The Hunt

My life is slowly but surely falling into its own Tundra routine up here. Although I am a bit disapointed not being able to replicate the level of physical activities to that of Shamattawa and Klemtu as of yet. I haven't been running as much as I would have hoped to, and instead am relying on after school games of soccer to keep me in decent physical shape. Which I am afraid it is not! I should get into habit of running regularly after school, no matter how windy it may be.

Inuglak School

As for work, it is a bit more challenging than what I had expected. Students are very polite and respectful, but lack self confidence. If I could just remind them how capable and strong they are, I am sure they can easily complete their courses. It is just getting them to take it as one step at a time. Cliche, yet so true! Today we, high school students, went for a land trip out on the Tundra for a day of fishing, berry picking and hunting. It was wonderful to see how competent and confident they were out there, and I'll do my best to remind them of it tomorrow in class. They felt right at home fishing, picking berries, building fire, and in general having fun. They kept asking me how I liked their "land" and I couldn't stop telling them how much I truly loved it. I dont think I have ever come across such a barren and plain landscape that supports so much life! I try posting some pictures from our trip on next blog.

Town's cemetry, facing west, with an ocean view

Over the past couple of weeks, I managed to head out to more local lakes for some afternoon and weekend fishing. Managed to catch my first ever Arctic Grayling. It is a relatively small fish but very tasty. It also looked similar to some of the sepecies we have down in the Caspian region. It was fun catching it, and I am definitely looking forward to more of that. One fish that I have yet to catch is the prized Arctic Char. There are two types, the ocean char and the land-locked lake chars which are a bit smaller than their oceanic cousins.

Another beautiful lake, town's source of water

Tried fishing for lake char here but no luck

My first Arctic Grayling

But by far the biggest adventure of my time in Whale Cove was the hunting trip I was lucky enough to go on last Saturday. It was Andy, my roommate, and two local hunters, Shon and Benjamine. We met by the gas station around 10:00am to get some extra cans of gas and some supplies. Of course Andy and I had already packed camping gear and food, as we were planning to camp out there for the night. We left town around 10:15 and headed out on the land in hope of finding caribous, muskox, and grizzlies. The landscape is pretty much all rocks that is covered by a few inches of soil and very low lying plants. It is covered by lichen, moss, berries of all kinds, arctic cotton, and a variety of willows. Of course you do see lots and lots of exposed rocks, as well as thousands of lakes. Some are a few feet deep and some much deeper, which support fish year round, even through the long deep freeze. The ride on the trail is winding and very bumpy, but nowhere near as bumpy as when you get to drive off trail, which we did for most of the day. I should mention that I was riding with Andy on his newly bought ATV, and the other hunters were driving their own ATV's. After the weekend adventure I truly appreciate why they are called ATV. We drove about an hour on the trails before spotting our first caribou. Of course it was one of our local friends who had spotted the caribou while driving, which is incredible. The caribou was so perfectly camouflaged but Shon and Benjamine would spot them at will. We stopped for a few minutes and just admired looking at it. I was a bit bewildered as to why they weren't going to shoot it, but later learned they were confident of seeing more further down and didnt want to start work just yet! A bit of fun and relaxation before the actual hunt. We drove another 15 minutes or so to get to the cabins on the shore of Aquk river. Apparently most locals have a cabin somewhere along that stretch for taking advantage of spawning chars, which happens both in spring and fall.

Beautiful arctic cotton growing straight out of rocks

We stopped by a friend's cabin to drop off our camping gear, as we were planning to camp there for the night, and continued our search for big game. It wasnt long before Benjamine spotted another caribou. We stopped and watched the young beast for a few minutes. Shon suddenly started driving straight towards the caribou and shot him from about 150 meters distance. We all rushed to the caribou and I was wondering what would follow next. I was thinking how on earth were we going to clean and carry it with us for the rest of a long day.

This one wasn't shot. They let it be

I thought for sure it would take all four of us about an hour or so to clean and carry it to the cabins. Shon got off his ATV, pulled out his 3 inch long tiny knife and started skinning the dead caribou. He was so quick that Andy and I kept shaking our heads in amazement. It took him less than 15 minutes to skin, clean, chop to pieces and wrap the meat in its own skin, then strapping it to the back of his ATV to carry. Surprisingly the caribou didn't look that big wrapped up in its own skin strapped on the back of ATV. Later I learned this way hunters could shoot up to 5 large games and take home to their families all on one outing.

