Of the two days left (Sunday and Monday), we decided that Sunday would have less rain. Two sites would be surveyed, each with two palsas to probe: Dale Creek 2 and Dale Creek 6 (DC2 and DC6) was about an hour drive away, off an old tungsten mining road, and then 20 minutes away from the Dale Creek sites, Porslid Field (PF), named after A.E. Porslid, a Canadian botanist.
Today was stated as the day with the least amount of rain, so into the quads we went for the hour long drive to the first site: Dale Creek. Now, I was warned that while the other sites were wet because of a few places, the last site today, rain boots were absolutely necessary. My boots are old, but have served me well (I used them on an Earthwatch trip to Costa Rica – prevents snakes bites from getting to your legs), but I did notice yesterday that my socks were…not wet, but perhaps a little, very tiny bit, damp. So as a precautionary measure:
So off we go! Of course, it started to rain during the drive, and maybe driving in this for an hour with no doors or windshield when it was 39F wasn’t so fun…
We have arrived!
As we arrived at the site, it was a quick but boggy, wet walk to the two palsas (Dale Creek 2 and Dale Creek 6). Behind me here (in this freezing cold picture) is a rock glacier – I had no idea such a thing existed! Apparently these geomorphological land structures used to be covered in ice/be a true glacier, but I think the top layer of ice is now gone, but interstitial ice still exists between the rocks.
I guess there is normally a spectacular view from here, as we are in between, but close to, several peaks, but today nothing was visible due to being socked in with clouds. Being amongst the clouds was cool though. This site is along an old mining road, and we actually saw a sign for it (the first road sign I had seen in over a week!).
Miraculously, as we arrived at the first palsas, the rain STOPPED!!!! Thank the heavens. We made relatively quick work of both of the palsas, again, sadly because so many of the markers that previously marked permafrost were now underwater. Here are pictures of us working, we even had to cross over a beaver dam in order to get to the first palsas we arrived at (Dale Creek 6)
Beaver dam we crossed over
Working!
Looking for the marker!!
Back down across the beaver dam…
And then, since the 1940’s, a picture of the six (actually, originally there were 7, but by the time they started checking on permafrost in the 70s, only 6 were left) Dale Creek palsas have been taken from the same spot – this observational piece of evidence is pretty damning, as there are only 2 palsas left…
Steve did take a picture today, but didn’t quite have time to incorporate it into the slide show of data (more on this later) – but I promise, the two palsas left are not as big today…at Dale Creek 6 (way right on the picture), the entire right side is now divided and collapsed, hence the beaver bridge…
We ate our packed lunch at the Dale Creek site, and hiked back to the quads. We had parked by that rock glacier, which is adjacent to where the old mining road crosses the Mighty Dale Creek. Water here is not a problem – check out the water flow in late August -the flow is very fast.
The water flow rate – the red is iron deposits rusting. This area is rich in minerals (hence, the mining)
We then traveled about 20 minutes to the next site, Porslid Field, also two palsas to survey. Still cold, but at least it wasn’t raining! It was a very quick walk to the palsas from the road, but…omg, almost like quicksand! You literally would step, but would have to quickly lift your foot up, otherwise it got sucked down. Such a bog! You hear about these things, watch them in movies (Princess Bride, the lightening sand!), but the danger of it didn’t really occur to me until being out here.
It looks like innocent grass…but it’s a lie…
Again, quick work, because so many of the markers are gone.
Perhaps Lilly found a Bigfoot impression…
The second palsas had even less markers left (we had a cheat sheet from previous years to tell us the number of markers on each line, and whether or not they were still there. Sometimes we found “lost” markers, but if they were noted as in the water, they were just gone…), so only some of us went over there through the quicksand slop. Check out effort to get to that one:
Video of crossing over to the smaller palsas
Finished! The drive back was even dry….we’ll take it! Once back, we had an extra day of off time before leaving, which we spent inputting data, checking out where we had been on the map (first picture), playing cards, and hanging out.
And….survived!
Reflection blog to follow!
