Water and sauna

Because we are on BLM land here at Toolik, all grey water (used water from toilets, showers, dish-washing, hand-washing, and everything else) has to be trucked out of here at enormous expense. So efforts to conserve water are constant. There are "towers" (raised outhouses/drop toilets) in a bunch of places around camp, and we are highly encouraged to use those rather than the the few flush toilets available. Lots of us don't have water in our housing areas and keep pee bottles in our rooms that we can empty into the latrines as needed. Letting yellow mellow is the standard for when we do use the flush toilets. And showers are very limited. The standard is two, two-minute showers per week. 

To help keep water use low without us all stinking terribly all the time, there is a completely fantastic lakeside sauna that is fired up at least twice per week. There are men's hours, women's hours, and then co-ed hours. The idea is to go into the sauna and sweat it out for as long as you like...

...and then go outside onto the deck (protected from view of the rest of the station, so that anyone who wants can do this whole process au naturale), soap up with diluted Dr. Bronner's, and then use water pumped up directly from the lake (and heated in the sauna in pitchers with you, if you like) and use that to rinse off. I LOVE outdoor showers and this version of that really takes the cake. What a view!

I felt like a million bucks--clean, ruddy-cheeked from the heat of the sauna--as I made my way back through camp, with million-dollar views in every direction.

Sauna time was the first camp activity I participated in after arriving and it was such a great experience, I plan to be there whenever it's offered from now on. Well, until the bugs come out in force in the summer. Then we'll see. :)

Toolik Field Station

 My job for the next couple months is Kitchen Assistant at Toolik Field Station, a site for a variety of Arctic research projects (click here for the station website and TONS more info) on the northern slope of the Brooks Range, sandwiched between Gates of the Arctic National Park and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (If you type Toolik Lake into Google Maps you'll be able to see where I'm located in relation to...everything else on the planet.)

I'll give you a whole bunch of glimpses into my time here in the coming weeks. But to start, you can see how things appeared to me as I was first settling in.

Standing at the edge of Toolik Lake looking back at camp:

And then looking back at the lake, still frozen from the long, cold winter:

Caribou crossing the tundra in the distance...

My cozy room in a dry, double-wide trailer. Though I have to go elsewhere for running water, I do have electricity. And even Wifi!

And the lovely view out  my window of the Brooks Range. 

Not too shabby a start!

Dalton Highway Northbound

I'm gonna be honest: at the end of two weeks of quarantine, I was sad it was over and could easily have done two more weeks. But okay, okay, I know: the thing I was in quarantine for to start with and then needed to leave to actually go do is very awesome, so just roll your eyes at my wish for more quarantine.

Regardless, as planned, on Tuesday morning my solitude was done and I got a ride to the Toolik Field Station garage at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks and we packed up this beast for the drive north:

Two others (a fellow contractor going to work on station maintenance and a research scientist conducting a study on Arctic ground squirrels) and I then hit the road out of Fairbanks toward the...

Lucky duck and spoiled traveler that I am, I have been on this road once before, southbound from Prudhoe Bay/Dead Horse to Fairbanks with my mom as tourists in 2010. But it was still a joy (the 9-hour drive from UA-Fairbanks to Toolik went incredibly quickly) to see it again going in the opposite direction, over the Yukon...

...through sweeping, snowy landscapes...

...stopping for pit-stops only in COVID-safe spots like outhouse toilets (though really, if there's going to be snow IN the bathroom, I'd much rather just pee al fresco!)...

...into the Arctic Circle...

...into even more striking landscapes...

...past the remote outpost of Coldfoot...

...and into the gorgeousness of the Brooks Range!

Once we went over Atigun Pass (only about 5,000 ft of elevation, but at this  latitude it makes for a very intense landscape!)

For the whole journey (of course, since it is the reason the Dalton Highway even exists), the Alaskan oil pipeline kept us company, sometimes ducking under the road and popping up again on the other side, but always there somewhere.

After Atigun Pass we were technically heading down "the slope"--the gradual drop from the pass all the way (eventually...like 6 hours later, and we weren't going that far) down to the Arctic Ocean.

 But we stopped a couple hours north of the pass when we pulled off the highway at Lake Toolik and arrived at Toolik Field Station, my home for the next 2+ months. More on that in the next post....

Creamer's Field

I got a tip from a Greenland friend who lives in Fairbanks that the place I'm staying is close to a particular field (on the property of Creamer's Dairy) that migratory birds typically stop in for rests on their epic voyages--and that birds northbound for the summer have just started arriving. So I went to check it out. It  is no joke.

I stayed for a good long time (6 feet away from any other living creature, of course) watching the birds, and also watching the birders watch the birds, which was equally lovely and interesting.

Love this too:

Looks like some deer (?) have been by to check out the migratory birds, as well.

 

And everything keeps melting and melting and melting....

I've taken  three COVID tests since arriving in Fairbanks (negative, negative, and negative) so I think it's safe to say I don't have COVID and the plan is on to hit the road to Toolik tomorrow. That road is the Dalton highway, which I last journeyed with my dear mom in 2010. If memory serves, it was quite  beautiful....

Time for an adventure: Alaska!

Well, hello, friends, family, and anyone else poking around here!

Long time, no see.

It has been so long since my last blog post that the interface of Blogger has changed and I'm a little disoriented. But let's give it a whirl. Because after the past year of trying to keep my feet grounded during COVID, I've gotten a contract to spend the first half of the Arctic summer season at Toolik research camp in northern Alaska. 

But before that can happen, a requisite quarantine in Fairbanks to make 100% sure I don't take COVID into camp. So I have been chilling for near two weeks now at Wedgewood Resort, on the north side of Fairbanks, in my super spacious, comfy own room.

That's just the living room. There's also an alley kitchen, a little dining area, a separate bedroom, and of  course a bathroom. I've been doing some work trainings and orientations online, but other than that I sleep  when I want, read, write, talk with friends...what more could a girl ask for?

Also, though I've largely been confined to the room since I got here last Monday, I am allowed to go out for as many walks as I want as long as I don't get within six feet of another person. And the weather  has been GLORIOUS. Sixty degrees and brilliantly sunny every single day. So I've been walking and walking  and walking in the beautiful sunshine.

When I first got here there were several feet of snow on the ground. And the benches.

But every day it's been melting and melting and melting.

Because of the snow (and the melting) it's been easier to adopt a daily walking routine around this adorable neighborhood near where I'm staying than through the woods behind the property. I've walked past these houses many dozens of times now and they make me really happy.

Sometimes I still put on my boots and visit the woods anyway. Though I've been in a really contained area since I arrived, there's lots of beauty nearby and I'm grateful to be here.