She is a Wealth of Knowledge AND Crazy!

Most of my titles will now be things that have been overheard in the field. Some need no explanation. Most are fun by themselves.

We began the day with a quick stop at the gas station with the good snacks before leaving for the field. Beth bought us ketchup-flavored chips and Mattias and Svetlana were less than impressed. For me, the chips brought back fun memories. If anyone would like some, I’ll bring some home for you, so let me know! They taste like ketchup.

We (Mattias, Svetalana, and I) were on our own, and unfortunately when we pulled up there was no monitoring being done on the site. In fact, there was actually no one around at all. Mattias and I searched around a while for fossils, took pictures of the great stratigraphy and melting permafrost, and then helped out Svetlana. We picked up some bones that were found throughout the mining process yesterday when we stayed at home. Mattias was excited to show me that this included some pieces of a mammoth tusk. One of them (there is a pic above) has the mineral vivianite on it. It makes things bright blue!

Svetlana is a Russian entomologist who works at the Uni of Alberta. She is taking soil samples from right next to the permafrost, or from the thawing permafrost. She then screens them in water to make sure that only the organic matter is recovered. Eventually, back in the lab, she will sort all of the organic matter and find little beetles, other bugs, eggs, seeds, and other extremely tiny things. We did the grunt work, hauling bags of dirt, standing in the muck (with my new boots!) screening, and searching for mushrooms in the forest to eat for dinner (Svetlana did it yesterday and we all ate them. She is extremely knowledgeable in many areas).

The weather in the Yukon and especially here in the Dawson area is extremely strange. During the summer, it can actually be the hottest place in all of Canada while during the winter it can be one of the coldest. You have to take tons of layers into the field because it can be scorching hot, then windy and cool, then rainy, then freezing, then hot again. It is strange.

We had another visitor at the mining site while we were screening. A female, or young male, moose came up over a ridge and spent some time staring at us. S/He was only about 25 feet away from where we were working. When S/He decided that we were too scary, S/He ran, but returned about ten minutes later to watch us again. Mattias and I tried to track it and got some good pics of my hand next to the hoof print.

We came home a little early and labeled/sorted more bones. It is quite the daunting task…

Cheers!

You Actually Had Quite a Lot to Drink

This will be a short post, and with lots of fun random Yukon photos to appease the masses. Woke up to a very, very rainy and cold Dawson. Beth mentioned that we were not headed to the field today, and because I was so chilly I walked into town and had a hot breakfast at a cafe. It was really nice.

Other than that, the only real job of the day (it was a big one though) was to begin the task of sorting and cataloging the bones that we have gotten out of the field. There have been three days of collections, with a total of 12 bags full of bones. We are sorting them by day (well, they are in bags by the day), then by animal and then by type of bone. I learned a lot about identification of certain bones, and of what bone goes with what animal. There are small differences and it will take me a while to catch on, but I think it will be possible. We have mammoth, bison, horse, and caribou from the first day. Others may be added, but these four are the most likely suspects for everything right now.

There is more rain in the forecast, but I believe we are headed back into the field tomorrow. I'm sure it will be messy and fun, like always!

Hope everyone is doing well, I hear the monsoon season has basically started in Albuquerque! Yay!

Cheers!

If I Can See You, I Won't Kill You

If you are wondering about the title, look at my Twitter account. :) Tonight as I write, I am tired. Therefore, all of the pretty pictures are at the front (what the pictures are should be explained in the post, but ask if you are wondering about a certain one)! The blog formatting takes a bit of time, and instead of putting off a blog completely, I thought I would just sort of take the easy route. It is rainy and chilly here right now, so I don’t feel so bad skipping out on the in-town fun that some of the others are leaving for soon.

Speaking of in-town fun, last night was great. A group of us headed in after dinner to the small, local bar called The Pit. It looks exactly like you would imagine. Quite the pit. There was a band playing, and I soon learned that the band actually plays 7 nights a week, 365 days a year. Seriously. The previous band leader, a local icon/hero known as Walrus, unfortunately passed away earlier this year, so the band is still trying to adjust with new people. I enjoyed it, while some of the others thought it was lacking. A pool game between one of our crew and a very drunk but happy local ended our night at the Pit. On the walk home, we passed Diamond Tooth Gertie’s. This fine establishment is a small casino and bar with a olde-time can-can type show playing three times a night. It is actually owned by the Tourist Bureau, and all of the profits go directly back into the community.

