21-22 October: Winter Camping course goes to Chena Recreation Area!

This weekend saw the first of two trips away on the Winter Camping & Snow Travel course I'm doing at UAF.

We got to the trailhead for Angel Rocks (out on Chena Hot Springs Road) about 1pm on Saturday, and filtered lots of water for cooking from the stream, while having lunch. Mark and Kari, the leaders of the course, drove one of our Ford Expeditions to the end point, where we'd see it again on Sunday. Others on the course are Kari "2" from Saskatchewan (the course leader being from Alaska), Mark who looks like David Beckham, Rosie aka Alice from Newcastle, Lene (?) from Brittany, Emily from Quebec, Katie, Roby from Venus, Patrick and Christinalena from south-west Germany, Mike from California, and the unknown girl. Garrett, also on the course, didn't make it this weekend.

The snow began as we arrived, and never stopped the whole weekend. It was never intense, but a good 4-6 inches fell in all. Thank goodness, as this is a Winter Camping & Snow Travel course! The temperature though never got particularly cold, probably no lower than +15 F. Cold enough to get frostbite though if you weren't careful.

I had a huge 110 liter backpack, with a -20 F sleeping bag, which more than made up for the thin sleeping mat. Clothes-wise I had lots of layers, and plenty of spares in case anything got damp. In the first hundred yards or so the backpack was making my lower back go into spasms, but the fit got progressively better as the trip progressed, thanks to Mark and "Beckham". The first couple of miles were steeply uphill, testing Mike in particular, whose smoking-affected lungs were burning.

The tent arrangements had been made in advance, and in my absence, and my tent partners were Kari (the course leader) and Lene. We set up camp around 5.30pm a little before mile 3, just looking for a reasonably flat area without rocks away from the trail. The tents were simply - a groundsheet, three poles, and a fly. After staking them down with pegs and rocks, the next job was to set up a cooking area, well away from the tents. The chances of a bear giving us trouble were remote, given that we were 14 people, but its worth taking precautions and anyway it was good training. So apart from individual snacks we each carried, all the food was in bear-proof canisters. Mark, Lene and others got some water on the go, while everyone else got involved with erecting a lean-to and furnished it with sleeping bags, to keep us out of the wind and insulated from the ground while we ate. Dinner was an impressive pasta dish, given this was camp food, and hot chocolate and tea were also on hand. The biggest surprise was finding that what felt like a perfectly normal bedtime was in fact only 9pm!

The next morning Mark and Kari got up at 6am and started boiling water for breakfast. I'm ashamed to admit I hadn't even noticed Kari leaving the tent, and the first I knew about it was when she came charging up to the tent and shaking it around 7am waking Lene and I up for breakfast. A couple of packets of instant oatmeal and I was ready to go!

Our tent was down by about 8am, but by the time all the cooking stuff had been packed and all the tents down and everyone ready to go, it was well past 9. It really didn't matter, because as it turned out we had less than 6 miles of travel ahead of us.

I led out the first section, spotting the cairns, but was too lazy to navigate with a compass. Beckham and Christinalena led out the next two sections, and others took a hand also. We stopped for lunch at a cabin at around mile 6, and I was surprised to see between us we had a vast array of food. We had more food than we needed - and more clothes too - but all would have come in handy had we met worse weather, been travelling more slowly, or had someone become injured. As it was everyone was fine, and I took the opportunity to add some calories as I'd had little to eat the previous 36 hours. I'd also had little to drink - probably only a litre of fluid since the trip began, but that was a deliberate ploy so I hadn't had to get up in the night to pee!

In the final mile or two of the trail, Beckham and Patrick started throwing snowballs, but what promised to break out into a big snowball fight never really got going. Mark and I threw some back, but it pretty much ended when Rosie, an innocent bystanding, got a snowball from Mark right in the face!

Before long we'd arrived at Chena Hot Springs Resort. I hadn't brought my swim stuff with me and neither had most of the others. But there were one or two spares, so Roby, Beckham, Patrick, Christinalena and I had the outdoor hot pool, while Mark and Kari went off to pick up the other vehicle and then Kari drove the others back to Fairbanks. Meanwhile we stayed about an hour in the hot pool and jacuzzi. Just before we departed Mark's girlfriend arrived from Fairbanks to tell us that town had also had about 4 inches of snow!

More photos from the trip can be seen at:

http://kiska.giseis.alaska.edu/input/glenn/personal/wintercamping/

Four more days have gone by now and Fairbanks is still coated in white everywhere, and the temperature is dipping to 15 F in the mornings and never getting as high as thawing point. The first day I got back my new car - the Subaru Legacy - wouldn't make it up the hill on Basin Street and was clinging to the ditch. Fortunately, my housemate Andi and her boyfriend Kyle towed me out with her truck! I then went down to "Giant Tire" in town with my office mate Jamie and got a set of "Blizzac" snow tires. Since then I haven't skidded once!

20 October 2006 - Ellen moves to BC

Today Ellen moved somewhat closer - from PEI to Vernon, British Columbia!

