Read about Marc's previous stop on his Kenai Peninsula trip - Sterling.

Friday, December 9
I started the morning with the short drive to Kenai to meet with Cheryl Schey and her 5th grade class at Kenai Middle School. (We will setup the site tomorrow.)

Afterwards, I drove down to Homer. That part o the Sterling Highway is very beautiful. The view of the ocean is spectacular. Since I arrived in Homer early, I drove out the spit and walked along the beach while eating lunch. I then met up with Jeffrey Szarzi of Homer Flex High School. He and his school are first time participants in the program.

This was one of the more interesting site set-ups that I have done. Jeff didn't know how flooded the lake would be, so we went over to Fish and Game where his wife works and borrowed some hop waders (the kind that go all the way up). Well, it was wet, but we didn't quite need those. It was at this point I realized that of all the boots I own, my break-up boots would have been the best option. But who would have thought I would have need those in December?

We drilled on the side of the lake to make sure the ice was safe to walk on. I grounded the auger, but luckily did no damage to the blade. We drilled another hole, about 25 cm, but it too hit ground right under the ice. We chose where we wanted to set up the transect. I drilled a hole for the TWIT which was about 30 cm of ice but I hit bottom. We then walked about 20 m toward the center of the lake and drilled another hole: we hit bottom again. Farther toward center and the same thing happened again. We ended up drilling about seven holes, all with the same result. It is a very shallow lake and should provide some interesting results, especially if the ice grounds on the bottom. I should mention the lake was bare, with a thin skim of water on the top (which the felt on the soles of my waders kept freezing to). There was no snow, and the ice was all congelation ice.

After thoroughly pockmarking the ice, we installed the TWIT and stakes. Once again, it went quite rapidly due to the warm weather, and I spent some time explaining and showing Jeffrey how to make the ALISON measurements. We returned to the school where we went over basic heat flow and ice growth, and how to fill out the Excel data sheets properly.

At about five in the afternoon I left Homer. The drive back (in the dark) wasn't nearly as nice. I especially hate driving two lane roads in the dark. All the headlights get you right in the eyes. When I returned to the hotel, a high school hockey team (from one of the Mat-Su Valley schools) was staying in the rooms around me. They were running around and yelling and generally being high schoolers. I walked over to the Safeway across the streets, barely managing to stay uninjured while traversing the ice rink that was the parking lots, grass, and sidewalks. (You know it's bad when the grass is icy.) The rest of the evening I spent talking to a friend on the phone, playing basketball in the pool (using the towel hamper) with some other guests, and watching "Goodfellas". It was late, but I have always heard what a great movie it is. I had yet to see it, so I decided it would be worth missing a few hours sleep for such a cinematic gem.

Read about Marc's next stop on his Kenai Peninsula trip - Kenai.