Another...Icy good time!

I had another 'icy' good time today. Literally. Amy offerred to take me home after work today...via a different route. So I took her up on it, and we ventured into town by way of the Mackenzie. Yep, we drove the Ice road into town! It was certainly the highlight of my day. When we hopped into her truck the temperature gauge on the dash was at -39. Brrr.

The sign that you see as you drive onto the ice road reads "Winter Ice Road Maximum weight 36000kg". This made me feel quite safe in Amy's pick up truck as I'm sure it doesn't weigh quite that much! I can't believe it can hold that much weight! Amy was saying that the really heavy 18 wheelers that drive on the road (one of which was a couple hundred meters in front of us) have to drive slowish, because when the wieght crosses the ice, it actually creates an under-ice wave, that can potentially cause the ice to break further down the river.

Anyway, so I naturally made Amy stop to take a bunch of photos, a bunch of me, of the frozen in barges, and of Inuvik from afar. Amy was telling me how in the summer all sorts of supplies, including fuel is brought in to Inuvik, Tuktoyaktuk and Aklavik via barge down the Mackenzie. The sun was setting, and it was a gorgeous drive. While I was out of the car, standing on the frozen Mackenzie River I also took a bunch of pictures of the cracks in the ice...hahaha not really reassuring as you stand there. You can sort of see a crack in the picture I've posted above. Overall, it was quite neat to see and drive on the Ice road. The particular road I was on leads all the way to Tuk, the only road access to that town, and its seasonal. I'll be riding on it all the way to Tuk in March!

I must say something about the cars/trucks here. I'm sure I have told you how all vehicles have to be plugged in, and that you have to let it idle for 10 minutes if you actually want it to drive. But the exhaust coming from cars and buildings just hangs so low in the air. It doesn't rise or disperse. I'm not sure quite why, but I'm sure it has to do with the sub-zero temperatures.

Amy and I heard that the 'fruit man' is back in town from someone at work, so we stopped there as well. Like I have mentioned before, this guy comes up every few weeks or so with an 18 wheeler full of fresh fruits and veggies, and tons of other things too. It's like a refrigerator in the truck because of the temperatures, but I ended up getting a bunch of fresh produce for quite reasonable prices! When we asked him how long he'd be here for, he said, "until Monday, unless it gets cold" and Amy was like..."this isn't cold??" At -39, this guy is a seasoned travelling Northerner.

So I'm in my appartment right now, it could definitly be warmer in here, but I'm sipping on some Fine Inuit Herbal Tea that I picked up from one of the shops here a while back. It's really yummy, cloudberry flavour. So taht will keep me warm. You should have a warm cuppa something right now too. Go ahead...get warm.

An icy good time

Hello! Today was a bright and sunny day in Inuvik, so I went for a hike on the ski trails that are just behind my apartment. Although the sun was shining, the temperature hoovered around minus 30 degrees Celsius, and it was chilly. Nevertheless, I got bundled up, and went for it. The trails are gorgeous, they really capture what the majority of the landscape looks like around here. And they were virtually deserted save for a couple skiers and I. The picture above shows me an hour or so into my hike. I was amazed at how the ice crystals had formed on my balaclava, on my had and on my eyelashes, all from my breath! I know the photo isn't amazing, but I had to show you guys the crystals that formed. Also, it is sooo hard to take photos when I'm out on walks, because as soon as I take my hand out of my mitt, it's instantly cold. I will certainly show you all some photos of the landscape, the hike took me away from town a bit, and I ended up having a neat look from one point of the trail over town. I was just astonished by this photo, so I had to share it. Hopefully wherever you are reading this right now, you are warm and cozy, because as I write it, I sure am.

Noryak

This is my friend Noryak. He's my new muskox friend that I met last night at a party I was at. Yeah, a party in Inuvik, and a I was there. This guy I met at a meeting at work last week randomly called me up at work yesterday and invited me, so Ashli and a I (the girl who is from Waterloo that I randomly got connected with up here...) went over for the shindig. I haven't been inside any other houses here in Inuvik and my apartment is painfully white, so I was refreshed to find tons of colour in this place - and a huge stuffed Muskox! So when one of the guys offered to take my picture ridin' the muskox, of course I acquiesced. Everyone at the party was somewhere from the south, but they all had come to Inuvik for different reasons and had been in Inuvik for a year or so. I haven't really heard of a 'southerner' say that they have been here for longer then 3 years. But there were some really nice, welcoming, interesting people there last night, all probably late 20s in age. Each of them had a different job, some were volunteers at the elementary school, a couple biologists, one researcher, two reporters, one worked at the rec centre, one makes documentaries...they were all over the map. It was really nice to meet some more people up here, people who are so down to earth and friendly. There was also a table full of tasty treats....
One of these treats was muskox meat. So I gave er a go, and ate the meat of the animal in the picture above (well, not that one exactly, some other poor soul.) Anyway, my first taste of 'country food' as it's called up here, was pretty good. It was a dry salty meat, kinda tasted like prosciutto. It was actually quite good.
So it's really chilly out today, and was last night at well when I walked the 20 min to and from the party (I wasn't by myself mom!) Someone said last night it was to get down to -50. ha. I just checked the temperature right now, and it's -29, and -39 with the windchill. It looks pretty blowy out there...I have yet to go out, I'm kinda hiding out today, mostly because it's overcast. It's overcast, but it's still bright!
Hopefully everyone's weekends treat them well.

