DAY 16 Inuvik!

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Wild Saturday night at the Trapper. The Trapper is the local pub in Inuvik and this past Saturday night a talent show was held in the establishment! This social event was being held to raise funds for the End of the Road Music festival (http://www.eotrmusic.com/) held every year in Inuvik mid August so we all went out. I was told it is illegal to take photos inside so I will have to get some pictures of the outside of the Trapper, it is totally welly and looks even sketchier than the Cecil, hee hee.

There were about 10 performers all singing, playing guitar and fiddle. There was one amazing fiddler that got the crowd going. I think he probably won but we left before the winner was announced. Sean and I both won the door prizes! End of the road music festival T-Shirts😊

It felt so weird to be in a pub in daylight that made it feel like noon, it is so hard to get into the night mood when it is so bright out.

On Monday Sean and I went out on the delta by boat to get water samples from 3 of out lakes (so much water). The bugs were phenomenal! At one point I had a mosquito suit on complete with a living helmet!. The magnitude of the swarm that met us at each lake was outstanding! I was fully geared up in my gortex rain gear with my head snug in a bug net covered my my jacket hood. Of course the pests still managed to bite right through my net and where ever else they could find exposed skin.

Tuesday was another helicopter day!😊 We flew over the delta and onto 9 of our lakes in the Jet Ranger collecting various samples, including 54 letres of water. The weather has been unexpectidly nice here (26 degrees...), I did not pack for weather like this. I simply can not wear my fleece long johns unless I want to lose 15 pounds of water from sweating... Once we got all our samples back to the lab we spent the rest of the day and some of the night runniing various different filterings of the to get all the "little guys" including the microscopic bacteria.

For the next couple of days Sue and I have been setting up a grande bacteria incubation experiment outside the research centre (So many bugs out there!) The experiment involves 36 experiment bottles filled with water we collected from the lakes on thursday morning. When we went out on thursday morning not only were there tons of bugs, but we had boat motor trouble that kept us stranded on a lake for an hour trying to get it started while the infamous BUGS I talk so highly of dined on our exposed skin.

Field work is such an unusual and exciting experience! It reminds me of all those years of my childhood I spent camping/fishing/hiking with my family/extended family (The Thompsons) and even all the time I just spent running around our back yard in the trees discovering things. After spending so much time in the city couped up in a library, my room or a coffee shop reading about nature, it is sooo refreshing to rumage through the primitive state of existence, as close to untouched and uninfluenced by civilization or artificiality as one can get. I hope that what ever path I take in life I never forget the perception that I have right now of nature.

And on that note I am off to enjoy my invaluable day off in Inuvik😊 Hope everyone is doing well! Miss you all!

Sae

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Comments

[anonymous]

Another helicopter ride!? You are living the dream...