Field trips from Kangerlussuaq

We have been told we are very lucky that we got to have a whole weekend in Kanger before our flight up to Summit. And I do feel lucky; it was so fun to explore around town! And then outside of town.

One evening after we finished our training session, I took the two-mile walk out to Lake Ferguson. I love this "Caution: Muskox" sign I saw along the way.

And somehow everything, even decomposing junk, is pretty in this sweeping, grand landscape.

The temperature next to the lake felt 10-20 degrees cooler than on the road leading to it, with the chill off of all that ice drifting over me. But it was a beautiful sight.

On Sunday, we took advantage of the rare opportunity to have a day off in Kanger and two of the full-time staff here were kind enough to take us on a huge adventure on Greenland's longest road (15+ miles! of graveled joy...which is to say there aren't any long-distance roads in Greenland; it's just a massive ice sheet with coastal towns along its edges that generally require boat or plane transport) to visit Russell Glacier and a spot further up at the edge of the ice sheet labeled "660." It was especially exciting for me because I got to drive the third vehicle, so now I can say I've actually driven Greenland's longest road. And what a road it was. We saw a bunch of caribou...Can you spot them?

And we passed by a lake with shores littered with "sea tomatoes"--apparently a type of bacterium.

It was weird and surprising to see just a few fir trees growing along the road at one point. I can't even imagine how long these guys must have been growing to be this big (maybe 6 feet tall or so?) above the Arctic Circle.

There is also the detritus of a long-ago plane crash along the road, looking very forlorn.

And then we started approaching the edge of the ice sheet, and: WOW.

We walked about a mile through terrific, exhausting wind to get to the edge of Russell Glacier, which was mind-blowing and TOTALLY worth the slog. So glad there are people in this picture so you can see the incredible scale of this ice.

We also got to watch it calving and the bergs floating down the outflow. Totally stunning.

We also drove to the very end of the road, to the 660 site, but I don't have any pictures of that as impressive as these, so let's just end on a high note. By the way, this area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and you can read about why that is, here. (Spoiler: it has to do not with the natural beauty of the place, but with its cultural significance to the native Inuits.)

With all this amazing exploring under our belts, it already feels like I've had an epic Greenland adventure, and my job hasn't even really begun. Next step: the journey to Summit Station!