26 June, 2000

June 26, 2000

Those who are now in Anchorage include the contingent from Portland State University - PI Andrew Fountain, grad students Michelle Cunico and Don Lindsay, and myself. We picked up the U-Haul truck, rented an SUV, and began picking up gear and coordinating logistics for the field. We plan to leave for our long journey across Alaska this Friday. Between now and then we need to test and load the hot water drill, go to the trucking company and pick up the gear that we had shipped separately from Portland, pick up about 200 gallons of fuel, and purchase last minute supplies and food.

After picking up the vehicles, we stopped by to visit some contacts and pick up a satellite phone at the USGS field office in Anchorage. I then took the satellite phone to a satellite communications company in Anchorage to establish connections between my computer and the internet via satellite. This is being done so that I can download my journal entries while I am in the field on the glacier. Connection was not made today. Everything is set to go. However, we are waiting for final approval from the owners of the phone - U.S. Geological Survey - to turn on the data transmissions capability on the phone. This technology kind of "wows" me. If all works out, I will be able to communicate via the internet, including email, from a remote field site in Alaska. And all of it from a box the size of a brief case. Hopefully connections will be established tomorrow evening.

While I worked on the sat phone, Andrew, Don, and Michelle picked up the fuel and the hot water heater for the drill - it was being serviced at a shop in Anchorage. Tomorrow will likely be more of the same.