What's in my pack today?

It all started four days ago with a can of Vienna Sausage. Yes, the lovely concoction of chicken, pork, and beef in chicken broth. Yum. This was one of our "snack" options for lunch. Instead of packing along the can of scrumptious goodness for lunch, we decided to put it in other people's packs so that they could carry the weight and maybe attract some more bears. I was the lucky bearer of the can today and it has now been wrapped in a cloth measuring tape to go to the next lucky person.



Walking to the chopper yesterday, I swung my backpack over my shoulder and thought, "Damn this thing is heavy!" For the first half of the day my balance was off and I kept thinking, "What on earth is wrong with my pack? I must have packed it differently today." Well, at noon we get a radio call from my upcoming field partner. "Ask Greta how her pack is doing," he asked. I immediately went to the sleeping bag compartment at the bottom of my pack - the webbing and buckle had been unclipped and the zipper was slightly open which I thought was strange given that I had closed them that morning. BUT we had been walking through some pretty dense alder and I suppose it could have gotten caught on something. Opening the zipper, a 5-7 pound rock emerges from the bottom of my pack. SERIOUSLY?!?!?!? "I thought you might need something to weigh you down and give you more of a work out." If he wants to play this game, I'll dish it right back. Oh, it's on.

Life in Beluga

The cool thing about the "camp" I'm in now is that I can actually get out and walk more than 50 feet and explore a little bit. Right next to our camp is the Cook Inlet - deciding to take a nice walk on the beach one night, my leisurly stroll turned from sand to pudding in two seconds. Nearly falling on my ass, I decided to take off my shoes and let the mud mingle with my toes. After getting up to my calves, it was time to turn around because I was sinking faster than I could lift a foot to take another step.

Some views from the chopper on my way to "work"...

Can't forget my new friend Sitka...

It's official...

...I am a bear magnet. Today we switched field partners so I'm now paired with another redhead. It's natural to get a sense of what other people's comfort level is around bears and what their personal preferences are on carrying firearms in the field. Unlike my last field partner, this one wouldn't shout out, "Hey bear!" Or "Go away bear!" unless an actual bear was in the vicinity. Instead, we both decided to shout "Here we come!" or just make a lot of noise to notify any potential bears in the area that we're approaching. She also decided to not carry a firearm but we're both required to carry bear spray.

At about 11am today, my field partner and I were exiting a dense alder thicket (we couldn't see anything other than the next branch in front of us until we entered a meadow) when I hear her yell, "Heeeeeeeey bear!!!" Hey bear? Hmm, I thought she didn't mention "bear" unless....OH SHIT! I looked up and a sow and her cub were directly in front of us. This is the worst possible the situation to be in because sows are very protective of their cubs. Everything happened in a split second. The sow, no more than 20 feet away started charging at us - I immediately unclipped my gun and had it ready while she grabbed the bear spray on the back of my pack. As her cub ran up a tree, the sow started circling around us, we think because she was trying to get a whiff of our scent. We quickly backed into the alders and thankfully didn't see them for the rest of the day.

Every time we (I) have a bear encounter, we have to fill out a "Bear Incident" report. Apparently, our group is the only group out of dozens of people that travel into the field for months on end that has seen a bear on almost a daily basis (I've seen one 3 out of 4 days) - everyone else is convinced that there is no wildlife in Alaska. Lucky us (me). After the incident today, my field partner radioed the rest of our crew and the call went something like this, "Hey guys, this is ___ and Greta. I'd like a new tech. Greta has done it again." There is one last person I need to rotate out with in the field and he has yet to see any wildlife. As we're flying back to camp, I looked down out of the helicopter and gazed at a black dot on the landscape, "Hey! There's another bear!" to which my next field partner replied, "Jesus Christ! We can't even be in a helicopter with you!" To which I replied, "You just wait, I'm saving the grizzlies for you."

