Before I continue I feel like I should give a small apology to the grammatical state of these posts. Most of the time I write them in between showering and dinner or sometimes before showering (which means in a hurry). I do not edit my posts and now that I’ve gone back and read some of them I realize how many mistakes are there and sort of broke out in a cold sweat. I hope the amazing pictures and awesomeness of my words has tricked you all into thinking this is writing gold, but if it hasn’t I apologize and promise that I normally edit.
The night before last a few of us headed back into the town to the Pit to watch The James Murdoch Band for their last performance. It was just as good as the previous night, and the guys were giving it their all even though they had a THIRTY HOUR NON-STOP road trip home directly after. They had a cool green mini school bus, but that wouldn’t make 30 hours in a row any easier. After buying their CDs, we wished them luck and sent them off.
We stopped at four different sites today in the gold fields. We had great timing for all of them really, getting there when water was being shut off so we could see things, or leaving just before the rain. It was great. At Dominion we fed Slim Jim the Female Feral Fox some jerky and she followed us around for the remainder of our time. We also located a large ash (tephra) deposit and collected as much as possible before a huge ice chunk fell nearby and we rannn out of there.
Saw another porcupine on the road but alas, he was another one that was not photogenic. They are so cool looking in the wild though. We took a small detour in between a few sites and drove up to King Soloman’s Dome, which is the highest point in the Dawson Area. It was cloudy but you could still see the amazing landscape of the Yukon. Tyler took a panorama shot and when he patches it together I will definitely pass it along to you all.
To end today’s post I would like to talk about a special animal that every single person warned me about when I first told people I was going to the Yukon. Every single person commented on the mosquitoes and how bad they would be, even my eye doctor! I have been very surprised, I can count the number of bites I have received almost on one hand. I do not know if it is the peppermint soap and shampoo I have been using or what, but they have really left me alone. They aren’t too bad, no swarms, no real buzzing. Some days have been worse than others, but I have to say, I like the Dawson mosquito population. Wasps are another story…
Until next time! Cheers!
Weather also caused a huge headache for two of our group this morning. Britta and Duane were headed off to Fairbanks for some important work and were already stretched for time. Duane happened to read the highway report this morning and apparently last evening the road (yes, the ONLY road) was completely washed out. They were estimating 3-4 days before it opens. This is the road that continues once you cross on the ferry by the house. Duane and Britta had to make a decision: Drive down to Whitehorse and connect with a different highway and drive up to Fairbanks that way (turning what would normally be an 8 hour trip into a 16 hour trip), or wait until Thursday for the next flight to Fairbanks. They actually went for the former, choosing the drive because it would save them a day overall.
Yesterday after a successful day in the field some of us headed in to the Pit to hear The James Murdoch Band. Tyler actually went to jr high and high school with the lead singer/band leader (James, who actually goes by Alex). They were amazing! Totally surreal to see them playing at this run-down dump because they were seriously good. You couldn’t even tell that they were missing their bass player. They took turns playing bass during the show. It went on until about 2:30 and then we were kicked out of the bar so they could close it. The band would come hang out with us during the breaks so we got to talk and get to know them. Super fun. We are headed back tonight but will probably consume less beer this time. They do have a website/itunes section and I highly recommend their stuff. They even stopped by this afternoon to take a look at the bones and tusks!
Bones are still being found at all three sites but we finally feel like we have a handle on the cataloging process. Mathias is going to be taking samples next week so I will probably take over all cataloging while he and Susie sample. We did run into a small “snafu” with the nail polish. Apparently there is only one place in Dawson for nail polish and we bought them out two weeks ago. We ended up having to get a clear “sparkly” bottle just until Friday when we will get some more from our visitors from Whitehorse (coming up for the festival). I will try and take a picture of it in the light.
Matias and I also found a great way to make some money for future research. Yesterday we found a bone that had a thing of ice in it. The ice came out and it was perfectly clear and smelled fine. I totally licked it. Then we decided that we should go ahead and set up a bottling company and sell people 25,000 year old ice water. It would work. People are crazy like that. Any takers? I'll give you a good price!
Well, I’m off to buy my own ticket for the Dawson Music Festival. Unfortunately, this means that I will not being going to Whitehorse for the archaeology dig. I’m not too disappointed though, because I’m still having a great time. I should probably run into a few of the stores and buy some of the nicer things just in case, because lots and lots of people come up here for this weekend. Time is running out too… phew, too much stuff to do!
Cheers!
The bone contest is officially over. Andi was correct, the bone in the picture is actually a mastodon vertebra. There are quite a number of differences between the mammoth and mastodon, but in terms of bone identification the differences are subtle. It was sort of a trick question, but not really because I wasn’t picky about the answer. Andi, you will be receiving something exciting for winning the contest.
Yesterday we took half a day for cataloging bones and then half a day in the field. After searching for an hour at Dominion, I headed with Tyler and Britta to a (new to me) site called Paradise Falls. They monitored there last year and Britta did collections, but she wanted to see how it has changed. We were turned around a bit because in the mining areas, roads can change almost daily depending on where stuff needs to be, so after months of mining, it took a bit to get to the correct spot. The faces of the exposures were lots of fun to climb (while Britta and Tyler were actually working), and I got very dirty.
