Arctic Adventures!

Dogsledding was the top of my list of things to do in Inuvik.  I called the one and only place and they told me that on the day I wanted to go they were organizing a snowmobiling trip to go see the reindeer herd.  I hesitated because it was a $300 but it was scheduled to be -7 Celsius (19F) which is downright balmy by Arctic standards so I decided to go.  They estimated an 7-8 hour day and that is a long time to be out in the cold, so the warmer the better.  I texted two new nurses that had just arrived, they happen to be from Vancouver too, and they joined me.  I had known them for about 30 seconds so kudos to them for being so spontaneous.  

The Arctic Chalet tour group closely analyzed what we were wearing.  I guess they don't like their guests getting frostbite and it's a real possibility up here.  We had on everything warm we had packed up here with us.  Balaclavas, mittens, mitt liners, neck warmers, toque (knit hat), goggles, two pairs of long johns, ski pants, Canada Goose jackets and a pocket full of hot shot hand and toe warmers.  They were not impressed with any of our personal boots so provided us with moose hide mukluks.  I was hesitant that they would be warmer than my Merrels, but without a doubt they were.   They warned us that the weather can change at any moment so it's better to be over prepared.  

We left on a glorious morning.  All of these pictures are of sunRISE.  This is about 11 am when we left the chalet. 

There were 5 guests and three guides.  The sleds (snowmobiles) they gave us were pretty old.  We were on them for about 7 hours and they didn't handle very well.  I had a very sore back the following few days.  I took only one corner too fast and ended up on just one track of the snowmobile.  I made the mistake of sticking out my leg to correct myself.  I learned later this is how people break their legs (makes sense in hindsight).  I guess if you are going to fall you just let the machine fall on you.  I didn't break my leg (thank you universe!) and slowed down on the corners from then on.  

Giving er down the frozen Mackenzie River with the sun rising behind us.  It doesn't get much better than this!

They were saying that in the last 10 years these short willow trees below have got much more abundant in the Arctic due to climate change/global warming.   It made for a diverse trip with a lot of different scenery.

This was the top of Beer Hill, the half way point.  It is these slow sunrises/sunsets that give the sky these amazing colours for hours....

Rest stop on one of the many frozen lakes we went across! 

 After about 3 hours/45km we arrived at the 3,000 head reindeer herd.  A man named Henrik is a Sami reindeer herder from Sweden whose family has been herders for centuries. The Sami are the only indigenous people in Scandinavia and he was dressed in traditional attire.   Henrik was worried that the traditional ways of Sami herding were being lost in Sweden so he came to the Arctic to keep his cultural traditions alive.  His eyes lit up when I mentioned the National Geographic article that I had read about the Sami people that came out about 18 months ago. 
He is very sentimental and protective of his herd.  He is married to the husky kennel master of the dogsledding teams. They only met a few years ago when she had cross country skied (see above, 45km!) to the reindeer herd.  Henrik spends Monday to Friday with the herd and comes home to Inuvik on the weekends.  There always needs to be someone with the herd so when he is away someone replaces him.  Before the ice melts he will herd the reindeer on to a large island for the summer, wait for the ice to melt and they will be contained there until fall.  During this time he goes back to Sweden with his dogsledding wife.  It still amazes me people live like this and I mean that with the utmost respect.  This guy has chosen to come live on the frozen Arctic tundra and herd reindeer.  Every day.  It's crazy.  This is what makes Canada so truly awesome.

Remember how I said we had to prepare in case the weather changed?  Well it did.  Right when we stopped.  The wind was howling and wind when it's cold like this changes everything.  We had a scheduled lunch stop on the tundra.  Note the herd in the background.  They built a fire in the snow, surprisingly fast actually.  They have us each a cast iron sandwich holder that had a cheese/tomato/pepper sandwich on one side and an diced apple/cinnamon/butter sandwich on the other.  You toast your sandwiches over the fire.  They were amazing! And hot chocolate on the arctic tundra just tastes better.  Not sure why. The two golden rules in the Arctic are to not sweat and not get hungry, you get so much colder. I was warm enough (thanks again PK!) but starved.  Best sandwiches of my life.  But by the time I was on my last bites the sandwich was covered in frost.  It was that cold.  Then I had to pee.  Sigh.  Man oh man is that a cold squat.  And don't squat too low!  Oh my god..  

Seeing 3000 wild reindeer was one of the coolest things I've ever done.  And these are reindeer not caribou. Although they can interbreed, and depending what you read on the internet they are apparently different animals.  Reindeer live in large groups (in the thousands), and need to be herded.  Caribou live in groups of 10-20 and roam wild.  When scared reindeer clump together, caribou scatter.  Henrik the reindeer herder apparently gets quite stressed out when a caribou is in the herd and is one of the only ones that can tell the difference between the two species.    