Having fun in my soil pit

Bears dig vegetarians

Okay, so I'm getting a bad rap here as being a bear attractant. Two days ago my field partner left our last plot for our helicopter landing zone (LZ) while I stayed behind at the soil pit in the alders to fill it in. Our standard protocol is to be as vocal as possible to keep the bears away so as my field partner walked towards the LZ, I could hear him yell out, "Go away bear. Here I come!" The vegetarian is so dense in parts that the ferns and grass tower over our heads leaving little room for seeing anything, let alone our footing or potential bears, in front of us. Almost immediately after he left, a cub entered our plot about 15 feet away from me so I started shouting, "Go away bear!" My field partner, maybe 100 yards away, didn't say anything in response to me because he thought I was just making noise to keep the bears away. But when I yelled, "GO AWAY BEAR! NOW! SHOO! GO! WHY WON'T YOU LEAVE? WHAT'S WRONG WITH YOU?!?!" he got the clue. This bear would not budge. He just stood there. With pepper spray in one hand, and my fingers on the gun holster in the other, I packed up my belongings as quickly as possible and got out of there. On the other side of the alders I was met by my field partner holding his gun radioing the helicopter to pick us up.

This is a horrible picture but it gives you an idea of how tall the vegetation is. It was at least a foot over my head today.

Then again today, only moments after we were dropped off by the helicopter, I started digging a soil pit and my field partner says, "I think I just saw the ferns move in the forest". We were on a bluff surrounded by tall grass with a forest beneath us. The ferns moved again and then there was a loud CRACK. Sure enough, a bear was running in the brush beneath us, maybe 100 feet away. Wanting to get out of the tall grass to get a better vantage point of our potential attacker (we've had bears circle around and stalk us in the field before), I grabbed my bear spray and walked very quickly yelling in his direction to scare him away. Satisfied that the bear ran away, I walked back to the pit where my field partner was cowering in the tall grass holding his gun, "I know that if there's a bear approaching we're supposed to stand our ground but I don't think I've ever seen someone actually run after them like you did - I think that'll work just fine." We had two different helicopters circle around us to encourage them to stay away.

So now the running joke is that bears like vegetarians and no one wants me to be their tech because I will inevitably attract bears to us.

Where am I?

Some people keep asking me where I am in Alaska - here's a map of approximately where the Donlin Camp is located (my first field location).

I just arrived in Beluga today, a small community of about 30 people on the west side of the Cook Inlet (west of Anchorage). The terrain is a lot less rugged here so far but we have yet to make our way towards the mountains. I really missing the rustic tents in Donlin - the girls are staying in a house (running water, bathroom/shower, laundry, internet, etc.) whereas the boys get an awesome log cabin (no running water, outhouse, no internet or laundry). Not fare. I might need to crash with the boys some night to get my rustic log cabin fix. More pictures to come!

Two weeks down, two to go!

Urg, I'm exhausted - I put in 87 hours this week and I'm ready to sleep in a little but SURPRISE! they scheduled us to fly out at 8am tomorrow morning for another two week stint in the field. My hands are cracking and swollen from digging in the soil, my legs are bruised from fighting through the brush with a shovel, and my eyes can barely stay open to dig another hole..and I'm loving every minute of it. Can't wait to see a new part of Alaska tomorrow! Not sure what the internet is going to be like at the Beluga Camp or even if I have a room to sleep in - only time will tell. Here are some pics from my time at Donlin Camp. More pictures to come...you might even see a picture of a bear we spotted in camp last night!

Getting dropped off at "the office"

Traveling to Donlin with my coworker Luke on a small airplane


My bedroom

My bladder woke me up at 4am so I took a picture of the sunrise

Meandering rivers everywhere but not a road in sight = awesome!

Beautiful green hillsides

This pic was taken after scrubbing my hands AND taking a shower

Don't really need to explain this picture.

