This is the reason I love Inuvik

The residents are absolutely nuts, but enjoy having a great time. Putting these two things together gives us the destruction derby. I'm not talking about some polished touring destruction derby that may tag along with a monster truck show. I'm talking a head out to the local quarry with 20 old junked up cars that have been modified by their owners (sweet paint jobs included) with minimal safety standards (although the volunteer FD was on site and they kept asking people to keep the emergency road clear) job.

I've heard that there was an annual demolition derby, but this was the first in four or five years. People were excited and it was the largest single gathering of people I have seen in Inuvik during my time here (this year or last). I think in total about 1000 people showed up. That's impressive in a town of about 3,500.

As noted above there were about 20 cars entered so there were a number of heats. I stayed for four complete and I think there may have been a fifth later on. Watching cars race around smashing into each other isn't exactly number one on my preferred activities list, however it was hard not to be influenced by the roars of the crowd whenever a collision took place. Basically it took place in a quarry and the organizers had created a ring for the cars by mounding dirt in a rough square.
When it was go time, six to eight cars would circle up in the inside with the rear of the cars at the centre of the circle. The air horn would sound and metal would be crunched. I took some video of a couple of rounds (as you can see I wasn't the only one) which turned out pretty nicely and managed to get some pretty good shots from my vantage point.
From watching a few rounds you could discern the basic strategy of balancing avoidance with smashing (primarily with the rear of your car so as to avoid any critical damage). When a driver considers their car out of the running, they wave a white flag (which each driver has) through their open roof and the other cars avoid them for the rest of the round. Then once the last car running takes home the crown, the front end loaders and construction equipment move in to remove the cars and pieces of cars that remain. Here are the best of the pictures from yesterday.

Sweet paint job. The ND fans are proud.

This was an epic battle to end heat one.

Pit Crews? Nah, just use a backhoe.

I washed down the derby with a visit to the gym, an hour and a half of frisbee tossing and some sweet sweet caribou for dinner. Here's a picture of that:

Tasty.

Enjoy the long weekend.

GK

Sunny Lake: Round Two

Just back today from the Sunny Lake and it was via one of the most exciting of transportation methods: float plane.
Needless to say I was excited as I'm pretty sure that was the final type of flying that I had not done while doing field work this summer. I have some sweet videos of the takeoff and landing. but due to my computer situation they will need to be uploaded at another time or just shown to those that request upon my return (in only three weeks) to Ottawa.
The weekend came up on the radar quite quickly. Last week I was sampling tree cores for my fire history project like mad around Inuvik and in Tsiigehtchic (my idea of a good time).
The plan was to go to Sunny Lake today and stay until Wednesday. However that just wasn't going to work, primarily due to a certain fantasy football draft that was taking place on Tuesday (tomorrow). Thankfully, my boss is a big sports fan and was able to get things arranged to go out the next morning (this conversation took place at 10:30 PM). So I spent the next couple of hours packing and getting food ready to fly to Fort McPherson the next morning, do some sampling and then get dropped off at Sunny Lake in the afternoon.

