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Polar Bear Blog - June 30, 2010 - Whitehorse - Yukon River Quest

In Whitehorse today, slowly getting sorted out and settling into writing in the Yukon. I was going to camp the first night here but it seems that Whitehorse is having a record rainfall today. Record rainfall for Whitehorse is really only about an inch or so but its still more British Columbia than Yukon right now.

The Yukon River Quest started today with teams of kayakers and canoeists heading up to Dawson City on a three or four day race. The race runs up the Yukon River from Whitehorse to Dawson City, following the old Klondike goldrush route. However, where river boats used to run aground and have to winch themselves forward in shallow water years, the racers run reasonably well, maybe a few having to wade out and push off into the current today but not too bad.

In the record rain, 82 teams (teams of one or two with a few big crews in voyageur canoes) lined up in the shipyards park near the river and at (we think) precisely twelve noon, lifejacket clad yukoners and a fairly good contingent representation from the rest of the globe took off running to the riverbank. A garbled mass of colourful boats filled the river, visible for the first three or four of their 740 kilometre run.

Teams should arrive in Dawson on Saturday and Sunday. Sun is breaking through the clouds, maybe the dry and hot standard set for Whitehorse is returning.

Polar Bear Blog - June 28, 2010 - Inuvik - Milo's Ninth Life

I finally had it with the vortex of Inuvik and just flew out, shipping my truck and camper and then probably just buying another one when its all said and done. Sign, at least, I can justify the whole experience as good fodder for a short story.

Of course, Inuvik does not let you go easily, between one-armed mechanics and northern freight, I finally just decided to fly out and ship the truck. Not that everyone including me did not see this coming three weeks ago. It seems that the universe does not deem it wise for me to benefit from oil and gas money. Fair enough.

Aside from Inuvik, Milo, my trusty now-old wolf dog, doesn’t make anything easy either. Just to ease the trip to the airport(not to mention muddy dogs and friends’ trucks do not mix), we loaded the dogs into kennels before heading out. Milo does not like kennels at the best of times and before we actually made it out of town, he rocked the kennel and knocked it over, breaking the side and chewing his way out in the twenty seconds it took me to get out of the truck.

I was a little peeved naturally and had some choice words for milo. I grabbed his neck and shoved him back in the kennel to which he was less than impressed. The trouble is, this family squabble seemed excessive. I looked like a lunatic, admittedly screaming ‘it never f__in ends with you does it? Cant we just do one thing without blah blah blah’ and milo’s howls, growls and snarls sounded like a rabid/dying sasquatch. It was a bit intense.

Around about this time, a concerned citizen decided to intervene with a ‘what are you doing to that dog?!? You can’t treat a dog like that, I hope he bites your face off!!!’ Et cetera. There's not really much you can say to that, sometimes you have to know 'when to fold em' as they say.

Milo stuck his head out of the shattered side of the kennel with his usual ‘I win.’ look. I tried to remember the good ol’ days when he was just a puppy, but all that came to mind was Milo sitting on the porch in Golden BC with peacock feathers in his mouth. I debated actually letting the spca come and get him. But, as usual, I shelled out some more cash for Milo’s now fourth kennel, all of which are actually too big to fit on any plane south of the 60th parallel. The only saving grace was that the plane, as usual, was late. At least, MoonUnit didn’t puke in the airport this time.

Polar Bear Blog - June 26, 2010 - Inuvik - Still almost...

Well, I cannot say that access to freight is one of Inuvik's strong points. Its been about five days waiting for engine parts and pretty much at the point where I'm willing to fly out before walking the ring road around Inuvik one more time. Admittedly, the parts were delayed a bit by a. a slow phone call and b. the Inuvik petroleum Show.

The Inuvik petroleum show is one of the big events in the community, although a little less big as the years pass on without movement on the Mackenzie pipeline project and now with a drilling ban in the Beaufort Sea, the trend will likely continue. I cannot really say how much business actually goes on during the show, but Inuvik's three drinking holes, the Royal Canadian Legion, Shivers and the Mad trapper definitely reap some rewards. A lot of people cruise the show for free stuff and enter the draws for more free stuff - a friend of mine actually printed up business cards this year so she could enter the random draws!

The next big show (besides Canada Day) in Inuvik is the Great Northern Arts Festival. It is a ten day event with an artists pavilion, craft shows and workshops. Its a neat little event and one of the nicer attraction of the north. There is a minor hiccup this year though, given that more than a few of the best carvers in the north are in jail right now. This, itself, is not really an aberration given that jail, in the north, is also called 'carving school' but, in the fact, that prisoners are no longer allowed to carve in jail. A major problem for northern arts. I'm sure it will all work out in the end though.

Outside of jail, the sun is still out but clouds and thunderstorms and wind varyingly roll through the delta, sometimes seemingly every seven or eight minutes. Last night with the cloud cover, we came close to something resembling a sunset, although the sunset was kind of upside down but it was quite nice. A good change from the ever-present sun.

Polar Bear Blog - June 25, 2010 - Churchill - Cranes, trains and ports of call

Sandhill cranes have been back for a while and what better way to pass the time than with some modern dance. Its a pretty neat sight if you come across them at the right time. It seems that this is more a part of teaching their young, called 'colts', to fly as opposed to a courtship dance. Mated pairs will run and flap their wings, fly in little bits and start over. The courtship ritual itself consists of duets in which the male and female sing together (although for every one song the male sings, the female sings two... take that as you may).

Sandhill cranes can live up to twenty years but do not breed until somewhere between the ages of two and seven years. Once they do have a colt, they have been known to eat or at least kill ducklings and other birds that may be intruding or competing for food. They usually nest in wetlands and marsh areas, usually on clumps of grass either along the shore or even floating in the ponds. In Churchill, they are commonly found along the rail line, the old garbage dump and near the port, feeding the the chaff, grain tailings or spillage from the grain cars. They are a healthy and flourishing species with somewhere around 450,000 estimated to be found worldwide.

Their food source, that is the port of Churchill, looks to be flourishing this year too. port workers have already been called back, one of the earliest starts in at least recent history and good sign for shipping season, predicted to start two to three weeks early. Of course, predictions such as this have occurred before so we shall wait and see.

The good (and surprising) news is that the rail line to Churchill has been running on time for quite some time now. I've received a few emails of people shocked at hearing that the train ride to Thompson is only 14 or 16 hours again, as opposed to the low point a few years ago where it hit 24 hours plus. The rare sightings of on-time trains in Churchill began this winter and seems to be keeping up the trend. The real test will come this July when the grain cars start running on the tracks, the added weight often resulting in various slow-orders along the line, and usually one or two derailments (grain cars not people cars) every year. Although with the $60 million committed to port and track upgrades two years ago, the refurbished tracks should be able to better handle it this year.

Polar Bear Blog - June 23, 2010 - Churchill - Baby Belugas Abound

Bergy bits are still kicking around Churchill, chunk of ice, maybe baby icebergs, that float in and out of the Churchill River with the tides. Along with the bergy bits, baby belugas and their mothers and aunts return with the tides, basking in the relatively warm waters of the Churchill River estuary.

Beluga whales are about two feet long at birth, kind of a greyish tan blotch before turning into a dark grey for their juvenile years. They will nurse for about two years before heading out on their own but even after that, they will likely return to the same estuary as adults. This means that a lot of the whales in the Churchill River are likely cousins, uncles and aunts. Not too different from most communities in the arctic.

Its a 'sunshiny foggy' day in Churchill today, a mist hanging out on the bay. Hundreds of seals lounge on the pads of ice still visible from the townsite, a sign that probably not too many bears are out on the ice today. While relaxed seals likely mean no polar bears around, word on the street is that there have been both a black bear and a grizzly bear spotted near the Churchill Northern Studies Centre, a research station abot 25 kilometres east of town (towards buggyland and Wapusk National park). Grizzlies seem to be expanding their range all over the arctic these days.

Speaking of changing habitats, it looks like Great Canadian Travel is making a move into Churchill and with the purchase of the Bear Country Inn. That makes three main players in the Churchill polar bear industry, Natural Habitat, Frontiers North and Great Canadian. It should be interesting to see how this plays out given that NatHab leases all vehicles from Great White Bear Tours and Frontiers North owns Tundra Buggy. Not to mention that Frontiers North recently purchased the Tundra Inn from long-time Churchill entrepreneurs, Bob and pat penwarden. The last few years have certainly been a bit of a sea change in Churchill's bear season with local entrepreneurs either selling out or growing their business to keep up with the major players. Should be interesting to see how this plays out, competition is never a bad thing though.

Polar Bear Blog - June 22, 2010 - Churchill - Summer Sea Ice

It looks to be a bit of an early ice season on Hudson Bay this year. According to Environment Canada numbers, there is about 10% less ice coverage on Hudson Bay than 'normal'. In January, they estimated about 17mm less ice thickness than the 30- year average. While spring temperatures have varied and summer has been slow to reach Churchill, temperatures have definitely warmed up now and the melt should speed up once again. I would think maybe July 18 or 20, about ten days earlier than 'normal' but no more earlier than normal early (make sense? I didn't think so). Environment Canada is predicting an open water route into Churchill three weeks earlier than normal, translating to a break-up around July 12th or so but then again, they also forecast that last year, I think.

There are some bears ashore but they are mostly like the very young or very old, the periphery of the population. There seem to be a few that come ashore very near Churchill lately, deciding to swim ashore as the ice breaks up near Button Bay and Eskimo point instead of staying out on the ice. Maybe they are on to something that the other bears don't know about or maybe its just a lapse in judgement. Two thirds (at least) of Hudson Bay is still covered in ice with only the north and east seeing real open water. This is a good sign for the western Hudson Bay polar bears as this is their primary habitat and these last few months, their primary hunting season.

Last fall was a bit of a strange freeze-up, the shore ice started forming early but then took its time spreading across Hudson Bay. This actually seems to be a bit of a trend for the last few years, the ice near Churchill forms early (last year, around the second week of October) but then just as it looks like it will be an abrupt end to the season, south winds and ocean currents disperse the ice and extend the season - much to the relief of tour companies and tourists alike.

Both November and December saw above normal temperatures on Western Hudson Bay. I believe the last bears were seen in Churchill in early December, two or three weeks later than normal. There is little doubt that these past years have seen changing freeze and thaw patterns in Hudson Bay. Still, most of Hudson Bay was frozen by early January, not too different from normal.

Through much of the winter, the shore ice along Hudson Bay was fairly unstable, resulting in consistent leads (temporary openings in the sea ice due to wind, tides and ocean currents). This should have resulted in better hunting conditions for bears but also should lead to a speedier break-up of Hudson Bay - as evidenced by a few bears coming ashore already. The less stable shore ice could also be a problem for seal birthing dens. Moving sea ice could collapse birthing lairs or simply disrupt birthing patterns and thereby decrease polar bears access to its main food source - baby seals. On the other hand, it could lead to easier access for polar bears to their main food source. Its hard to say what the effect is right now since we really do have very limited access to polar bears and seals in their true natural habitat.

Conditions were leading to an early break-up until below average temperatures hit in May and gave a bit of a reprieve to the sea ice. Ice still seems to be decaying about four to five weeks earlier in Hudson Bay than average.

So, where does that leave Churchill's polar bears and polar bear tourists? Well, it could be two scenarios: one where the ice breaks up in early July and the bears have an extended off-ice season leading to an early gathering in Churchill in October and a busy year for the polar bear alert program. On the other hand, the early absence of sea ice in eastern Hudson Bay could lead to the bears coming off the ice further south than normal and then taking longer to return to Churchill with significant bear numbers not arriving until early November. One way to find out I guess.

Polar Bear Blog - June 21, 2010 - Dempster Highway - Almost...

It’s solstice in Inuvik but its not really that noticeable since the sun has essentially been up for a month now. Yes, I am still in Inuvik, now on my third actual attempt to leave – probably more like six attempts but the first three were sort of aborted by self-afflicted causes (varying from procrastination, obstination and Royal Canadian Legion meat draws) as opposed to purely mechanical.

Once again, I made it out to Gwich’in Lookout (I can’t really pronounce the actual name) but it’s the lookout just past Gwich’in park (Gwich’in is the Aboriginal Aboriginal group up here as opposed to the Inuvialuit who is the Inuit Aboriginal group up here… tricky business, I know). Whereas yesterday, my truck troubles involved some missing dog kennels from atop the camper (they were about 10km back) and some missing, well actually just missing was the problem. Missing as in wouldn’t start because the timing is kind of askew. (If you don’t know what this means, then be thankful, no one other then mechanics and chronically mechanically challenged truck owners do)

Tomorrow is another day and a new intake manifold gasket, so we will see. This may have been diagnosed sooner but once I brought my new old truck in for him to look at, unfortunately, tried to sell me his truck instead. This is a bit of a predicament as I really didn’t want his truck with 250,000 kilometers and a missing bumper but it also kind of soured him a bit when I went with the original purchase. Since then, its been a little like pulling teeth to get him to do anything more than the basics. He’s a great mechanic but once we solve one ‘basic’ another one pops up – but pops up once I am on the road. I grin and bear the ‘should have bought my trucks’ now and really, I guess I can write anywhere (as long as I make Whitehorse by August). I have to say I am feeling a bit like Groundhog Day right now. I could see twenty more blog entries entitled ‘Leaving Inuvik Today’.

But today is not Groundhog Day, it is Aboriginal Day (which I am not too sure how I feel about that since Aboriginal Day now seems to have usurped the focus from Solstice but I supposed you can’t please every wiccan all the time). There’s a big party down at Jim Koe (koo-ee) park in the middle of Inuvik. Drum dancing, traditional foods, not-so traditional foods, RCMp in red serges (battling heat exhaustion I would think) and the blanket toss.

The blanket toss is a pretty neat traditiona up here. It consists of a group of people pulling a big circular ‘blanket’ tight and launching a jumper high into the air. It is said that it was originally done by hunters trying using a seal skin blanket to launch their leader high up to see if potential game was lying over the hills or ridges, sometimes blanket tosses can send participants maybe ten feet up in the air. Its pretty neat to watch but I ended up hearing the play-by-play over the radio, which admittedly is a little less exciting. It mostly consisted of ‘Okay, we’re getting volunteers to hold the blanket, now they are holding the blanket and the jumper is getting on, okay, okay, OH! He’s been tossed in the air, not the highest jump he has done but he has now completed a jump, back to you, Norman’ Something like that, not quite as painful as CNN’s oil spill coverage but not really fulfilling either.

You can hear the music waft through town on a welcoming breeze. There’s almost a specific genre to northern Canada. You could call it Native Country, I guess, its kind of not quite old time Hank Williams but its not quite new country either. A lot of times, the more popular songs talk about trapping, quitting drinking and women plus if there is one around, a Voice Distortion Box will be used, pretty much just for fun. When Native country is not available, Metallica is commonly substituted.

Polar Bear Blog - June 18, 2010 - Inuvik - Chocolate Milk and Rose Hips

Among the Northern Store's Weekly Special deals is one litre of Chocolate Milk for a rock bottom, everything must go $4.55 that means only $18.00 for 4L!!! Tough to pass that one up, too bad I'm watching my waistline.

On the bright side, the wild roses are out in force along Inuvik streets and back lanes. Wild roses are a nice pink flower with around six or eight petals, growing on a prickly shrub up to three or four feet tall. By summer's end, they will have morphed into rose hips and make a pretty good tea, chock full of vitamin C just in time for flu season. The Rose Hips are also a fairly good food source for arctic hare, moose and black bears, even songbirds occasionally nibble on the fruit - admittedly arctic hares are more common right in the townsite than black bears and moose.

Aside from the wild roses, cotton grass is out in full force as the northern sweet vetch winds its blooms down and turns them into pea pods. A few Anica, the arctic sunflowers growing about 12 inches tall, still remain, twisting their flowers around in vain circles to follow the never-setting sun.

The raven family is hanging in there, the young ones have turned from alien-beings into little raven-like creatures, still loudly squawking whenever their parents return with food, staying hunched and quiet when they are gone. The three chicks are now crowded into the nest and soon they will start to fly. You can see the parents starting to encourage them by sitting a bit farther from the nest, a bit aloof (when no intruders are close), awaiting the first independent attempts to come join them on the steel siding. You can see the dominant chick flapping its wings, almost ready to take the leap but not quite.

Polar Bear Blog - June 17, 2010 - Churchill - Bohemians and Bluebirds

Birding season is in full force in Churchill and so is summer with temperatures reaching 31C a couple days ago and sticking around 20 degrees for the whole week (which in the north feels like 30C...) Mountain avens are out, the little white flowers that cover the tundra before relenting their control to the purples and yellows of mid-summer. With the avens, the mosquitoes are back and now blackflies too, just to remind everyone that paradise has its price.

Birders are scouring the riverbanks, Cape Merry and almost anywhere for Churchill's star attraction, the Ross' Gull. Its a little gull with a dark ring around its neck and a pinkish hue to its breast No word on whether anyone has travelled upriver, the gulls now seem to nest there, it is a bit more peaceful and Ross' Gulls definitely treasure their privacy. So far, no one has spotted it and even the Smith's Longspur has been elusive so farbut a few notables this spring include a Mountain Bluebird right in town, Bohemian Waxwings at Twin Lakes and Trumpeter Swans out by Camp Nanuq.

There also seem to be a few polar bears around. There were a few shots late at night and a bear has been seen during the beluga whale tours this spring, probably hanging out on Eskimo Island, a spit extending into Hudson Bay from prince of Wales Fort. There are still ice floes visible from Churchill so the last sea ice on Hudson Bay is definitely still in tact and flowing south to its eventual destination near the Nelson River.

Polar Bear Blog - June 16, 2010 - Inuvik - Them the Coffee Breaks

Repairs and maintenance are complete on the truck, a 1982 Ford ¾ ton with a cracked windshield and new front end, a good northern piece of work. The camper is plunked on the back, another northern classic complete with recipes on the wallpaper and a refurbished propane stove.

I am just waiting for insurance from Yellowknife. Inuvik’s insurance agent closed down a couple years ago, one of the problems in a small northern town – when a business or business owner leaves or gives up, the next realistic option is quite often an airplane ride away, usually a $1000 airplane ride. As it is, it makes for a complicated and somewhat frustrating process.

The same goes for coffee shops. Last year, Inuvik’s Café Gallery just kind of was closed one day. The owner had just kind of left town without really telling anyone. At first, people thought that he had gone on vacation, maybe taking a break in Belize but the longer the coffee shop stayed closed, the more apparent it became that he was on permanent vacation. It took about a year for the outlet to reopen and with one of our few other restaurants rented by a construction company, it made for slim pickins – ‘pickins’ as in two restaurants, the Legion lunch café/fried stuff machine and the Northern Store quick stop.

Of course, you can only eat so many chicken strips and pizzas. Actually, there is one more restaurant creatively named the Fast Food Café but, given that the owner has been charged with trafficking crack cocaine twice in the past two years and that you kind of feel like throwing out your shoes after you’ve walked in there, its not a really appealing option.

Although, for a brief moment, he was our only Tim Horton’s outlet in town. One morning, there was a little sign, carefully done in black marker (quit possibly magic marker) exclaiming ‘Tim Horton’s coffee available here!’. It seems that he just trotted over to the Northern Store, bought some Tim Horton’s brand and served it up. It is also possible that he bypassed the trip and just made a sign one morning.

Polar Bear Blog - June 14, 2010 - Inuvik - Cross Fox and Golf

A cross fox patrols our golf course today. He is lean and probably last year’s kit, out on his own, fighting seagulls and ravens for scraps while he learns to hunt. Cross foxes are a really neat looking phase of the red fox. Their face and legs are black and the rest is kind of a mottled orange/brown/black, not unlike the stray cats patrolling back alleys in any city. They are named not because they look like a ‘cross’ between the Silver and Red phases of the red fox but because of the black cross that can be found on their shoulder blades, best viewed, ahem, when they are skinned.

Speaking of skins, they are a common sight at any grocery store in the north. As you roam the aisles of over-priced milk (between the closure of the ice road and the opening of the Dempster, milk prices reached $32.99 for four litres in paulatuk), quickly softening fruit and specially featured ATVs or snowmobiles, you will come across the northern section, complete with furs – both natural and dyed, sewing supplies, etc. Traditional arts and crafts are probably one of the major employers in the north when you really look at it.

Golf, on the other hand, is not. There technically is a golf course in Inuvik, the End of the Road Golf Course or is it Top of the World golf course – one of those. Of course, it is more mud and fox tail than golf course, a few holes and greens forced into a vacant excavation site – the old gash of mud still carved into ‘Old Baldy’ the hill that overlooks Inuvik. It is definitely a work in progress.

Up on Victoria Island, there is another golf course, pretty sure it’s the world’s most northern course. Just north of Ulukhaktok, the Billy Joss golf course stretches over the tundra, the rocky bluffs of Ulukhaktok and the shores of Arctic Ocean providing a bit nicer view than Inuvik’s garbage dump and highway. It should be noted that you can see the garbage dump from the Billy Joss golf course so I do not appear to be picking on Inuvik.

Each year, there is a Billy Joss tournament (affectionately known as the BJ) in Ulukhaktok that draws up the occasionally Edmonton Oiler hockey celebrity and various oil and gas folks. It occurs in late July and is probably the biggest event of the year for Ulukhaktok. I have to say the first time that I heard “Are you coming back this summer for the BJ?’, I was a little taken aback. But not that much, really.

Polar Bear Blog - June 13, 2010 - Sachs Harbour - More Grolars and Grizzlies

There is word that another grizzly bear or possibly Grolar bear was shot in Sachs Harbour this weekend. Sachs Harbour is a little community of about 100 people, almost all Inuvialuit, situated on the southern coast of Banks Island. Banks Island, itself, is situated just north of the western entrance to the Northwest passage and definitely more polar bear country than grizzly country.

Sachs Harbour is also the first location where the Grolar bear – a grizzly and polar bear hybrid – was shot two years ago. Since then, four more unique bears (mind you, each bear is unique in its mothers’ eyes) have been harvested. The first found on the neighbouring island, Victoria Island. It was another grolar bear, this time a second generation hybrid (its mother was a true Grolar bear).

Shortly after, a Grizzly was shot out on the sea ice by a hunter from Ulukhaktok, the main and only community on Victoria Island. I think he might have hoped this one was a Grolar bear too since the hide for the other one had sold for around $15-20,000 but it was just a roving grizzly.

Another possible Grolar bear was killed outside of paulatuk, an Inuvialuit community on the mainland side of the northwest passage. For each of these bears, a DNA sample is sent to Energy and Natural Resources Department and they analyze to find the origin of the bear. The results have yet to come back to the community.

The population of grizzlies in the north appears to be booming. In fact, it has been a few years now that hunters have seen grizzlies on Victoria Island, likely crossing the sea ice during a late ice season. This, of course, could be a natural cycle slash climate change or it could simply be that grizzly territories have been displaced by mining and exploration activities so more are being seen north and south extremes of their habitat. Either way, expect Grolar bear sightings to become more and more ‘common’.

Polar Bear Blog - June 12, 2010 - Churchill - Hudson Bay Breaks

Well, here is a bit of an update from Churchill, cobbled together from some old friends and general rumblings from the rumour mill.

The Churchill River 'broke' on June 8th and the bay ice just started moving around Thursday. A good sign, not too early but not too late. Last year, the Canada Day celebrations were rescheduled because the ice was still locked in along shore, same thing happened in 2004 - I think I still have a great picture of some kids playing on the beach with big chunks of ice still stranded in the tidal flats.

There's been a confirmed sighting (by locals not scientists so that means its credible) of beluga whales in the river, probably a pod of bulls coming through and likely on their way down to York Factory and the Nelson River. Usually the early whales are still kind of on their way there, a bit more skittsh than Churchill's summer resident whales, who arrive just a little later.

A few tourists a trickling in to Churchill, usually birders this time of year. The goslings are already running around but there was also a blizzard on May long weekend and today is the first really sunny and hot day in a while. Hopefully early nesters have made it through.

Workers at the port of Churchill have trickled back in to town as well. Reports are that shipping lanes should be open by late July, maybe the 26th or 28th, this year. Last year, the ice season was late - good for bears but not for boats - and grain did not move out of the port until early August leading to a condensed season. No word yet on whether any alternate shipments of fertilizer, etc are planned this year in the continuing efforts to diversify the port's operations.

Other visitors include some otherworldly looking clean-up workers out at the Churchill Northern Studies Centre. They are dressed in Hazmat Suits cleaning up the insulation, black mold, asbestos et cetera strewn around a collapsed tunnel at the former rocket range. I think it was about five years ago when the province conducted a study about converting the abandoned Churchill Rocket Range into a science museum and the tunnel (above ground tunnels that shielded workers from the minus forty weather) promptly collapsed, days after the recommendations were released.

Tricky thing with the Hazmat suits is that I know of more than a few of Churchill's local scavengers who had already picked through the bones (read: plywood) of the rocket range and have long since absconded with the loot. Maybe town council should buy a few Hazmat suits for rent to residents who want to pick up some free stuff from the selection of deserted buildings in the area. Just a thought, probably too late though, I think most has already been converted to cabins, garages and hotels.

Polar Bear Blog - June 11, 2010 - Inuvik - Midnight Madness

Its a Friday night in Inuvik and there are storms brewing. Clouds finally roll in from the south west after days and days of sun and hot weather. Around six or seven, the boat trailer traffic builds as everyone who can, heads out to their cabin in the delta, which, although now overwhelmed by mosquitoes, is still preferable to hanging around town - especially with this sky and never-ending 'sunset'.

As the clouds roll by, first sun streams pour out of the skies then rain can be seen on the horizon. The light continuously changes, from glare to soft to gray to blue and back again. It makes for some good photographs and more than a few changes of clothes - layer up, layer down.

Kids roams the streets on bikes and skateboards, daring the potholes and crumbling pavement. A crowd gathers by the rundown icecream stand in the middle of town, hanging out, watching who is driving, biking and skateboarding around. It feels a little like someone has combined Siberia and South America.

The Friday crowd is gathering at the Mad Trapper, Inuvik's main watering hole and primary source of sex and violence. Its a fairly typical small town bar, complete with old carpet, giant wooden beams, a rickety stage and, of course, black paint. Usually around 10 or 11, it really starts moving, you can tell if its a good night just by the amount of smokers (legal and non-legal) gathered on the front steps.

Across from the Trapper, sits the Eskimo Inn, wrapped in blue and white siding and black marker graffiti. This year, construction workers have gathered on the metal steps and leer lascivously across at the trappers, considering the pros and cons of both the seven dollar beers and the northern girls inside. Good thing the Northwest Territories' Syphilis Alert was just lifted this spring.

Down at the river, an NTCL tugboat surges against the current and an empty barge. Twisting and turning, mid-stream in an attempt to maneuver this big chunk of iron and floatation up to the docks. Between the barge and boat, the east arm of the Mackenzie is barely wide enough to accommodate. Occasionally, men in orange safety vest run across the deck, swinging through doors and upstairs as the boat gets dangerously close to shore, kicking up Mackenzie blood and mud.

Polar Bear Blog - June 10, 2010 - Inuvik - Water, Warblers and Rambling Ravens

Mosquitoes are back in Inuvik (Churchill still might have snow I think...). A cool breeze is keeping them at bay this morning, but they are bound to appear around 5 or 6, funny how its timed to coincide with the end of the work day. I may have been in the north too long because they’re still biting but I don’t seem to feel it as much as I used to. Maybe there’s no blood left to give.

But mosquitoes are good news for the birds and two Yellow Warblers look to be staking out their territory in the willows. These little birds appear bright yellow with a light dusting of grey on their wings. Their song is short and familiar and pops up almost everywhere once you recognize it. Males use it to attract females and researchers have recorded cases of yellow warblers singing over 3000 songs per day. I would try to write it out but I’ve never been able to make sense of bird song translations so I won’t bother.

There is a raven nest about two blocks from here, stacked randomly and precariously atop the power lines. There were (I think) three chicks in there the last time I walked by but life is tricky when you decide to nest in the middle of a northern town, caught somewhere between the power corporation fretting over liability and bored youth throwing rocks. Plus the fact that you are a raven and not a peregrine falcon, doesn’t really play in your favour either. I think they should manage though and luckily ravens are quick learners and early nesters so their chicks by now should be easing their way out of the family home. On the down side, the baby ravens may just end up eating the baby yellow warblers, you never know.

A water truck drives up and down the street, battling the dust that overtakes Inuvik in the summers. I think they are paving more streets this year. It is a futile battle though, the dust and mud was here before us and it will be here after us. There seasons are kind of delineated in Inuvik by winter, mud, sunshine and dust, and then maybe back to mud. If one looks at it bleakly, you could say cigarette butts and dust season, but I’ll stick with sunshine.

Beyond the water truck, a giant jackhammer pounds pilings into the permafrost (that was dangerously close to a haiku). Looks like someone if going to add one more house to Inuvik’s newest subdivision. Buildings up here are usually built on giant steel or wooden poles driven deep into the ground. The goal is to stabilize the ‘foundation’ in this area of continuous permafrost and shifting ground. Last year, a house finally collapsed because its wooden pilings had rotted through. Its still sitting there crooked and with a bunch of random household items waiting in the yard for, well its hard to say.

Polar Bear Blog - June 9, 2010 - Canada's Arctic - Oil Spill Scares Birdwatchers

The down side of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill (and there are many) is that this spill could lead to a bird migration disaster of epic proportions. The Deepwater Horizon rig - groundzero of the oil spill - was (I suppose is) located at the mouth of the Mississippi River, basically the delta where it meets the Gulf of Mexico.

The real worry with this location, or even anything in the Gulf of Mexico in general, involves the Mississippi Flyway. Migratory birds in North America essentially follow three main flyways or migratory paths, the largest of which funnels into the Mississippi delta and Gulf of Mexico. Each fall, arctic nesting birds head south to winter either in the southern states, Central America or South America. The Mississippi flyway spreads out in the north to range from the Mackenzie River across the arctic to Hudson Bay, both west (Churchill) and east (northern Quebec or Nunavik) coasts. As these birds travel south, they all pretty much end up entering the Gulf of Mexico roughly where Deepwater Horizon was located.

From there, some birds will continue a direct and marathon flight to South America, some will stop to winter and yet others will turn and travel along the coast, heading either towards Florida or Central America. What appears to be the problem is that this is also a refuelling stop, where birds will take a rest, fill up on food before continuing on their journey. If their rest stops, the coastal marshlands and varying islands in the Gulf are soiled with oil, this could be a catastrophe.

The most susceptible birds would be the shorebirds, the plovers and sandpipers. They are not only smaller birds but also dwell right in the areas where the oil will gather. Efforts are being made through sand berms and floating boooms but with hurricane season just starting, the oil could easily contaminate several nesting/resting islands. Even the chemicals being used to 'disperse' the oil do not seem to have been tested and could have an equally detrimental effect on bird populations. The trouble is many of the birds could end up miles away before experiencing ill-effects so we will likely never know the full extent (big or small) of this oil spill.

Polar Bear Blog - June 8, 2010 - Inuvik - Vetches v. Willows

Not too many wildflowers around yet, they seem to take their time getting started around here. A few purple ones are lining the roadside, Milk Vetch, Northern Sweet Vetch and Arctic Lupine, both poisonous and pretty. The vetches are sweet peas essentially. Their relatives are sometimes called ‘locoweeds’ because ingesting them (and the vetches and lupine) makes you kind of delirious and staggery. I always thought that it might be a neat economic development venture for the north to process this into some kind of organic hallucinogen. You would probably corner the arctic drug market since you would cut out all the expense of smuggling.

Dandelions fight for position amidst the purple, waiting in vain for someone to make them into wine or salad or even garnish. Fireweed shoots fill the gaps between the two you could have a nice meal really. Young fireweed roots and shoots are pretty tasty, lightly boiled like spinach or peeled for the marrow. Eaten raw, they have a bit of a bite but still good – kind of along the lines of nasturtium leaves.

Otherwise, its willows and foxtail. Around the house, the willows reach up past the first floor windows, a few of them essentially reaching tree status. My landlord’s family kind of has a little block cornered at the end of this street and when they first moved here, his dad had just decided to stop cutting willows down. Not too long before, a group of them were out goose hunting when he woke up to water rising on the Mackenzie. As he went out for a middle of the night ‘break’, the water rose from dry land to his knees. It seems that an earthquake in Alaska had caused a surge in the Mackenzie and the flood was nearly upon them. They hurried to the highest point and hung on to willows for the next eight hours while the water rushed and rose. So after that, he never cut willows and I actually don’t think he hunted geese either.

Speaking of birds (but not really), the ravens are terrorizing the neighbourhood dogs again, including mine. They just never seem to tire of these games. Either sitting up on the wires and clicking, ticking and tocking at the dogs or becoming so bold as to venture to the ground to steal meat, bones or just tease said dog, usually by two ravens sitting just outside the dog’s chain and another darting in to steal whatever is around to steal. One day I caught one sitting on the edge of my dog’s kennel holding a piece of meat in his mouth while Milo went insane below. They’re neat birds, mean but neat. I guess it could just be chalked up to boredom though, ravens don’t have trampolines.

Polar Bear Blog - June 7, 2010 - Canada's Arctic - Oil Spill Saves Bears

The bright side of the Gulf of Mexico oil spill if it can indeed be called a bright side is that it probably saved some polar bears and beluga whales in the long run. Less than two weeks before the accident at the Transocean rig on April 20 (the day before Earth Day… sigh), British petroleum, Imperial Oil and the Canadian Association for petroleum producers teamed up for a big presentation in Inuvik.

Their focus was the fact that Northwest Territories’ Environmental Safety Regulations were essentially outdated. Currently, Territorial regulations require companies drilling in the arctic, the Beaufort Sea specifically to have a ‘one season’ clean-up plan and a pre-drilled relief well which can be accessed and used to, as I understand it, divert the oil from the damaged well. Of course, this is a very significant expense and the companies were arguing that it made drilling for oil in the arctic too costly to pursue.

They claimed, as so many corporations seem to do in so many varying circumstances, that engineering and technology were the answer and that a well could be capped easily and effectively without the existence of a relief well. They even had the paperwork and computer models to prove it. And besides, the chances of an oil spill were only 1 in 285,000.

Now, we all know that this was either a huge mistake or a huge lie, doesn’t matter now really. Turns out that British petroleum has used almost the exact same methods of capturing and containing the oil spill as were utilized in the Ixtoc spill in 1979, except at 5000’ instead of two hundred and with a lot more cool submarines and underwater video cameras (which incidentally the government forced them to keep running once it became apparent that things weren’t going so well).

If this spill had occurred in the Beaufort Sea, it would have taken likely a month to even mobilize the ships and personnel to investigate the options and essentially two years to drill the relief well. The impact on wildlife, including essentially pristine fish stocks, beluga whales and polar bears would have been truly unimaginable.

Without this spill, the pressure from the oil industry, from government and from northern Aboriginal groups for economic development in the north may have resulted in the gradual easing safety restrictions. No one can ever say for sure now but at least this has bought the arctic another ten or twenty year reprieve.

Polar Bear Blog - June 7, 2010 - Inuvik - Trampoline Capital of the World

I am pretty confident in stating that if you took a 360 view from almost any residential location in Inuvik, you could spot a trampoline. If it was June, that trampoline would most likely be in use. I don’t know if there was a sale at the Northern Store or if someone just bought one and then everyone had to have one but that’s Inuvik. They are quiet now though.

Around 9pm, the sunlight starts getting oppressive. The colours begin to wash out in the light. The Richardson mountains fade from deep blue purple to white light on the horizon. The Mackenzie itself is a slate grey; its willowed islands a slater gray and the black spruce behind them, well, you get the picture.

Aside from vacant trampolines, the dog barks are now few and far between, lawn mowers (yes, lawn mowers) no longer roar oh-so-briefly into life, boat motors are no longer revved and tested, and fewer un-mufflered, turbo-charged and shiny hubcapped trucks drive by (they are in fact, omnipresent, likely still cruising around during earthquakes, nuclear detonations and the rapture).

Eyebrow, my neighbour’s dog, begins barking but after a full day in the sun even he doesn’t bother to get up from his newly reacquired shade. Heat agrees as little with mildly obese lab/Rottweiler crosses as it does with my huskies. I can empathize. After waiting so long for sun, it feels nice to retreat to the cool, darkness of the reindeer shop.

In another hour or so, the delta will light up in a brilliant yellow orange; the glare almost impenetrable, glances only allowed by the stark tree islands now wavering in mirage. Sometimes you look up the delta and expect a slow motion nuclear wind to blow out the windows of the surrounding townhouses. Luckily, it never does.

It will stay like this for much of the night. Good for parties, most carry on until six am or seven without even blinking, some even crawl through much of the next day. Not as good for sleeping. Its very easy to get caught up in 24 hour daylight only to find yourself napping at seven pm and puttering around the yard at midnight maybe playing guitar on the porch at four. Only new arrivals to Inuvik think curtains are enough to win this battle, old-timers have cardboard, paneling or wool blankets as their window adornments.

Polar Bear Blog - June 6, 2010 - Inuvik - Sunday Sun Day

Looks like I’m heading out of my self-imposed/recession-imposed exile in Inuvik. Time to get back to the real things in life which, for me, is pretty much wildlife, writing and aimless wandering.

It is a beautiful day in the west Arctic today. The sun is up and has been since May 24th and will be until July 15th or so. I would say that 24 hour daylight is probably a little tougher to take than 24 hour darkness. At least in the winter, you have some respite from darkness be it a pseudo sunrise or the moon’s glare on the snow. In June, there is direct sun and mostly direct sun, everyone eventually gets a little more bonkers than they already were, which is a fair bit.

The Mackenzie River opened up last weekend but north winds have kept river travel fairly limited, even the main tour company, UpNorth has been taking people to Campbell Lake, just up the Dempster, instead of out on the mighty Mackenzie. Of course, that has changed today, the wind is calm and there are not too many boats left at the community dock. The delta is busy today. And it will get busier very soon. Even today, clouds of mosquitoes can be seen in the willows that crowd the backlanes and side streets of Inuvik. They began gathering in May, rising from their winter sleep, collectively sharpening their probusci and kickstarting their lust for blood. A northwind offered maybe a week’s reprieve, unfortunately it was a reprieve coming downwind from the sewage lagoon, but such is life.

Sitting on my porch at the top of the hill and while I would rather be out at a cabin somewhere, its still an okay view of Inuvik and the delta. I rent a ‘basement’ which is not a basement, apartment in Inuvik’s reindeer butcher shop. My landlord owns a reindeer herd of about 3000 head which, in a sense, is the family farm. His grandfather was one of the original reindeer herders who brought these animals over from Alaska in the 1930s.

The house is a little rundown but one of the few northern ‘northern houses’ found on this side of town. This is the southeast side of Inuvik and is predominantly the white, transient side of things; a mixture of rental housing units and home owners waiting to make a big profit when the Mackenzie Gas project is finally approved. Heading west, you hit the permanent residents, mostly Gwich’in and Inuvialuit houses with a little more character (read: broken snowmobiles, lumber, et al).

Our yard makes up for the new developments and subdivisions. Somewhere between a snowmobile graveyard and sled dog kennel (minus the sled dog work ethic). There’s some lumber, driftwood, broken meat deep freezes and a soon-to-be-running river boat. Throw in some reindeer antlers and you’ve hit ‘Better Northern Homes and Gardens’.

From this northern house, you get a good view of Inuvik. Inuvialuit Regional Corporation, the land claims organization for the Inuvialuit people (Inuit of the western Arctic) dominates, for now, the landscape. However, to its left the new Government of Northwest Territories building threatens IRC’s hold on the Inuvik ‘skyline’ while the new $100 million school projects spreads eerily across its right; between a rock and a high rise maybe. Yes, three stories qualifies as high rise here.

Beyond that, a few gulls loop around and over the Mackenzie River, more specifically the east arm of the Mackenzie. The river looks big from here and is big until you hit the main channel and realize just what a big river looks like; menacing, majestic, a few other m-words too.

And finally beyond that, the Richardson Mountains line the west side of the delta. On a good day, you can see their snow-capped peaks highlighted by shadow and sunlight. Today, they appear as a slightly off-shade of sky, sneaking up on the horizon on a blue and cloudless day. I see that the poplar trees are starting to sway and the community greenhouse’s Canada flag is flickering once again. Maybe the north wind is waking up or maybe just waiting for everyone to get as far up the delta as possible. Hard to say with the west arctic.