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Yesterday's traverse into the crater
(high-five) I'm still enthused, a day later, that we pulled it off! Although the gravity data itself is locked on the meter, and will have to be downloaded and mailed to me next week.
We got a go-ahead around 10am, had to drop everything and scramble, pack up personal items in case Jeff and I were late, and we left before lunchtime. The initial traverse went smoothly, and I was reminded again of the beauty and starkness inside the crater.
And the jagged blocks of welded breccia and target rocks... with rivers and deep water.
Here's a micro-oasis of lichens and mosses and small plants... all possible because of the nutrients being released from decomposition of this skull (caribou?). Otherwise, nothing grows and the soil is essentially sterile, free of organisms.
In small oases, one sometimes sees flowers in the brief Arctic summer, like these tenacious tiny poppies:
Going up Tripod Hill, Jeff and Patrick became mired... hesitated while over a muddy spot, and sank. They both were covered in mud by the time we all ate energy bars on the hill (while I got my data). Then, we headed east towards the Haughton River valley and the old HMP base camp site. But the passes over Bruno Escarpment were impassable... we tried, and at one point had all 4 ATVs stuck. I was the first... following Pascal, I was carrying more weight (gravity meter, etc) and was going slower and sank back into the brown frigid slush. Then Patrick tried to push me thorough... and became stuck. Here's a photo of the two ATVs... it took an hour to extricate them. We finally resorted to flipping them over upside down, rolling them 360 degrees.
Then we drove up along a 200m high breccia hill, looking for ways to get across the small valley (HR valley was the next one over). Finally, we gave up on that idea and instead headed south so I could get my Ground Zero central-crater data. We stayed close to the river, to avoid the mud on either side... so I had to schlep the meter and tripod in by hiking, going 2 miles through calf-high mud at times. But I got the data.
And then we retraced our route, splashing through rivers and streams on the ATVs to wash off most of the mud from them and ourselves. Not all, though... I was still damp and dirty on the Twin Otter out.
We got a go-ahead around 10am, had to drop everything and scramble, pack up personal items in case Jeff and I were late, and we left before lunchtime. The initial traverse went smoothly, and I was reminded again of the beauty and starkness inside the crater.
And the jagged blocks of welded breccia and target rocks... with rivers and deep water.
Here's a micro-oasis of lichens and mosses and small plants... all possible because of the nutrients being released from decomposition of this skull (caribou?). Otherwise, nothing grows and the soil is essentially sterile, free of organisms.
In small oases, one sometimes sees flowers in the brief Arctic summer, like these tenacious tiny poppies:
Going up Tripod Hill, Jeff and Patrick became mired... hesitated while over a muddy spot, and sank. They both were covered in mud by the time we all ate energy bars on the hill (while I got my data). Then, we headed east towards the Haughton River valley and the old HMP base camp site. But the passes over Bruno Escarpment were impassable... we tried, and at one point had all 4 ATVs stuck. I was the first... following Pascal, I was carrying more weight (gravity meter, etc) and was going slower and sank back into the brown frigid slush. Then Patrick tried to push me thorough... and became stuck. Here's a photo of the two ATVs... it took an hour to extricate them. We finally resorted to flipping them over upside down, rolling them 360 degrees.
Then we drove up along a 200m high breccia hill, looking for ways to get across the small valley (HR valley was the next one over). Finally, we gave up on that idea and instead headed south so I could get my Ground Zero central-crater data. We stayed close to the river, to avoid the mud on either side... so I had to schlep the meter and tripod in by hiking, going 2 miles through calf-high mud at times. But I got the data.
And then we retraced our route, splashing through rivers and streams on the ATVs to wash off most of the mud from them and ourselves. Not all, though... I was still damp and dirty on the Twin Otter out.