Wednesday, December 24, 2008

Driving: Minnesota to Fairbanks, November 2008

I flew back to Minnesota in early November and spent 18 days there visiting family and friends. My brother, his wife and their new baby, Lucas came down for a week and we traveled around together visiting family. They flew back to Alaska but not before buying a mini-van for their growing family; 4 kids now. I agreed to drive the car back to Fairbanks. I left Nov. 25th and arrived in Fairbanks 6 days later. It was my first time driving up in the winter. The roads were excellent and the weather mild, in the 30s during the day. The only bad weather was from the boarder to Delta Junction with blowing snow.
With it being winter and the car full of old furniture from my Mom, I had to find a cheap way to spend my nites. I signed up onto the website: www.couchsurfing.com. It is a free service where you search for people's places to stay, in cities around the world. I found a place to stay 3 out of my 5 nites. It was a great experience and way to meet locals/new people. My couch/spare bed is listed on the website now. So come surf my couch!!


The beautiful Mississippi River Valley just above the little town of Alma, Wisconsin and the Alma locks/dam. This was not part of my driving trip back to AK but on one of the trips to visit family while in Minnesota/Wisconsin.


Flat, flat, flat North Dakota and a wind power farm near Langdon. There had to be over 50. Pretty cool.


A turtle made of wheel rims. In Dunseith, North Dakota, just south of the border with Canada. Nearby is Turtle Mountain which I imagine was the inspiration for this piece of art.


I had no idea this park existed and came upon it totally by chance. I chose this route thru North Dakota just to by-pass the busier boarder crossing south of Winnipeg.
Pretty neat park. Check it out: http://www.peacegarden.com/
And here is a link to the history of the park: http://www.peacegarden.com/allpdf/Peace%20Garden%20History-%20Web%5B1%5D.pdf



In the park, looking along the boarder.




In the park.


My first nite was in Brandon, Manitoba. I surfed on a mattress of a nice college student there. Jessica, her sister and friends were hashing out ideas for their new 'zine.
That nite, while driving to find the place, I heard on the radio that the International Space Station was about to travel overhead, looking like a moving satellite but much brighter. I pulled over and looked up. Sure enough, there it was. Really cool to think that that moving thing in the sky had 10 people in it.
The next morning was cold and foggy making for a beautiful drive. The ground/trees were covered in frost.
I was in the land of wheat and giant grain silos!








The North Saskatchewan River valley.


Driving across Saskatchewan was so beautiful. Wide open space.




I love these old graineries.




Nearing the end of my second day. I spent the nite in Lyodminister, a city that stratles the border of Saskatchewan and Alberta, just east of Edmonton. I spent the nite with a young fellow that works as an environmental technician for Husky Oil.


The scenary between Edmonton and Fort Saint John, my third day, is not very pretty. Just rolling hills of forested land. Lots of oil and gas developement going on. The highway was chocked full of trucks servicing the oil and gas fields. The air around Edmonton was very polluted and the roads were crazy busy. Alberta is booming with all the oil/gas money.
North of Fort Saint John you begin going thru the mountains. Here I began to see alot of wildlife, like these Caribou. Elk, Bison and a Lynx too.


Entering Stone Mountain Provincial Park, British Columbia.



Bison along the road just north of Liard Hot Springs. There were about 60 spread over 3 groups. Very cool. The ditches alongside the road here are very wide. Grass grows there and it makes for good grazing for the Bison.
I spent the nite at a lodge, after my fourth day, across the road from the Hot Springs. On that fourth day I became very sick with the flu. I slept 16 hours that nite. My fifth day was not fun. I was still very sick. I spent my 5th nite in Whitehorse with an old college-mate, Forest and his wife Georgianna and their son Finn.




The mountains around Kluane Lake. And that is it. An exhausting trip but glad to have experienced the Alaska Highway in the winter.

Bering Strait 2008

In October, 2008 I flew to Nome, Alaska to board a Russian research vessel. We sailed north to the Bering Strait and spent 11 days in Russian and American waters. We sailed towards Russia first and came upon rough waters. So we hid in a small bay on the Russian side.
It was a fun trip. Stepping on the ship was like stepping into Russia. Very few people on the ship spoke English.





We had some free time before sailing so I tagged along with some other scientists and drove about 30 miles on the road to Teller which is about 80 miles north of Nome.



The Bering Sea and looking at Sledge Island.


The mountains around Nome are really pretty.





Looking down on Nome.


Anvil Mountain, a few miles from Nome.
"Two of the four gigantic Alaska Communications Systems microwave antennas atop Anvil Mountain, built in 1957 as part of a long daisy-chain to link the Tin City military radar site with the outside world. The system was decommissioned in 1974, but the dishes remain as landmarks. "
From Tom Busch




There are some crazy looking machines, right out of the Mad Max movies, here. They are used to ply the beaches/shallow waters around Nome, sucking up the sand looking for gold. The beaches of Nome have been mined for gold for many years.


Our ship. The Lavrentyev. A 240 foot research vessel from Vladivostok.
There were about 10 US scientists on board and a half dozen Russian scientists then probably 40 crew.



The room I shared with a fellow technician from Seward, Dave Leech.



My lab space.


The dinning hall. Very nice and really homey. Plants in the windows.


The setting for lunch and dinner. Those meals always stared with a yummy soup, a potato/onion base with other things added, usually something from the previous day's meal.
There was no chow line. The food was all brought out to us.


The bridge.


Leaving Nome on a beautiful morning.


Nome.


Looking at the eastern most part of Eurasia. We hid from the storm just off the picture to the left.


Bringing in the moorings. We seemed to always have a snow squall for those recoveries! We recovered 8 moorings and deployed them again.


Cleaning off the barnacles!



Me and the Boss. It was fun to finally sail with my supervisor, Dr. Terry Whitledge. We are coming up on a mooring that will be "popped", meaning released from the anchor, and then we look for the floats and go get it.


Deploying the moorings.


Ready to trip the release and have the anchor sink to the bottom.


Lots of whale sightings. Mostly Bowhead whales and a few Killer Whales.


Snow squalls. Not my photo.



Big Diomede Island.


Big Diomede and Little Diomede on the left.


Our last day out in the Bering Strait. A storm was about to brew up so we high-tailed it back to Nome, cutting off our trip by a few days. I'll be back in the autumn of 2009.


Some of the crew.