Winter and Spring 2014

The winter darkness has passed and we have emerged into the constant daylight of spring and summer.  Our last post left off at Christmas, so thats where we'll pick up.

JANUARY
In mid January the sun crept back over the horizon for just a few moments.  The town welcomed the brief reprieve from the constant night with the "Sunrise Festival."  A weekend of activities including feasts, snow carving competition, skidoo parade, drum dancing, a giant bon fire and an impressive fireworks display.

Andrew joined in on the snow carving competition and won first place (in Robin's mind, hehe...) with an anatomically correct Inukshuk.

The town gathered by the golf course (yes we have a golf course) where the Inuvik Volunteer Fire Crew had stacked thousands of pallets to create one giant bon-fire.

The town gathers at the bon-fire

Firefighters / Cheerleading Squad

30 minutes of great fireworks

Drum Dancing

FEBRUARY
In February we hopped across the Pacific to Maui for two weeks.  We rented a car and explored just about as much of the island we could muster while still getting in some time laying on the beach.

On our first day we heard that the surf at one specific spot called "Jaws" was huge!  We hiked down a seemingly endless dirt road through tall grass that finally opened up to a cliff.  The view was astounding.  Dozens of big-wave surfers bobbed in the ocean waiting for the next set to roll in.  A helicopter circled over head with photographers snapping shots of the giant waves and dwarfed surfers.  

JAWS!!

One morning we drove up to the top of Haleakala Volcano.  The switchback road lead us through stunning views of farmland, treed mountainsides and eventually to the barren landscape of the volcano crater.  For two experienced hikers, the thin air at 10,000 ft left us short of breath and not able to venture further than a few kilometres.

The view from the top

Here are a bunch of really cool photos from around the island - enjoy!

Sunset in Kehei

Robin under the Banyan Tree

Whales breaching off the Wailea Boardwalk

Sunset at Kaanapali Beach

A hike across a lava flow ending in a hidden cove where we ate lunch

Hiking in Iao Valley - Looking at these photos again... we're ready to go back now...

The ocean had such extreme power hitting these rocks - it was truly humbling

Okay, we just decided we're moving to Maui next...

 Many of our days we simply jumped in the car and went on road-trips around the island.  We ventured as far around the northwest coast as we could.  Suddenly we rounded a corner and the two lane, well paved road turned into a single lane, cliff hugging road with no guard rail.  Only one car could travel at a time, however you couldn't see if anyone was already on the road.  If you ventured on and met another car coming at you, one would have to back up or squeeze as close to the edge as possible to allow the other to pass.  It was a bit nerve-racking to say the least.  We made it to the other side of the valley and found an old school bus perched on the cliff where tourists could buy water, snacks and fruity drinks.  We had a quick break before made the suspenseful return journey.
 

Where the road is good and we are still relaxed

Traffic Jam 

Reversing to let other cars pass

Back in Inuvik the sun had been showing its face more and more.  By the time we returned there was a decent amount of light and the spring adventures began!  

Andrew traveled down to join friends Dan and Grahame in Whitehorse for an avalanche awareness course in the White Pass region of the Yukon.  The three day course consisted of classroom training, in the field exercises and a backcountry ski trek!  Unlike surfers, skydivers or sailers, skiers and snowboarders are very naive about the natural elements we play in and I highly suggest all winter athletes go out and take the course immediately.

Annie (mannequin) buried 2m in the snow

Digging Annie out... took way longer than expected and we were all exhausted.

Rutschblock Testing the snowpack.  A bit unstable...

Ski touring to the top of a mountain in the White Pass

Avalanche spotted.  Bottom of the shaded area

The whole crew safe and happy in the sun

MARCH
Spring starts to show its face in March with warmer temperatures and elongating days.  We ventured out onto the land for the Skidoo Poker Rally, Reindeer Crossing among other fun adventures.

The Poker Rally is a skidoo rally that leads through the delta where each team picks up playing card at 5 check points.  The best hands win really awesome prizes!  Robin had a pair of kings and I had a pair of jacks.  We won a sweet recliner deck chair and a pair of hardy skidoo mitts!

