Permafrost outreach 2009

We left Fairbanks at 6:30 AM.
Along the way, we saw a lot of moose hanging out by the road. Luckily nothing too close.
The road was good and it took us four hours to get to Manley Hot Springs.
Once we arrived, Heidi came to show us around the school and offerd us to stay at the school. Thanks!

With out much delay we started working on drilling the first hole of this trip.
As usual, it took much longer and a lot more complications than expected.
The cold temperture we are having also made it difficult.
The extremely cold layer of soil was freezing up the mud at the drill bit to make it impossible to dig.
After a couple of hours struggle, we managed to get down to about 14ft.
But that also came with a price of the shaft being frozen in the hole.
After another hour of struggle we finally managed to break loose the shaft.

It was a good reminder. Be careful and don't be greedy when you're drilling.

It's olnly our first day of our field trip, but we are already feeling the kindness of the community.
And many thanks to Matt Irinaga (VECO) for driving us out to Manley.