A long weekend in Yellowknife

As I write this I am sitting at the Yellowknife airport, waiting to fly back to Inuvik and then Tuk. It takes basically the whole day to fly from Yellowknife to Tuk, the way the flights work out. Deon's flight back to Gjoa Haven departed at 8am, and mine leaves at 10am, so we came to the airport together. He was the only person going to Gjoa on his flight this morning, and as such, had the whole plane to himself. Let's hope they were sending cargo or mail on that plane as well!

Well, it has been a long week and I look forward to being "home" to Tuk tonight. My meetings in Inuvik went really well. The men on ILAC, most of them considered elders, were all very nice and had many stories to tell. Aside from discussing policy items which is the purpose of the meeting, they also told us some tales about being out on the land, including spirits that haunt some hunting cabins and "little people" who live in the hills, and have never been exposed to the modern world.

My meeting in Yellowknife for the MGP project also went well. It was good to have some support in that meeting from past ILA employees who now work for different organizations. Therefore, I had people to give me a nudge or grunt when I should have been saying something or asking questions. With that meeting under my belt, I'll be well prepared for any future ones.



On the weekend in Yellowknife, Deon and I did many activities. Friday night we went to Walmart and Pizza Hut, along with his co-worker Don from the Nunavut Waterboard. At Walmart I was able to pick up some fabric to make the seat covers for my dining chairs, and some pillow forms and material for covering them as well. Having Pizza Hut was good, and cost efficient compared to buying pizza in Inuvik, where prices start at $35 and up!

On Saturday we walked around the town for quite a while to do some exploring. We went to the Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Centre, which has many artifacts and paintings and things about aboriginal culture. It was very interesting and informative. We then ventured down to the "Old Town" which is where Wever and Devore, the Wildcat Cafe, and the Bush Pilot's Monument is located. We climbed up to the top of the hill where the Pilot's monument is located, and were able to see back towards the city, as well as around the lake where the houseboats are located.



For dinner on Saturday night we dressed up nicely and went to "Le Frolic" which is a french restaurant. It was great food, Deon had muskox and I had lamb sausages. We were also able to do shopping at Shopper's Drugmart, as there is a brand new one that has all of the amenities of a store in the south. Overall, I think living in Yellowknife would be quite nice, as there are lots of stores, restaurants, and it is well connected to the south.

Sunday was the big day, as we decided to go dogsledding! We went out to Beck's Kennels which is located on the outside of town, and is owned by the 3rd best musher in the world. So we arrived, and the dogs started barking and howling and getting very excited- there are around 100 sled dogs there right now. The dogs know that when a taxi arrives it means that some of them will get to go out with the sleds, so they get very excited and start jumping around and climbing on top of their doghouses, and howling. I think they think if they put on the biggest display of eagerness they will get chosen. So each dog is tied up to its individual house, and there is a post with its name on it.







So, the lady first hooked up 6 dogs to the sled, all were female, and the leaders were retired (over 8 years old- too old to race, but still love to run and pull sleds). The other 4 dogs were "yearlings" meaning that they are 3 years or younger, and are being trained to race still. The dogs get very eager to go, and bark and howl until it is time to go. On the way to our destination, I sat in the sled, and Deon "drove" (really, the dogs do all the work). At first they hook the sled to a snowmobile, which is behind the sled, and prevents the dogs from going too fast when you are first getting the feel of it, and also while you cross the roads in the first few hundred metres of the trail. Once we got beyond the road, they detacthed the sled from the snowmobile, and the dogs took us all the way to a cabin and tent way out on a lake, where they had hot chocolate and a fire for us. The dogs know the course, and the leaders direct the sled around corners... there's not much
to it, you just sort of sit/stand there and take in the views. The snowmobile travelled far ahead of us (most of the time we couldn't even see it), and the dogs know that the goal is to follow the snowmobile.

The ride was about 1/2 hour each way, which was plenty, as the wind from travelling at a quick pace was chilly. Once at the tent, we were able to ask questions about the dogs, and how they breed/train/feed them. It is all very interesting, and neat to see how much the dogs love to race. When we were at the tent, they had to be chained up to a fence, and they started howling/barking/whining again because they wanted to get back to running. The dogs are not what I pictured- they are very lean, and they are actually "Alaskan Working Huskies" so they are not very furry, or big like normal huskies.



The musher, Grant, whom we met and talked to for a while, has been all over the world racing with them, and takes 16 at a time. He has a big truck, which has 16 kennels in the back, it looks pretty funny. In the summer season (or up until about 2 weeks ago, when the lakes weren't quite frozen enough), they train by pulling a "sled" that is on wheels.

On the way back, I got to "drive" and it was also fun. The dogs are very strong, and it is amazing that they can pull the sled so easily, even up hills.



