G-L-O-R-I-A, Gloria! (Report 7)



Janet and the Data

This past week was the literal and figurative the high point of my summer.  I spent five days in the field with Janet Jorgenson and two other botanist/horticulturists up in the mountains north of Atigun Gorge on the extreme north side of the Brooks Range in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  We worked on the GLORIA project which is an international alpine study based in Vienna:  Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine Environments.   Scientists from six countries are studying the vegetation on high mountains to see if it changes over time.  Every five years Janet and company climb four mountains, lay out colored cord to transect their summits, record what plants are present and do one meter square sample counts from sixteen areas on each peak.   My role was mostly winding and unwinding the cord, taking photographs, recording data as she called it out.  I also got to dig up and place data loggers which record the soil temperature every two hours for the entire five years.  



Al and Janet



Even on the mountain tops the skeeters were brutal.   They were worse, though, at our lakeside camp site between the peaks.  As we tried to sleep at night in our tents, the bodies of the bugs battering our tents sounded like constant rain.  Janet lent me a bug jacket for the rest of the summer.  Alhumdullilah!!!  I understand now that the Toolik Research station record of 278 mosquitoes killed with one hand slap was NOT an exaggeration.  I’ve decided to write a mystery novel in which the victim is stripped naked and left to die on the tundra.   Estimates put this as a mere 22 hours of exposure until enough blood is sucked out to bring on death by dehydration.  Yuck!  My thoughts are grisly.  In contrast the botanists I worked with are very gentle and kind people.   This is noteworthy in an environment in which one could easy have gone ‘buggy’ and collapsed into a constant ‘whine’.  One of the botanists was smiling constantly because of his delight in the foliage.  Another benefit of hanging out with botanists is that, unlike birders, they sleep in to a reasonable time and stop every five minutes while ascending mountains to exclaim over the plants and share their expertise, giving me time to catch my breath, take photos and exclaim also.  These are my type of people!

Today I am recovering in my cabin.  I’ve been so busy that I haven’t been drawing or playing my guitar.  I’ll have to wait until October to relax.  Happy summer to all!  In a couple of weeks Arctic autumn will arrive with wandering caribou,  bright colors and no bugs.



I love lousewort!



Rocky high road



Chinese lantern







Notice skeeters which are in all our photos.



Sofa Farts and Arctic Cranberries (Report 6)



Bluthroat babies

Last week we took a day trip to the Toolik Research Station at 68 degrees, 38 minutes north on the North Slope of the Brooks Range.  Though the University of Alaska Fairbanks, i.e., UAF, sponsors Toolik, professors and students from around the world come to watch plots of earth, monitor birds and bugs, pluck tundra, measure gases in the air and the water and the earth.  Over lunch I talked with a prof and his student.  She is measuring the flame retardant we used to apply to clothes, curtains and furniture.  The chemicals which ooze off the old sofa on the backyard porch are now being monitored at Toolik.  Though flame retardant as we once knew it is no longer being used, it shows up here not only in the air but in the plants and animals.  Native people eat it in their foods. 

      

Food is great at Toolik!



Seth and Art showed us a pair of yellow-billed loons on Toolik Lake.  Toolik is Inupiat for yellow-billed loon so we suppose the loons have been coming there for centuries.  They also took us to a nest where we saw five bluethroat thrush babies.  We also heard but did not see the yellow wagtail.



On Facebook I placed a note about the Northern Wheatear which I see when I climb high on the rocky ridges.  This songbird flies to northern Africa.  In the July National Geographic there is an article about how the songbirds I see here are being shot, trapped and eaten all around the Mediterranean.  I don’t mind eating chicken so why am I squeamish about songbirds?  Still, I am saddened.  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/15/songbird-migration-record-may-go-to-northern-wheatear_n_1278635.html

I also posted a photo of me climbing another shoulder of Coca Cola Mountain, aka Marion Peak.  It’s heights are close, easy and will keep me busy most of the summer.  I discovered a lovely little waterfall along the mining road.

Aufeis on Marion Creek, early July

There’s still aufeis on Marion Creek and sheltered places along the road.



Linda with Marion Creek Griz track



Linda and Ray who also are retired and work at the center spent an afternoon with me.  She gave me a watercolor lesson and the three of made plaster casts of some grizzly bear tracks I found up Marion Creek.

Karen gave us an “Unexpected Party” where we ate cake and saw the Hobbit in the theater.

For the 4^th of July proper I went hiking at Atigun Pass with two Hollanders, Job and Jo, who are taking a year to travel North and South America.  They are both athletic but he loves to get up higher onto the mountain.  Once the talus started sliding under our feet, Jo and I turned around while he went to the top. 

A couple from my home town of Shelby, Ohio showed up at the Visitors Center.  Because I left in 1975, I no longer think of Ohio as home but there was something comforting in this flash from the past.  Judy, nee Roth, had taken her pets to Daddy and she is a cousin to Gloria Worthington, a high school buddy.  She also knows Mark Fry, my first boyfriend. 

 

When I first came here, everything felt exotic.  Now it is feels like home and just the way it should be.  I don’t miss traffic lights nor ice cream stores nor concrete.  I meet more than enough people at the center at Coldfoot.  We are now quite busy at the AIVC where I have difficulty finding time to do all I should.  I bookkeep for the bookstore and Karen checks me. It is cooling off and raining more, the Alaska weather which I was expecting.  I am even finding peace with the mosquitos.  I love the moments when I can sit quietly in the cabin and not feel any nearby.  My daily bike to work is just as joyful as when I started.  I’ve now ridden 400 bike miles.



Valerian









Atigun Pass