Meet Ewie

I have tried just about every mosquito deterrent known to man over the years - Skin So Soft, 10-100% deet, mosquito coils, smoke, those little watch things that emit frequencies that supposedly keep the mosquitoes away, clothing infused with mosquito repellent, and head nets and none of them work. Sure, deet will keep mosquitoes off of the skin you apply the carcinogen to, but the little fuckers still buzz in your years, get sucked up into your nose and mouth and fly right into your eyeball when you least expect it. I thought all hope was lost until I came to 3PPI. Packing my field gear for the trip, I came across these little green boxes called Thermacells. Looking at the contraption, I asked, "What the heck is this?" "Oh, that's a mosquito repeller." This little box is going to keep the mosquitoes away? Yeah right. I decided to pack it along one day and give it a try. Entering the most mosquito infested place I have been to thus far in Alaska, I fired it up. 1 minute. Nothing. 2 minutes. Nothing. 3 minutes. Nothing. Like, I said, this thing isn't going to work. Why do people buy this crap? 5 minutes...wait...where the heck did the mosquitoes go?!?!?! I immediately thought the wind must have picked up but the air was calm. I crouched beside the little box of heaven, gave it a kiss, and immediately had to give it a name. Ewie (pronounced "E-Wee) was the first name that came to mind because it looks like an Ewok from Star Wars. Little Ewie runs off of a butane canister - when you ignite the butane, it heats up a filter than contains a fragrance from a flower that is a natural insect repellent. Genius!

Meet Ewie




See the resemblance? Sure you do. Use your imagination.

Another day at work

What's more exciting than commuting by helicopter to work? Absolutely nothing. If you think there is then you've never been in a helicopter, and until you've ridden in a helicopter, you can't argue with me. Period.

Donlin Camp from the helicopter

I've neglected my blogging because a) the Internet is slow b) I've been working crazy hours and c) eating and sleeping are more important than blogging. Sorry. On a typical day, I wake up at 6am, eat breakfast, catch the helicopter, hike around and dig holes all day, get picked up around 6:30pm, eat dinner, and then sync our GPS units which takes until midnight. Tonight I was relieved of my GPS duties and I already gorged myself so you get the pleasure of seeing more pictures and hearing about how it's been out here.

Most of the hiking has involved following the proposed pipeline project along ridge tops, but in order to get a representative sample of all of the soil and vegetation types along the proposed route, we do a lot of bushwhacking through alder thickets. After hiking for about 1/4mi, we (I) dig a 2ft deep hole and my field partner characterizes the soil while I walk around and take pictures of the area. Digging a hole every 1/4mi might sound easy but the thing Alaska has that we don't have in the city back home is permafrost and seasonal frost. Imagine trying to dig a hole through a cinder block and that's about what it feels like. After about 6-8in you hit a layer of ice and have to slowly chip away at the ice until you break through (seasonal frost) or sometimes you never break through at all (permafrost). In a lot of instances, I can't get any deeper than a foot. Needless to say, I think every muscle in my body aches, especially my back and arms but I'll come back just that much stronger :) (try to pick on me now Casey!!) hehe

We've had one day of off and on rain but the other days have just been overcast. Haven't been stranded yet but the weather is really iffy around here - fog seems to roll in pretty quickly and if the fog bank is too low, the helicopter can't see to pick us up. Turns out that we still get paid to work even if we're not able to go out in the field due to bad weather. The mosquitoes are definitely in full force but fortunately today there was a good breeze that kept them at bay.

Hellloooo Donlin Camp

The adventure I came to Alaska to experience has finally begun! This afternoon we left Anchorage on a small commuter plane and landed in Aniak, Alaska, our hub to Donlin Camp where we were greeted immediately by the state bird, the mosquito. It's not really the state bird but it might as well be given the number of flying blood suckers. It was raining lightly but that didn't stop the little buggers from trying to take a bite out of every exposed body part. Oh, and you should Google Aniak - it is truly in the middle of nowhere - absolutely no roads in sight. From Aniak we took another (much smaller) plane to Donlin Camp. Flying from Anchorage to Aniak was pretty cool - there were a lot of mountains to take pictures of, which was in complete contract to the flight from Aniak to Donlin. The second flight passed over rolling hills scattered with a much less dense forest of spruce trees interlaced with ponds and very boggy wet areas.

Anchorage to Aniak

Second plane from Aniak to Donlin

The camp is unlike anything I have experienced before. From the air it looked like an ebola quarantine sight - canvas tents litter the hillside and everyone walks around with some sort of safety equipment on (e.g. vest, helmet glasses, etc.). The "runway" (really just a dirt road) is perched on the side of a hill so as the wheels touch down, rather than decelerating to slow the plane down, the plan has to accelerate to make it up the hill kicking up dust along the way. I would imagine that taking off could get a little interesting - if you don't take off in time you would either sail down the side of the hill or hit the adjacent hillside. Fun times.

