It seems my stories keep getting farther apart. I can't believe it's over five months since I added something to this site. I guess the good news is that I'm finding lots to keep me busy here in Yellowknife.
I'm not going to try to put everything from the last five months on here, but let's see if I can at least hit some of the highlights. I don't have my scanner hooked up and I didn't have access to a digital camera for most of the winter, so some of the pictures aren't mine. Thanks to Deborah for the pictures that she took during her trip! (I'll try to add some pictures from the winter once I get more developed and scanned.)
I guess the first big event after my last update was Deborah's visit in late November. We did lots of fun stuff while she was here, but the highlight for me would be the dogsledding. We went through the Beck kennels - the Becks compete on the international dog sledding circuit and have won many races over the years. Grant Beck is the main person who races, but other people in the family are heavily involved. Here's some of those 200 dogs:
The dogs' kennels are numbered, but at least some if not all of the dogs have names as well because we heard some of them. I suspect the numbers just help prevent confusion.
The dogs were prepared in stages. There were chains fixed to the ground in lines near the dogs. The dogs would be selected, then one person would start clipping them to the fixed chain in a holding pattern. Another second person would take these dogs one at a time and get them harnessed for the sled. The sleds were tied to snowmobiles so the dogs couldn't take off in their enthusiasm (and they were definitely enthusiastic).
The harnesses were a neat design - a diamond-like pattern across the back and straps under and around the chest so the weight was dispersed over the shoulders. At the base of the diamond near the dogs' tails, a short line clipped to the end of the harness on one end and to a main line on the other. This main line ran from the lead pair of dogs back to the snowmobiles. There was some stretch built into the lines because you could see the give as the dogs lunged against their harnesses, eager to get moving.
For our excursion, the staff rigged up two sleds with 5 dogs each - two in front, one in the middle, and two at the rear. The sleds we used were lightweight, open-frame designs, although I saw large, boxed-in sleds that I assume are used for expeditions and longer trips.
The staff paired Deborah and I in one sled and gave Mike (my boyfriend) the other. We're not sure why we didn't get one each - maybe there weren't enough sleds, who knows - but we didn't ask and this allowed Deborah and me to talk about the experience as it happened.
Mike went first. The dogs were so wound up that the staff wanted to get them going as soon as possible, so as soon as they showed us the brake on the sled, off Mike went. You can see it isn't exactly a virgin trail - it's rather like going trail riding on old horses. In fact, some of the sled dogs they use for tourist trips like these are retired racers, which is fine with me because I'm happy to hear they're kept around.
The trail we followed was 8 km around a lake. Deborah drove our sled for the first four kilometers. We're all wearing borrowed clothes - mine were snowmobile clothes borrowed from Karen and the boys while Deborah and Mike got Snow Goose coats from the kennels. It was about -25 celsius with the wind, which seemed awfully cold then (especially dogsledding around a lake) but now, at the other end of winter, it doesn't sound so bad at all...
Pay special attention to the dog in this picture. She becomes an important character later in this dogsledding tale.
The staff followed us around on snowmobiles and took pictures with our cameras. Not exactly a wild and crazy wilderness experience, but fun nonetheless, and I'm glad to have some pictures to show for it. At the far end of the lake, they stopped our sled so Deborah and I could switch places. This meant co-ordinating the transfer of the brake, which is a metal bar you step on behind the seat back. Unfortunately, I'm just not big enough to be a serious impediment to five boisterous dogs - even standing on the brake with two feet, they could drag the sled in short jerky bits. In my defense, the snow wasn't that deep so it may also be that the brake couldn't bite in very far.
About a third of the way back up the lake, the middle one of our dogs began to act strangely. He started glancing back over his shoulder as he ran. I asked Deborah if she thought he was looking at us, which seemed peculiar because we hadn't changed at all and I don't think we'd be anything special to a dog. Still, he kept glancing back, more and more, then so often that his steps began to falter. This didn't initially bother the rest of the team, but soon it became too disruptive to their forward efforts and they slowed to a halt.
Well, Banjo didn't waste any time. In seconds, he was ready to have a good go of things with that pretty little bitch in the blue harness a couple of pictures up. She seemed to be feeling fairly cooperative herself. I stood on the brake helplessly, not wanting to get off in case the rest of the team decided to run again but not wanting to let the dogs mate because that can be a time-consuming process. Deborah wasn't any more sure than I was about what we should do. I mean, we knew we should try to stop the dogs, but we didn't know these dogs or what kind of temperaments they had or anything.
