Expedition Complete

Joined: 23 Mar 2004 Posts: 23

Wow! The last several days have flown by and I am now home! Sorry it has been so long since I wrote a journal but there was a small technical difficulty. Last I wrote to you was on Saturday so I will pick up on Sunday.

The planes (two twin otters, DC-3) were supposed to arrive at noon on Sunday but did not show up until nearly 2. So we enjoyed the morning by watching bearded seals on the ice, walking around and taking group photos.

Shortly after their arrival we were loaded ard ready to go. The DC-3 would head to Inuvik with Ronnie, Chien-Lu and Gary. One twin otter would take the class to Sachs Harbor to meet with elders. And the second twin otter would take the rest of us to Green Cabin on Banks Island.

Our flight to Green Cabin was awesome! We flew pretty low so I was on the look out for polar bears…no luck there but I did see belugas! Once we got closer to Banks the pilots dropped low into the river valley. We scared two wolves up a hill and began to see musk ox herds running from the plane-quite beautiful.

Around 4pm we arrived to beautiful Green Cabin along a river with sunshine and warm weather. We quickly headed into the field to sample plant biomass as time was short. On the walk back to the plane we saw two musk ox carcasses.

8:30 saw us onto the plane towards Sachs Harbor. Our flight was once again quite low and included countless views of musk oxen and snow geese. But it also included fog in Sachs so we made a U-turn and headed back to Green Cabin. We had emergency gear to overnight but luckily there was a fuel cache. We were able to get enough fuel to make it to Inuvik by 2 am!

Monday brought hectic times to loading the truck to get it on the road and getting the rest of us to the airport. We safely flew into Dawson City by around noon and enjoyed the a day playing tourist.

Tuesday brought a trip to Fairbanks with a Tai lunch, Copper River reds dinner at Skips and unloading the truck upon arrival at 9pm.

Wednesday brought at day in Fairbanks tying up loose ends and logistical matters and a final dinner with Rae and Tako's family.

Thursday brought a return trip home!

The trip was quite amazing and I will always remember my time with the Biocomplexity team. My brain is overloaded with great information that I will now try to bring back to my students. I will enjoy following their team on next year's expedition and am quite grateful for participating in this one. Thanks to all of you who followed our journey and kept us in your thoughts.