The next morning began innocently enough. We had breakfast and started the trip out to the sites. The road is narrow and windy, and the miners use extremely large equipment for moving earth. On various occasions they need to move from mine to mine and they send a truck ahead, warning oncoming cars about the approach. This morning we were waiting for a large piece of equipment to pass and were parked behind another waiting truck on the side of the road. Suddenly, the truck in front of us went in reverse and began backing up, and promptly accelerating right into us. Luckily, everyone still had on their seatbelt, the airbags did not deploy, and the car still ran. Unluckily, the front bumper was cracked and bent in many places and will definitely need to be replaced. This may make for some interesting juggling of vehicles, because it will probably mean that the car will need to be driven back to Whitehorse (6 hours one way) soon.

As we continued to the sites, we saw a moose and her calf! Very cool.

The site we worked at today is called Dominion Creek. We are looking for early, early bones here, approx 80,000 years old. There are only 3 people, a family, that run this mine: Laurie, his wife Sandy, and adult son Mark. They are extremely nice people, and we had a great time today with Sandy as she was in charge of the water monitor (the high-pressure hose). She is working away at the frozen permafrost to reach the payday dirt with gold. We would search the mud and surrounding areas for any fossils that were uncovered. It was fun!

The mine also has another constant visitor. There is a fox, named Jim, that will come and get scraps of food once a day from Sandy and the men. Mathias and I named him Slim Jim the Feral Fox. He was cute, but sort of scraggly too, and obviously still wild enough to keep a 3 foot distance.

In terms of fossil collection, the day was extremely successful. We were able to get many bones “in situ” meaning, where they were still stuck in the permafrost, not washed down. A few interesting finds were a mammoth vertebra and an ancient arctic fox jawbone. It was so tiny compared to the other things we’ve been collecting!

After another incident where I was stuck in the mud AGAIN at Lucky Lady site, we returned home. National Geographic actually “retweeted” a picture of me and asked a question about it, so I am on the National Geographic twitter page with some cool bones! Our first video blog may be posted on their main website tomorrow.

I’m looking forward to tomorrow, to being able to wear my awesome new rubber boots that so many of you heard about! Will post pics of them tomorrow. Wow, that is a lot of "tomorrows" in a short period of time.

Cheers!

Fossils are a Girl's Best Friend

My body did not have a problem with the Midnight Sun as it is called in Dawson, and I eventually fell asleep and woke up with plenty of time to get ready for the field.
Actually, here is a picture of my first Yukon Midnight Sun! As soon as I posted yesterday I went out to the river and snapped this shot. It never actually went down.



















The drive out to the mining sites took about an hour. Duane drove to the top of King Dome and drew a map in the dust of the back of the Explorer to orient us to the sites. There are many mining areas outside of Dawson (obviously), and today we visited three. Two of which we will be spending lots of time.

I.Love.The.Field.
Love.
It is hard to explain exactly why, but let me tell you about this project so you can all dream that you are with me.
First, a mining company (think family-owned small town farmer in the States, that size), decides to mine. They clear an area, create a reservoir, and and begin to use a high-powered pressure hose to break down the soil, to get to the old, old deposits. Old. This leaves a huge mud pit of Pleistocene and Holocene era deposits (frozen). The deposits begin to melt, and everything smells like rotting organic material, because it is rotting, from 30,000 years ago. The miners scoop things up and put them through their machines to get the gold. We tredge through the mud and search for fossils. Mammoths, bison, caribou, and ancient horses are all present in the mud, in various forms/qualities. It is great!!











































The mud was smelly and in some places, really, really thick. In the third place we visited, I stepped wrong and became very, very thankful that my boots were on quite tight. I had mud up to my knees. They have it on video, which may become one of the blogs for National Geographic. I tell people to always tie their shoes. Tightly.

A hilarious part of the day (for me) was when we were waiting for Duane to talk to some of the miners and hanging out by the car. The area is covered in mica, the mineral also known as fool's gold, but it just makes the ground sort of shiny. There was a layer of dust on the back of the car, and when I touched it I sparkled in the sunlight. I told everyone I was a vampire. Heehee.