At the helm

Ice road and abandoned ship

Winterized barge

 In 1935 Reindeer were introduced to the Canadian North from Norway to give the native caribou herds time to repopulate.  To this day there is a family responsible for the herding of the reindeer throughout the Beaufort Delta.  This year they drew in spectators as the herd crossed the Inuvik-Tuk Ice highway.  It was a cold day but we brought tea and lawn chairs while we waited for the herd to approach.

Lounging in -30C

Reindeer and herder on skidoo

The crossing!  

Robin has been taking a few craft courses with friends in town.  She has learned how to bead designs on felt with needle and thread.  Each bead is individually tacked down which she found out is extremely time consuming!

 For easter Robin and some friends got together to create Ukrainian Easter eggs.  The designs are drawn on using an instrument that funnels hot wax onto the egg.  Then the egg is dipped in a sequence of dyes to create the various colours.

 APRIL
April is time for Inuvik to get out and play!  We had jam packed weekends with the Muskrat Jamboree, ice fishing on Husky Lakes and our first visitors, Matt and Zoe, from Vancouver!

The 57th Muskrat Jamboree was a wild weekend of feasts (there are always feasts!) games, dog sled races, skidoo races and all kinds of cool native competitions.

Dog Sled Races - Ran parallel to the ice road so we could all follow

Skinning a Muskrat

Elder looking on in traditional dress

Stretched Muskrat skins

Plank Walk - that's us!

Egg in spoon run - can you spot Andrew?

Friends Cathy and Scotty invited us up to the family camp on Husky Lakes.  The four of us skidooed about 2 hrs north of Inuvik through tundra, over lakes and eventually to a cozy little camp on a lake-side bluff.

Inuvik and where we traveled to

Andrew unloading the boggan

Inside the camp

Robin was on Bear watch 

The only fish caught...  

Our first visitors, Matt and Zoe came up to Inuvik!  Matt, Zoe and Andrew met at the University of British Columbia many moons ago.  Their visit was SO much flippin' fun and gave us an excuse to be tourists in our own back yard.

Let the shenanigans begin!

We took them out to our landlord, Peter's, yurt via skidoo.  Both took turns behind the "wheel" for the first time and were pros by the end of the day.  

Yurt Interior

Yurt Exterior - Roasting smokies on the deck

Zoe setting skidoo land speed records! 

Riding down the delta

The four of us climbed into the car and headed north on the ice highway to Tuktoyaktuk for the Beluga Jamboree!  We watched drum dancing and gobbled down some macaroni salad and chicken... I think.  The drum dancers were wonderful an a young boy picked up and joined in the fun on his own.  Very cute and one of the highlights of the trip up to Tuk.

Matt and Zoe with a Pingo

The four of us waiting for the drum dancers... and some photobombers! 

The dancing begins

Little dancer, big gloves

Laying in the middle of the ice road :)

The blue ice of the Arctic Ocean ice road

Before they headed back south we embarked on a dog sledding adventure with Arctic Chalet here in town.  Their sled dogs are all pure white with blue eyes - stunning animals!  Our guides took us on a 3 hour trip around the delta with a fire-side grilled cheese sandwich on frozen Picnic Lake, to boot! 

Matt and his team

Zoe and her team

Zoe and moon moon... who brought moon moon?!

Vancouver Duo

Jasmine, the prettiest dog in all the land... second to Bear

Andrew and his team

Last but certainly not least Robin and I recently fostered two puppies from Sachs Harbour.  They arrived on Easter Sunday... Easter puppies?  We've since decided to keep one, Bear.  She and her sister Pingo are Doberman / Husky mixes and are the cutest freaking dogs ever.  We're so happy to have Bear join our family and look forward to many fun adventures to come!

Pingo and her favourite chew toy

First bath

Two tiny heads in one bowl

This is where they sit if you stand still long enough 

Our Baby Bear

 Thanks for reading!  Leave comments or questions below and we look forward to posting again soon!

Robin & Andrew