Sunny Lake is the location of a forestry camp that is used by the forest department here for various things including education camps, a base for firefighters if there were fires in the area or a place to put guys on the weekend so they don't get slammed on the weekend in town and can report to work on Monday (a sad reality). My assistant for the weekend was a guy named Ernie who is a great worker and is an awesome help (also the captain of the winning firefighting crew). The plan for the weekend was lots of sampling all around the lake to fill in gaps in our sampling.
The first day started chilly but quickly warmed up to mid 20s and the long johns were regretted. Lots of signs of moose (but no sightings) and some big jackfish in the lake. That night it rained like mad and the weather was dim the next day, but we decided to do our long sampling day anyways and we took a walk through the bush to hit a couple of sites a couple of clicks away. It's unbelievable how easy it looks on maps or on Google to select points, but on the ground it is another story. Breaking trail, up and down the sides of hills, crossing creeks. It quickly turns a jaunt into a trek. I think the distance probably doubles because of the all the zig zagging one must do through the bush. It was more than a little wet and the boots were soaked through by the end of the day. Fortunately there is a small cabin with a wood stove that we lit to dry everything off for the next day.
It also got chilly that evening ( I think we hit zero) and we made the decision to sleep in that cabin for the night so that we could stay warm. Waking to put wood on the fire is a nice experience. Until you touch the hot stove by mistake and start cussing at the top of your lungs and dropping wood all over the floor and waking other people. Thankfully that didn't happen, but it could have. The next day was another spent boating on the lake to various sites. Field breakfasts are good though and I am becoming a superior pancake chef.
I think a theme restaurant is in order. In total I think we ended up sampling about 150 trees over the three days. This morning, the visibility and ceiling were all over the place, so the plane wasn't able to fly in until about noon. After a quick unloading of gear for the guys to start winterizing, I was off returning to Inuvik. Of course after the pilot climbed beneath the plane to fix a few repairs (pilot: "nothing major, just what controls our steering").
All part of the mystique of the north...getting home on chicken wire and old spark plugs. Of course the name of the plane or at least the steering wheel is what got me.
I wish this photo had come out a bit better but it was definitely called the Super Skywagon. Sweet. Fall is clearly here and the colours are starting to show nicely. I heard that around the Ogilivie Range on the Dempster the colours are beautiful. Maybe another trip down the Dempster is in order? Tomorrow I'm out at my site in the Delta and then there is a trip down the Mackenzie River (a reverse Alexander Mackenzie if you may). That should be nice. Time is quickly passing and there is no apparent way of slowing it down. Pat is in Ottawa looking and hopefully finding some accommodation for September when I return. What a con that was on my part to conveniently be in the north when our lease was up. Looks like a place has been found. I just got off the phone and sounds like a nice place. Looking forward to seeing everyone when I return. Perhaps I will get a haircut for the occasion...who am I kidding.

21 days. Be ready.

Did I just see what I think I saw?

Uh yeah that is a polar bear in the middle of the Dempster Highway. I didn't take this photo or have this conversation, but I'm sure that is something like how it went. Probably with a couple of choice words added for excitement.

A polar bear seems to have found its way down to my neck of the woods. This actually a very rare event. Generally the bears remain up near the coast, but sometimes they venture south and this made it quite a way, almost down to Fort McPherson. The wildlife officers made the decision to trap it and take it back to the coast so that no problems arose with cabins etc. I'm not exactly sure why the decision was made, because other than a few sightings on the Dempster, it didn't break into any camps.

However, because of this decision, I was able to see the bear up close when they brought it to the helipad at forestry. When it got here, the bear was tranquilized and they took measurements and put a radio collar on it. Then a helicopter arrived and the bear was placed in a sling and taken back to the coast. I have pictures of it all...but I'm not allowed to post them. Too bad. If you want to see them when I get back I would be glad to show people.

So yesterday was a momentous day. I officially became an NWT resident due to me spending 3 continuous months residing in the territory. There was cake. Actually there wasn't, but I think I could get a health card if I so wished. I probably won't, but the option is there. I realize that I will have completed about 6 months of time in the field during the course of my MSc. I think that's a pretty good chunk of time. Hopefully it pays off with a) a good thesis project and b) possible employment down the road.

Busy week. Heading to Tsiighetchic tomorrow and Ft. McPherson on Thursday. Perhaps some wakeboarding this weekend.

Congrats to those who played at Nats this weekend. Seems like some enjoyed a very successful weekend. Can't wait to play some ultimate in September.

Round is a shape

You think this would be something they would do before hiring people, but instead it happens at the end of the summer...who knew?

