Back to the arctic

The blog site has been stagnant for a while because there has been nothing much for me to say. I could have scribbled about my life away from the boat; couch-surfing, buying boat parts and visiting  family and friends but that is not very exciting to read and even less exciting to write. BUT ---- now that I am working in the arctic I hope I can  write a few entries and post some photos.

I left Vancouver the evening of July 3 and flew to Winnipeg Manitoba, arriving at 11 PM. The next morning at 7 AM  I flew north to the community of Thompson Manitoba, and from there flew 2 hours northeast to southern Nunavut, back to the camp where I lived last August. Although the owner of this camp promised that it was "new and improved" little has changed and it is still rather squalid.  To be fair I will admit that there are new tents and a large new kitchen structure, but the site remains strewn with miscellaneous items from previous camp users and camp equipment (stove, fridge, shower, pumps, beds etc) are either broken or in poor repair. When the six person geology crew is not out working in the field  we are working at camp; fixing up our living spaces and shuffling the many discards from one place to another. We can, and do, burn the camp garbage and small pieces of leftover wood but there are things like iron bed frames, empty fuel barrels, tent insulation, oil stoves and broken pumps that will probably stay at this site forever. It is far too expensive to fly out unusable items so we are living amongst a mess created by others.

The camp is located at 61 degrees north, well south of the arctic circle, but it is still far enough north to have 24 hour daylight. There is a twilight period from about 11 PM to 3 AM but it never gets dark enough for a flashlight and the sunlight does not bother me when I am going to sleep. Although I probably get less sleep at camp than I do on the boat (where I sleep in the dark for 8 hours) I feel more rested.

A summer geology job usually means I get to look at rocks, but there are not many of those in this part of the arctic so my days are spent searching for outcrops in the shrubby tundra and stunted trees. Some of the time my quest is successful, other times it is not, but every day I am guaranteed a good walk. A very long time ago continental ice sheets (glaciers) covered this part of Canada and made it very flat;  hiking is relatively easy and I  can walk several kilometers during a 7 hour day but poor drainage makes it rather wet. In some locations walking is an acrobatic exercise as I leap across swamps from hummock to hummock, in other locations I am jumping from glacial boulder to glacial boulder, hoping that I do not sprain an ankle. I never know what the day will be like until I step out of the helicopter but it is always interesting and new.

Working out of doors is a great job; lots of fresh air, exercise, sunshine and mosquitoes. These annoying insects form thick clouds and fly into my tent, crawl up my pant legs, get into my hair, bite me in the shower and even get inside of my mesh bug jacket. I have been bitten so many times during my previous forays north that their bites do not bother me but their buzzing drives me crazy. Right now I am inhaling the wonderful aroma of a mosquito coil, not very healthy for me but lethal for them.

Every year I debate with myself about getting a summer geology job because it is not a lifestyle that the majority of people would choose or enjoy. I wonder if I really like the work conditions and or if I just put up with them because the job provides an income? Perhaps by the end of this summer I will have an answer, but I have asked myself this same question for such a long time I don't know if I will ever decide.