We left Shishmaref two mornings ago for the 100-mile ride cross-country to the village of Deering. Before we left Shish, we stopped for gas again, because one of our five-gallon jugs was missing and the tanks on our machines were also a bit light. Here’s a donation can at the Shish store for the potential move to the Tin Creek site. There’s a price tag of $180 million, and the villagers will have to pitch in if they are going to pull off the move.

 

 

Here’s our friend Kaji, who flew into Shishmaref to help us with the drilling and logistics, and because he likes Shishmaref. He did a great film series on Shishmaref:

http://www5d.biglobe.ne.jp/~vision-q/works.html 

 

Out of Shishmaref to Deering, more than 100 miles across tundra and sea ice, Kenji was again breaking trail, taking us on a straight line through very flat light. I asked him how he could navigate so well, and he says he uses the sun or other features of the landscape to keep oriented, and checks his GPS when he needs to.

 

We had almost no visibility for the entire 100 miles, and the light got so flat that I couldn’t see Tohru’s tracks in front of me. It was surreal, bumpy and a bit brutal, and I was glad to get to Deering, the first one-street village we had seen since Shaktoolik. Steve, the principal, let us into the school, and we met a few locals, including Calvin Moto and eighth-grader Ting-Mac Hailstone.

 

This morning, we took off again into flat light that Tohru described as being inside a ping-pong ball, and riding wasn’t much fun–we’d hit bumps on the sea ice without seeing them. We rode this way for about 5 hours and 90 miles.

 

Here we are finally hitting the markers for Kotzebue, after another stellar navigation job by Kenji. Today, with an invisible sun, he said he used the clouds to keep his bearings. And we were on sea ice. I continue to be impressed.

 

 

We made it! More than two weeks and 800 miles, stopping at 16 villages and installing permafrost monitoring stations at all of them. Saw a good portion of the fantastic, varied terrain of the Seward Peninsula. From the mouth of the Yukon to north of the Arctic Circle. We fly back to Fairbanks tomorrow. Thanks for coming along.