Fortunately, the staff that were ahead of us on snowmobiles noticed that we didn't round the point as quickly as we should have so Carol came back to check on us. She sized up the situation quickly and separated the amorous couple. This time, she hitched the lovely lady in the middle and put Banjo at the left rear. With his goal now in front of him, he ran with great enthusiasm the rest of the way around the lake. And that was how our first dogsledding experience transpired.
Also during Deborah's visit, we toured around town, went to craft shows, and other such stuff. A common stop on a tour of Yellowknife is Pilot's Monument, a hill in Old Town Yellowknife that is topped with a beacon for local air traffic. From the top of the hill, you can look out over Yellowknife Bay at the houseboats and the islands, you can look in the opposite direction across Back Bay, you can look toward Latham Island and the community of n'Dilo where they jut out into Great Slave Lake, and you can look toward the modern core of Yellowknife. Here's a twilight picture of the city of Yellowknife in early December, when they days are maybe 5-6 hours long.
Deborah also came to dog agility class with me and Jasmine. She took this picture of me and two trainers introducing Jasmine to the teeter-totter. That's a tough one for the dogs, even dogs like Jasmine who love any obstacles that can be climbed. Still, my puppy's a trooper and she tries her best for me.
Oh yeah, please ignore the sexy clothes. Working with happy dogs in a horse stable isn't the place for wearing one's Sunday best.
Later that same Sunday that we went to agility, Mike and Deborah and I went to Bullock's Bistro. This place is a must-do for anyone who comes to Yellowknife. I don't think I'm going to go into much detail right now, but I can give a short description: great fish and unique atmosphere. This next shot may help to convey some of the latter.
On Deborah's last Sunday in Yellowknife, Karen was hosting a Christmas cookie exchange. I'd never been to one before and I doubt I will ever attend one quite like this again. It was on a scale that most people would not dream of doing... imagine 16 dozen cookies times 18 people plus an extra 32 dozen that Karen made as thank-you presents for friends. Having trouble picturing it? Maybe these will help:
Okay, I know I'm getting stingy on the details here but at least I'm finally getting this done! I suppose it wouldn't be so time-consuming if I didn't have to make up for 5 months of neglect, right?
Karen, Alex, Eric and I exchanged Christmas presents about a week before Christmas because we were all leaving town. Here's my Yellowknife "family" as we open our presents (complete with Eric's hat-head from when he was playing outside earlier in the evening).
In January, I spent two weeks in Fort Providence. I don't have any digital pictures at the moment, so that's all I'll say for now. Except that it was really cold and the MacKenzie River was neat. I'll try to add something about it to my site when I get some more pictures developed.
I'm not sure that anything really dramatic happened in February. The Aurora Arts Society (one of the organizations with which I am a Director) had a fantastic fundraiser called the Cabin Fever Music Festival. We had an excellent line-up of local musicians, the event sold out about four days ahead, it was packed, and almost all the reviews were great. We're all ready for next year!
In March, things started to pick up again around town. January was quiet with the post-Christmas season and February started to see some events but nothing steady. March, on the other hand, seems to have had stuff on every weekend. It's been great!
I think the neatest thing has been the Snow King's castle. Again, no digital pictures yet, but I'll work on it. I do have some film that I need to take in for developing and that has pictures on it that I may eventually post here. In the meantime, you can visit the Snow King's website at www.snowking.ca if you want to check out some of the events and pictures from previous years. It is really quite amazing. And it is built on Yellowknife Bay, in case that isn't clear on the website.
We also went driving on the ice road to Dettah, which is a community on the far side of Yellowknife Bay. We saw the Dene art and fur showcase at the Snow King's castle and last Sunday we watched snowmobile races on the lake near Dettah. Mike grew up on Vancouver Island and was a bit unnerved not just by driving on the ice but by a large number of cars, trucks, snowmobiles and people all on the same section of ice. However, as a girl who grew up on the frozen lake of Nova Scotia, I can tell you that I have never seen ice this thick. I can't even find out how thick because the fire department stops measuring when it gets to 16", which is enough for them to open the ice road to traffic up to 30,000 kg. I guess nobody measures after that until the weather warms up, which it has only made a feeble attempt at doing so far. When I stood on the ice road and looked at the cracks, they looked like they were at least three feet deep. Since I know from my childhood lakes that the ice is often thicker than it appears at the cracks (which may not go all the way through the ice layer), I have no idea how thick it is. I guess if you consider that it was 16" before christmas when the weather was relatively mild and the temperatures were below -30 for most of January, February and March, well... it's probably pretty darn thick!
