Trip Journal: Martin and Kim visit Denali Foundation/
                      McKinley Village

16 January 2006

It was a rather chilly -35°C when we left Fairbanks at 7:15 am on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. It was a university holiday, but no day off for us; we had important business – visit the Denali Foundation to set up an ALISON study site on the Nenana River, the first ever ALISON site on river ice.

It was with some trepidation that we left for McKinley Village, the location of the Denali Foundation, where the Nenana River passes under the Parks Highway at Mile 231. Apart from never having set up a study site on river ice, just 33 days ago the river was wide open and flowing very fast when we drove home from Willow on 14 December 2005.

But we were assured by Willie Karidis, Executive Director of the Denali Foundation, that, apart from a few small leads (openings in the ice), the river was now completely frozen over. And so it was when we walked out on the ice at about 11 am. After drilling a few holes to check the ice thickness (55-60 cm) and satisfy ourselves that the ice was safe, we decided on a parallel-to-shore transect line about 15 m from the bank.

 

 View of the Nenana River from the Parks Highway.
The almost completely frozen Nenana River at McKinley Village on 16 January 2006 was in stark contrast to the open, fast-flowing river we had seen on 14 December 2005. The dark patches in the lower right quadrant are leads of open water within the ice cover.
Willie and Kim on the Denali Foundation site transect.
Kim and Willie measure snow depth and snow bottom temperature on the frozen Nenana River next to the Denali Foundation campus.

The site doesn’t get any sun at this time of year and it was a brisk -27°C, but dead calm, as we followed the usual routine of setting up a study site. Setting up a site on river ice is really no different from setting up a site on lake ice; the only differences are running water below the ice, occasional rough areas where pieces of ice have rafted over each other, and those small openings (leads: rhymes with seeds) with that running water clearly visible.

We left the Denali Foundation very pleased with a successful and worthwhile visit. Apart from having set up our first site on river ice, we had fulfilled a promise to Willie Karidis that we would put an ALISON site at the Denali Foundation as part of its long-term plan to learn more about the campus environment and eventually develop a year-round education program. Willie is very enthusiastic about making the measurements and we are delighted to contribute further to environmental education in the Denali National Park region. The Denali Foundation study site is an interesting complement to the Horseshoe Lake study site at the entrance to the park, about 10 km to the north.