Ice

Arriving in the arctic at the beginning of July means that winter is just ending. On July 4, flying into the camp, the ground was bare of snow and all of the smaller lakes were free of ice, but the larger lakes were still frozen although the ice was rapidly breaking apart.

Our camp is located on an esker between north and south Henik lakes and the two lakes are connected by a swift moving river, about 3 km in length. Shortly after our arrival small rafts of ice started moving from the north lake to the south and as they passed by camp an eddy pulled them close to the shore where it was shallow. Approaching the land the rafts ground along the bottom with mournful groaning noises and broke apart into ice bergs cubes. Other sections of the raft remained intact and slowly melted into a mush of stubby ice crystals.

I have never been in the north during an official "spring breakup", where huge sheets of ice float down a river, but after seeing this mini-breakup I have added that event to my bucket list.