Another highlight (besides basically being able to PLAY IN THE MUD THE WHOLE DAY AS FIELD WORK) was on our drive home we were able to see a black bear! He was on the road ahead of us, and when we caught up with him he looked a little bewildered and then took off for the woods. One of our members was able to catch a picture of him on the road ahead of us, but he was too fast to get a good pic of him next to the car.

After a quick stop into town for (very expensive) groceries, we are now home and making dinner. In total, we have four bags of fossils. All are very smelly, but very cool. I earned my keep here by finding a bison/moose tooth in an area where we have no samples. We have three new team members from the University of Alberta: Fabrice, Joel, and Svetlana.

Loving the Yukon!!

Dawson

The Yukon has two roads/highways that run through it. One is named Road #1 and one is named Road #2. This morning, we met with Grant (THE Yukon paleontologist, who mentioned that there is an archy dig going on in Whitehorse that I could help with if I was interested!!), had breakfast, procured a cooler, snacks for the trip, and field pants for Mattias, and began our trip up Road #2 to Dawson City.

Either dehydration or tiredness/stress caught up with me, and a headache caused most of the trip to be not exactly fun. My carmates let me nap, but I was awakened by torrential downpours and changes in the quality of the road on various occasions.

The scenery did not change much throughout the 5.5 hour trip to Dawson. Lots of birch and spruce trees. An occasional stream or river. More tree-covered mountains. All very beautiful. One of our two stops along the way was for one of these crazy, tasty cinnamon rolls. Hopefully you can read the excitement in my face. There was a small airplane landing strip across the road that was actually called “Cinnamon Bun Landing Strip”.

You could tell that we were getting close to Dawson City because suddenly there were random groups of houses along the road. Interspersed between these groups were huge gravel pits, remnants of old mines from years/centuries before. The primary economy in Dawson is still gold mining.

Dawson is almost indescribable overall. There is a special air about this tiny, tiny town. There are two main roads (Front and Main). Small, box-like, colorful businesses are crammed together with wooden boardwalks connecting them. The paint and lettering on the businesses could easily be from the late 1800’s. There are a few places that have seemed to feel the downfall of the world economy and are closed, but there are other restaurants, museums, bars, and gift shops to satisfy the tourist trade. I have two favorite buildings so far: the abandoned mill and a bright, completely purple house off the main drag.

These are the Whitehorse Cabins (well, our quadplex here is one of three buildings plus camping space) where we are staying. After our arrival, we briefly met with the owners (did a verbal “check-in”), and dumped our stuff before heading in to town to eat dinner and look for the other two team members from University of Alberta who arrived yesterday. Dinner was successful (I had a Yukon salmon quesadilla. Strange but AMAZING), and when we returned we were able to meet Duane and Tyler. (Duane is the man in charge for this dig, he’s been working on this project a long time!)

Although we stayed outside and talked for two hours, I did not receive any mosquito bites. The gnats are gnasty for sure, quite thick in some areas, but I wasn’t even wearing bug spray, just pants and sleeves.

As of this writing, the rest of the team ventured into town (for some shinianigans, I’m sure), and I’m still trying to convince my body that it is 11 p.m. It is extremely bright outside. Extremely. In fact, all of the pictures from the cabin picture to now were taken at TEN AT NIGHT.

The plan right now for tomorrow will be to go and visit some of the mining sites where we will be taking samples, so Mattias and I are able to begin looking at the landscape/geology of the area.

By the way, the wireless connection is as expected in the Arctic North, spotty or non-existent. There is an Ethernet cord outside which I am going to go and attempt to use to post this and contact some of you.

Cheers!

(The last photo is from the cabins where we are staying looking in to town. It takes about 3 mins total to get to the action)

Yukon. First impressions.

After a 5 hour layover in Vancouver, which included two local beers and dinner, good company meeting up with my cousin Beth- the reason I'm here- and another team member Mattias-a post doc from Penn State/Germany- we boarded a nearly empty plane to Whitehorse.

The flight was uneventful, most people slept. I watched a movie. Not a particularly good one, and I had to fast forward the last ten minutes (I didn't miss much).

