Natalia arrived at the survey tree before the first light reached the forest floor.
She had left the station at five in the morning. The trail from the station to the survey tree climbed three hundred metres in elevation over four kilometres. It was a maintained research trail, narrow and rooted, with sections that became muddy after heavy rain. In late November the mud was consistent: each climb left her boots wet and the lower sections of her trousers dark with the soil splashed up from the path. She wore rubber-soled boots with good grip and changed them every eighteen months before the sole pattern wore smooth.
The survey day's routine was fixed across all forty-seven visits. Rise at four-thirty in the dormitory room. Dress and pack the small daily bag — notebook, pencil, lens, camera — into the main pack that she kept ready the night before. Walk to the kitchen for the thermos of black coffee the cook left on a low flame each evening for early-rising researchers. Walk to the equipment shed to collect the day's pack. Check the equipment list inside the shed's cover. Close the shed and start toward the trail gate.
She had deviated from this sequence twice in three seasons: once when a fallen tree had blocked the trail and she had had to find a way around, arriving at the survey tree forty minutes late; once when she had forgotten the hand lens and returned to the dormitory for it rather than attempting the day's work without it. Both deviations were noted in the relevant notebook entry.