(Can you see Britta in this pic? Look closely!)
Today the weather was nasty in the morning and a cool wind has come over the valley. Mathias and I unfortunately left our bones uncovered last night when we went to bed because the weather was nice and sunny (at eleven pm). Of course, we learned a lesson the hard way like the boot incident, because overnight it poured and poured. We spent an hour getting water off the tarp and out from under the bones, but luckily they were all labeled and even had nail polish on them so none of the whiteout became compromised. We learned our lesson though.
Because the day was so slow a few of us drove up to what is called the Midnight Dome, which is the huge dome overlooking the city and the Yukon River. I’m glad we drove and can’t figure out why people would participate in the Midnight Dome Run in a few weeks. I guess it’s like the La Luz Trail Run in Albuquerque. Craziness. The views were pretty good even though it was still a bit cloudy. We have some nice pictures. On the way home we stopped at the Dawson City Information “Museum” and took some brochures and pictures. There was a small funny section about “collecting fossils”. The first thing it said to do was “Take a Breath.”.
Tonight we may be headed down to the Pit because one of Tyler’s friends is going to be performing. We’ve been playing his stuff on the drive out to the sites in anticipation and I like it. If anyone would like to look him up it is called The James Murdoch Band. Hopefully it won’t be as crazy as last night for some of my coworkers.We may stay home tonight so some of them can *ahem* recuperate and go tomorrow. He's playing for three days.
Cheers!
P.S. If anyone is wondering about this title, Tyler told us a story about a group of German tourists who did in fact use Bear Repellent as Bug Repellent. True story. Don't do it.
We all just finished a delightful dinner of fresh Arctic Charr. Oh my, it was amazing. It was caught and prepared this morning, and then we put it on the grill with oil, salt, pepper, and lemon. With salad (with local veggies) and pasta (that included local mushrooms found in the field), it was quite the dinner. And Mathias and I didn’t even ruin it by having ice cream a few hours ago when we returned from the field. There is one place in town and although it doesn’t serve homemade ice cream (it is Nestle), they do make their own waffle cones each day. And dip some of them in chocolate. So the lack of homemade ice cream is almost worth it.
We spent the morning doing more cataloging. If you follow me on Twitter, you would have seen a video I posted today about the process, made by Tyler. Here it is for anyone else that would like to see it: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h3H5bOFxGTk&feature=youtu.be
This video was shot over the span of many, many hours, even if the sun doesn’t change angle much. Notice that I do change clothes too, and that’s because it was actually shot over two days.
I have more wildlife to add to my Yukon sight-seeing collection. A porcupine! He was right by the road on the way home and very cute. Others in the group have reported moose and baby, bears and babies, porcupines and babies, and a lynx. No wolf sightings. Don’t think mountain lions are up this way either.
Yesterday Mathias and I headed into town to try and find some important things at the hardware store. The store looks a little puny on the outside, but it is huge inside! There was quite the selection. We bought them out of Rubbermaid containers at 23 dollars each. We paid with a purchase order from the Yukon Government. Meaning, they gave us the total, we filled out this form, and that was that. Actually, the same works at the grocery store right now. We check out, fill out a form, and go on. It is quite the system and everyone uses it around here. Beth was excited that she didn’t have to leave us cash for a month.
Mathias and I also saw the sensational Dawson City Airport yesterday when we dropped Hailey off for her return home and picked up some air freight that arrived for Duane. There was one counter, one person for the airline Air North, the only airline there. I felt a little bad taking up the guy’s time for the air freight when he had a (small) line of customers checking in for their flight, but he didn’t mind. Something noticeably absent in the airport: security screening. I hear that if they are going on another flight from Whitehorse, they have to go through security there. There was also a teeny little customs office for the once-a-week flight from Fairbanks.
Duane, Paul, and Fabrice came back from their Northern fieldwork today. Laundry was the first priority for them. Second priority was seeing all of our finds, including all of the tusks! Duane also mentioned that this is the most extensive collection/cataloging of Klondike fossils being undertaken in many, many years. I’m so lucky to be a part of it, especially because two weeks ago I knew squat about bones, fossils, and the Klondike. Wow.
And finally, a new bone contest! I have finally figured out the blog settings, and now anyone that would like to participate in the contest may. Sorry about that last time...So that you don’t have to look back at previous posts, here are the kinds of animals we have been finding (not in any order): caribou, bison, horse, mammoth, mastodon, saber-tooth cat (awesome), arctic fox, ground squirrel, sheep. If you guess any of those, you will have a 1 in 9 chance of being right. At least 50% right, because you also need to guess what part of the animal it is. Here’s a hint, it’s not a toe bone. It’s also darker at the bottom because it is wet. That has nothing to do with identification. If you have any questions about it, let me know. Let the commenting begin!
Cheers!
