August 10th, 2017

Today was one of the craziest days of our summer ISAMR trip up to date. After our lightning speed last-minute packing for Nester 1, most of us got about five hours of sleep before the voyage to Wapusk National Park. However, we pulled through and managed to pack everything we needed into our bags for the next morning. Starting off the day, we met with our pilot for the day, Jaime, who gave us a safety run-down of the helicopter just to make sure nobody got any decapitations on his watch. Truthfully, every single person was completely amazed by the helicopter trip, which was filled with wondrous sights on the marshes, grasslands, and sometimes the wildlife of the Wapusk National Park.

Upon arrival, a host of students gathered together all of our field gear, which was both big, small, light, and heavy. However, our next task of setting up all the tents was prolonged a fair bit because of the lack of tent flys, and most of the ones we did find didn’t match up at all. The final landing of the helicopter was made at around 10:30 am, but the four tents we put up were finished at two in the afternoon, which was followed by lunch in the incredibly expansive kitchen.

Interesting experiences awaited us after lunch, as we now had to hike tirelessly to our sites without the CNSC vans that were at our disposal during the last few days. The transect that we worked on that afternoon was the only one that day, but it was fair to say that everyone immediately recognized the astonishing differences between the land of Wapusk National Park and the surrounding areas of the CSNC.

Later on that night, Jim Roth, the dynamic professor of mammology, enlightened us with the details of his research in the glorious Wapusk National Park. This wonderful day was concluded with a sunset worth remembering on the observation deck of Nestor One.

Signing off,

Aidan Pinsk