Sunday, April 26, 2009

Trip to Avvaaja

A couple of people went for a snowmachine ride on Saturday to the hills of Avvaaja. Laura wasn't able to come because she can't handle the bumps on the snowmachine anymore.


Avvaaja is a popular spot. This was a second group of people we saw while we were out there. People go to hunt ptarmigan (like partridge) and gather fresh water ice because our water is so crappy lately.


The boys like to do rainbows on the sides of the hills. The guy waiting to go at the bottom didn't make it and ended up flipping his machine and breaking a windshield and a couple of side panels.


Larissa and Caleb took Maren's dog team all the way to Avvaaja. It took them about 1 hour to get there while it only took about 10-15 minutes on the machines.


Here are some pictures of our buddy Matt taking some jumps on his machine. Unfortunately, I no longer have a machine and had to sell it this week because we are leaving Igloolik at the end of the school year.


Matt jump pic #2


Matt jump pic #3

Sunday, April 5, 2009

Trip to the bowhead whale

Marty, Matt and I went for a snowmachine ride on Saturday to find a frozen whale in the ice. It took some searching but we finally found it. It was impossible to see anything because the whale is buried under a lot of snow and ice.


The arctic garage. This igloo was built in January and is finally falling apart. Matt decided to back up his snowmachine into the igloo and I snapped a couple of pics. Of course, he got stuck and we had to do a little bit of digging.


Matt hammering the throttle and emerging from the igloo.


Some polar bear prints from around the frozen whale. People in town have said that they have seen about 2 or 3 bears around the site.


The whale is buried underneath the snow pile to the left of the snowmachines.


This pic is on the top of the whale. The bears have tunelled a hole down into the whale and have been eating it. It's a bowhead whale and the smell is absolutely terrible. They have carved quite a big hole in the side of the whale.


A pic of a polar bear print up close.