 Well, it took us a while to get here, but we finally made it to the island of Axel Heiberg on June 27, 1996, after being stranded at the Polar Continental Shelf Project headquarters because of bad weather. We were fighting a low pressure front all the way here, but it was worth it. A Twin Otter took us to Kanguk Peninsula (picture to the left is the braided river system near the mouth of the Kanguk River. Our landing site is about near the middle of this picture.) |
 Believe it or not, all of our stuff that we brought with us fit in this plane. That pile near the door of the plane is our junk. The food boxes that were packed back in May are waiting at the mouth of Expedition Fiord to the west of us. The helicopter (not shown) will pick them up with a sling system after they drop us off at out campsite. Meanwhile, we did a bit of exploring around the peninsula while John scouted campsites from the 'copter. You can walk a long way and not seem to go far around here, and find some rather interesting footprints in the sand.... |
 Yup, you guessed it...bear prints. We didn't see any actual bears, though we did hear over the radio that one camp (Kamp Krumpkie, I believe) did have a polar bear visit for three hours, just staring down at them from a ridge. All we saw were caribou, wolves, gulls, and a few other birds that I won't even attempt a spelling at.... |
 June 28, 1996It is a good thing I have plenty of socks, because it is messy here. Not just dirty, but MUDDY! A quote on my field camp tee-shirt describes today quite well: I fought the mud and the mud won. Today we hiked south towards Expedition Fiord (background) -- you can see Icebergs there! -- to check out the volcanic exposures. Tomorrow we do recon towards the north. |
 June 29, 1996 The Hunt for Red October....Okay, so I wasn't looking for a Russian sub, but I certainly did enough searching today. Ever notice how much leather looks like mud? I know for a fact now (I temporarily lost the Brunton compass we were using... oops). And I got up close and personal with the permafrost layer today. Luckily I only landed on my side (how I lost the Brunton); others unfortunately were either buried hip deep in snow, or landed on their derriere after slipping on the mud. (Twisted Ridge, to the north of camp) |
 July 3, 1996 Here comes the sun...Note in the log: sun today for more than 30 minutes. Must remember to wear sun block next time, as blistered ears are hard to sleep on... Stratigraphy the hard way. Our sampling section is along Dragon Creek (or so we called it; if Pooh can live under the name of Sanders, this water-way can do it too). Basically, the basalt forms promontories all along the creek, with ravines pretty much marking the contacts |
| between the different units. Unfortunately, most of these ravines were footed by snow, as illustrated to the left here, with a nice raging creek when the water was high. Forget Suzanne Summers; climb these ravines for a few days. Not only will it tone your thighs and butt, but it will probably do a number on your back as well (I managed to lose 16 pounds on the Ravine Climb plan and I feel great!) |
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