For dinner we went to "The Robin's Nest" which is owned by Chinese people, so we had a Chinese buffet. It was also really tasty, and a good change from Inuvik/Tuk/Gjoa food.

Early November

Well, I can't believe we're already in mid-November. October ended with a Halloween party hosted by the school's guidance counselor and her husband. I dressed as a paper bag princess (see horrible pic below), since I still had lots of brown paper from all of my Canada Post parcels that I mailed myself.



Soon came time to travel down to Inuvik for a gravel meeting with someone at Indian and Northern Affairs Canada (INAC). This provides for a nice escape from Tuk, however, going for just one night overnight can be a bit of a bother, since you have to pack your suitcase and be prepared to stay for several days in case the weather turns bad. Shouldn't complain though, I enjoy my time there. So I had my meeting, and the guy from INAC bothered to drive me around to do some errands I had to do while I was down in Inuvik. That night, I ate on my own in the Mackenzie Hotel (where I stay), down in their lounge called Shivers. It was pretty busy because there was a big natural gas drilling meeting in town at the same time as I was there, so there were a bunch of cowboys from Alberta there as well. I myself had a salad, which turned out to be about the size of a teacup, all for the low price of $8! Hah. Good thing I'm getting paid to eat when I'm away. At any rate, luckily I had already had some other food before I went for "dinner." They are already getting to know me at the hotel, when I go to check in they just hand me my key, knowing my name, and at Shivers they know my name and favourite menu items as well (does that make me sad, or the menu sad?).

Unfortunately, it wasn't swimming night, as it was teen swim instead of adult swim at the pool. I will definitely go swimming next week when I'm there, I should be able to go at least twice.

The very interesting part of the trip came when I was returning back to Tuk on Friday night. Reagen had emailed me earlier in the day to say "We're having a games night tonight, so you should come if you get back... but the weather's looking pretty bad." So I was already thinking that perhaps I'd be in Inuvik overnight. Much to my surprise, they decided to fly us back to Tuk (perhaps due to demand- there were 20 people going that night). However, I was bumped to the "second" flight, which was actually the flight delivering everyone's liquor orders to Tuk for the weekend... and a few straggler passengers.

Back to the story however... So we board our little tiny plane, with only one row of seats and a skinny aisle to use to get to your seat, the smallest plane I've been on yet. So the pilots tell us "we're just going to de-ice, wait for another plane to take off, and get going to Tuk." Luckily, I've learned to always carry my mp3 player to stave off boredom while waiting in these airports (nothing is ever on time, you can guarantee the flights will be at least 1/2 hour late). So we sit, turn on the propellers, and they go, and go... and go... (maybe 15 mins?) Then the pilots turn them back off, and one jumps out of the plane and goes and grabs a truck, which is towing the "de-icer" which is like a powerwasher with de-icer in it. So he washes down the plane with this de-icer (maybe another 15 min task). Then we put the props back on, and wait, and wait some more. Then we start taxiing out to the runway (by this time it's completely dark out), and in comes the plane that originally left before us, to go to Aklavik which is a 30 min flight round trip. So, that plane did it's trip there and back while we were still trying to get our silly little plane going.

At any rate, we take off, and the ceiling is very low, so we go above the clouds, which we don't often do on those little planes. And we're flying... and flying... and flying... and I'm starting to think, "this seems to be taking more than 1/2 an hour, like usual." So I looked towards the pilots, and they are looking a little bit lost to say the least... they are looking all around outside the windows of the cockpit, up (at the stars maybe?), down (at the ocean which we've been flying over for a good 10 mins, the most we fly over it for is usually about 1 minute), and all around... and then proceed to pull out a piece of paper, which they proceed to rotate around, with confused looks on their faces, trying to get it facing the right way. I look up at the counter which lets us know how long we've been in the air for, and it says 47 minutes... so more than 50% more flying time than usual... Eventually, and looking much to the pilots' delight and surprise, the lights of Tuk appear, and we circle around to land. Well, as Reagen had warned me, it was a blizzard in Tuk... So we sort of blow down onto the runway, where we skid across the ice (the runway is solid ice at this time of year), and are home sweet home in Tuk. My bags made it to Tuk before I did, on the first plane, so Reagen had them packed into the truck, and we were on our way.

As for today's snowmobile adventure (Remembrance Day is a stat holiday), after attending the ceremony, the we decided to take the snowmobiles out. So, we had 3 snowmobiles out in total, and we took them out to an oil rig which is not being used at the moment and checked that out... it was a short snowmobile ride away. We climbed up and checked it out... other than the pingos, it's probably the highest point in Tuk, and is actually in the middle of water, but since it's all frozen, we could drive the snowmobiles out to it. Then, on the way back, they let Reagen and me drive back to town. That was pretty fun, we got stuck a few times because we got chicken and drove too slowly up hills, you just need to go fast so you can get up and over them. We saw the sunset which was really nice over the pingos on the way back, and were back when there was still some daylight left. My new goggles worked out splendidly, and you really couldn't survive without them in the wind.. it's horrible. Between them and that new hood thing, none of my skin was showing, which is imperative, or it will freeze.



