I finally got a job (yay$$$) as a research technician on a three month contract working for a limnology professor. The job involved field work up in Alaska in the Arctic Circle at Toolik Lake taking dissolved gas samples and installing temperature measurement instruments in five different lakes nearby.
It was pretty exciting to have a trip to Alaska after a few months being an unemployed bum. I flew from Santa Barbara to Fairbanks before getting in a research truck for the 600km journey, NORTH, to the research station. The road we traveled along was the infamous road from ice road truckers. We had a quick stop at the Arctic Circle sign, unfortunately the field office was closed so I couldn't get my Arctic Circle certificate.
We passed through the Brooks Range and onto the tundra. There were beautiful views of trees changing colour as far as you could see along with big rocky mountains and never ending flat tundra.
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We had three weeks working out of the field station, which involved working outside in temperatures ranging between -5°C and -12°C. These temperatures weren't so bad when you were moving around but it started to get cold after a couple hours sitting in a small boat in the middle of a lake. There were chefs cooking three meals a day. Dinner even included food such as Cornish game hen, king crab legs, and homemade icecream. As it was the low season at the field station, we had private rooms all to ourselves.
Most of the wildlife had left for the winter but there here still a few arctic squirrels and foxes around the field station along with a pair of ravens and loons (which sound like howling wolf). I even saw my first grizzly bear. It was on the bank of the lakes while I was safely in a boat. *Davon Edit: Grizzly bears can swim.* I thought it was a rock for the first 15 minutes, before it started to run through the deep snow. I saw a second bear a few days later as it was running directly through the field station then off into the distance. The sun was always low in the sky which made for long colourful sunsets.
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The next story begins 145 days ago. Hopefully it will be posted soon.
