An Experience of A Life Time

(Before I get into my Adventures. I was offered an opterunity to "guest blog" over at a fellow blogger Lily's Blog Nunavut Chillers she lives with her husband and super cute puppy Pepper in Baker Lake. Check out my guest blog here )

Yesterday I got to experience something that many "southerns" only dream of doing.

My friend Jen and I had been talking about going on a skidoo trip out the harbour to the floe edge for a couple of weeks now but we wanted to have someone to go with us since we didn't have a clue where to go.

Jen and one of the relief RCMP officers wanted to go on Monday and they invited me to go along since Monday is my day off .  It was an absolutely beautiful day here in Kimmirut! The sun was shining and the sky was clear you could see forever , which made it perfect weather to go out in.

 Jen and Michele had to get the skidoos gas and oiled up so I went out side to sit on my deck .... and it was so warm out I didn't put on my coat ( Ok so the coat I was wearing was my goose but minor detail!) I was able to capture a picture of the plane coming into Kimmirut.... something I haven't really had a chance to get since most of the time I am at work when they are coming in or asleep!

We ski dooed out on to the harbour and along a well used trail that Michele and Jen had taken on an earlier trip out. We had decided to to take a picnic lunch since we did not know how long we were going to be out. We left Kimmirut a little after one and our first stop was going to be at an ice shelf about 15 mins outside of Kimmirut. Jen had been there before at low tide and it was massive! Unfortunately when we set out it was high tide so we didn't get to see it larger until our way back .

Once we got there we went and took some pictures. Unfortunately the snow was rather deep and since I was not blessed with long legs I got stuck on my way to take a picture with Jen and ended up flat on my back ... I made a modern snow angel though :)

                                          (My not so graceful fall)

                                         Jen and I in front of the ice shelf

We continued on past the ice shelf on a very well traveled skidoo path it seemed like we were going to the ends of the earth. It is so flat out there with the exception of the hills on the sides. We ended up going up a "mountain" I call it I am sure it would just be considered a hill but it was pretty cool. We decided to have our lunch on top of said mountain!

                                          Looking down the mountain

After lunch Michele placed a call into the detachment to confirm the location of the floe edege from another member who had been out their earlier . It seems like we were way off in our approximation of where the floe edge was ( we were approximately 38 kms from Kimmirut when we called in I later learned the floe edge is about 10 kms from Kimmirut ) we decided to attempt to find the floe edge.

Down the mountain again and this time instead of following the trail back we broke off  on to the unexplored (ok well un skidoo marked ) Hudson Straight. It was then that I realized that I am experiencing something very few people in the world get to experience. We were "trail blazing " as Jen called it. There was something thrilling about exploring the unblemished Straight.  I know alot of you are probably thinking HOLY CRAP off the trail!?? We had a sat phone , GPS and a gun so we were in good shape.

We would have gone further toward the open water but we came across a largish crack that we didn't want to go across. We decided to turn toward Kimmirut and ride parallel to the crack . We never saw another human being or animal the whole five and a half hours we were out .

I can see why so many people want to go hunting and fishing all the time. It is absolutely breathtaking out there. I am still in awe of the trip . I came back excited , cold and smiling... Perfect Day!

 

 

Why Hello Spring Welcome To Nunavut!

Spring has hit the North!!!!!

I was so excited last week to wake up to some amazing temperatures here in Kimmirut. It was mostly around 0 degrees for most of last week. I think I did the happy dance in my entry way as I did not reach for my Canada Goose parka. 

It has been very interesting to watch Spring come to the North. In talking to my family down south ( who by the way on the first day of Spring got a blizzard and I had 0 degree weather with sun) they are having much warmer days. That is ok a warm day to us here in the Arctic is -5.

My friend Sarah who lives in Pang was having much more Spring like weather than Kimmirut and she is farther North! I loved looking at the pictures she took for her blog www.sarahontheroad.com which showed tundra and shimmering roads. Here not so much we are still snow covered and it is cool enough to keep everything frozen which is keeping the hunters happy.

I think it is funny that last year in May when I arrived it was what I would call "frigid" and now I am basking in the Spring weather. Does that mean I am dancing around in carpi's , flip flops and a tank top ...nope! Spring in the North means you downgrade your Canada Goose or like sized parka for a "southern" winter jacket or if you don't have one ( as is my case) the spring jacket you arrived with. Hats are optional except on windy days and you down grade from homemade leather or animal hide mitts to store bought ones. Your heavy duty -65 degree rated boots can be exchanged for a light winter hiking boot or rubber boots and Sunglasses are a must.

I always thought it was funny before I moved here when I read peoples blogs about the different layering practices in the North now that I am almost full circle I can say to those people who I thought were crazy.... I bow to your superiority in this department. 

I was not prepared for layering. I am actually going to be purchasing a winter jacket when I am South on my vacation just so that I have something for in between light jacket and Parka and Parka and light jacket. The best blog post on layering is located at http://illhavenunavut.wordpress.com/2013/02/13/iqaluit-dress-guide-for-n00bs/  now it says Iqaluit but take out Iqaluit and substitute Nunavut and it is basically the same thing. According to some I live in the Hawaii of the North and I follow the practices mentioned in this blog.