Regardless, the head firefighter in the NWT made an appearance in Inuvik for the day on August 1 to do fitness testing for the crews here. Coincidentally, this is also the time of year when the captains of Chess Club (the Carleton ultimate team) remind us to be in game shape come tryouts in September. I've been keeping fit (visiting the gym etc) in the time I've been here, but I knew it was time to kick it into high gear and I figured this would be a good test of where I was. I'm aiming to be in better shape this year when I get back than I was last year. So far so good. Building my 30G gas tank...

I was required to do the test, but I wanted to go head to head with the firefighters to see where I measured up. The guy from HQ said I was a masochist, but that may have been because of my orange shoes...

The first part of the test consists of a 4.8 km walk with a hose pack weighing 50 lbs on your back (note packs are not the least bit comfortable. Ins fact they are just awful. Half the battle was just mental blocking out the pain on your shoulders). You need to complete the walk in under 45 minutes. I thought this would be a cake walk and thankfully I practiced once before the actual test. It requires setting a really good pace and sticking to it in order to finish under the time.
The test is supposed to be strictly walking and despite a bunch of the guys running and then resting and then running again (which is far easier than keeping the same pace over the 40 minutes) I finished with a time around 42 minutes which out me in at 4th or so (but probably 2nd of the people who actually did it properly).
Then there is a rest and then the fun stuff begins. The second part is much more about explosive sprinting rather than keeping a pace. We needed to carry a pump (about 70 lbs) 100 m and then as soon as that is down, the timer starts and you need to do 300 m carrying 4 lengths of hose.
Followed by 200 m dragging a charged (filled with water) hose. The rest period was quite long between the two (long enough for me to make and eat a sandwich),. Everyone was gunning for the top time which was supposedly 2:26. I went and started strong but faded like mad on the dragging of the charged hose and ended with a 2:37 time.

I felt like I could have done much better and was somewhat disappointed with my time. The good thing was that although I was dead as soon as I finished I was back in form enough to probably do it again (albeit at a much slower time) in about 2 minutes. I think I ended up with the 3rd fastest time and Issac the guy who tied the top time hadn't done the walk with us, so I consider him DQ...haha. So not too bad for the visiting scientist.

I can't believe August is here already. The month of July flew by with all of the people coming in and out. I've managed to meet a lot of new people both locals and other scientists who have been in town during the summer. It also is actually starting to get dark around 2 AM or so and not getting light until about 5 or 6 AM.
Maybe I'll be able to see some more Northern Lights near the end of the month. They are quite amazing up here.

Until the next update. I wish well to all those down south.

GK

Firefighter Olympics

Pictures are worth a thousand words folks. I can surmise this one in a single one: champions!! (oh and it doesn't show up here, but I'm definitely wearing my Chess Club shirt).

That's right on July 27, I went to the games, saw the games and conquered them. Our team consisting of 2 rookies (Willie and PJ) a fire clerk (Alison) and the summer intern (yours truly) bested the other firefighting crews to take home the cup (in this pic being held by our awesome captain Ernie).

The challenge consisted of a series of tasks grouped together to simulate what would happen at a fire with a little fitness thrown in for fun. We had to sprint 300 m to the gear, get a pump started and hooked up, run hose, use the hose to knock over a fuel barrel and roll it 150 meters, empty three backpacks (aka piss packs) of water to wet down the perimeter and then roll up all of the hose and pack up the gear again. Our team was even penalized a couple of minutes because we had end fold hose instead of centre fold. It didn't matter, we overcame all obstacles. Then we had a BBQ and socialized with the other regional crews. Below are the best pictures of the day.

The opening sprint (look out for mud pits)

The crew setting up the pump and getting things prepped

Running out hose

Trying to get those backpacks empty. Good forearm workout for sure.

Hosing down the barrels

Rolling them was a bit tricky. Needed to hit the right spot or it spun out of control on you.

Rolling up the hose near finish. Our team executed a flawless plan that brought it home.

Last length of hose and sprinting to the finish. I'm getting pretty good height off the ground here.

More updates with photos to follow. Very soon.

GK