Last night it rained a bit, enough to make everything damp, and it was pretty chilly today. Everyone slept in, then we made coffee and heated up an egg scramble to make breakfast burritos. Next we all helped work on the cabin. Goals included trimming out windows, caulking, insulating the floor and loft, and moving wood and other materials into the cabin and underneath to keep them drier. We got a nice fire going before lunch and cooked over it, then again for dinner as well. I made a pretty decent potato salad and we had chicken and squash.
Cassia and I poked around the tundra for a little while this afternoon, finding ripe blueberries, and unripe crowberries and cranberries. Some of the cranberries were enormous. The misty rain that continued through the day left droplets on the spiderwebs in and around the tussocks.
After dinner and sitting around the fire, Tyler's friends wanted to go for a boat ride further up the river to look for moose and bears. We headed out after 10pm and drove for about an hour. The rains have made the water level even higher than it already was, washing down full trees and fair amount of debris. There were no visible sand or gravel bars, and the river looked immensely wide. As we traveled along, there was a long dark line in the middle of the river: seals resting on a submerged gravel bar. There were dozens and dozens, really neat to see. Plus more in water, watching us approach. We turned around a little after 11 and got back to camp after midnight. Everyone was exhausted and we all crashed.
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| Cranberries and spiderweb. |
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| Vivid and damp tundra plants. |
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| Labrador (tundra) tea. |
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| View of the Noatak River. |
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| A very wide Noatak. |
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A huge group of seals on a submerged gravel bar.
Everyone said they've never seen so many together, must be because of the high water, this was the only good spot to rest. |
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| A little closer view. It was so overcast and dim that I couldn't get any clear photos. |
