Most northerly bridge in North America

I'm told this is the most northerly bridge in North America.  I had never stopped to think about it, but if Alert and Eureka don't have any, then I guess that would have to be true.  I took this photo June 12.

Summer solstice at the top of the world

I took these photos on the summer solstice, June 21, at around 11:40 pm.  I couldn't bring myself to stay up until midnight... the longest day of the year is almost 4 months long in Grise Fiord, so it's hard to get too excited about it when you are two months into it, the sun last set on April 23.  But still... considering we are surrounded by mountains to the west and north, it's pretty darn sunny here in town at almost midnight.

The one below is looking northeast... not to much shadow, that sun is pretty high for an arctic sun.

Flooding

We had a lot of snow the week before the thaw, and then a very sudden spike in temperatures on June 9 and 10.  This caused more dramatic runoff than usual, and led to some flooding and some roads being washed out.

At least this dog has a boat!

Here's the river carving a channel in the snow:

I didn't notice it when I took this photo, but there is a bunch of erosion at the base of the steps from a little temporary creek that ran under the health centre.  It got worse by the next day and washed out the bottom step:

The road to the dump washed out, here it is on the evening of June 10:

It was around 4 feet deep in places, and at least 6 feet across:

Here's a creek that formed from the co-op parking lot.  It had several channels, and was around 2 feet deep in places:

Another weird looking fish

Some people were out turbot fishing June 8 and pulled up this strange fish they had never seen before.  They put it on the steps of the school for everyone to go have a look at.  I think it was around a foot and a half in length, maybe a bit longer.  They figure it's a bottom-feeder of some sort.  If anyone recognizes it, leave a comment...

Skimming

These photos of skiddoos skimming on the melted pond behind the health centre are from June 8.

On a cloudy evening, you can see the pearly gates from here

This photo was taken the same day as the health centre outing, June 3.  This is more typical of the weather that week.  The sky that evening and the light in the fiord was particularly dramatic:

Jigging for Sculpin

After looking at the Seagull colony, we started heading back to town, with plans to find a spot to go jigging for "Ugly fish" along the way.

Here are a couple of views of the cliffs above us on the way back:

We found some cracks and started jigging.  Before too long one (and only one) was caught, but not by me.  They are a pretty interesting looking fish:

Here's me, jigging in futility:

Here's me faking a seal hunt:

... and that was it, back to work!  It was a great outing, we packed as much fun into 2 1/2 hours as we could.

Seagull breeding colony

Next stop on our June 3 outing was to see the cliffs where seagulls nest.

First, a couple of mountain pics as we cross the fiord to get to the cliffs:

Here it is.  The cliffs are orange from a lichen that grows in abundance here, fertilized I guess by the seagull poop.  Those are our skidoos parked at the base.

Here's a close-up, but not that close- there are 4 gulls in this photo but you can hardly see them!

Another cliff photo.  You can see a lichen-covered cliff in the foreground, but it's in shadow now, the clouds are coming back.

Next stop... on our return to town, we stop to go jigging for Ugly fish!

The polar bear trap

Here is some of the landscape on our way to see the bear trap.  This is June 3, heading towards the mountain where the trap is:

The trap was still quite buried in snow, but we could see the entrance.  They think it's between 400-800 years old.  They would bait it with meat, and the bear would squeeze in and couldn't get out again, and the hunters would spear it.  That's the entrance below the little snow drift on top of it.

More beautiful views from the site:

... next stop, a seagull nesting area on some cliffs... stay tuned!

A hard day at the office

Well, we might have actually snuck out of the office for a few hours.  Once or twice a year the staff of the Health Centre heads out on the land for a little outing with our buddies the RCMP.

Last week the weather was actually abysmal, but we planned an outing for last Friday anyway.  I think the two hours we went out for turned out to be the only two good hours of the week- it cleared just as we headed out and closed back in as we returned to town.

Here are some of the photos... don't go away. as I'll have more in upcoming blog posts.

We didn't get very far before we came to a lead (a crack in the ice with open water, for any southern friends not familiar with the term).  Had to go out and look for a good place to cross it:

Another photo showing the lead in the ice.

I was a passenger in the komatik, and it was bouncing so much I took a trillion photos hoping just a few would turn out.  Thanks to the weather though, almost all of them turned out.  I'll try not to inflict too many though.  But here are some of the Greenlander mountain, from a different angle than I usually see it at from town:

Here are two pasted together as a panorama- I was lazy with the colour correction, the left hand photo wanted to stay blue and I didn't want to fight it:

Here's looking into Grise Fiord:

Close up of the end of the Fiord:

Some of the lower hills that form part of the southwestern side of the Fiord:

These are low islands in front of one of the mountains.

Clouds were just so dramatic and beautiful too during the short window when the weather cleared:

Looking back at where town is.  The low islands are at the right, we've passed them now.

So stay tuned... next stop is an ancient (or thereabouts) polar bear trap that dates back probably to the time of the Thule.