As I felt the plane descend slightly, I glanced out of the window. It was midnight, but the sky seemed to stay on the brink of a beautiful purple, pink, and yellow sunset. It was a bit cloudy, but through the clouds I would see glimpses of jagged mountains with snow. It was beautifully different and exotic.















The pilot filled us in on our arrival to Whitehorse (in the standard French and English), and we prepared for the landing. The Yukon River wound through the landscape surrounded by more snow-capped mountains. The air became foggy, and trees were much more populous than city lights. I think Whitehorse was actually on the other side of the plane, because I saw very little evidence of people out the window.

On the ground, it had been raining. The temperature was beautiful. The fog still covered areas, but the sky was as bright as a normal rainy day in Albuquerque (not at midnight).

Whitehorse airport became a happening place very quickly, teeming with laughter, loud talking, and hugs. I didn't realize how many people were actually on our plane until then!

Because of the rain we found a quick ride across the street to the Skky hotel and unpacked the necessities for the night. The hotel is very swank and comfy.
This is the bathroom! Look at that shower! And a jacuzzi! (edit: I am disappointed to learn field work will not be conducted here and I will not be staying in this hotel with a tempurpedic mattress, 250 channels, and a jacuzzi and mini-bar. I never get to go on the fun digs.)










Today our plans are to finish watching this World Cup match between Portugal and Brazil, have some breakfast with THE Yukon Paleontologist Grant, who is part of our team, see a bit of Whitehorse and then head to Dawson.

I'll try and post pictures from the plane, the hotel, Whitehorse, and Dawson as soon as possible.

Cheers!

(also, Beth has convinced me to contribute to the social networking craziness that Nat Geographic is making her do. I was going to protest, until we saw that IndianaJana was not taken for Twitter. So now I have a twitter account to post single-ongoing crazy times that we encounter)

All packed early?!?

The title above is a bit misleading. While I am currently NOT packed, I do have everything set out on the guest bed, waiting to be put/shoved/folded/mashed into the two backpacks. Since I am not in the Yukon yet, and have no exciting pictures of archaeological features or Hawaii, I thought instead I would share what I am bringing on the trip! Ooooooo.

This is my list. I am quite the list person. I have highlighted everything when it was placed on the bed, and will cross it off when it goes in one of the bags.























This is what the bed currently looks like. I hope it will be empty by the time this is published and you all are reading it.



























I have had help during the packing process. Here is one of my assistants taking a break, begging for treats.















I also wanted to show you all one of my favorite things I am packing. They will be both necessary and entertaining. These were a gift from my boyfriend Ryan's sister at Christmas. She found them somewhere on the internet.
I present to you all: bacon bandaids.















With these babies packed, anything is possible.


Cheers, see you all in the North, unless I get stranded in an airport.


(By the way, sorry about this post being random. I am trying to figure out how long it is going to take to upload pictures, label pictures, write and edit a blog post, and add the pictures. Surprisingly, and thankfully, my report so far is not long.)

T-minus 48 hours for New Adventure!

So, I've decided to start a blog. The main reason for this blog is because when I go to do research and am gone for weeks/months at a time, then return home and try to tell everyone what I accomplished, the days meld together and I am left describing hiking, carrying equipment, and going through lots and lots of dirt.
:/

Let me begin by explaining a bit about what I do, with some helpful pictures.

This is what I like to do: mapping!



















For the next few years, I am sure that I will likely be found here during the summer months, which is on the windward side of the Island of Hawaii.



















I normally am looking at ancient Hawaiian agricultural features, which usually consist of these rock walls (terraces)



















Sometimes I work on the dry side of the island and look like this.
















This summer, however, I will not be headed to Hawaii. Instead, I am trying something completely new and not exactly archaeology. In a few days I will be headed up to Northern Canada- the Yukon to be exact- and will be assisting in a research project that is looking for ancient fossils. I believe I'm going to be in recently used gold mines, power washing away permafrost to find said fossils. And I'm really excited!! I hope to be able to post something every day, but don't hold me to that right now.

Current weather in Dawson, Yukon is 55F/13C. Current weather here in Albuquerque, New Mexico is 85F/30C and climbing. Let's do this.

Cheers!