Sad news-
After many years of service and much abuse, my camera has died. Pictures from Alaska will be limited from here on out! On the plus side, the falling rock that hit my camera (in my backpack at the time) missed my head by 6 inches. Better it then me!

View of camp from our lab with an awesome double rainbow

Field work- office with a view

Prudhoe Bay... ie, end of the world. Yes, it really is this ugly. AND you have to pay to go on an oilfield tour in order to see the Arctic Ocean. I didn't feel like shelling out the money, so this is my "most northern" photograph.

Doll Sheep on Slope Mt.

Foggy Molar Mt.

Dalton Highway and the Pipeline

FU Lake... more like FU all the false summits we saw before getting there

Caribou!

Atigun Gorge, from the North rim

Atigun Falls

The sun is going down these days!

Zombies, musk oxen, sunsets

Heat pouring off Toolik Lake on a particularly cold night. The sun is going to fully set for the first time in two days!

Sunday hiking

Musk oxen! In the wild! This one lives by himself so we decided he must have committed some sort of musk oxen taboo to get kicked out of the herd...

Really, really steep uphill

Continental divide in the Brooks range. This picture is taken from the top of the really, really steep slope looking North.

Equisetum

Red, rusty fungus

I caught this fish! I know you cannot tell from this picture, but he a really big grayling. I didn't measure him myself because he was going to be tagged and weighed before being returned to the river. Unfortunately, he jumped out of his bucket before any of this took place. SO, you'll just have to believe me when I say he was really big.

Fourth of July celebrations at Toolik Lake include a parade/skit combo that is judged by the kitchen staff. Our lab decided that dressing up as mosquitos and zombies was the best way to express our patriotism.

Zombie Boyd!

Happy zombie Jacob, pensive zombie Marshall.

MY NEW WHIP

...

No, not really. But riding around in helicopters doesn't seem to loose its excitement. This week we went sampling at the site of an old fire on the tundra. The bugs were out in force:

Nasty F*%#$ers

Transects of fertilized vegetation. Everyone is working so hard they don't even notice that I am slacking off and playing photographer.

Ptarmigan nest (I think?)

Most adorable lake... ever.

Hiking! Uphill!

Victory over the ridge

Will looking goofy on the top of Jade Mountain (west of Toolik Lake)

This is my front doorstep! I moved from my weatherport tent into a tent-tent by the lake. Less space, but a much better view.

Bonfires, wildflowers, and helicopter rides.

Toolik Field Station from the air

Tussocks collected from an area burned in the Anaktuvuk River fire here on the North slope... The ones in the foreground are from an unburned area and the ones in the middle and back are from moderately and severely burned areas, respectively. See the difference?

Tundra nap

Fertilizing the long term experimental plots

Brooks Range to the south of camp

As close to night as it gets here!