I'm going to miss this sky.

 

Arctic Ground Squirrel Seeks Trashy Snack

He seemed to think I was in competition for his treasure and he could scare me away by rearing up and cackling at me. 

Okay, I was a little scared. 

And...now it's snowing again.

 Big, beautiful, fat flakes that start melting on touchdown.

The state bird of Alaska is back in town

The first mosquitoes of the season are big, but slow and dumb. I think I'll be getting out of here just in time to avoid the smaller, faster, more vicious ones. Not upset about that!

Just one week left in camp...

...and feeling nostalgic for something that hasn't even ended yet. I stopped for a moment in my peregrinations around Toolik to appreciate the beauty of this quirky, far-flung place.

Snow retreating, sky dark

 

Toolik Lake Inlet is running!

 The sound of running water is so unexpected, it seems hilariously loud. Spring has sprung, for sure...

Ice fishing!

We were doing catch-and-release with Arctic char, measuring and tagging any we caught to track populations over time. I have this weird memory of ice fishing in the dark some time in my past, but I cannot place it any context and think it might just be a dream I once had. So now I've actually been ice fishing.

C & G ice bathing

 

I had to make multiple trips down to the ice bath (with sessions reheating in the sauna in-between) to work up my courage to go under. First time I just walked down there to take this picture of them. Second time I stood in it and splashed some ice water on myself. Third try I sat down and was in it up to my neck. Fourth time I went under (lots of cursing involved). Fifth time my goal was to go under with a little less panic, and I guess I kind of succeeded. But every time I promised myself I would never do it again. Maybe now that's true.

Last weekend's project

Friend C wanted to be able to go in the lake to cool WAY down during sauna time, but the lake is still frozen. 

So she rallied me and friend G and a bunch of shovels...

...and an augur...

...and we went to work for two hours to make ourselves a bathtub in the lake ice.

As luck would have it, even though we stopped drilling with a foot of ice still below the bottom of our tub, so that people could stand on the bottom of it, we hit a fissure in the ice and the tub began filling itself as we finished the drilling. Tomorrow I'll show you the results!

Muskox chilling at Pump 3

 Can't see any in this shot, but there were babies!!

Bonfire season has begun

 

Oh, hi!

A Toolik outdoor web cam caught this shot, nearly a month ago. Too perfect. And way better than any photo of caribou I've managed to take. I feel for these guys. I would not like to be reincarnated as a caribou. In the winter they're nearly starving and/or freezing to death. In the summer they are plagued to near insanity by mosquitoes. What a life. I'm glad they're getting a little bit of springtime to enjoy.

 

Then the fog rolled in.

 

Like I said, just one junk view after another

 

It's too bad the scenery here is so shabby

 

Ice at the surface of Fog 2 Lake

 

Sunday afternoon picnic on a frozen lake

 

The tundra is emerging from the snow!

 

Still some sunset skies over camp

 

Sauna stairs at sunset

Unfortunately the lake will not have melted enough to be jump-in-able by the time I leave in early June, but I can look...and imagine...

 

They ploughed the road to the Toolik Lake outlet...

...and an eerie fog rolled in.

 

The aufeis is amazing this spring. And slippery.

 

Friends on ice

 

An evening drive to Galbraith

 

So long, snow! Hello, tussacks!

 

View of Brooks Range from a pingo

 

I'm getting more comfortable on a snow machine

 

the days get longer; dusk feels precious

 

Sittin' on a pingo

 

At the bottom of the snow cores...

Sometimes we found a little frozen world.