26 May 2004 - 3:00 pm

Joined: 23 Mar 2004 Posts: 84

May 26, 2004

Weather: Mostly Cloudy

Sunrise: 1:50 a.m.

Sunset: 11:33 p.m.

# of daylight hours: 21.5

High Temp: 2°C 35°F—but it felt much colder than that because of wind chill

Low Temp: -8°C 20°F

Average Temp: -3°C 28°F

Precipitation: Yes

Form: Snow

How Much: not enough to measure (trace)

Okay, today required me to be really brave. I flew in a scary airplane and landed on a dirt runway. I told Max that it was a good thing that I didn’t know about this before I signed up for the trip as I may not have joined the trip. The funny thing is that I was keeping my eyes sort of shut while we were preparing to land because I don’t like the take offs or the landings. Anyway, I finally opened my eyes when we had landed and I couldn’t see out the window because all the dirt was flying all over the place. It was then that I realized this wasn’t any ordinary landing strip.

Airplane at Landing Strip in Zhigansk

We had to get the airport early, and waited for our plane to be called. We had to load our bags on the plane ourselves and then climb a ladder to get inside. It looked like a really old double propeller airplane (which I am sure it was). I do have to admit that the take off and landing were both very smooth, but that doesn’t mean that I enjoyed the trip at all. The luggage didn’t all fit in the space where it was suppose to, so some of it was in the passenger seating in the front of the plane. There were some good views of the Lena River and Zhigansk as we were flying in. The river is still frozen but we are told that in four days the ice will break, which, if it happens, will be perfect timing because the discharge of the river will be at its peak.

Besides our personal luggage, we also transported all the equipment that we will need to do the samples. This included a huge winch (which is in the wooden box) and lots of coolers of water bottles.

While we were waiting for the plane in Yakutsk, Max went over some of the sampling protocols to make sure that we all had a good understanding of what we are going to be doing and what the best practices are surrounding the water testing. Of course, the most important thing is that we all stay safe, and after that we want the most pristine samples possible. In order to make sure that our samples are the most clean involves being very careful with the water once it is collected and before it is separated into different bottles by wearing gloves and using as clean of an environment as possible.

Finally, after we got to the airport, Mikhail (the captain of the boat we will be working on) and some of his crew transported us to the mining hotel in which we are staying. This was no easy task because in order to get to the village you have to cross one of the tributaries of the Lena. So we had several different trips back and fourth to get the equipment across.

Getting ourselves and our stuff across the tributary of the Lena to get to the village

So, we spent the afternoon sending pictures (Yippee, we figured out how to send them through the email; I hope they are not too grainy to see!) and walking around trying to find non-carbonated water. With this task we were not successful, so I will be brushing my teeth with carbonated water. It was funny walking around town because there are not many visitors that come here, so again people liked to stare. We found three little shops that sell everything from beer to shoes and all of them have doors that are like vaults to keep the heat in and the cold out.

We are eating at our hotel which is a place for miners (there are diamond mines around here somewhere) to stay when they are working in Zhigansk. So far we have had reindeer at every mean, and I have heard to expect it for breakfast tomorrow too! It is a very nice place though and it is fun hanging out with our research group—we’re having a lot of good laughs.