Western Arctic National Parklands Residency Day 23: Cape Krusenstern

August 31, 2016

Western Arctic National Parklands Residency Day 23: Cape Krusenstern

This morning was full of confusion. After a scant few hours of sleep I was up to pack and check in to see what time our flight to Cape Krusenstern will be. When you fly here, if you're on a charter, you never know when you're leaving until you're leaving. The pilots are busy and rearrange schedules to accommodate as many people as possible each day as efficiently as possible. Things are always in flux. Our leader was told to be at the airport at 10:30am to depart. I had to scramble for a quick shower, final packing, and loading up gear to drive it the short distance to the airport (it is literally just a block and a half away from where I'm staying). We arrived over there just after 10, and found out that they would have been able to get us out if we'd been ready a few minutes earlier, and now we'll have to wait until afternoon. 1:30pm was our new departure time.

We left our gear in their hangar and I walked home for a much needed nap. I had lunch with Tyler, then headed back to the airport to meet up with my little group. There are four of us going: Ranger Stacia from the Fairbanks office, Ranger Julia from here in Kotz, Macy who's a local college student and Arctic Youth Ambassador, and myself. We're going for a project of Stacia's that involves getting video and still footage of a group of four researchers who are working out of the Anigaaq Ranger Station in Cape Krusenstern. They are studying the fish populations of the Arctic lagoons, working to establish data and a knowledge base about this ecosystem for several important reasons. These lagoons are natural fish nurseries that support the subsistence and commercial fishing that local communities depend upon. It is only a matter of time before there is a major oil spill here, and with the opening of the Northwest Passage, new shipping lanes are being established and will likely see heavy use in the near future. With no baseline data, it is impossible to assess environmental impacts and hold companies accountable for damages. This whole region is understudied, there is so much we don't know about so very many plants, animals, habitats, ecosystems. Exciting stuff to get to learn about and watch some of the important work that's going on here. You can read more about their work on their blog: https://arcticberingia.wordpress.com/category/lagoons/

Back at the airport at 1:30, we sat around until about 2. I was on the first of two flights, we fit two people, gear, and the pilot. It's a short flight to Anigaaq, but stunningly beautiful. We flew over town and northwest along the coast, over the beach ridges, ponds, lagoons, spits of land, and thousands of birds. So many that the water had white patches of tundra swans. The weather was unbeatable, warm and blue. We landed on the tundra, just past the ranger station, on the spit of land between the ocean and river. After tossing our gear out, our pilot was off, back to Kotzebue to get the others and the rest of the gear. Macy and I loaded as much as we could in our arms and headed off towards the two cabins that constitute Anigaaq. Already I love it here, the personality of this place is incredible. On our walk we met up with Brian, one of the researchers. He helped load our stuff into a four wheeler trailer and hauled it behind him on the long walk. We met Kevin at the ranger station, unloaded, then headed back toward the landing strip to meet the others. After all of us and our gear were at the station, we chose tent sites and got set up.

Two of the four researchers were still out in the field. Brian is the undisputed camp chef and he whipped up a delicious dinner of rice with sausage and veggies, including cabbage and broccoli. Trevor and Marguerite arrived on the four wheelers from a distant lagoon and helped process some fish that Kevin and Brian had pulled in from the ocean. They measure the species, length, and diet of the fish (using the lavage method to gather food the fish consume without hurting the fish), then release them back to the water.

Sunset was spectacular, as I'm learning to expect from the arctic. A fire on the beach is standard, this crew likes their late nights and late mornings. It's a very agreeable schedule, I love my late nights, and I love getting enough sleep. I was so exhausted still from being up for the auroras last night that I crashed pretty early, not long after midnight.

After landing.

The second flight arriving. Anigaaq Ranger Station cabins in the background.

The old mail station that served the people who used to live out on the cape. Now there are no permanent residents, just a scattering of fishing camps that people use seasonally while fishing and drying fish for winter storage.

Walking the gear to the cabins.

The bunkhouse cabin, sleeps four. Outhouse in the distance.

Cook cabin and bunkhouse.

Exploring the area around the cabins.

Caribou skull.

Our array of tents, the mail house visible in the distance.

Chukchi Sea, Arctic Ocean.

Ocean, beach, tents, cabins.

Closeup.

Water foul tracks and starfish.

There were several of these dead birds along the stretch of beach I explored.

There were so many starfish.

An isopod exoskeleton.

Crab claw.

Unknown bird tracks that were huge! This is my big size 10 foot in a clunky hiking boot.

Not sure, but this looked like a dried sea sponge.

So many of these shells on the beach. Big and small.

Crab exoskeleton.

Fox tracks.

Bear tracks.

Sandhill cranes. There were many small groups that flew over, beginning the migration. Really cool to have seen them here leaving their northern destination after years of watching them leaving their southern destination while in Badlands.