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OPINION: Memories of Arctic summers
June 29th 7:50 pm | Earl Finkler
MEDFORD, WISCONSIN — This time of year I always go back to some special Arctic summers in and around Barrow. That is when the sun rises around May 10 and then does not set again for almost three months.
"It's one big, long day," local weatherman Chuck Evans told me in the mid-1990s.
The sun does dip a bit toward the horizon around midnight as I remember it. But never sets. Barrow is rather flat, so if the skies are clear, it is easy to keep track of the sun all the way around.
And it is often very quiet around midnight. Maybe a few birds slowly flying overhead, or a wisp of cloud here and there. But calm winds, and temperatures anywhere from the 20s to 50s. The all time record is 79 degrees. Always possible to have a little snow.
In the summer of 1994, I met some interesting visitors, including zoology professor from the University of Vermont, Bernd Heinrich. And you'll never guess what he and several students were looking for — bumblebees.
"That's what we came up here for — to learn how the bumblebees survive in the Arctic," he said.
"How do they survive?" I asked.
He said they have a fur coat, and that he had found one (alive) out on the tundra "last night around 10 p.m."
But Barrow may have been extra difficult for the bees — not many found after that first discovery. So he and his students bundled up and went south to Umiat.
But before they left Barrow, here is the rest of the story. Turned out that the professor was a record-holding long-distance runner at 100 kilometers (6 hours, 38 minutes). And to his surprise, local Barrow resident and public safety officer Frank Bozanich was a previous 100-K record holder (6 hours, 51 minutes). Heinrich said he didn't know Bozanich was in Barrow until he arrived to study bees.
Fortunately, Chris and I were able to get the two of them to run in our monthly 3-mile fun run toward the Fresh Water Lake.
Chris was timekeeper and I was the runner who always finished dead last.
But Bozanich actually prevailed in the competition with Heinrich. For 3 miles, Bozanich won with 17 minutes, 7 seconds. The professor was second in 18 minutes flat.
Maybe just the difficulty of adjusting to Arctic running conditions.
Bozanich was always one of our regular runners in the fun runs and encouraged everyone to do their best. But I think I saw a little extra smile on his face during the next couple of Barrow fun runs back in 1994!