SCHOLARSHIP DAY 79: North Slope Fish, Tree Rubbing and many more observations!

It's now just two more days left before I leave Alaska to start a month's tour of the west coast of the USA. As if it knew this, the weather delivered a cold snap to Fairbanks overnight, and when I got up this morning, despite the blue skies, I knew that two pairs of woolen socks were in order. It's so important to keep both feet and hands warm in this weather; it seems they get the coldest first. I spent the morning sorting emails and doing another video diary, which you can find below.

My great idea that I had yesterday was to do some last minute tree trunk rubbings. It wasn't something I had considered doing until my walk through the forest yesterday, so I set out to Fred Meyers at midday to buy the essentials: some Crayola crayons and the cheapest plain paper pad I could lay my hands on. Ah, fond memories of Crayola! I managed to select without issue the most suitable crayons, but it was the plain paper which caused some inevitable shopping frustration. You would have thought that a simple plain pad would be easy to find in a superstore selling, what seems like, everything. Could I find some? Of course not. Life isn't that easy. I continued my vigorous search, and eventually settled for this small little pad, but by no means was it an easy search.

Ready for a lovely afternoon session of tree-trunk rubbing, before it would get too dark, I arrived at the university equipped with pad and crayons. Not to my surprise anymore was the rather premature sunset, which was creating dramatic skyscapes at about 3:30pm today. Quite a few students were out with their cameras, and it only seemed fitting that I followed suit.

Just before I would proceed to the forest, I decided to visit Ronald for the last time, to offer my thanks for supporting me in terms of fieldwork over the last couple of months. A sense of reality and finality emerged from the conversation, and we discussed what was next for his Frozen Debris Lobes project. It seems the next trip he and Margaret will be leaving the university at 4am to make the best use of time; I must stress how happy I am that this military-like schedule wasn't imposed during my stay here! He invited me to come to today's Water and Environmental Research Centre lecture which today would feature PHD student Erica Betts. She would be linking North Slope climate, hydrology and fish migration, and although tree rubbing was on my mind, I accepted the request to join him.

The lecture was extremely interesting, and as you can expect from a PHD student, the presentation included many graphs which sometimes didn't include axis titles! Seems this isn't a crime of such a high magnitude in universities as it is in school! I left enriched as usual, said my final goodbyes to Ronald and headed to the forest.

I was in two minds whether to start tree-rubbing, now that the Sun had gone down, so I decided to do one to test it out and I would finish some more tomorrow morning. I approached a group of trees being illuminated by a streetlamp on the edge of the forest, and took out my paper and crayons. I never thought tree-trunk rubbings could be so painful; the biting cold was starting to make my fingers numb and with no warm building nearby, the pain only grew worse. I managed to complete one using White Birch as a guinea pig, but will venture into the forest tomorrow and do some more in brighter light.

Returning to the university, I spotted a lovely new moon, and wanted to get a better view of it, so walked across campus to finally get the image I wanted. It seemed to rest just above a blanket of fading red; the remaining glimmer of what was another lovely sunset.

I took every opportunity while waiting for the bus back to the hostel to do more spontaneous exploration, given that I am going to be leaving very shortly. This bin was the most fascinating exhibit on my unmapped quest. Well, the stalactites anyway. Never thought a bin could look so beautiful!