Rained in at Kuzitrin

The week started out promising. By noon on Monday my supervisor and I were suited up in our flight gear and walking across the tarmac behind the Bering Air hangar for our first helicopter trip out to Kuzitrin and Imuruk Lakes. It was partly cloudy, but the ceiling was high with a vivid blue sky above. 

My view

When I saw the chopper we were flying in, I couldn't help but laugh -- it was smaller than the car we had driven to get here, with a big bubble window around the cockpit, giving the two front seats a wide view all around. As the photographer, I got copilot's seat.

It takes a village ...to gain perspective

When you hear the word "village," if you're anything like me, America is probably not the first thing that comes to mind. Yet in the Seward Peninsula, villages are almost the only form of community that exists here, aside from the bush towns of Nome and Kotzebue. 

A taste of success

Whole wheat, no-milk, fresh-picked-blueberry muffins

Okay, I gotta brag just a little here, mostly because I've totally surprised myself. So if you know me at all, you probably know I'm terrible in the kitchen. I have yet to master the art of cookie-baking, or even venture into much creativity with my regular meals.

But the 48 oz. tupperware of blueberries sitting in my fridge has been burning a hole in the shelf, so tonight I figured it was time to do something about it.

A berry fruitful weekend

The salmon run might be about over for the summer, but berry picking season is about to come into full swing. 

I had always heard Alaska had a large variety of edible berries, but I never realized how MUCH is out here. On just about any hike in the tundra, you're guaranteed to come across crowberries, blueberries, low-bush cranberries, and cloudberries. And supposedly it's only the beginning of the berry season.

Yesterday a weasel, today a whale

This morning one of our interpretive rangers came back from teaching the weekly Tundra Tots program and announced they had stumbled across something very interesting on the beach.

"A seal?" someone guessed.

Nope.

"A walrus?"

"Bigger," he he said.

"A WHALE?"

Weaseling around

You know how you always see the best stuff when you don't have your camera? Well, that just happened to me today in the most epic way.

So, the sun FINALLY came out after its 3 week hiatus from the skies over Nome, warming temperatures to a balmy 56 degrees. Immediately after work I ran home, changed out of my work clothes, and hopped onto a bike for a ride around town, happy to not be weighed down by cameras and a backpack for once.

Saturday Ranger Hike

Yesterday was the "actual" public ranger hike, for which we had been scouting out the 3870 trail on Thursday. Technically I didn't have to go, since it was Saturday and I have the weekends off, but I forced myself to get outside again, despite wanting to be lazy in the dry warmth of the bunkhouse all day. In the end, I'm super glad I went.

3870 and so much fog

Ever since I got back from Serpentine, I don't think I've seen a single day of sunshine (save for an hour or two here and there). There's been thick cloud cover, casting Nome under a grey, soggy wet cloak that seems to seep the warmth out of everything in its shadow. Everyday to and from work, I find myself joining other Nomites in a sort of hopscotch between the muddy patchwork of puddles across town, huddling down against the biting wind that throws a heavy mist in your face head-on.