Trip to Tasiqajuiruti (last lake)

My respect for Inuit endurance has increased many times today. I thought I was reasonably fit, but I had no idea how difficult the land was by listening to the Inuit casually telling of their trips. Thank you Jusipi for taking me out on the land for an outing I will never forget. It's just a bit of tea at a nearby lake he said.

The snowmobiles are ready we make sure we are using number 9 spark plugs since it's a lovely "warm" spring day.  I am sitting behind him, on his snowmobile. We are pulling a large kamutik full with an extra 40 litres of fuel, an ice drill, fishing gear, the camp stove I found at the garage sale in Laval three weeks ago, camping pots, the oil, gun, food, tools, ice pick, shovel, ice scoop, Janice pilots a second snowmobile with Louisa riding with her.

From the village we work our way up and over the first large hills. He picks out way between mountains over snow and exposed rocks, down to the sea ice. It is low tide, So we briefly knit our way through the "cornflakes" of pressure ridges then we move out to the "flat" part traversing great distances at exhilarating 60 to 80 kilometers per hour. I am not accustomed to snowmobiles and I am shocked that they can take such rough terrain at such hich speed and deliver a very comfortable ride. We come across a group of families on their way to the land so we stop and listen to stories about the names of landmarks and where they would camp in the old days. Once all are accounted for, we take off at top speed again.

From the passenger seat, my "job" is to help spot seals, geese and ptarmigan basking in the sun along the way, It isn't easy for me to concentrate on hunting when my attention wants to turn to the endless horizon of charcoal black mountains, brilliant sea of white and perfect blue sky.

As we move along, I actually see some of the animals Jusipi points out to me. They are just dots hundreds of yards away, but eventually the seals begin to look like tiny basking seals, the geese look like little black cartoon geese hanging around the edges of exposed earth, and the ptarmigan, well forget them, I never saw one, despite having their hiding places pointed out to me.  Later, he will pick up two ptarmigan for dinner as if they were sitting in a grocery store.

On the lake, the day is a bit too lovely since the foot of snow above the ice is full of water in many areas. Jusipi's expert driving steered us around major problem areas, still the rare times we got stuck required assistance from the group of families on their way to the same destination. It is the Inuit way.

We stop in the middle of the lake and boil up some soup, tea and round it off with Rhoda's panirktitaq (bannok), delicious. Visitors can't fish in May. Just as well, there are no fish here today, but Jusipi goes off hunting a few geese south of the lake. He comes back with a couple of ptarmigan (a type of pheasant). Supper is assured.

On the way back, it's just two snowmobiles, making their way back to Quaqtaq. The rest of the "Coop group" will sleep at a camp 100 kilometers to the south at Roberts Lake. The snow is deep and wet and getting off the lake up to the ridge required a lot of work. I was exhausted pushing the qamutik up the slope with Louisa. But it was necessary since the snowmobile could just drag itself through the foot of slush. Walking just 100 feet in one foot of slush is very tiring. But we finally reach the ridge and we can relax.

My pualuks are drying in the sun. Wet mittens are the sign of an amateur and guarantee frozen hands.

There are many smart geese around.

We pass isolated seals basking in the sun on the sea ice right by their breathing holes. We stop to investigate this pair, but they slink off under the ice, popping their heads up predictably but oh so briefly. Perhaps tomorrow.

I am very tired tonight after a nine hour outing. I whip up a bit of spaghetti to complement our supper and I am off to bed.

I hope I will not be too wretched tomorrow.