With spring finally rearing it's glorious head, natural scientists everywhere begin to crawl out of their dens. After a long winter of writing papers, we yearn for warm sunshine on our pasty skin, the friendly chirping of birds, the burn of physical labour, and long walks in the woods (...for science, of course).
While doing some preliminary gear shopping earlier last week, I felt like a kid bounding through a candy store - only instead of candy, I was leaping from aisle to aisle with handfuls of bug spray, electrolyte tablets, and bama socks. Trust me, it was magical.
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| Sorting through a pile of gear |
This is the first season where I won't be returning home on a regular basis, and packing has come with a few challenges. There isn't room to bring a lot of extraneous things, but bundles of art supplies and containers of dice keep creeping into the small pockets of my bags. Good thing there's time to sort that one out.
Our flight leaves on May 6th, which will be just around the peak of the Eta Aquariids meteor shower. I'm hoping it will be dark enough, as we are also hoping to catch the tail end of aurora borealis season before the days become too long. With the exception of a few photos, my next update will probably be from Yellowknife. Until then - hope you're all enjoying the NHL Playoffs.
Reading List
- Benninghoff, W.S. 1952. Interaction of vegetation and soil frost phenomena. Arctic 5: 33-44.
- MacKay, J.S. 1972. The world of underground ice. Annals of the Association of American Geographers 62: 1-22.
- Shur, Y., K.M. Hinkel and F.E. Nelson. 2005. The transient layer: implications for geocryology and climate-change science. Permafrost and Periglacial Processes 16: 5-17.
