Whirlwind summer

Since moving to Alaska my summers have always been busy with field work, trips, gardening, fishing, and blueberry picking, but this summer has been exceptionally busy. Since returning from Greenland a little over two weeks ago I've been to Gulkana Glacier twice - once to be a witness for a wedding ceremony (in the pouring rain) and once to teach a glaciology field course (also in the pouring rain). Now that I've been in Fairbanks for a total of two weeks this summer its time to hit the road again. This time Jason S. and Elvira are coming up from Oregon to join Inari, myself, and Syosaku (another glaciology student) on a hiking trip up in the Brooks Range. The plan is to hike west from the haul road into Gates of the Arctic National Park about 70 miles to the the town of Anaktuvuk Pass. From Anaktuvuk we will catch a smallish plane and fly back to Fairbanks. The one catch is that the other Jason had a very untimely bicycling accident a week ago and initially thought that he had broken his ankle... At the moment its not clear how that will affect our trip, but I'm sure we'll figure something out. At any rate, we're excited to have our first visitors that aren't family and aren't named Take. Photos and stories to come.