Location: Lake Hoare, Taylor Valley, Antarctica
Weather: Partly Cloudy, 0F

I had a request to describe daily life in the Dry Valleys, well, with my extensive experience (3 days), it is grand. Today my day started around 7am deciding the fastest way to change into clothes without losing too much warmth from my sleeping bag. After that I went to the hut (heated and pretty posh) and made coffee (Starbucks Sumatra) with a couple english muffins (w/ New Zealand butter). Around 8am, I start planning my reconnaissance of the lake, I took GPS measurements of the moat ice. The work (hike?) took about 6 hours to map the perimeter of the lake (I get paid for this?), with some pit stops. I stopped at Lake Chad on my walk, the ice was extremely beautiful there, it was so clear (and decorated with algae and ice bubbles) that you could see at least 10-15 feet to the bottom. I also saw my first mummified seal there; I guess some seals get to the Taylor Valley by getting off course from the ocean (which is about 100 miles away and 2000 feet of elevation gain). The next seal is saw was not mummified, it looked like a recent addition to the valley.

The afternoon had me testing and calibrating the permeameter in the instrument lab. The good news is that it calibrated fine so I will calibrate again tomorrow on the lake ice and then searching and marking sampling sites.

The evening was a treat. First, we had an Indian feast, with 4 Indian dishes and fresh naan (life is tough), the food at the camp has been outstanding, after dinner and clean-up duties I went outside to enjoy the sun in the western sky. This time of day (10:00pm) the sun illuminates the glacier that is just in front of my tent.

It's almost 10:30pm and nearing bedtime. I'm going to heat water for the water bottles (cuddling kitties). The picture is from the ice on Lake Hoare. Signing off.