The sun of the arctic.

Hi everyone. Its funny how I have to be in the mood to really write, but I am always in the mood to share a picture of the sun. This is in fact an hour or two before the sun will actually disappear, despite the fact that it looks like it is in full sunset mode. It moves across the horizon to the right of this photo, until it sinks beneath the frosty horizon. I am already noticing the brightening and lengthening days here in Inuvik, the sun has started to soar higher by small amounts each day. One thing that is constant though, are the colours that erupt around the sunshine each day outside of my office window.

The Mad Trapper and such

Well, the rest of my weekend was great. What about yours? On Saturday night I went to Inuvik's one and only pub with my new found pilot friend. And despite some warnings from co-workers about the "Mad Trapper" being sketchy, I loved it! Figures, I always love the dodgey places (achem..phils...). There was a live country band, who played some good covers. I enjoyed it. Then yesterday, I went to church at the famous Inuvik "Igloo church". You can see it in the picture above. The sun in this photo was just high enough to shine on the top of the Igloo and made for a neat photo effect. Later on yesterday, I went skating at the rink. Grrrrreat. Then I showed up at the college gym for 'drop-in' soccer. It was funny, there was some 12 year olds, a buncha teenagers, and a few old guys. Funny, I recognized one of the older guys from a Canadian geographic article I read about Inuvik a while back! A good mix, and actually really fun soccer. They play once a week, so I figure I'll go out to play as much as possible (I gotta keep those soccer skills sharp for summer eh darkwingers? eh marxmen??)

Now, I'm not sure if you guys were watching the weather reports today, but Inuvik got ABOVE freezing today! Can you believe it!! We were the third warmest location in Canada today! Apparently this is pretty strange, and it's already back down to -11, and suppose to fall to -30 tomorrow. Funny thing, I didn't really like how warm it was. It felt too strange being in the Arctic and having above freezing temps in the middle of winter. I heard on the CBC that today was the warmest January 21st EVER recorded in Inuvik. Hmm...for some reason the words global and warming come to mind...

It was a gorgeous day today in Inuvik. When the sun finally came out, and the sky was clear, I went for a hike. I headed east up the ski trails that are quite close to my apartment. I went up an incline, the same hill that I walked up last weekend. When I got to the top though, it was much nicer today because the sky was clear. I was amazed that you can see the mountains from the top of the trail! I took a bunch of pictures while I was up there. The one above was one of the ones that shows the mountains. Can you see em? This picture is looking west over Inuvik, and I zoomed in alot so that you guys could see the mountains that I was talking about!

So then I walked around a bunch on the cross country ski trails and a guy who was grooming the trails stopped to say hi. He was an older man, and was super chatty about cross country skiing in Inuvik. Apparently when Inuvik was predominantly full of residential schools, part of their curriculum involved skiing and skating, so the trails were developed (this is in about the 60s he said). Also many of the Olympic cross country skiing competitors trained in Inuvik on the same trails I was walking on! He told me how I can easily get my hands on some skis from the ski club. I told him about how I already knew a couple people who had offered me skis. I think I am going to email the lady who I met through work who offered the skis up to me come Monday, see if she would like to take me out, because I'd love to give it a try. Why should I work out inside a gym if I can ski around on the arcticly beautiful trails for exercise and fun?

Town was much more lively today, I think the milder temperatures (only -17!) and the sun brought people out. I went to the library and picked up some good books and movies. I saw some mindless dude get taken out of the library by an RCMP officer. And saw all the children, like usual, hanging out in the library, playing games, and not reading!

I must say, coming here after I had such a hard summer on Beausoleil, I was qutie scared that I may experience a repeat being way further away from home then I was last summer. But I gotta tell you, I'm two weeks in, and I'm happy.

A special happy birthday celebration goes out to you Pooja.

Do you eat the red ones last?

Just wanted to show you one of Inuvik's landmarks. They call them the the "smartie" houses. I like the yellow one the best. There are a bunch of buildings just like this one, with colourful siding. Gives character to the town I suppose. The photo is kinda dim I know, because of the overcast daylight that I took it in. Today I finally worked out at the gym, at the "midnight sun rec complex" and ran into my pilot from Tuesdays trip!! I guess it really is a small town. I have certainly noticed the small town feel of Inuvik. Many people seem to have common acquaintances. Everyone seemed to know everyone else at the gym. Though one observation that I did make about the gym is that there was not a single Native working out. I mean I guess there weren't that many people there, it's not a very big gym. But I think that really it is just not in the Inuvialuit culture to 'work out' in a 'gym'. I feel like alot of the recreational services here in town are mostly provided for the southerners who are here to work. After exercising, I went to two grocery stores to get some goods. One had no milk, the other had expired milk, so I got soy milk instead! Another option here in Inuvik that I have never seen before, and will never taste (because I refuse) is tetrapacked 2% milk. Its a strange brand, you buy it in cases, its not refrigerated, and its good for almost ever. Weird. Work today was somewhat uneventful, save for the choosing dates for the community tours that I will be involved in planning. If you guys are really interested in the Beaufort sea integrated management plan that I am helping with, check out the Beaufort Sea Partnership website http://beaufortseapartnership.ca/. I will be helping out with a conference for that here in Inuvik as well. On a totally different topic, a question to leave you with; do you ever wonder how or why one thing happens over another? Because I do, all the time.