Bike trek continued…and an end to the blog July 25, 2008
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Last time I left off at the site of a plane wreck that someone in our small group said dated back to WWII. I can’t say that I was convinced of this, since the oldest tags we could find scratched on the metal were from around 2000. That being said, it was still an intriguing site to take in.
We passed by more lakes than I cared to photograph, but there were definitely some that stood out in their beauty. While there were no trees around (another traveler said that some had existed on the coast a while back, but they were cut down by settlers and none have regrown), the rolling hills did have grasses and some other plants which added enough green to the setting. The first is a panorama from the hill of the plane wreck looking towards the main river coming from the ice sheet. The next three are water shots taken near that location:
It was a pretty tough trek, with lots of sand and many hills. In addition to the hills, there was a slight grade overall so the ride out was tougher than the ride back. It was good to finally see the ice, but that first glimpse was deceptive since it was not very far into the trip:
You can see from the shot on the left that there were long, unbikable stretches, but I did enjoy getting a chance to walk since my seat wasn’t exactly comfortable. I tried to use my stocking cap as a cover to give a little more cushion, but that only lasted a few kilometers before losing it going down a hill. (hopefully I’ll be able to procure a new one during my return to MN next month) Here’s a zoomed look that shows a little more detail:
Max was kind enough to take a photo of the rest of the group during a stop closer to the ice. The contrast isn’t great, but you can see the dirty edge of it behind us. Jacques, Christine, myself, Tara, and Craig are in the foreground:
We went around one more bend on the trail and came across a picnic area (with grill and tables) that is used by the tour operators. Tara, Max, and I stopped there while the other three continued on for another mile or two. I’m not sure how much further they went, but they got pretty small on the horizon before rounding one last corner:
closeup of the section of path closest to the ice:
There was a nice section of rapids at the campsite, so I took a lot of pictures…have a video clip too, but it isn’t in a format that I can post so ask about it when you see me.
The shots taper off here after I stopped to get some fresh water when we turned around to head back.
I did take a tumble on the way back, about 7km from town. Going too fast and using a bike with a rear tire that was unbalanced left me eating a lot of dust. I fell well though, getting the bike away from me and rolling a few times. The scrapes are healing and the scarring isn’t too noticeable so alls well that ends well. The main down side was my hands were in rough shape (cuts and blisters from the ride), so getting back was the only thing on my mind. Here I am shortly after the fall (note the dusty glasses. Both them and my sunglasses went flying off, but survived in a more or less wearable state)
I’ll close with a couple more photos, including one of the track that I left in some deeper sand while managing to ride through it, and two more looks at the scenery.
All told the ride was approximately 56km spanning about 8.5 hours, which isn’t bad considering the equipment/terrain that I dealt with. It was almost enough to get me to look at buying a bike upon my return, but not quite (haha).
With that, I’ll wrap up this blog by saying ‘Thanks’ to you for checking in on me over the past few weeks. I had a good time and hope that you were able to enjoy some of the highlights of my trip. There are more photos and a few video clips that didn’t make it on this site so feel free to ask me about them when our paths cross. In the meantime, take care and hopefully I’ll see you soon. -Jeff
Delays, delays, delays July 18, 2008
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Yes, that’s what my advisor is thinking (though not about this site). Spending some of that hard-earned gvmt handout green over the next few days, so this likely won’t get wrapped up for another week. I see that there are only a few who are still checking the site…I’m in no hurry, but would like to wrap this up. Look for a conclusion by this time next week! -Jeff
When ice sheets attack! July 16, 2008
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This past Friday there was talk of a group making the bike trip out to the edge of the Greenlandic ice sheet from Kangerlussuaq. Six of us, including myself, met up around 7a and tried to find enough bikes to ride. The KISS only had 5 available to us (one with a chain that looked ready to break and another that had a seat which wouldn’t seat in the post), so Craig the high school teacher set out to get a rental while the rest of us had breakfast that included cold cereal, something resembling cocktail weenies, mystery deli meats skewered with toothpicks, some type of cheese, and plenty of pastries. Once Craig got the last bike and threw down a little food it was time to set off on what was advertised as a 27km trek to the ice edge. I was not the only one who hasn’t been doing much biking since childhood, so the prospect of a tough ride of roughly 30 miles was daunting.
The view from the first hill we topped was quite nice, with the fjord/town/airport spread out behind us and the long winding path to the ice in the fore. The completion of the journey would be most satisfying.