30 September 2006 - First snowfall of the year...

Winter came really late to Fairbanks this year. The usual time for the first frost of the year is the first week of September. This year it came on the 26th - the second latest date on record. So we're hoping for a mild winter.

But since skiing and snowmachining are the two main outdoor activities of the long dark winter months, we're also hoping for lots and lots of snow!

The first snowfall of the year came on the final day of September. Here is a picture of my house in the snow.

It was a light fall - about 3 inches. Indeed, we don't get a lot of snow here, because its so dry...Fairbanks is almost a desert!

This far into Interior Alaska, there isn't much in the way of rain or snow usually - the air is so incredibly dry that everytime you get out your car and touch the door to close it, you get a static shock from all that metal charging up as it whistles down the highway with no moisture to conduct the charge away. And when you're in bed at night and you turn over, there is a burst of purple light from the static charge of bedsheets rubbing together. Drinking lots of water is needed to prevent shrivelling up like a prune!

I also took a bit of a walk in the first snowfall on the University of Alaska trail system - which starts just outside the building where I work! The spruce and birch woods behind the university campus extend north for several miles, and its possible to hike or run in summer, and ski in winter, for hours on the numerous criss-crossing trails. Here is a view of a typical trail:

One of the highlights of the trail system is Smith Lake. Its literally just a 10 minute walk from my office, and I like to walk down there at lunchtimes, to get a break from picking earthquakes! Looking at "squiggles" all day long can ruin your eyes and send you cabin crazy, so I think its important to get a break. And what with the drive to and from work already becoming quite dark, its also good to get out into the light during the short Alaskan winter day.

Who would have thought? Here I was, out on my walk along the trail system and look what I found! Home from home. Perhaps I should be living on Nottingham Road, Fairbanks, Alaska?

Since 30th September there has been no further snowfall, and Fairbanksans are getting impatient! Me too, as I'm booked on a series of winter camping and snow travel classes in the next few weeks, and learning to cross country ski and build igloos isn't going to be very satisfying without some snow!

20 October 2006 - New car...

Today I finally traded in my rental car, a Ford Taurus, for my own rig. I'd thought about going "Alaskan" and getting a huge 5 litre pick up truck. Indeed when I was here 8 years before, virtually everyone had a pick up truck. Meanwhile I had a small European-size but American built Dodge Colt. It was somewhat scary driving on the icy roads, knowing you had no chance in a crunch, against what might have well been tanks. And my little front-wheel car and I almost came to grief one day while coming down Chena Ridge Road in the first snowfall of the year. And anywhere that wasn't ploughed in the winter was more or less off limits to me and my car because the front wheel drive just couldn't cope with the conditions.

Environmentally, I really wanted something that would get good miles per gallon. Good for America that is, i.e. 25-30. But I also wanted something that would be safe, and would let me travel everywhere. Fortunately, and I mean that, gas prices have more than doubled since 1998, and now far more Alaskans are driving cars. And of all the cars, the make recommended by almost all Alaskans is Subaru. It has the best all-wheel-drive system on the market making it much less likely to skid, its good at starting in the subzero temperatures, and gas mileage is around 27. It also has a bit of power, allowing it to nip out of the way of those monster trucks on the road.

Another great thing about it - you can fold down the back seats and practically throw a double mattress in there. And it has not one, but two sunroofs. Ideal for roadtrips and watching the aurora.

So here it is - my 2004 Subaru Legacy...

DAILY LIFE

For those who have been requesting some photos of everyday stuff, like where I live and work, here are the long overdue photos...

Here is a shot of UAF upper campus ->

<- and here is a close up of the Geophysical Institute (or "GI") where I work on the 3rd floor

This is a shot of my office ->
For seismic monitoring we tend to use Sun workstations because Unix is more stable than Microsoft Windows
It was nice a surprise 2 flat panel monitors to work with!

<- and this is just outside my office where they have the weekly seismology meetings every Tuesday.

The bank of computer monitors on the wall is new since my last time up here, and shows live seismic data and maps of where the latest earthquake was located and its magnitude - a voice also announces the same information in real time.

Here is a shot of the house where I'm living ->

Its quite small by Alaskan standards, which I think makes a lot of sense considering the heating costs. I decided to forgo the cabin experience this winter, so this time I'm living about 5 miles west of town, up on a ridge in the woods, but with water (from a tank) and central heating! And that's a heated garage too!




<-- Here is a close up of the house with my rental car in the foreground. I'm just renting a room and living with Andi (short for Andrea) who is an environmental consultant.

And here is an interior shot of the house ->

There is an upstairs bedroom that overlooks the lounge with its own en-suite and walk-in closet. That's Andi's part of the house, and she runs her business from there. My own room is downstairs by the front door, with a separate bathroom, with washer and dryer. Then there is a shared kitchen, lounge and dining area.

All in all, a pretty comfortable place to start out life in Alaska life, while still being out in the woods to enjoy the wildnerness.