Well, I think those are all of my tales right now. Next week it's Monday-Thursday at noon in Inuvik, Thursday aft-Monday morning in Yellowknife, and back to Tuk that day by 6pm *fingers crossed*.

A Friday Update

Here's an update for Friday. Hope that everything is well with everyone at home... Everything is going quite well here.

I am writing this on Thursday night before bed, and I will post it when I get to work in the morning, when I have access to the Internet. This evening, I stayed at work for a while after work to talk to Deon online, as it's his birthday today and he's probably feeling a bit lonely in Gjoa on his special day. After that, I ventured back to my apartment in a blizzard that suddenly blew up... good thing I am still using the work truck! The weather can change quickly here and a storm can blow up out of nowhere. It was pretty sunny all day, and before I left work, you could barely see the Northern store across the harbour, which is less than a kilometre away. I can hardly imagine how people survived in the Arctic without permanent shelters and electricity.

The weather is quickly but surely getting colder, and the days are getting shorter and shorter. Last weekend it was -29C with the windchill, and this week it got down to -32. This weekend is supposed to be relatively "lovely" though, with a low of -13C. The snow is definitely here to stay, hard to believe that it will be June before we see bare ground again. Could be a lonnnnggg winter. As for the sun, it is rising at about 10:45 these days, and setting at about 7pm. The days are getting noticeably shorter, and soon enough we'll only have sun for a few hours around noon.

Outside of work, things are also going well. Yesterday (well, technically this was during work hours), Reagen and I found two husky puppies, who were hanging around the office. I would say they were maybe 2 months old. Both were really cute, and one had one blue eye and one brown eye.


We decided we should bring them inside to let them warm up and then to decide what to do with them. We ended up keeping them indoors all day (mine had a little accident on my carpet, oh well!) and they napped and played together. At the end of the day, we decided we'd take them to the Northern to get them some kibble, and then we took them to Reagen's apartment to give them baths as they smelled like fish (all of the dogs eat freshly caught fish up here... cheaper than dog food). So they got all dolled up and had their dinner, played a bit and passed out on the floor. We then gave them to Christine and Andrew. They were going to keep them until they go on holidays next month, and take them down to Edmonton to the SPCA. However, this morning the Hamlet, where Christine works got a call about "lost puppies" so we had to return them. There are literally hundreds of puppies in Tuk right now, and no one keeps them on leashes.



Aside from puppies, last weekend I went with Nate and Kyle, to see the pingos. We went by skidoo-- so I hopped on the back of one, and we travelled out to the pingos, which took about 1/2 hour each way. You have to be careful to watch out for driftwood that's still sticking out of the snow, or for cracks in the ice. You also have to avoid the airstrip, which is sort of hard to avoid because it runs basically the length of the town, so you have to drive all the way around it, out onto the ocean, and then back towards the pingos. The sun was sort of on its way down when we got out there, so the pictures turned out really nice with the sun in the background. We also saw a red fox just lounging around-- as though -29 was a nice sunny day on the tundra. So it was great to get out on the land. We are planning to go out to Husky Lakes, which is where all of the Tuk people have cabins to do fishing and hunting, and that is where the belugas go as well in the summer. We may not be able to do that until March though because the days are getting too short. It is a long journey by skidoo, and will be more fun in the spring when apparently you can go around with just a sweater on and be comfortable.



That night Christine then had us over for lasagna and apple pie which she made. Everyone is very nice here, and we try to do a lot of social things in order to stave off boredom and to have fun. We usually do a "girls night" at least once a week as well where we'll watch So you Think You Can Dance or America's Next Top Model. Usually we'll bake or make food. This weekend is Halloween, so all week I've been helping with preparing the "Haunted House" at Kitti Hall, which all of the kids will stop into during Halloween. Lucky beggars get to be driven around by skidoo by their parents, unlike us down south! So tonight I will be helping scare little children, dressed as an old hag (that's one of about 3 choices of masks they have for grabs at Kitti Hall). Then on Saturday night, Dave and Rachel (a teacher) are hosting a Halloween party for us southerners, so that will also be fun.

Hopefully sometime this weekend I'll be moving into my apartment as well. If this silly blizzard goes away, Todd should be flying out on Saturday. I can't wait to move in, it will be very nice to be right above work and to have internet access and TV, and a phone of my own. Likewise, I won't mind hopping out of bed at 8:20 in the morning to be at work for 8:30, hah!

For the week ahead, I'm in Inuvik Thursday and Friday, then Tuk for the whole next week, and then to Inuvik/Yellowknife for the next week.