Andreavski River

In late May, I was employed for a short stint as Chrissy's field assistant. We took a very quick trip to the village of St. Mary's, which is on the Andreavski River near the mouth of the Yukon River. Our mission: to capture lots of little fish! To get to all of the sites, we were flown around the drainage in a helicopter by pilot, Stan Hermans.

Chrissy, in search of juvenile grayling and sculpin...

...and of course, Chinook. All in all, the trip was a success. Chrissy got all of the fish she needs and I got to see an absolutely amazing part of AK I'd never been before (these pictures really don't do it justice).

A view from above

Perks of the job

In January, I began my PhD in biology at UAF. For my research, I will be examining climate change and how it is affecting permafrost thaw and carbon cycling. Things have been going really well thus far, particularly this day in late April, when Jamie H and I used a chainsaw to slice into the frozen ground...

...and then used a big auger to take a soil sample...

Just keeping ya'll privy to latest technology we like to use 'round these parts.

Delta Clearwater

Time for another flurry of blogging! So much has been going on lately that there's been no time for posting. A very typical AK summer, for sure. For us, the beginning of summer (or at least the end of winter) is kicked off with a float down the Delta Clearwater near Delta Junction. This year, we were joined by Katie, Blaine, Johnny Smelter and his girlfriend Miki from Japan. Here are a few pics.



Freya has almost completely recovered from the incident with the Truck in February. No more limping and her spirits are generally upbeat. Of course, she's still not a big fan of water.

Johnny, Miki, and Katie taken a break for lunch.

Blaine broke his paddle when he, for obvious reasons, started smacking some floating ice.


Instead of taking out at Clearwater Lake, we floated downriver to the Tanana and the bridge along the Richardson Highway. The weather took a decided turn for the worst, with intermittent snow, sleet, rain, and winds. Good times!