Aug 13- Nester Day 5

We all woke up before 8:00 to be prepared for the arrival of the chopper. We got some delicious hash browns, fruit, sausages, and lots of eggs to fuel up for the day. We said goodbye to Ezra, Isabelle, and Julie as they departed in the chopper with 2 researchers from Parks to go the southern part of Wapusk. 

We headed out about an hour later with the rest of the group after some yoga/mindfulness from cool Carla and a blister first aid line from vivacious Vicki. We trekked through the beach ridge and got stuck in the mud along the way but persisted nevertheless. We got to our site for the day after some minor struggling. It was pretty cloudy outside but we were definitely feeling the heatwave. Everything went pretty smoothly (even with less people) until we encountered even more struggling when probing. It started with positive attitudes and ended with many many rocks in the way of getting our data. The probes needed extensions because the permafrost was so deep down. A probe was eventually bent and we decided to have a lunch break and continue the rest of the probing tomorrow. Oops!

Meanwhile, our lovely chopper friends had quite the day. They were gone from 9:30 AM to 7:00 PM. They saw 23 bears and we are so jealous. First up was a 1 hour long ride to a burn with 4 transects where all the work was done by Ezra and Isabelle with Julie alongside them. Flew to another bog and did it super quick even though Ezra lost an important knife cover but later found it. Then to the fen! Their longest probe measurement came to 182.6 centimeters of ALT! Crazy compared to our other data of only 80-100 cm. There was a giant “assassin bug” (spruce beetle, google it at your own discretion) attack during their lunch. Finally they got gas in Owl River then flew along the coast and came back to Nester one. 

Once we got back to camp we had some refreshing gatorade mix. Camp management divided up chores for before and after dinner. We got all of our data in while the food-making people made pirogies and chocolate chip cookies. We signed up to be on the list for the second chopper day and the adults had a very important meeting about who would be going. They announced it to us and told us the plan for tomorrow. We then got to have a little bit of free time (no Olympics tonight 💔) before heading to our tents for some much-needed sleep. 

Peace✌️,

Felicia and Jess