Here’s hole number 10 on the local golf course. To the left of the pin one can see tee box:
The path itself was predominantly glacial till, mostly sand and small rounded rocks (although a few were almost fist-sized). I had wanted to do a clever title along of the line of “Till We Meet Again” as an homage to my second favorite cartoon show “Sheep in the Big City”…unfortunately it was yanked from you-tube and only a few unfunny clips are left, so this links to a segment sans dialog.
It was important to stay hydrated, since the road ahead of us was quite long. 
There were plenty of sights to see on the way out, including Sugarloaf Mountain, numerous lakes, and what was described as a WWII plane wreck:
<<<Time to work on data-related things, so I will try to continue from here tomorrow>>>
Out of the cold July 14, 2008
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Made it back down to Kanger this past Thursday, after a slightly adventurous flight (see last time). Spent a little time online after we landed, since there was no hurry to go to lunch (missed it) and dinner was a ways away. There wasn’t a whole lot to do afterwards, since people were tired from the night before and the day’s journey. (then again, there usually isn’t much to do). That left me making a call to walk out to Lake Ferguson with a couple fellow Summiters deciding to join me.
Right to the north and east of town is one of the glacial rivers that drains the ice sheet. Apparently some 30 years ago an adventurer decided to try and navigate the waterway, but was unsuccessful. (the sarcastic side of me wondered if he passed away just after launching, but it’d be tasteless to speculate here so I’ll just show a couple photos):
Here’s Jacques down by the lake. It was late, so no one else was around and the rowing club was silent:
There wasn’t any flora or fauna at the top, aside from a doomed wayward bird, but down at the coast there were flowers in bloom. Not spectacular, but still a treat for my eyes:
Going to catch a bus now, but be sure to check back over the next few days and I’ll take you out to the edge of the ice!!
Long voyage ‘home’ July 12, 2008
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Will be up in about 3 hours for the final push to get everything wrapped up and myself/my possessions on the plane back to Scotia. There is supposed to be breakfast around 4a, which means about 3.5 hours of sleep tonight. Hopefully my roommate won’t mind the 340a alarm.
It was a pretty round day, what with the tumble while mountain biking and some other issues, but I’m happy to say I’ll be back in NH in less than 24 hours. I have much to share, but don’t figure to get it out for a couple more days so be sure to check in one more time. In the meantime, thanks for following along and I hope that you found this to be useful. (if not the words, then the pictures). Until then, the edge of the Greenlandic ice sheet and I bid you good night. Take care- Jeff
Friendly skies July 10, 2008
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Have A LOT to show from the past day, but I’m ready to do some hiking now that we’ve landed in Kangerlussuaq, Greenland. The flight down was interesting, as it was delayed about 3.5 hours. I thought just from fog, but after we landed I heard that there were some mechanical issues too. I didn’t find this hard to believe, because about 30 minutes out the crew scrambled around under seats and dislodged a couple passengers. Then, 7 cans of fluid were passed along like a bucket brigade…turns out it was hydrolic fluid and there was an unexplained loss. No leak was found and it fixed the problem, but still an interesting sight to behold. (tried to take a pic when the crew member wasn’t doing something that required concentration)
I’ll leave with a little something in a window of the cockpit that was pointed out to me while we were boarding. It brought a smile to my face and Craig too my picture (which I’ll have to get later), but here’s a shot after deplaning in Kanger:
Almost back to the US, then I’ll begin my Greenlandic goodwill tour! Best- Jeff
July 9, 2008
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<<I can see the first three photos when editing the post, but not when viewing it. Not sure what’s going on, but it’s too late for me to worry about it now.>>
Here I am at 3am once again. Wrapped up a little packing, but there is still much more to go. Keeping the GB running until midday Wednesday to correspond with a couple overflights that are taking place as part of the ARCTAS program (sorry, too tired to do a link, so you’ll have to look for it yourself)
I’m definitely ready to go, as it’s now been more than 5 weeks up here. I can’t wait to get a day or two to myself instead of having to watch instruments and do other things all day long. I figure I’ve been putting in 14-hour days on average…while most of the time there isn’t too much exertion involved it’s still draining. At least the 24-hour sun has kept me charged up. I feel real good for someone who has had about 12 hours of sleep over the past 3+ days.
Some teachers and a few students showed up today, which would have been exciting enough but the plane needed to use rockets to help it get off the soft runway. Of course I was working and didn’t have my camera with anyway so no pics from me. I’m hoping to get a couple from someone else and if I do I’ll post them. I had to give a brief talk about what I’m doing up here to the people. Three small groups of folks who had just deplaned and were doing their best to be interested. I’m planning to be out and about more later today, so I’ll document some of the activity as I spend my last day at Summit. In the meantime, here are some more images:
A portion of the tangled mess I had to clean up today…I had already removed a couple things before getting the idea to document it.