Reindeer were imported to Canada via Norway in the early 1900's to help the Inuvailuit in the region have a consistent food source.  The caribou herds were in decline and the Inuit relied on them for food and clothing.  The United States and Canada launched the Canadian Reindeer Project to help mitigate the food shortage.  Sami people from Scandanavia came with the reindeer and they were to teach the Inuvailuit hunting and herding techniques.   It didn't go well.  The Inuvailuit weren't interested in another species, and wanted the challenge of the hunt for the caribou.  This herd is the only one left in Canada.  

They are looking for a "chief herder trainee" for a three year contract if anyone is interested. Being bad ass is a requirement.  
http://reindeerherding.org/tag/canada/

 The way home was interesting.  It became a total white out for a while and we had to follow each other pretty closely.  The guide couldn't find one of the turnoffs (can't say I blame them, you couldn't see a thing).  It did clear up again but the temperature dropped significantly.  We had to keep stopping to warm up our hands in the exhaust of the snowmobile and made a quick stop to the herders cabin to warm up by a fire.  Henrik shoots two reindeer a day and sells the meat and hide in town here.  It's delicious and mild.  He never shoots reindeer when they are running, only grazing.  It apparently makes the meat taste different if they are stressed due to the cortical release.  He shoots them with one even shot, and the herd doesn't even notice.  They just go on doing their thing.

Dasher & Dancer?!  Come on...that's funny.

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I still had to go dogsledding!  I chose another mild day.  It's a trade off.  If it's snowing it's warmer, if it's blue sky it's -30.  I decided on the warmer option.  I know a few people in town that have gone.  About 50% of them fell off at some point.  If you fall you have to somehow hang on to the sled or else the dogs will take off.  I was pretty worried but I managed to stay on. Your feet are on two runners about 3 inches wide.  There is a rubber "slow down" pad between the two runners that you can put varying degrees of pressure on with a foot to slow the dogs down.  There is also a steel break that if you step on will bring the dogs to a stop pretty quick.  So yah you have to take a foot off these 3 inch runners and balance.  Yikes.  The commands were easy "CHEE!" was right, "CHA" was left.  You usually had to give a few pumps of the break to get the dogs attention as you yell these words.  And then the customary "GOOD DOGS" when they do something right.  

This was pretty fun.  I actually wanted them to go faster, but I think I needed more dogs for that.  The guide said they had just pulled a bunch of 300lb guys the day before and were pooped out.  It's a lot like water skiing, especially as they start.  It was nice to be able to look around a little and enjoy the scenery.  They had decked me out in wolf gloves to keep my hands warm.  They were bulky but definitely warm.  

The Arctic Chalet guide company only raises white huskies with blue eyes.  They have about 35 of them and a bunch of puppies.  They are very vocal dogs with a lot of howling and yipping when they want to go.  It's pretty cool.  

Note how deep the snow is below.  This is me and my new friend Sherri!

 Future pups!

I finally got my new GoPro camera to work and got a video of my experience.  My debut on YouTube!  Pretty proud of it, it took HOURS to edit.  Ugh.  You might have to copy and paste the link...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uaPskFHFJz8&feature=em-upload_owner

I'm doing three night shifts then leaving the Arctic on Friday to spend two weeks at home.  I'm ready.  I need a town that is more than 1km long I've learned.  I am feeling pretty restless.  Having a car here would help or a friend/partner.  It has been an overall mild winter here so I'm lucky in that regard.  There was only one real blizzard and that only lasted a day or two.  The cold didn't bother me as much as the dark did.  I like the work and the people but need to regroup at home.  I extended this trip by two weeks so have spent two months up here this time and 30 days of it them were the polar nights where the sun never came above the horizen.  So believe it or not, I'm going to Vancouver for the light.  Fingers crossed Mr. Sun comes out when I'm home.  I am so glad I came up here.  I'll never forget the experience of almost 4 months in the Arctic Circle.  Doubt I will come back however.  Hats off to the people that can make a life up here.  It's not for me but I'm glad I did it.  After two weeks at home next stop is 6 weeks on north coastal BC, Prince Rupert!  I'm craving green/lush rainforests like home and the OCEAN! Everything is better with the ocean....

TUKTOYAKTUK

Tuktoyuktuk meaning "resembling a caribou" is 186km north of Inuvik.  It's not only fun to say, it is as far north you can drive in Canada in the WINTER. (Inuvik is as far north as you can drive in the summer). You can only drive to "Tuk" 4 +/- months of the year when the MacKenzie River and the Arctic Ocean is frozen.  The river and ocean create one of the many "ice roads" in the arctic and this winter-only road is actually part of the Trans Canada Highway and surprisingly well maintained. The Prime Minister of Canada was just in Inuvik a few weeks ago for the official announcement of the permanent road that is being built from Inuvik to Tuk.   In aprx 3 years you will actually be able to drive from Canadian coast to coast to coast.  There is a lot of controversy in town as to if this permanent road is a good idea.  Not only will it bring supplies and jobs, but it will also bring drugs and alcohol to the community with a population of 900, 300 of them children.  

