ARCTIC SMALL SECRETS from ambassador, _chadbrown_ Traversing the arctic national wildlife refuge tundra with Axe can be a bit challenging and slow, So we took a knee together to chill for a minute. From a distance in your sight, you see flat tundra land that looks like a smooth flowing carpet. But it's not a reality! Every step you are being challenged to try to walk but instead, you find yourself negotiating every step of the way that alters your balance stepping on mini mounds. These mini mounds are called tussock! Tussock provides something less than "desirable" walking, sometimes the energy and time required to negotiate short sections of the small mini mounds are usually comprised of very long circumnavigation routes. Tussocks are ball-shaped clumps of grasses formed by sedge grasses known as Eriphora, commonly called "cottongrass" or "Alaskan cotton", after their fluffy seed clusters that get blown across the tundra later in the season. Tussocks soon become top-heavy mushroom...