And yeah, I've got pictures. But not digital. I'll work on it!
So this brings us just about up to date. I'm missing some pictures here and some details there, but at least you have some highlights. Now, here are a few pictures of people where I work before I cover today's surprise event.
Here are Antje and Lisa, hard at work. Lisa is the one in back by the open window. She's Inuvialuit, which are the Inuit of the Western Arctic. I'm not sure it ever gets too cold for Lisa, but it definitely gets too warm. Other than our different perspective on temperature, we get along wonderfully. Lisa is a beautiful person and a great friend.
Antje comes from a German heritage. Her brother Ingo who works at the school with me was born in Germany, but Antje was born and raised in Yellowknife. In addition to being a great and sunny person, she is also the creative soul behind much of my favourite jewellery. She and her business partner, Kim, are currently working to include more local northern stone in their pieces.
Speaking of Antje's brother Ingo, here he is at the front desk. It isn't the best picture of him and he's fuzzier than usual because the men had to stop shaving for the Bush Gear Contest we've entered tomorrow as part of Caribou Carnival. We girls get off easy and only have to braid our hair... plus wear sexy bush clothes. Yes, I *will* be taking pictures! Anyway, the main thing I wanted to show in this picture is Ingo's shirt. Ingo likes his Hawaiian shirts in the summer but didn't wear them so much during the winter months. However, we've all started to rebel in March - I started wearing spring skirts and sandals at work, Alane stopped wearing snowpants when she came to school, other women began wearing skirts as well, and Ingo got out his Hawaiian shirts. I guess there's no one as determined to have spring as someone who has to wait for six months to see it.
Okay, now for the surprise I promised a moment ago. Today, I saw drag races unlike any drag race I had ever seen before. The drag races today were a build-up for the Canadian Dog Derby Championships this weekend and they involved teams of sled dogs pulling Ford trucks down main street - hence the "drag" races. I didn't even know about it myself until Ingo came in and told me just before the start of the race, at which point Laura and I grabbed our coats and cameras and ran out.
First, here's a picture of the dogs and trucks just coming into view on Franklin Avenue, the main street in downtown Yellowknife. You can't really see the dogs yet, but you can see what the street looks like this time of year - dingy, dirty, with patches of ice mixed with gravel, dirt, and dust. I'm told that the spring in Yellowknife is more dusty than anything as all the winter dirt is liberated from the ice but the ice itself evaporates almost immediately, leaving the streets dry and filthy. Note the red finish line in the foreground by the official.
Here you can see one of the teams crossing the finish line. This was actually the second place team in the second heat (two teams per heat), but it was the best finish line picture I had so it gets to be here anyway. You can't see the truck they're pulling, but that's coming shortly.
In this next picture, you can see one of the trucks that had been pulled. The team is still attached to the front, where they will stay until each one is unharnessed individually. One thing I liked at the drag races was the easy affection that many of the handlers showed for the dogs. I saw a number of them pat the dogs in passing and this picture shows a particularly friendly exchange between handler and dog. The second and third pictures show more of that dynamic with different teams and handlers. (See the dogs in the second picture? They're the same bouncy dogs in a picture coming up.)
Okay, those two dogs getting the pat by the guy in yellow? They really didn't want to stop. Even though they were still harnessed to the truck and the truck was not moving anymore, they were ready for more. If You look carefully, you will notice that only one paw out of eight is touching the ground.
After the race, the dogs were unharnessed and put into a kennel truck to go back to their regular kennels, most of which would be within five minutes' drive from Franklin Avenue. Here's a dog that has had its harness removed but remains clipped to the main line by its collar.
And last but not least, here's a picture of one of the kennel trucks with dogsleds on top. I don't think they'd take the dogs in this truck over long distances, but I may be wrong. It was functional enough for local transportation, although a lot of the dogs (from all teams and kennels) were less than enthusiastic about going back in the truck. I don't know whether they were objecting to the truck or the fact they couldn't run some more. Maybe both. As for the dogsleds on top, I'd never seen one like the black and red one before. I suspect it is a racing sled that will be used in the Dog Derby this weekend, but I don't know for sure.
That's all for now. I hope it doesn't take too long to load for some of you. I will have more pictures and stories after this weekend, but who knows how long it will take me to get them online. Still, at least now you know that I haven't forgotten all of you.
Jan