A pair of dancing cranes, countless pairs around

We followed Shon and Benjamine to a community owned cabin standing on its own miles away from any other cabins. This one was for anyone to use. All cabins have basic survival gear and provision to last a few days if needed. it's comforting to know there are options like that around in desperate times. The cabin was about a few hundred meters from sandy bank of the Aquk river. It was also flanked by two huge piles of antlers, just like a gate! We saw a cribou nearby grazing, but the hunters didn't shoot it, even though it was very close. I admire these local hunters. They dont go out shooting anything they see. They only take what they need, and that's why they can always rely on the land to provide them with what they need. That is if the outsiders dont interfere with their affairs.

Narwhal skin sushi for snack

We decided to follow the river banks, as it was more scenic. they wanted to show us the very best of the land. The river snaked its way northwest towards some high point, which is extremely rare out there. We saw a caribou making its way up from the river. Shon decided to shoot it, and within minutes we had another caribou all cleaned wrapped in its own skin and strapped on his ATV. But before cleaning the caribou, Shon treated us to some rare delicacy. he pulled out a semi frozen chunk of Narwhal skin and fat. the skin was dark grey and about quarter of an inch thick on top of a pink layer of fat about an inch thick. We sliced the skin away from the fat and dipped it in soy sauce, a perfect sushi snak. I loved it!

By far the best sushi I have ever tried, Narwhal skin

I prepared a bush fire mostly from moss and some lumber from a broken tent when Shon started to clean his caribou. I wanted to cook the previous cribou's heart and liver for lunch. It was fun but hard work to cook the organs. It took about half an hour to finally have them properly cooked. I used two tent pins as make shift skewers and had to hold and roll them constantly in order to cook all sides thoroughly. It would have taken about five minutes have I had a grill or some finer skewers. Fresh liver and heart for lunch, hmmm!

Shon, Benjamine and I enjoying Narwhal skin sushi

After lunch we drove further west hoping to see grizzly bears. I was told there are polar and grizzly bears around this time of the year. Apparently grizzlies up here eat red meat, mostly of caribou and ground squirrels. It would have been amazing to see a large giant chasing a caribou or pouncing on a squirrel on the vast tree-less landscape. But unfortunately for us, and fortunately for the grizzly, we didn't see any. Perhaps next time we may get lucky and see one of them up here. I have seen grizzlies in Klemtu, but have a feeling it would be much more exciting to see one in a completely different biome.

Chef Morteza cooking some fresh caribou heart and liver

Real hunters relaxing after lunch

By around 3pm Benjamine decided to shoot a caribou, and then we had three. In total we saw about twelve caribous and our hunters shot only three. All the caribous we saw were alone, by themselves. I was expecting to see them in herds, but apparently that doesn't happen until later in the season when they start to migrate. Does and fawns migrate together whereas bulls do it separately. I cant wait to see them on their migration route in the fall. After our thrid caribou we decided to head back on a different route from the one we had taken to get there. This last one which lasted about three hours was the most painful ride I had ever experienced. We were literary driving on rocks covered with vegetation. they were like little mounts of about a foot high and two feet wide, separated apart by about two feet. I felt like every bone on my back was about to crack, not to mention the strain on my hands and arms trying my best to hold on to the ATV for dear life! We did manage to see a hunter/camper and his wife by their cabin. Shon gave them a huge chunk of meat. They offered us tea. We chatted for a few minutes before heading to our evening campsite. By the time we got back to the river bank, where we wanted to camp, it was 9:30pm. A very long but fantastic day. Shon and Benjamine gave us two caribou legs for dinner and parted ways to head back to Whale Cove. Andy and I started a fire to BBQ for dinner as well as having a well-deserved cup of hot tea.

Watching the master at work. Hoping to learn a few tricks

Nights on the Tundra are very sureal. It didnt really get dark until about 11pm. And having the almost full moon around made it seem even later in the evening. The caribou leg was a perfect way to end the day. I cant remember ever having a freshly killed large game for food out in the wild. We kept a weary eye out for any unwanted attention, namely from grizzlies and polar bears. Having fresh meat is certainly an advantgae, but it can also be a serious liablility where there are wolves, and bears around. Luckily for us though, there wasnt any encounter. Although the next day we heard there was a polar bear with two cubs hanging around where we camped a few hours before we got there in the evening. I guess it was a wise decision to use the cabin and not the tents for sleeping.                                                                    

Wild Blueberry for dessert

The next morning we tried our luck for Arctic Char, but not to be. We only tried it for a few minutes, as we wanted to get back to town to catch up with some work. Before heading back we made some instant coffee with water from the river, which was probably the best tasting coffee. A curious arctic fox paid us a visit, but didnt hang long enough for me to take a good shot of him. He was withing 5 meters at some point, but by the time I got the camera he was well on his way disappearing in the vast tundra. Over all a fantastic weekend. I cant remember having a better and more exciting weekend ever. I can only hope to say the same thing about the next weekend! Cheers!

Tea and Caribou leg for dinner