Permafrost News Letter Vol.2 No.3 Released


We try to release “Permafrost Letter” freequently as news letter for our outreach community. This time (Vol.2 No.3), third issue in 2007, we make mainly report for Yukon Snow Machine trip. If you want to download this news letter, please click “news” in our main web page (www.uaf.edu/permafrost) or just click right flyer.

Fort Yukon



We drilled Fort Yukon High School. Fort Yukon is the center of the villages for Gwichyaa Zhee Gwich’in Tribal Government. It is nice town and native people are busy for spring carnival.

During installation, science teacher Jeff McKinney (left) watch borehole and datalogger. Evelyn James (Tribal Government) support us for drill permission, logistics and transportation. We are so lucky to have Evelyn and Jeff to success establishment of permafrost monitoring site in Ft. Yukon!

Arctic Village

We are in Arctic Village tonight.

This morning we left Fairbanks at 9:00AM and got to Arctic Village before noon.
It was nice and sunny, but the temperature display at the airport said -20.
What happened to Spring?




Th flight was smooth and we were able to see a lot of the familiar landscapes around Fairbanks.
After we flew over the Yukon River we made a brief landing at Vinetie
It was more mountainous around Arctic Village.


First we met with Dora and Becky, then said hello to the Principal Caroline.
Since it was close to lunch break, we decided to strat drilling right away.
That way if we have any trouble, there’s plenty of time to deal with it later.



You never know what the drill will hit until Kenji strats drilling.



The first two goes in smoothly, a sure good sign…
The ground type was sand and remined the same the entire depth of the borehole (5m).
So, luckily we were able to finish drilling before the afternoon class strated.



Kenji talked to the students about permafrost and the project.
The students then watched and helped how the thrmister is calibrated and how they are placed in the borehole.


By the end of the day, there’s a new Premafrost Monitoring Station set up in Arctic Village.

Flying for Arctic Village and Fort Yukon


We are planing to visit Yukon Flat Schools this coming Tuesday and Wedesday.
Check this blog next week for more report!
Our schedule is following:
March 27 (Tuesday), 2007- Wright Air fly from Fairbanks 9:00am to Arctic Village 11:00am, We will stay at Arctic Village rest of the day for drilling and lecture.
March 28 (Wedesday), 2007- We move to Fort Yukon and to establish permafrost monitoring site. We will back to Fairbanks 7:00pm.

End of the Lower Yukon trip and next!


Tohru Saito and Kenji Yoshikawa safely came back to Fairbanks on early this Saturday
morning (3/17/2007). We had a great time at villages as well as on the River (trail).
First 6-7 days were unusually cold and severe conditions for snow machine
and drill rig. However, it was getting warmer last 5 days. We stop 13
villages and talked 11 classrooms at 10 schools including for drilling 7
boreholes and installation 12 dataloggers. Local principals and teachers were very supportive for this project and simply
great time spending with them. I believe major aspect of this great success
was their enormous aid.
Jennifer (IARC) took cares of headquarter at UAF. And Matt Irinaga (VECO) coordinated transportation and shipping tactics. We deeply appreciate all of them.
During expedition, nine countries more than 360 web access was recorded on our web site. 94% of the access was from United State.
Finally, thank you for your interest of this blog.
Please keep watch this blog. We will go to Arctic Village and Ft. Yukon next week.
And “Snow Machine Trip 2007 Noatak/Kobuk Rivers” will start at the bigging of April!!

3/15 Marshal to Saint Mary’s


Another two lecture day for Kenji. Just like it was in Russian Mission, there were a lot of students in this school. It’s good to know that they are working on building a new school here.


Marshal was windy with very icy roads. Moving around in the village in snow machines pulling heavy sleds was a nightmare, but the kids were having a great time playing and sliding on the slippery roads.

People were very friendly, and many of the men, no matter where we go, were curious about the big snow machines we were riding.

Thanks to Woody we found a good location for the bore hole. What was interesting was that Woody met Kenji at UAF a few years ago, and then I also met him while he was going to UAF almost ten years ago.


A little ways out of the village, we saw some Lush fish (burbot) traps, and people digging them out. We heard that the trail from Marshal to Saint Mary’s is easy to find and good conditions with lots of snow. That was generally true. But again, it took us much longer than expected.

This part of the Yukon River has many cracks with occasional thin ice, and the trail threads through a lot of the sloughs and islands. When the trail crossed the section of river with just ice, the trail disappeared into the clear ice.

After a few wrong turns and a couple of extra hours we made it to Saint Mary’s.
St. Mary’s is one of the larger villages in this area. Like many other villages the school was located on top of the hill, and we couldn’t find our way there without some help.



We met with Craig, the science teacher and Dave, the superintendent as soon as we got there. It was a busy day at the school with teacher and parents conference.

Dave invited us over for some Yukon King for dinner.

3/14 Russian Mission to Marshal

Another very rough day on the trail.


Russian Missioin sits on a hill side where it’s protected from the wind. The new side of the village is on the in the hills, and the older part of the village is closer to the river.

Kenji talked to the upper grade kids at Russian Mission school. Principle Jason was a great leader at the school and the students were very enthusiastic about our visit. The whole class came out to take a quick picture as we were leaving.


Thanks Jason Melanie (her mom) and Joe.



The trail condition was pretty much the same as it was yesterday, with fewer signs of other snow machines. We were told that there’s a trail, but we didn’t really see it… No trail markers, and occasional snow machine tracks that disappear in the sand or the ice.

Just like it was yesterday, if it wasn’t ice, it was sand. Even less snow than yesterday with blowing sand this time… It’s no wonder people don’t travel this way. But in the summer time there must be quite a bit more traffic. We saw many fish camps along the river.



Although the trail conditions were crappy, the scenery was the best we had so far. There were hills right up to the river with many colors of rocks. That’s probably why the ice is so bad around here.


As we got closer to Marshal the sand was blowing harder and hard to see where you were going.
We saw one reamins of a fish trap left in the ice. Where there’s open water it’s marked well. And theard that that everything froze up with this cold weather.


Similar to what happened in Russian Mission, as we rode into the village we got stuck as we were going up a hill. We were warned about the lack of snow, but the road conditions were far worse than expected, with ice covering the entire road. Some of the people watching us helped to get our stuff to the school.



At the school Woody was waiting our arrival.
After we brought some of our gear in the school, Woody invited us over for moose stew. On this trip, we’ve been eating mostly frozen microwaveable food, so it was goot to eat real food.
Soon after supper, he showed us around where we might be able to drill.

At 8 PM, Kenji started drilling.
It was a preferable spot so we were hoping that it wouldn’t be too difficult. Even with above zero temperature, the wind chill factor made it feel much colder. Hands were getting cold and equipments were not working right.
Despite the difficulties, by night fall Kenji had another monitoring bore hole.
The thermister and data logger will go in tomorrow.