heavy snow all weekend, so cancelled plans to go to Alkavik, and went sledding instead, then some climbing on Sunday. Minus 26 and windy. Leaving the house and heading along the streets of Inuvik down to the river.
Off the river and onto the trails south of Inuvik
Really fine snow has been falling, which partially clogged the air box
Monday, January 26, 2015
Friday, January 23, 2015
Ikhil Gas Plant just before Christmas
Went out to the Caribou hills about 50km north of Inuvik or downstream on the Mackenzie about 50kms to do some skiing. I headed up and onto the plateau where the tundra starts and on over to Ikhil. Over the Christmas break Inuvik Gas switched over to synthetic fuel - oxygenated propane - which is trucked up the Dempster highway from Whitehorse. This means that Ikhil was probably taken offline or operating at a reduced capacity. The field is expected to be exhausted soon so Ikhil should stop producing sometime soon, meaning that 100% of heating gas will be trucked up the highway.
Warm day at -15 but not much daylight and the wind did pick up after a fashion. On the way back the typical layered air-mass was present over the Mackenzie Delta and the mirages were quite evident looking over to the Alkavik side. Far less snow this year and the ice road is in much worse shape as compared to last year. Regardless nice "day" to be out and about, even though the sub doesn't make it about the horizon this time of year, lol.
The drive out and the ski up in flat lighting - ca easily become whiteout conditions on the plateau if the wind picks up the snow
At the plant / well site
...and the way back, looking at the mirages, cooler temps
Warm day at -15 but not much daylight and the wind did pick up after a fashion. On the way back the typical layered air-mass was present over the Mackenzie Delta and the mirages were quite evident looking over to the Alkavik side. Far less snow this year and the ice road is in much worse shape as compared to last year. Regardless nice "day" to be out and about, even though the sub doesn't make it about the horizon this time of year, lol.
The drive out and the ski up in flat lighting - ca easily become whiteout conditions on the plateau if the wind picks up the snow
At the plant / well site
...and the way back, looking at the mirages, cooler temps
Tuesday, January 20, 2015
Weekend of Jan 15 2015
Interesting weekend in the Mackednzie Delta: I spent Saturday helping some friends cutting firewood just north of town, along the ice road to Aklavik / Tuktoyaktuk. We snowmobliled in then 3 of us cut while one person ferried loads of wood back to the trailer. I took a while to fine the chain for my chainsaw and at one point i thought it had been left down south but 2 chains eventually appeared after a trip to Arctic Rim to buy one – fortunately they didn’t have any 20 inch chains just piles of 18 inchers otherwise i would have ended up buying a new one then finding my chains at home, lol
We cut for about 2and a half hours and brought back approximately a full cord and a bit of wood. Lots of people think face cords are real cords, of course a face cord only 25% of a cord. I found some bigger trees which when cut (don’t really consider them to be felled as they are so stunted) looked to be in the 200 year range.
Sunday I headed over to my climbing area about twenty minutes south of town to break the trail in and check things out, snowy day but far less pack on the ground compared to last year. Things look good and time to start climbing now that the light is back.
Out on the highway by Campbell Creek Day Use Area, the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Optic Link project is forging south to connect a 48 strand line to Yellowknife so we don’t have to depend on the existing microwave link that is short on bandwidth and not all that reliable. The route will follow the 40 years old right of way that has been in place for the now defunct Mackenzie Valley pipeline and eventual highway. They have set a field camp at the creek and are plowing a right of way ahead of a commercial sized ditch witch which is laying the cable about 60cm down below the duff line.
For some reason a lone bike is residing out in the winter landscape.
Later that day took the sled out for a spin out to the Inuvik Satellite Station Facility (nice sundog emulating a rainbow) via the Shell Lake trails then back through Airport Lake then the channel, which is open in places (!) to the Mackenzie.
From there i headed past the docks where a house that was being moved in the morning was precariously left perched on the river bank for a number of hours – can’t imagine that the framing was doing too well in that position. The Canadian Coast Guard motor vessel Eckaloo is berthed for the winter nearby.
Lastly I went up towards Noel Lake. The trail had been groomed since last week and was good sledding on a smooth track, found some deep drifts to play in on some of the lakes. Nice sunset on the way back.
We cut for about 2and a half hours and brought back approximately a full cord and a bit of wood. Lots of people think face cords are real cords, of course a face cord only 25% of a cord. I found some bigger trees which when cut (don’t really consider them to be felled as they are so stunted) looked to be in the 200 year range.
Sunday I headed over to my climbing area about twenty minutes south of town to break the trail in and check things out, snowy day but far less pack on the ground compared to last year. Things look good and time to start climbing now that the light is back.
Out on the highway by Campbell Creek Day Use Area, the Mackenzie Valley Fibre Optic Link project is forging south to connect a 48 strand line to Yellowknife so we don’t have to depend on the existing microwave link that is short on bandwidth and not all that reliable. The route will follow the 40 years old right of way that has been in place for the now defunct Mackenzie Valley pipeline and eventual highway. They have set a field camp at the creek and are plowing a right of way ahead of a commercial sized ditch witch which is laying the cable about 60cm down below the duff line.
For some reason a lone bike is residing out in the winter landscape.
Later that day took the sled out for a spin out to the Inuvik Satellite Station Facility (nice sundog emulating a rainbow) via the Shell Lake trails then back through Airport Lake then the channel, which is open in places (!) to the Mackenzie.
From there i headed past the docks where a house that was being moved in the morning was precariously left perched on the river bank for a number of hours – can’t imagine that the framing was doing too well in that position. The Canadian Coast Guard motor vessel Eckaloo is berthed for the winter nearby.
Lastly I went up towards Noel Lake. The trail had been groomed since last week and was good sledding on a smooth track, found some deep drifts to play in on some of the lakes. Nice sunset on the way back.
Tuesday, January 13, 2015
Renideer Herd out by Jimmy Lake north of Inuvik Jan 2015
Took a snowmobile trip out to the reindeer herd on Sunday, -18 in town and -35 out by the herd. Not much snow even out on the tundra. The herder was out doing some culling, the meat is mainly used for the communities. Cold day with 82% humidity, fortunately not much wind but lots of ground fog on the way back to town in fading light; easy to get lost if one is not careful. Really nice to see the sun but it's still only up for a short time. As the herd moves the snow dust hangs in the air from their passing, hence the grey "fog" in some pf the pix
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