Trip to Back River (Part I)
Ok maybe I'll talk about this trip in two or three parts -- one part tonight and the rest tomorrow.
From Gjoa Haven to Back River (Haningayok in Inuktitut) it's about 80 miles. For about half the year, skidoo is pretty well the only means of transportation. (For maybe three months you can get around in boat, and for three months it's hard to get around because of the ice breaking up and forming.)
We drove on the ice, which is SIX FEET THICK. This is the ocean we're talking about. That's an unimaginable amount of ice. You can drive a transport truck on three feet of ice. Here is a Google Map of our path: http://tinyurl.com/3qymvp2
We tow a sled, which you'll hear locals call a 'quamutiik', behind the skidoo. This is what it looks like fully loaded.
Because my dad is a little stubborn, and characteristically not quite prepared, we didn't have a box to block the wind. That wasn't such a big deal. We also didn't have any foam for cushion. By the time we got to point B, which is called "Half Guard Island" (as far as I could hear, anyway!), I knew I was in for a looong trip.
However, my company was great. Paul Piqiqnak is a really cool guy, and we had lots to talk about. He would tell me about the north and I would tell him about the "south". Plus, he brought along his dog Ublu, short for Ubluriaq, meaning "star". Here he is, chasing us out of Gjoa Haven!
He was pretty shy around me at first, but after he got tired he came on the sled and was pretty much forced to be next to me for a while. Later that night (we left Gjoa Haven at around 9pm!) I fed him some meat, and he warmed up to me pretty quickly!
Once we got to point D, we came across some cabins, and inukshuks. My first *real* inukshuk!
People use them for different purposes: for directions, to point towards or mark useful things, or just to tell future people that someone has been here before. These ones were put up maybe 30 years ago to mark their trail to Back River.
After stopping for a snack and some tea (peppermint green tea, spiked because we were outside the 20 mile radius of the dry township of Gjoa Haven), we made the crossing to the other side of the bay. About halfway across, the sun came out for the first time since I touched down in Gjoa Haven. This is what it looked like, at 1 in the morning.
Awesome.
Ok, it's getting late so I'll wrap the rest up. When we got to the other side, we saw (through some whiteout) some nice "mountains" (i.e. small hills!), a couple of seals, and more and more birds -- mostly geese, a couple ptarmigan and a few seagulls. As we pulled up to the cabin, at point F, there was a "small" herd of about caribou! So, since Paul's dad asked him to bring back two caribou, we shot one, cleaned it, and went to sleep.
That's a story for another time.