The ability to make quality snow steps…yet one more of my talents. I’ll wrap up with a couple shots of ice that built up during our brief period of fog and southwest winds. I didn’t have a good item to use for scale reference, just my small stick drive. Have a good night/day -Jeff
Holiday on Ice July 7, 2008
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As promised, here are some pictures from the parade yesterday. It was a cool 14F with light snow at start time (4:30p), but there was a 15-20 mph wind that made it quite uncomfortable to stand around outside. There were some creative entries, but those of us who are sciencing at Summit didn’t quite have the resources to compete with the staff and construction personnel in terms of extravagance. The route was around one of the buildings, past the judge’s “stand”, and then a 180 back to the starting point. After an opening of the cook serving as the drum corps and a few flag bearers the floats rolled.
There were some non-US citizens who (according to what I was told) referenced a Monty Python skit and were wondering what the Romans ever did for them. The two Brits and one Canuck earned many kudos for shirking traditional Summit garb(i.e. something warm) Most of the people in my group dressed up as pirates/mermaids/shark. You read that correctly…a shark:
Here’s a chance for you to play a little Where’s Waldo…feel free to share how long it took you to find me:
To answer a couple questions from viewers:
It’s been around 40F in my tent at night, but noticeably warmer when I wake up. The first couple weeks water in a bottle I keep inside the tent would occasionally be freezing or frozen, but I don’t have a thermometer so I can’t be any more precise. Here’s the view from my front door…not too far away, but enough distance to make me not roll right out of my sleeping bag:
Getting ready to start packing tomorrow evening but I’ll try to add a couple more posts before I return to the states. Until next time -Jeff
Counting down July 5, 2008
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Things have been relatively calm the past couple days, meaning that there has been a lot of work for me to do and no major malfunctions have occurred. Since it’s down to 1 week now, I’m finally comfortable with what I’ve accomplished up to this point and not worried about having everything running it to the very end. Pretty liberating, actually, so I expect to be in a good mood for the rest of the experience.
Hopefully you had an enjoyable holiday/3-day weekend. I got most of my business taken care of on Friday so I can enjoy the festivities planned for Saturday. There will be a parade including floats and some sports afterwards. Not sure what else will be happening, but I can assure you that there will be pictures. In the meantime, here are a few more photos (hole in the clouds/tapered sliver of clearing at the horizon/”V” of blue in the sky/frozen wave breaking into Sat camp/some guy behind the drift…for scale):
Heading out to work for a while so that’s it for now. -Jeff
Zombified July 2, 2008
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<<Post started Tuesday night, but slow upload time and fatigue made me stop writing shortly after midnight>>
Well staying up until 4a and digging a big hole 4 hours later apparently is not a good idea. As one might guess, throwing a couple cubic yards of snow over one’s head on little rest makes for a looooong day. I dozed off for a couple hours and missed dinner, which is bad since I can’t eat again until morning. Haha, just kidding. There was plenty left over and I even got a slice of cake for Canada Day. (strange chocolate 2-layer deal with vanilla icing and blueberries in between the layers) The festivities included some other stuff during dinner that I missed and a movie this evening. The instigator was a student from U Toronto who is helping me with sampling and doing a little data work for the last 2.5 weeks I’m here. Tara was kind enough to do some of the digging and seemingly excited to pull the samples:
Here’s a shot from the inside of snow blowing over the top:
and a couple of Tara at work once we got the whole thing cleaned up; one from the side and one looming over the top:
Took a nice panorama, but that will have to wait since load time is kinda long. In the meantime, here’s my drift wall (we have to sample downwind all the time because people are sources of some of the ions we’re looking for, so this was to help minimize the snow blowing in one’s face), me up to my eyeballs in the pit with drift flying around, and the hole after filling:
No, that wasn’t it. Of course I had to fill it in all the way. To paraphrase Groudskeeper Willie from The Simpsons, “She was a bonnie hole”.
<<Continued Wednesday around noon>>
I’ll wrap up quickly by showing the panoramic view (excuse the fact that it isn’t level…too bright to see the view screen; if you can download the image, click on it…much better than looking at the thumbnail)
Lastly, there is a bit of work going on around the Big House. They are in the process of digging out the bottom so it can be raised higher. Not easy work, but the people cutting blocks and clearing it out are doing a great job. -Jeff
