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!!