Walk Through The Tundra

Today started out as a beautiful sunny day. The first in over two weeks. It was the perfect day for a butterfly survey. So Craig, one of my partners, and I went to Lake Camp to do the annual butterfly survey. To do the survey we would have to walk through the tundra. I have read lots of information on the tundra and in the readings they all talk about how slow movement is in the tundra. They were not kidding.

The tundra is not a smooth, flat area. It is a bumpy and mushy and full of surprises. I would think I was stepping on solid ground only to find that the ground was mush. I stepped and sunk up to my knees in the Tundra. You would think that you could take a simple step forward but the ground was unpredictable. I stepped on a mound and it had to be floating on a packet of air because as I stepped on it I heard a big whoosh of air. As the air released the mound I was standing on sunk. Underneath the ground is water. I now understand why you can't move very fast in the Tundra but walking slowly through it you notice wonderful surprises.

The moss and lichens and other plants are a wide variety of colors. There are oranges, yellows, and reds and in between varieties of white. It was beautiful. Then I discovered crowberries. They are small and black. I heard that you either like them or you don't, there is no in between. I tried one. To me they were a little on the sour side but I liked them. Then we found some blueberries and they were fantastic better than anything you could buy in a grocery store. If you could go to a real grocery store. The ground was also covered with cranberries but they can't be picked until a couple of night of frost. They were the good surprises lying on the ground.

The bad surprises were the bugs. This is the area that you really need a bug shirt and hood. I never saw so many bugs. They were thick. You looked down on your pants and you were covered with hundreds of little bugs. They got under my glasses as I did not have a bug net on. They buzzed in my ear and if you opened your mouth too long you were treated with a bug going down your throat. I can understand perfectly why the caribou love the tundra as their favorite food is lichen and there is plenty. I also understand why they move constantly because you can not stand still because of the bugs. What a wonderful day, good and bad.