Duststorm… in Alaska?
Anxious to go, we looked down river. Our hearts sank as off in the distance a large cloud of dust became visible. As we watched, it was getting closer to us. Five minutes later, we were engulfed in a giant dust storm. I certainly didn’t expect this north of the Arctic Circle. The tundra is soggy and damp and the ground freezes down to twenty feet or more in the winter. When summer comes, only the top two feet or so of the ground thaws. Not being able to penetrate into the ground because of the permafrost, the water sits around in small lakes and puddles (ideal for mosquito breeding). However, the tundra does not receive a lot of precipitation, technically, I guess it could be considered a desert.
Where water is able to drain (along the high bluffs and the sand bars), it becomes very dry and dusty. As we get closer to the ocean, the wind and dust has increased and the river is growing in width.
We would have to wait the dust storm out. The river became dangerously choppy. The wind was so strong it created white caps (actually brown caps, because of the muddy water) nearly a foot high. It would have been life threatening for us to try to go further today. Nine years ago, I was in the Grand Canyon with George. I will never forget standing next to the fearsome, rushing Colorado with him. They say that the Colorado is “too thick to drink and too thin to plow.”
Looking at the Colville today, reminded me of that time next to the Colorado. The wind continued to be strong, and after waiting several hours for it to die down, we gave up and walked our boats across a small channel and set up camp. It took teamwork to put our tents up so the wind did not blow them away. We didn’t know why the Lord had stopped us, but maybe we’d understand tomorrow.
It is now 11:12 P.M. while I am recalling today’s events. The wind is still blowing, but not as hard. It’s a fine campsite we’ve found after a tiring day. Hopefully tomorrow we will be back to some more dinosaur sites. I pray that the Lord will help us to be successful once again. Maybe we’ll be able to make it to the Liscomb Bone bed.
