to find the points previously taken by group 1. Initially it was pretty difficult for team tundra to find and mark the points but after awhile we were able to locate them and got the hang of it. Both teams flagged out the rest of the points and then began using the total stations to take points of both the active and permafrost layers. When doing this we also took new GPS points at the designated cross sections. After hours of hard work and working things through we took a lunch break to unwind for alittle, although all of us had left our lunch in the truck so Ellie was nice enough to grab them all for us (thank you Ellie!). During lunch it began to light rain and then got super super foggy and that became a challenge real quick. We got back to work, taking turns holding the rod or shooting points with the total station, but visibility was very low because the intense fog so sometimes we had to take the same point over ten times for the total station to recognize it which really set us back. It began to get colder and foggier but we continued to power through. Elizabeth took a turn in the pack raft and gracefully held the probe while floating in the pool. Ellie helped us finish up some gps points and after we were finally done taking all the points, we packed up our things and visited a couple of Ellie’s sites so that she could check on her sensors and take samples. We then got stuck in traffic for awhile but took advantage of this time and did data entry. Afterward we ate dinner and unwinded in the lab by doing end of the day tasks and packing everything up. Overall it was a very long day and the weather wasn’t the best but we pushed through and made it through the first day of field work! Can’t wait to see the other sites.