To put this in perspective for my east coast family,Tuktoyaktuk is 7606kms (4726 miles) from Groton Massachusetts.  It would take 90 hours to drive there or 1452 hours to walk per Google maps.  So Uncle Mark, start walking.  I'll see you in two months.  Bring a coat.  

Weight limit!  Thank you for that!  They say you shouldn't go more than 50 km/hour on the ice road.  We, and most, went much faster than that.  They say with speed the wheels can create a wave in the ice that will break up the road.  We were told the ice was about 3 feet thick, but you could still see cracks everywhere.  Some were a few inches wide.  When the cracks are bad, a crew will go out and flood the road to fill it in.  

The girl that drove us warned us that we WILL at some point fishtail and/or spin out and to remain calm.  She was right.  For no reason, we just caught an edge and did a wide180 degree turn.  The driver, remained calm which was the most important.  She did not touch the breaks, just let the truck take us.  This is why a) you drive down the center of the road. there is very little traffic, and b) the road is 100 feet wide.  The truck just slid and to a came stop in a "poof" of fluffy snow along the snowbank.  We were safe and continued on our way.  Kinda fun. 

The girl driving brought some of her home made white tail deer jerky for the ride.  I said, "oh yah, I still have whale in my pocket" and brought out my beluga jerky.  These are conversations I just wouldn't be having in Vancouver.  Pretty cool.  

Along the way we saw some pingos.  Granted they are a bit more dramatic in the summer there are about 1500 of these landforms scattered throughout the western arctic and they are actually Canada's only National Landmarks. In an area that is nothing but flat, they really stand out.  Tuk has Canada's largest pingo called Ibyuk Pingo.  It reaches 160ft in height and is almost 1000ft wide at it's base.  For centuries the pingos have served as navigational aids to the Inuvailuit traveling by air and water and they also use them as lookouts when hunting caribou in the tundra or whales offshore.  From my understanding, they form from where lakes once were.  The frozen permafrost from below pushes up the nonfrozen/pliable "dry" lake bed.

I warned you they were more dramatic in the summer!

Another cool thing we saw was remnants of the DEW Line or the Distant Early Warning System. It was built in the 1950's to detect incoming Russian bombers and provide an early warning system for land and sea invaders.  The system was developed out of an MIT study in 1952 that expressed the vulnerability of US and Canada to ariel attacks 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distant_Early_Warning_Line

The hamlet of Tuktoyaktuk, population 900 aprx

At the one and only grocery store you can buy fox, muskrat, seal fur.  Why not?

Seal. Note the flipper holes.  

I think this is a fox....on a Tonya.

There certainly weren't many cars in this small community.  I guess there is no need when you can only drive out 4 months of the year.  Most everyone was traveling by snowmobile and yes, the truck of 4 out-of-town blond girls got a lot of attention.  I had hopes of putting my toe in the Arctic Ocean but realized in the winter it's 40 km away due to the ice.  It was cool to see boat and docks and not a drop of (liquid) water in sight.

TransCanada Highway Monument

Doorway of the sod houses

We made a quick stop to the Health Center.  I thought it was odd that next to the Health Center was....the cemetery.  Ironic location.  It was pretty against the white snow.

The big attraction in Tuk is the permafrost freezer or the "Tuk Ice House" built in 1963 for locals to store meat/food.  The underground permafrost is mother natures cooler and stays a pretty consistent temperature all year round.  There are 19 rooms in total divided into three hallways.  It is not used for food storage any longer as people use the convenience of actual freezers or just keep things outside on their porch.  It's more of a tourist attraction and a historical landmark.

I'm not sure what I expected but a 30 foot ice covered ladder into a dark whole wasn't it.  I do NOT like heights and was less than impressed with the potential for falling to my demise into a stinky (fish smell) freezer.  I'm not sure why I can jump out of an airplane and freefall but this was an issue.  Makes no sense.  

UGH

Sherri being brave!

I basically hugged each ladder rung with the crook of my elbow and slowly made my way down. It was totally worth it.  What a sight!  I wasn't expecting it to be beautiful.  The top half of the walls were these amazing ice crystals that you could lose yourself in.  The bottom half of the walls were ice and silt and looked like marble.  Just amazing!

I could almost stand up.

Sheri brought shots.  Probably the coolest place I've done a shot of booze.  Hands down.  Good idea!!

What a day this was!  So glad we did it.  I heart Canada.  

I look pretty cute for being so terrified.