The Journey Home

One of the most important parts of any expedition is making sure your crew all get safely home!  We take extra precautions travelling in the Arctic, because harsh conditions and long distances make travel difficult and unpredictable.  This year, our plan was to leave our field site on June 25th, and it actually happened that day, a minor miracle in the Arctic.  Although we had a short fog delay, our trusty Beaver pilot Eric arrived late on the morning of the 25th to begin extracting our camp.  We had all pitched in to start taking camp down the day before, which is a long process.  It's kind of like taking apart the house you are living in while you're still inside, so we have to think carefully about what we still need as we go.  After packing up all the data and survey equipment, we worked on the cooking and eating tents, and then finally our personal tents, and managed to get everything taken down and loaded into just three Beaver flights.  After an overnight stay in Prudhoe Bay, complete with our first showers in weeks, we all headed off in our various directions, some on to other field projects, others through Anchorage and back home.  We felt blessed to have such a fantastic field crew, because everyone got along splendidly and worked hard together like a team. 

Now that we're home, I have a very short version of summer before heading back to the Arctic.  After two and a half weeks of catching up with office work, a planning retreat for our shorebird programs, and more gear preparations, I'll be headed back north to complete our coastal survey in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.  I'll update you on our progress from there starting July 23rd!

Thanks for following our work in the Arctic, and join us again for our next adventure soon!