Inuvik: the melt is on

Some shots around town, now that the melt has started; while a lot of the snow pack seems to just sublime away there is, of course, the inevitable wet and muddy season. Midnight Mechanical, along Navy road, is one of the shops in town, his bone yard floods out every year.

Further along Navy road, and past some shacks owned by one of the more eclectic people in Inuvik is the official start / end of the Inuvik Tuk highway. Work is shut down for now and with good reason, as the road bed is as soft as soft can be. Even before getting onto the new surface my tires were sinking and picking up the omnipresent delta clays...mud again.

A few shots looking back along Navy Road and of the Inuvik Gas “synthetic gas” i.e. oxygenated propane that is now used to heat the town as the Ikhil well site is now longer producing natural gas.

Down by the territorial campground about a third of the way to now shut ferry crossing at Tsiigehtchic. We had skied around there in February and our tracks were still easily visible on the surface of the creek. The top ice layer is now melting and pooling and breaking into 6 to 8 cm long needlelike crystal structures. These are common and seem to range in length according to thickness of the ice layer they were formed in. The bank that I skied in February is now oozing mud. I’m not sure if the amount of movement of the slope is normal or has been accelerated by the 3.1 degree warming trend that this portion of the Arctic is experiencing. Pussy willows are out as well as the beavers. I decided to walk downstream as the creek ice was still generally sound regardless of the seasonal pooling that was happening. Nice to see some sun and no wind along the creek as it’s sheltered by the trees – came across numerous beaver dams. The road itself is bone dry, as well as the brush – one has to remember that the Arctic is a desert like environment, even though there is water everywhere.

Back in town the ice road is officially closed –they only put the sign up after the open water clearly indicated the end of the road – nothing like stating the obvious. We had water front property back at the row house as the town workers decided it was a good idea to clear a developing swamp uphill from us. The rush of water overwhelmed the drainage ditch, of course, they came and sumped Bonnetplume Lake right until 5PM, quitting time then promptly left. I suppose they figured that the water would just disappear after work hours.

Few more shots of the other ice road access – now mud - by the GIS Explorer; and of one of the houses down that way. Also the birds are back – Eagles have been around for several weeks now.