The camp itself, while being in the middle of nowhere, is more than I expected. I have my own canvas tent with a bed, desk, electricity and heater. I turned off the heater and opened the window to get more of a camping feeling. There's a cafeteria-style eating area where we're fed breakfast and dinner (we will be packing out lunches for the field) and a TON of other snacks (pie, cake, cookies, soft serve ice cream *gasp*, juice, soda, a freezer FULL of ice cream bars, etc.). All of this free sugary goodness and buffet style dinners could be a bad idea. There's also a big screen TV, pool table, workout equipment, and an indoor basketball court. I think they have these things to prevent people from going insane - you can only walk about .1 mile before you're required to wear a hard hat and bright orange vest, and even if you did wear those things, you still can't go very far. I can even get wireless internet from my tent! It's pretty slow (go figure, we're out in the middle of nowhere) so I might not be able to load pictures but I will certainly try.

Donlin Camp

More exploring

Leaving Hope Sunday morning, I looked down at the gas gauge and I was in the red zone. Shit. I had 50 miles to go until the nearest gas station and it was very likely that she wasn't going to make it. I coasted downhill every chance I got - 5% grades, 1% grades, you name it. I even tried to coast on flat land much to the frustration of people tailgating behind me. 20 miles to go, 15 miles to go...I kept watching the needle descent beyond the red zone, past the white barrier into the black void. There was no turning back now. We were either going to roll in on fumes or hoof it. 1 mile to go...SUCCESS! SHE MADE IT! Man, what a trooper. Filling up the tank, it took 14.37 gallons - the manual says it's a 14.7 gallon tank. And she only gets about 15mpg. Talk about lucky!

I spent the rest of the day exploring other trails and concluded the day with giving Margaret a well deserved bath.

Woo-hoo, more time off!

I savored every hour of this weekend knowing that beginning Wednesday I will be in the field working for nearly a month straight. Starting in Seward on Saturday, I hiked around Exit Glacier (nearly freezing my toes off after trudging through glacial runoff trying to get a closer look). After hiking in the rain and changing into some dry clothes, I drove to a small town called Hope hoping to find some gas but instead I found a biker gang, another VW van and some live music. This "town" must have a population of about 20 - it is one of the smallest communities I've ever seen but had a lot more character than many of the larger cities I've been in. The entire weekend was surreal - it rained all day Saturday but it didn't stop me from getting the closest I've ever been to cravasses in my life. I started out on the typical tourist trails that take you to an overlook of the glacier but there were too many people so I opted for a longer more adventurous hike. The hike was supposed to be about 8 miles round trip but I was turned around by steep snowfields - all the more excuse to go back later in the summer or bring snowshoes next time. Leaving Hope, I found a gravel road leading down to a private beach where I camped for the night to the sound of rain hitting the poptop.

Time to fuel up before the hike.

The town of Hope

More sea kayaking photos!

Well, as mentioned previously, I dropped my camera in the water on our sea kayaking adventure and have been without a camera for a week now - a terrible thing in such a beautiful state. I bought a waterproof point and shoot camera to replace it but was disappointed in the picture quality so I took it back. While looking at other point and shoot cameras at Costco my eyes wandered to the digital SLR cameras. I immediately started to drool. "So...Graham...you know how we were talking about getting a nice camera?" And that was the end of it, we decided to invest in a nice camera. I have yet to take a picture with it BUT I was finally able to get my pictures off of the memory card. Enjoy! :)

This is a tunnel we had to drive through on our way into Whittier - it's also shared by trains (they go through before the passenger vehicles) so it was pretty stinky in there.

View from the apartment

One of the perks of working for 3PPI is that they put people who are working out of the Anchorage office in an apartment for the summer when they're not in the field. Currently it's just me and one other guy in here which has turned out pretty well so far. Oh and the best part is that I don't need to clean - they've hired a cleaning lady that comes every Monday. It's a whole different reality up here.

View from the balcony of the apartment overlooking Spenard Lake