Bright and early on Sunday morning, we packed up our cars and left Fairbanks. We drove through some fast-food restaurants (still in Fairbanks, still civilization), then onto a road with forests after forests (with occasional homes) and stopped at an abandoned gas station. After this break, the farther from Fairbanks we got, the more we left civilization. All along were beautiful views after beautiful views of the mountain and glaciers that we had to stop to take photos. We were in the middle of absolutely no where! The closest store felt as if it was 50 miles away and it probably was. It was absolutely breathtaking to be the only people out here, appreciating how beautiful the mountains are.

We then continued our drive to the lodge and once we arrived, all of the girls in the “Mystery Machine” screamed at how beautiful the view is from the lodge. We look out and all we see are mountains after mountains, glaciers after glaciers, forest after forest – nothing else – absolutely stunning views. The whole reason coming to Paxson was to collect data. Twenty-four-hours worth of data on the weather does not do much; however, we need to experience how data collectors set up their equipment. By using a weather tower, we can measure weather temperature, wind speed, and wind direction.

We had a test run of setting up the project in Fairbanks, which was the first time we have ever touched the device. However, we all worked to get by starting to put the poles together for the base, adding a device at the very top that collects the three variables and we also put a device that stores the data. We left the first weather tower, facing perpendicular to the glacier, to measure the temperature, wind speed, and wind direction in order to compare results with the glacier.

We then started to head to the glacier. Gulkana Glacier was decided to use for our data because it is supposedly an easily accessible glacier; however, the amount of snow made it extremely difficult. We walked through thigh high snow for about an hour; some turned around in 20 minutes due to the intensity of the snow. For those who did stay on the walk took some fun photos! We were all exhausted and soaked after our mini-trek. We got back to the historic lodge and had a great lasagna and salad dinner!