Toolik in the morning.

I got up early one morning and grabbed these shots around the camp.

It's sort of pretty, I think...

Field work outing

Katie sampling with me at my first field site of the trip.

The journey to Toolik.

Getting to the middle of nowhere takes some work, I guess. My trip to Toolik Lake Field station took over 24 hours, with a hodge-podge of transportation options. (I've put a map of where I am below).

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My dear parents dropped me off at the airport, and I flew from Minneapolis to Fairbanks, Alaska. It was about 100 F in Minneapolis when I left, so the 70 F in Fairbanks felt heavenly. I got a taxi to the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, where I had rented a dorm room for the night. It was really strange to go to bed when it was still light- I even saw a rainbow at midnight!

In the morning, I got up and went for a run, and then hunted down supposedly the best coffee in Fairbanks at the Alaskan Coffee Roasters, which was a little walk from campus.

Mid-morning, a shuttle came to pick me up and drop me off at the airport. I was initially supposed to be taking the Dalton Express from Fairbanks up to Toolik, which is a 10-14 hour drive, depending. However, it turned out that I was the only passenger, so they decided to fly me (on a VERY small airplane) from Fairbanks to Coldfoot, and then shuttle me from Coldfoot to Toolik (only a 4.5-hour drive).

My plane.

I had never been in an airplane that small (10-seater, including the pilot and co-pilot seats; we were a pilot and 5 passengers), and the turbulence was a little violent, but it was really cool to be flying so close to the ground. Since this plane was from a tour company, the pilot also pointed out interesting things. (There was also a couple from Germany, so we spoke German together a little bit, when we weren't flying!) We flew in and out of small rainshowers, and the clouds and mountains were really beautiful!

University of Alaska, Fairbanks.

Pump station 7 along the oil pipeline.

Yukon River.

Yukon Flats.

Crossing the Arctic Circle.

An hour later, we landed in Coldfoot, on a dirt landing strip. I was met on the landing strip by my shuttle driver, and, with a brief stop in Coldfoot for supplies, we were on our way North on the Dalton Highway.

Rain shower.

Rain!

Dalton Highway.

Landing in Coldfoot.

Half of the buildings in Coldfoot.

The road was paved for the first few miles, but soon turned in to a dirt road, with a ton of construction, which is part of the reason that it took 4.5 hours to go 125 miles. The scenery was really incredible though. I felt like I could jump up and touch the clouds. I have been missing mountains, so I was so happy to see them again!

Paved!

Not so paved.

The Dalton Highway runs along the oil pipeline, which really is a marvel of engineering. It really is astounding how far it runs (800 miles) and over what terrain it travels.

The driver and his co-pilot were really nice and chatty, so I had a really (relatively) enjoyable ride up to Toolik, although I was definitely happy to arrive and not be sitting down or be jouncing after all of that flying and riding.

Rainbow by the side of the road.

Now I am happily situated here, having run my first experiment Sunday afternoon. I've only got three weeks to do some science, but I'm pretty excited about it. I think it will take some getting used to sleeping when it is light out. I feel like I can keep on working because the sun is out, but I know that I need to sleep at some point... The mosquitoes are wicked here, but it is totally gorgeous!