Sublimity…

I know it’s been awhile since I wrote that last post, and I’ll admit there was some suspense – leaving you hanging as to what was going to happen – so I guess I should start by finishing off that tale. Basically, it all turned out like I expected, the bureaucracy chugged and churned, but didn’t spit out our paperwork in time, so we didn’t go to Ekati and instead spent the time at the hotel in Yellowknife. It’s a great place (if you’re ever in the area, check in at the Fraser Tower), but kinda dull still. I watched more TV in those two days that I have in the past year I would say (it was all Discovery Channel, which seems like it is almost worth watching more often than not, unlike the rest of the garbage on TV these days!). I got cabin fever on Tuesday and so went for a hike around the outskirts of Yellowknife along Great Slave Lake. I spent most of my time looking at the rock (great meta-volcanics) and though the views were nice in some places, there was a lot of broken glass around (appears to be the teen “field party” place seeing as they don’t have a true field, this is the best they could find). It was kinda depressing, seeing all the trash around even in this small city in the middle of nowhere – human impact is truely a force to be reckoned with. The area must have been very different just 100 years ago when Yellowknife was first starting, wonder what it would have looked like (I imagine nicer than it does now). Wednesday moring our flight “south” left at 7:00am so it was a bit of an early start, but I didn’t get home until 9:30pm – a long day in small airline seats watching bad movies (‘Fever Pitch’ was the inflight, worth watching when there’s nothing else to do, but I wouldn’t go rent it…)

Landing in Ottawa, I immediatly realized two things: it was hot again (damn!) and the gorgeous sunset occuring at only 9:00pm signalled that I had returned to a place where true darkness happens each night. It was wierd walking back to my house from the bus-stop in the blackness, made me realize how much your body adjusts to a different environment in just 2 weeks!

So this closes my NWT trip for this year. Comparing it with my experience in Inuvik/Tuktoyaktuk last summer, there are parts that are very similar (always light, cooler, flat terrain, easy work, lots of flying) and parts that were very different (barrenlands vs. delta, lot of bugs, getting to see mining camps). We southerners tend to package “the North” into one big slot, and while this is true in some ways, I’d say that it is more diverse and distinct that it is similar. With two regions under my belt now, I’m looking forward to my third – Igloolik’s high tundra – and maybe a glimpse of a fourth (Baffin mountains, glaciers & fjords). My aim is to explore them all – eventually.

For now though, it’s back to work for a few days, but with a long weekend and my trip home to NS coming up, I’m only working 6 days between now before I go north again on Aug. 11th. Having made the cultural/environmental transition back south well already, the last challenge is to see what office work feels like now. Hope for the best…

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