Saturday, July 9, 2016

Out on the BEO

Another walk out on the tundra. I needed to replace an antenna on a tower out at the BEO Control Shed and, since I didn't care to climb the tower, I needed to wait until a certain support staff had some time available. It was a wonderful walk out with just enough breeze to keep the mosquitos near the ground. The ground is starting to dry out and the temperature was around 53°F. Pretty close to a perfect day to walk out on the tundra.

Still not too many flowers but these were easily the largest and most colorful that I saw. The Control Shed is only a bit over a mile out from the road but it's still a challenge to walk on the plastic walkway. I feel like I need to really watch where I'm stepping to avoid slipping.

The wide open spaces really remind me of other places that I've visited. Such as Montana or west Texas. But most areas have a lot more vegetation. I took these pictures on Friday when I walked out but today, Saturday, I'm writing this post from the Control Shed partly to check out the network. I was helping a project set up a point to multipoint wireless network that should be more reliable than what they were using in the past. The new one is using Ubiquity 2.4 GHz radios.

It's not quite as warm today (Saturday) as it was yesterday but there is a nice breeze to keep the mosquitos at bay. But still it's hard to complain about 50°F and sunny.

8 comments:

  1. Good show on the flowers with the diffuse background.

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    1. Thank you! Sometimes you just need the non-phone camera...

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  2. The view reminds me of Saskatchewan - brown and you can watch your dog run away for three days.

    The yellow flowers are pretty though.

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    1. That's pretty good. I hadn't heard that phrase before. But it is really flat.

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  3. Beautiful, but looks wide open lonely.

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    1. Yes, wide open. I like Trobairitz's description "you can watch your dog run away for three days".

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  4. Richard, beyond the plastic walkway the 'dock' looks like wood planks. Past that no plastic, no wood until that next section of wood in the distance? Are the walkways to provide a walkable surface or to protect fragile tundra?

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    1. The entire "trail" is either plastic or wood. The wood is for the really wet areas and is built like a wooden dock on a shallow lake. The trail is done partly to protect the tundra and clearly show the path that you need to follow to keep people from walking over research plots.

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