Though Spring has sprung looking at our temperatures forcasted for the rest of the week . The Parka may make an appearance once or twice .....or maybe I will just find a hoodie to wear under the spring jacket....

The Days are Running Together

WOW!

Time is flying by here in the North I cannot believe that we are already into the second week of December. It has been a really hectic time here.


When I first got to Kimmirut my store manager Sheryl told me that Christmas would be our busiest time of year. I didn't think it would be that busy but oh boy! We run alot of events at the store from Moonlight Madness to Ladies night and more

Each of these nights has games, specials and more. It is pretty fun running them everyone is hyped up for the games and really get into the spirit which is awesome to see.

The past couple of weeks have seen many parcels come through the door of our store from my family back home . I am not allowed to have them because they are sooo sure I would peak and or unwrap my Christmas presents early ( I soo would) so they are in my bosses name and I will get them when it is Christmas Day.

I have to say that this Christmas is going to be tough for me being away from my family. I will be the first person in my family to miss Christmas at home. It sucks and I wish I could be there but I knew when I signed up for this that I would be here for Christmas . It was even a source of many days worth of tears when I first found out about coming to Kimmirut.

I am so glad that my family has been sending me care packages filled with Christmas goodies and decorations. I have been able to keep certain Christmas traditions alive such as putting up my Christmas tree the first weekend in December ( I slightly preempted this) and making Christmas cookies.

This is my first fake Christmas Tree!

When I first came North I was so sure Christmas would suck for me without my family and while it will not be the same  I have found that some of my friends will be in town over Christmas. Most of my friends are transient like I am and we have formed a great group. So I will not be at home alone sitting on my couch  crying ( like I imagined myself in the early days of moving North) I have two (possibly three) Christmas dinners to go to and one of my good friend's I met here is going to stay over at my house Christmas Eve.

I am also looking forward to seeing how the Hamlet celebrates the holidays .. There seems to be games and fireworks and a skidoo parade I am sure I will be out there snapping pictures and trying to capture it all so I can have it for keeps.

On a happier note I also (Finally) got my Canada Goose parka! I don't know if I shared the saga of my parka with you all or not but I ordered my Parka once I was in Kimmirut and I ordered the Canada Goose Resolute men's 2XL parka and I waited.... It took two and a half months to get here. In the mean time my boss let me use her parka I then found out hers was a 1XL men's parka... Needless to say when it got in it was too big! Which lead to a call to Iqaluit Northmart to see if they would swap my parka for a smaller size. They were cool with it and then came back and told me they had a 1XL Expedition parka in Red and Black... I chose the black and packaged up my parka to be sent to Iqaluit.

I got the "new from Iqaluit" parka and it was a 2XL... I was slightly pissed but then I tried it on and found it fit wayy different than the Resolute parka and still fit nicely so I kept it.

Here is me rocking out to my new parka!

So This Is Fall?

 I am back after a short intrenetless hiatus! I went over my limit for the month of my Internet so I could only do the basic of things and even when I bought an extra GB of bandwidth I was still overly cautious ( YouTube is my downfall sometimes!) I was very worried about making it until my anniversary date of the 18th !

Now that I have finished my rant over the lack of Internet, here is what has been happening in Kimmirut.


Fall has descended on Nunavut.... I have a hard time typing this because I do not believe it is fall .... I am pretty damn sure it is winter though everyone tells me that it is fall and winter is not yet here. I did miss the leaves turning and the smell of fall in  New Brunswick this year but  I got to have some awesome adventures this fall/winter.

One of the things I have been doing recently is socializing with friends more. Almost every night we get together for dinner and tv or a movie. We also go to each others houses and just chill. It is a new thing for me as I would have people over once in a while but generally stuck to myself now not so much which is great now that the days are getting shorter!

Ever since daylight savings time ended I have been having a hard time adjusting to the fact that the sun goes down before my lunch  is over.. ( I normally have lunch at like 2-3) It is pitch black when I arrive home it really messes with your mind. It is hard when I am off and sleep in till like 10 , 11 or even 12 ( sometimes I need the sleep ) and I only have a few hours of day light..

This is what sunrise looks like ... this was taken about 9 am

 

 

Sometimes we don't even get sun just little teasers! This was about 12pm

Then the sun goes away

Through all this change of daylight hours the weather has been very inclement as well! Blizzards and snowfall warnings have hit Kimmirut twice in the past two weeks it is now officially Canada Goose weather ( for me it has been for the past two weeks!) I did not purchase my Canada Goose parka until I got up here mainly because in New Brunswick that is not possible in May so I ordered mine through work and it isn't here yet :( So Sheryl lent me her Canada Goose Resolute parka ( the same model  I ordered )  she does not need it because she is way acclimatized but I do!

 

 

 

Loving the Goose!