Warning: This post contains images that some readers may find graphic. Viewer discretion is advised.
I woke up at 8am feeling refreshed. Sleeping in the iglutaq was a success and I’d do it again. I got dressed and emerged from the iglutaq, ready to seize the day. The campsite appeared quiet, but I could hear some movements in other tents. I stretched my legs and walked around to remain awake. I woke up the cadets in the tents and told them to get ready for breakfast. I took pictures of the campsite while cadets slowly emerged from their tents. Overcast clouds hung in the sky.
The senior cadets collected water from ice holes drilled into the lake the night before using large grey pots. They fired up the Coleman stoves and boiled the water. I opened a few MRE boxes, and the cadets lined up to select their breakfast meals. Junior cadets go first, senior cadets second, and officers last. We labelled our main meals with Sharpie markers and placed them in the pots. Our meals were ready to eat after 15 minutes. The hired adult driver also enjoyed an MRE while the Canadian Ranger prepared his own breakfast.
I taught two lessons after breakfast, one about no-trace camping, and the other about predicting weather through cloud formations. The cadets then enjoyed a short snack break.
The cadets then spent some time fishing at the nearby ice holes. Arctic char can be found at Ijuyuarjuk, but you must get through a thick layer of ice before you can jig and/or set nets. The thickness of the ice can be as much as 9 feet! It’s a good thing the Canadian Ranger brought a gas-powered ice auger with additional poles.
Lunch
consisted of MREs and lasted an hour.
The Canadian Ranger showed the cadets the process of laying fishnets. Quite a few pieces of gear are required: ice auger, shovel, wooden ice jigger, metal rods, and ropes. A minimum team of 3 makes the drilling process fast & efficient. Two people operate the ice auger, and the third person clears & shovels the snow & ice. The metal rods & ropes secure the nets to the surface.
We continued to jig for char and a few cadets managed to catch some. I didn’t. We were briefly interrupted by the sounds of geese flying north, possibly towards Arctic Bay. A cadet tried his best goose call, but none of the birds responded. The hunting of geese is permitted in Nunavut.
The Canadian Ranger & hired adult driver took the cadets seal hunting at 2:30pm. They left before I did because I had to use the washroom. I’d catch up to them on my skidoo. When it comes to “using the facilities”, you find a secluded spot away from the campsite, like a hill, and do your business. Just remember not to go near a fresh water source. Skidoos are used as privacy walls or people build a half igloo: a semi-circle wall with no roof.
The skidoo convoy was long gone when I entered Admiralty Inlet. All I could see was endless kilometres of ice & snow, and distant mountains. I had brought binoculars but gave them to a cadet before they left. If this was my first time to the area, I would have felt like I was looking for a needle in a snowbank. But this was my third time, and I have previous experience travelling out on the land. These were most likely the reasons why I didn’t panic and wasn’t concerned.
I scanned the horizon from south to north and decided to drive west; straight ahead. I spotted a skidoo track after several minutes and decided to follow it. Driving out on the land feels like travelling in space. You’re moving but it looks like you’re not. I’ll admit the longer I drove, the more my mind began to question my decision to head west. But I stuck to my guns and kept driving. I did stop briefly to take a picture of Ijuyuarjuk behind me.
Eventually I spotted two black dots in the distance. That had to be them. I kept driving, slowly closing the distance. Beyond the black dots I saw a large iceberg that had to be close to a hundred feet high. I wondered if we would have time to visit. Eventually the two dots became two qamutiks and then the two skidoos came into view. The convoy had stopped to look at some seal breathing holes. I joined the convoy, greeting the cadets & asking them if they caught anything. They said no.
We drove around the area, found a few seal holes and had several cadets stand by them with niksiks, large metal hooks attached to long wooden sticks. The skidoos drove away, attempting to fool curious seals into thinking we left. Unfortunately, no seals surfaced after 20 minutes. I’ve been told that some hunters have stood by a seal hole for up to an hour before scoring a kill. Not all was lost because the Canadian Ranger managed to get a small seal. The convoy converged and we all looked at the catch. He tied it to his qamutik.
The Canadian Ranger led the convoy back to Ijuyuarjuk, but we stopped at a few seal holes along the way. He shot another seal, but it escaped through a breathing hole. We returned to camp with one successful catch. The hunt had lasted 2 hours. The large iceberg I mentioned before was too far away to visit.
The Canadian Ranger harvested the seal and slow cooked half of it in a large grey pot. His wife added vegetables to the mix. He left the rest for everyone to eat raw. I tried both. I ate a few raw pieces and enjoyed a large piece of cooked seal. Cooked seal is called uujuq. The only part I couldn’t finish was the fat. Birds would consume the leftovers. The seal provided a good dinner.
The local Hunters & Trappers Association built a wooden cabin at Ijuyuarjuk as an emergency shelter. The cadets & I moved our camp site to this cabin after dinner. The cabin is located closer to Admiralty Inlet. The cabin is a simple design. There’s one door, one window, a wooden floor, and a raised wooden floor for sleeping. There’s also a raised wooden shelf. The male cadets & I would sleep in the cabin and the female cadet would stay in the green tent.
We spent the remainder of Saturday ice fishing and hanging out at the cabin. I photographed a distant iceberg that looked like warship before going to bed. The midnight sun shined brightly in the sky.
To Be Continued . . .
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