Land of the Midnight Sun

Well,back in Alaska for yet another summer of fun and adventure!  And so far it’s been fun…and adventuresome!
After two weeks straight of training, I have two weeks off before I start my first trip of the year on June 12th!  After I begin working, there will be very little days off for the rest of the season, but that is just fine as I am looking forward to my days on as well, exploring our different lodges, kayaking, hiking, wildlife watching, etc!  So during that time off, I decided to take advantage of an opportunity that presented itself and took a trip to Barrow, Alaska the most northern point in Alaska, way above the arctic circle!  An arctic village of 4500 people, 75 % or so Inupiat Eskimos, not accessible by road, it truly was an experience and my Alaska experience is a little more enriched now. Thanks to my friend Christina who is doing a 6 month work stint up there, my friend Michelle who I work with in Cooper Landing and I were able to take a trip of a lifetime!

The Yellowstone Connection in Barrow Alaska!

  

Christina, Michelle, and I underneath the whale arch                                  Three fingers for 3 AM!!!! 

Here I learned that I truly am a cryophile – lover of cold!  June 1st-4th, 24 hours of sunshine and a balmy 35 degrees for the high.  Awesome!  However in March I learned that it was 30 below for the entire month day and night…that might be a little too cold!
                                     

                                 After arriving at the airport, we had to go straight to the shore to check out the sea ice of the Arctic Ocean…it was only 8pm in this picture, but this is also what it looked like at 3am! The water in this picture is just surface water, there is still an ice layer underneath!

Barrow was a very very interesting place.  I felt like I was in another world, another time, another life even.  Although it is light enough all through the night down on the Kenai Peninsula, the 24 hours of intense sun that Barrow experiences from May 10 to August 3rd, was a different kind of light.  And because we wanted to take advantage of the nice weather not knowing if it would last or not, we made the most of it!  We were out until 4:30 in the morning exploring the town, driving from end to end (all 3 or so miles of it) and birding birding birding, getting excited over every new species.  Finally my body told me something was not quite right and we decided to head home and get some shut eye.  This was to be the norm for the weekend…not able to follow the natural schedule of day and night, we made our own schedule, and had a blast doing it!

Birding in a new place is always fun and exciting as each new bird requires some figuring out to do.  I love that in Alaska birds come from all other continents to spend their summer here, many of them breeding and nesting and taking advantage of all the daylight hours and food available. After 3 days of hard scouring, the last bird we identified was the elusive  (this time of year) Snowy Owl.  It was a great way to end the amazing weekend in Barrow!

Snowy Owl

               

Tundra Swan                                                         Red Phalorope                                     Snow Bunting on whale vertebrae

And if birding isn’t your forte, one could simply walk around town and be intrigued in every direction you look, whether your gawking at the caribou hides hanging on the front porch, the muktuk (whale blubber) heaped in piles everywhere, the collection of tires, snowmobiles and 4-wheelers out front of every house, the mass of kids riding their bikes in the streets, the stilts every house sits on, the neighbor plucking their geese in the front yard, the list goes on and on!  A friend described it as looking like a third world country with electricity and running water.  Trash dumpsters are everywhere, but it appears the locals like to hang on to everything (usually in their front yard).  Let’s just say Barrow has its own character!
        
Decorated Dumpsters all over town!                      Houses on stilts due to permafrost and melt!                         Caribou Hides hanging out

One of the more exciting activities that we did was to take a trip out on the pack ice of the Arctic Ocean as we made our way out to a Pressure Ridge.  Of course you can never leave home without your shotgun, as even though it is unlikely, you always need to be on the lookout for the polar bears!  Which unfortunately we did not see. 
       

The girls on an adventure!                                                           Don’t worry its solid!

After hopping on the plane and leaving Barrow, I felt like we were leaving a special place.  I had a great trip, even though it was just a long weekend, glad I had the opportunity to get off the beaten path and check out a new place!