Point Lay, Alaska: more alternative training

One of the perks to being a field biologist is that I get to visit some pretty cool places. Some places are closed to visitors or are prohibitively challenging to get to. Other places offer no main attraction to visit but are pretty spectacular none the less. Point Lay, Alaska, is such a place. A small subsistence community on the coast of the Chukchi Sea, it's more than a little out of the way, which is fine for most because there is no obvious reason to go there.

I was in Point Lay this past week to help a friend capture loons. I should have been training for Sinister 7 but how often am I going to get an all-expenses trip to the arctic? I reasoned that tromping around the tundra chasing down loons would be all the workout I needed. Besides, I was suppose to be tapering so why not do it somewhere really cool, right? 

We didn't do so well on loon captures: 10 captures attempted, 7 captures successful, and 1 geolocated recovered, which was the whole point of capturing the birds in the first place.

I also didn't get much accomplished on the workout front either. While we did some tundra marching it seemed like I spent more of my time lying motionless on the soggy ground fighting off hypothermia while trying not to bite off my tongue from shivering so hard. This was slightly less enjoyable than the blanket of mosquitoes that appeared as soon as the temperature became near warm. I can't complain too much. At least I was dry. Dan was usually wet from a dry suit that was no longer dry.

One the huge plus side we caught some loons! You also see a tonne of birds up close while laying motionless. I even saw a few caribou!

Point Lay didn't disappoint either. What a great community with exceptionally friendly people.

We were fortunate enough to be in town during their nalukataq. This is a very important celebration of the spring bowhead whale harvest. The successful whaling captain distributes whale meat and muktuk to all the families in the community. The formalities are followed by fireworks, candy scrambles for the kids, a blanket toss, and traditional dancing.

Our trip home was through Barrow, which is now the furthest north I've ever been. We had some time to kill between flights so we sat at Arctic Pizza and had burgers while watching bowhead whales sound in the bay and flocks of Common Eider stream past the shore. It was pretty surreal and a great end to a great trip. Thanks Dan.