12 September 2006 - Seismic Fieldwork

12 September 2006 - anyone for McCarthy?
I turned up half-way through the weekly seismic meeting, rather surprising a lot of people who thought I'd never get there - the visa had taken so long to come through. Rowdy, and old friend from my 1998-2000 time at AVO flagged up he needed an extra pair of hands down in McCarthy for some seismic fieldwork. Rowdy had told me all those years ago how it was his favourite place and he'd bought some land down there. So when my boss, Roger, asked me after the meeting if I'd go with Rowdy, I didn't hesitate. All I needed was a day to fill out the paperwork...

14 September 2006 - from Fairbanks to McCarthy

Loading up: The first stop after loading up the seismic gear was to grab a trailer of wood Rowdy wanted to get down to his land. So we swung by his cabin - the same cabin I had lived in many years before.






Driving down: The highway down goes through Delta Junction, Glenallen and as far as Chitina. Beyond that, its a dirt surface on top of an old railroad they used for copper mining. And there are lots of staples left from the track, so at least 2 spare tyres in a must.

Here is some typical scenery from the drive down, which took about 9 hours.

And here is a view of the Aleyaska pipeline which carries about one quarter of the US oil from Prudhoe bay in the north, to Valdez in the south. One of my main tasks is going to be to develop an alarm system which can alert the pipelines authorities to intense earthquake activity. One of our field techs, John, has been putting out seismic stations along the pipeline all summer.

The pipeline follows the road, until our turn off for Chitina.

This is the place Rowdy and I stayed at in McCarthy.

15 September 2006 - McCarthy town, and the seismic station

Waking up in McCarty was quite something! It felt like a living ghost-town on the frontier. Population - probably over 100 in the summer. But by winter, maybe a dozen. (A few weeks after we left, the only road into McCarthy - and about a 60 mile stretch of the nearby highway - was destroyed by unprecendented floods!)

The seismic station is located here. There is a beautiful home here too (not shown) where a family with 5 kids lives. And even the youngest of them knows more about living in the great outdoors than just about any adult I've ever met! On this day, the 8 year old daughter rode by, driving an all-terrain-vehicle, with a 33-caliber rifle slung across her back! The next day, the kids were out hunting bears!

Just imagine living in a place like this ... and waking up to that view!

Here is the seismic station. None of the poorly built sites I'd seen in Montserrat, with seismometers placed in leaky upturned buckets, and zip-ties being used to secure solar panels that were uselessly pointing north! Here the stations are really engineered, and built to survive the tough arctic winters!

The seismometer sits down in a deep waterproof crypt, with thick fibreglass insulation and a concrete base. The electronics along with 24 car batteries (!) is housed in a purpose-made hut (which Rowdy and I had the job of raising up to prevent flooding).

To charge all those batteries, an impressive array of solar panels is required. And then a V-SAT satellite radio uplink is used to transmit the data back to the lab in Fairbanks.

After all that hard work the meal in McCarthy was small and disappointing. We went to a party in a cabin just out of town at night.

16 September 2006

A second day at the seismic site ... followed by a trip to Rowdy's lot and a drop in on a McCarthy-style BBQ with a huge bonfire, miles out in the woods.

17 September 2006

After dropping off Rowdy's truck on the far side of the river where his lot is, we took a trip on another gorgeous day to Kennicot. This is where there was once a huge copper mining industry. And the only road to McCarthy is simply a pile of dirt and gravel dumped on the old railroad that was used to get copper out to Chitina.

Fortunately I was able to get an exclusive tour of the old copper mill, an extraordinary wooden building of umpteen different levels that climbed right up the hillside. The way in was pretty hairy, and it was something of an assault course once inside too.

Leaving Kennicot-McCarthy was difficult as it was a case of third-day, third-party ... but reluctantly we had to pass and make it on back towards some other seismic sites that needed attention along the road home. The trip back had an unauspicious start when we found the truck had a flat tyre even before we tackled the Chitina road - only to find the spare, jack and tire nut level were completely inadequate...and we had to wait for a passing stranger to come to our aid with a deep lug set.

18 -19 September 2006 - HAARP and Paxson

I got into the HAARP facility, some sort of military radio array that can apparently induce aurora, being told my UK citizenship was not a problem. But no sooner had Rowdy and I started work on the seismic station, than an escort came to take me off the premises. Word had come from above that "aliens" were not allowed on this site. So I got to surf the internet at a nearby lodge, while Rowdy worked. This work then had to be abandoned when we got word that a telephone engineer was waiting for us at another station about 30 minutes up the road. Unfortunately, neither site got fixed that day, so the next day was almost identical.

Then as we were planning finally to return to Fairbanks, we got word that the McCarthy site was down again. So we were contemplating driving the 4 hours back. Not real convenient as Rowdy was due on a helicopter trip later in the week to fix other stations, and needed to prepare for it. In the end, with just one spare tyre, a lack of tools to fix it, and already being somewhat overdue, we decided to leave McCarthy for another day, and headed back to Fairbanks reaching there about 10pm.

So a whole week after arriving in Fairbanks I'd managed to spend almost all my time in the field. Now I really needed to rent a car and start looking for accommodation...