Cape Lisborne

Cape Lisborne is as northwest as you can get in Alaska.  We arrived here on a clear evening, but the mountain top has been shrouded by clouds ever since.  When we had our camp orientation, the danger of bears was hammered into us-  there’s a gallery of polar bears that had to be shot after breaking into the facilities and we were told stories of a brown bear with cubs that’s been seen in the nearby area.  So, after three days here, what have we seen?  Squirrels and a fox....  that’s it...  no bears, no caribou, no whales.

At least this job was the most straightforward yet- until the time we called for our air charter.  It turns out that the pilots were checking misleading instruments at the end of the runway rather than calling the weather observer here on site.  Yesterday and the first half of today was a ‘weather hold’ in their eyes.  We’ve had 7 planes come in during our weather hold no problem!  Well, that gave me some time to visit the quarry and take a look around.  The site mechanic showed the sergeant and I the 6-wheeler and sent us on our way.  He gave us a 30-second review which included 'put it in low when you go on the beach'.  I pocketed that gem for later-

So, we visit the quarry and I collect my samples while the sergeant looks around and sees a rookery down the beach.  We've got a few hours to kill before the plane arrives, so I figure we can make it down there, look at some rocks and birds and still make it back for the plane, plus 6-wheelers can travel on the beach, right?  no more than 20 feet off the road, we're bogged down AND a wave runs right up to where we're stuck.  Lucky for us, it was a freak wave and no more of them came close.  The sergeant shifts it into low gear, and we just sink lower into the sand.  It took a highlift jack, some wood, and pushing, repeated about a half dozen times to make it back up on the road.  We considered briefly calling on the radio for a tow, but there was no way I wanted to listen to that around camp... once we made our way back to camp and tell the story to the guys in the shop, one asks "Did you put it into all-wheel drive?"  Me: Uhh, you mean a 6-wheeler isn't always in all-wheel drive? - I guess not...  a good lesson to learn, I only wish I took a few more pictures!

Here's some other pictures: