May 10, 2012         -3C, high thin cloud, calm and around the clock light. The sun does go down for about 4 hours but it doesn’t get dark. The snow has really been receding quickly this past week.

A month since I last updated and it’s been a busy month. Fiscal year-end rush to order deterrent supplies to support communities across Nunavut, preparing with others for the potential passing in the legislature of two new ground-breaking programs to help prevent and lessen the impacts of bear-human impacts and other fascinating files.

Imbetween the work there have been several significant public events in Igloolik and great trips out of town exploring the sea ice and tundra.

Here are a few highlights. I’ll insert a few pictures and there are many more posted in the Flickr photostream.

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April 14, 2012   -30sC, brilliant sunshine, NW 10-15 kmph

Circumnavigation of Igloolik Island, 75 km. 3 hours with stops.

Team Arctic Cat headed out on a beautiful morning to explore. There are 3 of us with Arctic Cat snow machines.

The light for travelling was ideal. Lots of contrast for seeing broken ice, drifts of snow and avoiding them. The opposite condition is flat light where it is very difficult to see those hazards.

 We headed south out of town and with Peter and Elizabeth in the lead we followed the shoreline.

At the south tip of the island are many cabins. Apparently as summer approaches many families head out of town to their cabins and campsites. Some spots have been used by several generations of a family. They are a number of stretches of these seasonal camps scattered around the island.

As we rounded the SW tip of the island saw a line of 5 skidoos and 2 sleds heading across the sea ice to the mainland. 5 local women (some teacher and co-workers wives) were off on a what they called the “girls” trip to collect big blocks of ice from a particular lake about an hour away on the mainland. You see these large ice blocks in piles in front of many houses. The lake supposedly has always had the best drinking water – much better than the town water so people go out often to get ice blocks. For tea they go out with a hatchet and chip some off into a pot.

We headed into a small bay as we continued on. There was something tall sticking up on shore in front of some cabins. On the coast I would have guessed it was the roots of an old growth tree washed ashore. As we drove closer it became more obvious – part of a skull of a large bowhead whale.

Nearby were some ribs draped over an old kayak. The kayak had a remnant bit of hide left attached from it’s skin covering.

Due to the cold we didn’t linker too long. Lots of island left to explore.

Team Arctic Cat. At times it was hard to determine where the shoreline. Here it was easy. Keep large ice formations on one side and watch for glimpses of rocks poking through on the other side. We missed it this day but part way around is a carved grave stone and rockpile grave of one Perry’s expedition. Another trip. We did see a very unusual monument. A bulldozer down near the SE tip of the island.

The story is that 2 men headed out from Baffin Island some time in the 50s to cross Baffin and the sea ice to Igloolik Island a distance of 100s of kms. One went through the ice and one man was lost. The other made it to the end of Igloolik Island where it ran out of gas. And that is where it sits still today. Although not that far from the hamlet, it wasn’t refueled so it is another monument to an ill-fated expedition.