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