Strangely, or not if you know of my wife's love of fishing and competition, our day started bright and early at 7:00 am despite getting to sleep at 4:30 am. I awoke as Leah crawled out from under the sleeping bag, ready to get a start fishing. Now I like fishing, just not that much.
I actually didn't fish much for the weekend. I was enjoying just being out. I hiked, slept, chased birds, slept, took some photos, slept, fished a little, uh, slept. I can't believe how much I slept while I was out. But it was a wonderful way to spend a weekend.
But fish I did, and I didn't catch anything. It was a slow weekend for almost all here. Leah, who usually catches numerous char, caught only three. There were only a handful of fish caught on our section of the river. Farther up, where most were camped, and where most of the fishing was done, fishing was better but still slower than past years. As always, one or two people seem to have the charm, the fishing mojo. Our sister-in-law caught 40, far more than most others.
I did get some exploring done. Travis pointed out a Glaucous Gull to me, and as I tried to find it against the grey sky, I saw other birds. A flock of Snow Geese, just disappearing down over the hill. And as everyone was heading up stream to the more productive end, I determined to walk up on the tundra above and see if I could find them.
Sure enough, soon after I got to the top of the valley I found them in the binoculars, feeding on the exposed tundra a ways down from me. They were wary, and as I made my way closer, I dropped down below the lip of the valley. I was still a fair distance from them when I decided I couldn't get closer, without a long crawl on my belly. So I snapped some poor photos, marred by the heat rising from the exposed ground. There were sixty in this flock, one lone Blue phased snow goose amongst them. Also amongst them was a small, lone Cackling Goose.
Also on this little excursion I saw there were many sea shells exposed on the sandy sides of the valley. So when Travis got back, he and I made plans to go collect some. He loved it, and he found many different sorts, and wanted to go back up any chance he got. Each time he added to a growing collection. Which would have been larger had we noticed the hole in the bag we were using.
I was loath to let him wander far alone because of another discovery Leah and I had made on a short excursion from camp. While out we found the unmistakable tracks of a large wolf. It had up the valley to within a couple of hundred metres of camp before turning up the bank and going around. It came some time during the second night there. After one of our shell hunts I took Travis over and showed him the tracks. This is his hand in comparison.
But in truth, the wolf would be unlikely to bother even a child wandering alone. Although I wasn't planning on testing that theory.
The weekend continued in much the same manner, fishing for Leah and Travis, exploring and sleeping for me until noon on Monday, when we broke camp. Our little convoy was plagued by mechanical trouble on the return trip. There are always snowmobile casualties on these weekend, with generally several abandoned on the side of the trail coming or going. This was no exception.
My father-in-law's machine developed some strange fuse problem going on, stopping it several times dead in the tracks. Remember that komatiq thing about sudden stops? On a couple of times the sled narrowly missed their snowmobile, before spinning it around on as it reached the end of the road. This was the first time I'd ever seen fuses rebuilt in the field, and I never cease to be amazed at how ingenious people here are. But there was only so much that could be done, and eventually the machine and the small komatiq from another were abandoned on the trail in Moffit Inlet. It was recovered the following week.
One of the cool things, especially on the return journey, is how the convey's grow along the way. At each stop for tea or a bite to eat, other people catch up and eventually there are a number of groups traveling together. This is the group as we dropped down back onto the ice at Moffit Inlet.
Our last stop was just outside of Iqalulik, where we had supper and fueled up for the last push home. We arrived back around 10 pm, unloaded the essentials from the komatiq, picked up Hilary and headed home. The apartment felt very warm.
Comments
2 responses
WOW! That was quite an adventure! And I thought it was cold here! At least we don’t have any snow or ice! I was much impressed with the picture of your son’s hand in comparison to the wolf’s print. Double WOW! Glad you had fun and made it back safe and sound. ~karen
Thanks Karen. It was a great trip.