4 days before departure

Well, it's around 4:30 in the morning, 4 days before I leave for Antarctica. Excitement, nerviousness, curiosity, and scattered to-do lists drift through my conciousness and prevent me getting back to sleep.

At times the notion of what I'm about to do is floating off somewhere in the abstract, while at others it hits me like I'm caught inside an overhead, winter set at Ocean Beach- This is real!!


Last night I laid everything out on the floor and Libby read items off my my packing list while I loaded them into two big parent-borrowed duffel bags.



I've got a miriad of layering options, fancy boots, somewhere around 9 lbs of coffee, favorite snacks, 3 pairs of sunglasses, camera and 2 lenses, books, magazines, and a bunch of baby wipes (for cowboy showers). It all fit nicely, and both bags come in under the lower of the two airline baggage limits I've found online.

The website for the project I'll be taking part in is http://www.penguinscience.com/. There'a a link at the bottom of the home page to a Google Earth file that shows where I'll be going. I'll be at the Cape Crozier colony.

Though I don't fly until Monday night, my travels begin today. Libby and I are spending the weekend in San Francisco and Marin County, seeing friends and playing outside.

My next update will likely be from New Zealand!

Lake Sonoma boat in camping

The last weekend in September Libby and I met some friends at Lake Sonoma for a bit of boat-in camping. We only have my one-person kayak, so the day before the trip I went to Big-5 and bought a cheep rubber row boat for Libby to ride it.







Libby and her yacht.





Everyone we were meeting got to the lake on Thurs and Fri, but Libby and I didn't get to the boat ramp until around 9 pm on Fri. We packed up the boats, tied them together, and set out on the three mile paddle with a Google earth printout of the lake, a cold beer handy (it was still above 70 F), and a beautiful half moon. A herd of wild pigs spooked from the shore as we passed, and racoons foraged along rocky beaches. Dead trees reached out of the depths and would loom up in front of us with little warning, trying to pop Libby's boat. We finally saw a big camp fire in the general vicinity of where camp should be, and before long the brothers Tompkins had paddled out to meet us and show us where to beach. After some short catching up we were all in bed, resting for what we hoped would be a good day of fishing to come.







Low water and many dead trees made the night-time paddle in slow and stressful but were interesting scenery in the calm early morning light.




It was already shorts and t-shirt weather by 8 or so, and the lake water was very warm. We tried fishing for a few hours in the morning, and there were a few bluegill hookups, but not much action. We were back to camp by mid morning, and spent the next 5 or 6 hours either in the shade, where it was in thi 90's, or in the lake where it was in the 70's. We stayed out of the sun as much as possible, where it seemed to be 163 F. We tried a bit more fishing that evening, but mainly just sat in our boats, drifting on the slight breeze and philosophizing under susnset's colors.




A Common Merganser eyes us as we paddle by.

A family of river otters were seen most days of the trip, slinking amongst dead trees then dissapearing up narrow fingers of the lake.

On Sunday we packed up and had a slow, lazy, several hour paddle back out to the boat ramp. We would paddle a bit, then stop and drift and talk and watch great egrets or double-crested cormorants fly by, then paddle some more. Libby rowed the whole way out in her little boat, toting the ice chest and dunking her shirt and hat in the lake to stay cool. By noon we were back to the boat ramp, transfering gear from boats to cars, and making plans for In And Out lunch in Santa Rosa.

We vowed to return to Lake Sonoma in the spring, when hopfully the weather will be a bit cooler and the fishing a lot better.

Lauren and Tristan, loaded up and paddling out on Sunday morning.

The Brothers Tompkins celebrate the slow fishing with warm mid-day Tecates.