I borrowed a digital camera from work to make it easier to share some of my northern experiences with you. Tonight is the first night I took it out. Unfortunately, I missed my window of opportunity so it was not a great success. What window? The one between when I get home and the almost-daily breeze is still blowing, and when the wind drops and the bugs come out in full force. I'll explain more along the way...
Here's why I went out tonight even though I knew it was past the best time and the bugs would be bad:
Who could resist a face like that? Besides, if I tried to avoid the mosquitoes, I'd never do anything at this time of year.
This picture is also taken before we went out. I wanted you all to see how nice and sunny my apartment is in the evening right now. This was taken around 8:30 at night. Please ignore the mess, I haven't been home (and doing nothing) enough to tidy it up. There's nowhere to really put my things in a furnished sublet anyway...
I found an area behind my apartment where I can let Jasmine off leash and have a bit of exercise myself. The only other person I've met there so far was a mountain biker with his own dog off leash, so it has worked out well. We only have to be "leashed" for about five minutes, which is great. On the down side, if we take the direct route through the woods, there is lots of broken glass. Sometimes we go that way and dodge the glass (another reason to keep Jasmine on leash), but other times we walk around the street to the dead end, where we pretend we don't see the no trespassing sign. You don't see it if you go through the woods, which helps me to ignore it when I go the other way.
So here's part of Jasmine's off-leash area (with Jasmine in it). Although she has some regular puddles she visits, we had a lot of rain on Sunday and Monday, so this is actually on part of the trail that has previously been dry. The good news is that the new puddles have cleaner water, so I didn't have to give her an outdoor sponge bath when we got home.
Okay, a little bit more about the bugs for a second. In order to go out in the evening and survive, you have to have as little flesh exposed as possible. This evening, I was wearing jeans, hiking boots, a long-sleeved fleece, a ball cap, and a hooded bug jacket. The cap is to help keep the netting away from my face so they can't bite me through it.
The only exposed skin was my hands. I didn't put any bug repellent on them because I didn't want to get grease on my camera equipment - both the borrowed digital and my own SLR. I couldn't take my hood off to take pictures, and if I stood still long enough to take a picture - with the digital camera, so no set up time - I usually got at least half a dozen mosquitoes on my hands instantly. I'm telling you this so you realize the following things: a) northern Canadians aren't exaggerating about the bugs, b) there's no way I was taking more pictures tonight, I'll try it on a windy evening, and c) all these outdoor pictures were taken as fast as I possibly could, sometimes without being able to see the camera very well because the sun was shining sideways on the netting of my jacket. Under the circumstances, I'm rather happy with what I got, but I will try to produce more later. When it's windy.
So here's the next rapid-fire shot, taken from one of the better lookoff points on our route. Yellowknife's Old Town is in the distance, with Jasmine standing on the rocky foreground. It was really a lovely day apart from the bugs...
And here's a zoom in on Old Town...
You can see some of the houseboats in the channel and in front of Joliffe Island in right middle-ground. In my haste, I didn't manage to get my friend Paul's boat in the picture, but it would be just barely off the right edge of the photo.
Although you can't really see it in this picture, there is a hill on the far side of the channel (Old Town is actually on a peninsula - you can catch a glimpse of water on the far side). This hill is Old Town is the site of Pilot's Monument, which is dedicated to the bush pilots who have helped serve the north. It is also a functioning beacon point, which pilots activate to warn boaters of any plane traffic in the area. Since Air Tindi, a float plane company, is just behind Joliffe Island in Old Town and there are a lot of other private and commercial float planes in the area, the beacon flashes a lot. I'm told it is fairly reliable, but occasionally pilots neglect to activate it. Most boaters are pretty cautious - and apparently paddle quickly when crossing the channel!
It was about 9:15 when we ceded the ground to the bugs. Jasmine would have stayed longer, especially since we met up with a loose (but friendly) dog on our way back, but I couldn't run fast enough with my camera equipment so I dragged us both home and back inside. This is what I see from my apartment - it's actually a lot lighter than that. I took it through the window because there's no way I was taking my skin back outside, but I still would have expected it to appear lighter than this.
Finally, here is my poor hand. I couldn't get the lighting quite right and I was having to hold the camera with my left hand to take the picture, so you can't really see the bites very well. I circled them to help - it's not exact, but it's pretty close. Someone told me the trick when the bugs are really bad is to rub your hands together almost in a wringing action so you keep brushing off the surface. Obviously my technique needs work because I found I kept missing the part at the base of my right hand. I had previously tried clapping my hands while I walked, which helped but I think the wringing might work better once you get it down. I'm glad I had camera bags to free up my hands.
Southern (Canadian) politicians are talking about banning DEET, if they haven't already. I supported the idea when I was in Nova Scotia, but now I'm not so sure. I still am avoiding DEET products for myself, but I also think that people who have to deal with this level of bug aggression should be able to choose their own health risks. I don't know that huge levels of mosquito toxin in your blood stream are necessarily much better than DEET, depending how you use it. Oh, I'm still not planning to use it myself... but I wonder if people shouldn't have the right to risk their health with DEET just as they risk their health with aspartame, food colouring, preservatives, and other controversial substances. Unlike cigarettes, I don't think DEET has been accused of any second-hand health problems. Just a thought, anyway.
I was going to go to bed early tonight, but it's now 12:30 so I've obviously failed. I'm not proof-reading this right now, although I may try to do so sometime soon. I hope you all appreciate it anyway! :-)
Jan