Go figure my last day at Pavilion Lake was gloomy. For a while, the rain actually turned to snow, making this two years in a row that I’ve seen snow in July.

Next up: Axel Heiberg Island in the High Arctic. In the meantime, here is a grab-bag of images and stories from Pavilion Lake…

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Astronaut Goes Down Instead of Up
Here’s Mike Gernhardt, from NASA’s Johnson Space Center, about to pilot the DeepWorker sub. Mike is involved in the rover design for our next moon mission. Yes folks, we are going back. Keep your pants on until 2018. On another note: you can get an idea from this picture of just how small these subs are. When Nuytco was designing them, they got a business class airplane seat, and literally built the sub around that. What’s so amazing about Nuytco is that they make subs which can go down to 2000 feet or deeper, but keep them small enough to fit in a pickup. Another cool thing: you actually drive these suckers with your feet. No steering wheel.

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The Barge
It looks less impressive than it really was. This thing had to be assembled right on the lake, and it was designed especially for our project. Nuytco typically launch their subs from enormous vessels, which can support cranes or mechanical pulley systems. We needed something big enough to launch two submersibles, but small enough that it could be transported to the lake on the back of a truck … which meant that the subs had to be lowered on a chain into the water on by hand!

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Alien Autopsy?
(No, there are not aliens in Pavilion Lake.) Pictured here is one of the “artichokes” … a microbialite from pretty deep in the lake. Microbialites are carbonate structures. They’re surprisingly delicate. Up close, you can see tiny pores and individual, sand-like grains. Some of the structures crumble like dirt if you pinch them between your fingers. So beautiful and still totally mysterious.

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Media
Here I am getting interviewed. Why anybody would possibly want to capture my thoughts on film is beyond me, but it nevertheless happened. The white sail-looking thing is supposed to diffuse light, which apparently makes your face look better. We nicknamed the light diffusing device “The CHUMP,” which stands for Can’t Hold Up Myself Properly.

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McKay Has Better Things to Say
Chris McKay’s interview was undoubtedly more valuable than my own. McKay is kind of the granddaddy champion of astrobiology. He’s hugely involved in Mars exploration (including being a co-investigator for the Phoenix Lander).

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Family Portrait
Here’s a photo of some of the barge crew, Nuytco guys, divers, sub pilots, and a few of the ladies who tried their hand at hauling chain. Front and center is Jeff “the Human Crane” Heaton. Check out those arms. One day, he lifted a sub out of the water with one hand. Rumor has it, he can do it with a single pinkie finger.

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My New Best Friend
Here’s me with astronaut Mike, wearing his flight suit. I got a personalized tour of all the pockets. His chapstick goes in a pocket on his thigh, and pens go on the upper arm. “And this is where I keep my cash,” he said, pulling a fold of one-dollar bills out of a pocket near his shin. Why you would need cash in outer space beats me.

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Dale and Drysuit
At Pavilion Lake, most folks SCUBA dive using a drysuit. In a drysuit, you can wear layers of warm clothing underneath and remain quite dry and toasty. Pavilion Lake is around 4 degrees Celsius at the bottom, so staying warm is key. (I tried diving wearing a wetsuit. I do not recommend it.) Interestingly, you can’t pee in the water when you’re wearing a drysuit, because you’d just wind up wetting your pants. Some people have specialized pee valves put into their drysuits. Sporting the drysuit in this photo is Dale Andersen, who has been diving below 20 feet of ice in Antarctic lakes for 30 years, and once survived an Antarctic blizzard in nothing but a sleeping bag … a severely cool dude. His drysuit does not have a pee valve. I asked.

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The Other Sub
In addition to the piloted subs, we also have an autonomous sub called Gavia, which looks a lot like a golden torpedo. When programmed, Gavia can fly missions on her own, taking pictures and collecting data as she goes. Sometimes Gavia gets stuck in the mud, and Alex (pictured above) has to go diving to rescue her. The proper verb is “Gaviating.”

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The End
Back in Vancouver, I was treated to a behind-the-scenes tour of the Vancouver Aquarium, thanks to a couple Pavilion Lake folks who work there as SCUBA divers. I never expected that getting to pet dolphins could be the low point of a month, but it certainly was. I miss Pavilion Lake terribly, and I’m already looking forward to going back next summer. I’ve never been so changed by one experience or group of people.

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I’m trying now to shift my thoughts towards what’s next, but to say it’s surreal would be an understatement. In ten days, I’ll head up to the Arctic on a twin-otter plane. I’m dreaming of glaciers, musk ox, icebergs, and long underwear.