There is a beach! and "Discovering the Coefficient of Friction"

This picture is of the Swanburg dredge.  It is just East of Nome, on the Nome-Council highway.  Along with the world's largest gold pan, it is probably one of the most photographed objects in Nome.  It is interesting to see the location and physical state of all the abandoned gold dredges around Nome.  The different sizes are also amazing.

The beach is losing its ice and snow covering.  There is lots drift wood, and rocks, and sand.  The sand does seem to sparkle more than other places I have been. I could see how someone could get gold fever.

Speaking of gold fever, many of you might watch the show "Bering Sea Gold" on the Discovery Channel.  I have not watched an episode on television, but I was treated to some "Live" action.  The following pictures are of the Discovery crew getting one of their huts off the ice.

This episode might be (or should be) called, the Discovery crew "discovers" the coefficient of friction.

 or, lack of friction....

or, the physics of frictionless travel...

I got to watch this on my way to a local store.  The locals were wondering how long Discovery was going to risk being on the ice.  If you cannot tell, there is a lot of liquid water on top of the ice.  If they had pulled off the day before it probably would not have been a problem.  The ATV was pulling the hut at first, but the hut started to swing back and forth, and it looked like the hut started to swing the ATV.  The driver had to stop, and when the hut stopped, he could not get it moving again.  He tried to bounce it forward, but the weight of the hut just pulled the ATV back.  Then they brought their snow machine(mobile) over.  They tied a rope to it and tried to get the 2 vehicles to get the hut moving.  It did not work.  I was sure the snow machine and ATV were going to slide together, but the drivers were actually careful to keep that from happening.(at least while I was watching)   I had to keep going, but I heard that later, they got a pick-up truck part way on the ice and were able to get the hut pulled closer to the beach.  A few days later they finally got it off the ice.  If you watch the show, they have a couple of expensive yellow tents.  They were on the ice for days after the hut came off.  Their helicopter spent a few days flying around with a camera and swooping down at them from different angles.  We could see the tents and helicopter from the hospital.  We were coming up with possible dialogue for the show.  I may have to watch the show to see if we were close!  

Sunrise is now 6:52am, and sunset is 11:09pm.  My walks to work are much brighter.  These first two were taken on my walk to work on April 24.

The following was the next day April 25th.

Until next time, Peace.