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Wednesday, April 17, 2013

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!


 
 

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Spring and Summer plans

Ahhh Spring....


I still cannot believe it is here some days! Maybe that is because some days it is beautiful and others I am damn sure I should be wearing the Goose again. I haven't given in yet! As the days get longer and brighter I cannot help but feel full of energy.

I have a good many plans for spring and summer which I am just starting to plan out now which is fun and exciting. Some of my friends and I have started to get healthier ,eating more veggies and cutting out the processed foods. This is week one .. not going to lie this week has been a bit of a struggle. We are following a mashed up version of Joel Furhman's Eat to Live( the book we are reading)  It basically promotes lots of fruits and veggies and limited meat and dairy .... which for this carnivore is very hard. I was doing good until Wednesday when I realized I had two thawed pork chops in the fridge so I invited a friend for dinner and we ate those :P They were yummy too!

As side from eating healthier I am also trying to walk more and more which is good because a couple of my friends have dogs so we can go for walks with them. Last week my friend Jen and I went out on the ice with her dog Sophie ( who is adorable!) I also am starting back into my Wii workouts which I always had a blast with because it was fun.

One of my goals for this summer is to get my first DSLR camera and learn how to use it! My friend Jen has one and has learned a bit from fiddling around with it but wants to learn more and so do I . With the help of a good friend of mine Sarah she helped me decide on one camera and I will be getting a Cannon Rebel T3i!

Soon it will be time for me to start getting ready to go back to New Brunswick for vacation which is exciting! I don`t really have much planned at the moment other then a visit to my nephew`s class room to talk to his class about living in the North. I have started preparing what I am going to talk to them about and show them. I am going to make a slide show presentation of pictures for them and bring home my Wolf mittens to show them! As well as write all their names in Syllabic for them.

Once I come back from vacation I have decided to buy a Honda ( or as my New Brunswick friends call them 4- wheelers) it will make getting to the outskirts of town easier and I wont need to rely on friends to drive me  except in those very deep winter months when everything freezes to death. My friends Devi , Jen and I are going to go exploring in the Reversing Falls and Soaper river which is just outside of town but up a couple of very steep hills that really arnt the best for walking.

So far my spring and summer are shaping up to be very fun and eventful!