This must come as a shock. Over five months with nothing and then two close together - chalk it up to a busy weekend!
Friday (March 28) was Caribou Carnival. In the past, this has been a weekend event, but a variety of problems meant it was scaled back to a single day this year. The day started with The Great Bush Gear Contest that was sponsored by the Chamber of Commerce. We had registered last week before the registration cutoff on the 21st, then we posted signs around the school to try to get the students involved. It must have worked because we had a great morning and we were awarded the prize for best participation later in the day.
Here's a picture of Maralind, Sonya (and baby-to-be), me and Laura in our northern finest.
Bob, our general manager, got involved along with the rest of the staff. Here he models a muskrat hat, bug jacket, and sealskin mukluks while holding a big knife and fox pelt. Unfortunately, you can't really see his stubble here - we got points in the contest for men being unshaved and women having braids and ponytails. Points were also awarded for fut hats, animal skins, dirty clothes, work or rubber boots, Caribou Carnival pins and more.
Thanks to contributions from staff and students, we had quite a display. Here's Ingo with some of the collection - fur mittens and gloves with native beadwork, a skin drum, a quill and birchbark container, snowshoes, branches, a miniature dogsled, backpack, logs, campstove, pots and pans, bannock, and dried cranberries.
Ingo had a great hat (raccoon, maybe, I'm not sure) that we were passing around. Here it is on Sonya, then Ingo, then Ingo's sister Antje. Somehow it looks completely different on Antje - I think she looks like an 80s rock star more than a bush girl.
Here I am with part of our display. On the floor, there's a quill and birchbark box, spruce boughs, a miniature dogsled, a skin drum and handmade doll, a backpack. The table is covered with beaded mittens and gloves, a miniature birchbark canoe and snowshoes, and bugspray. Then there's the snowshoes beside me and I am wearing my roommate's moccasins, Ingo's jacket, Laura's fur hat, and my own clothes underneath included a caribou skin medicine pouch with tuftwork around my neck.
I should take a minute to comment on the bush clothing because I have a funny story about it. We have a student at the school who has a rather inappropriate enthusiasm for women. He had taken a picture of Sonya a while ago and was upset because his camera had been stolen, so one day this week he brought in a disposable camera. He told me that he keeps an album of pictures of pretty girls (no guys, mind you) and he wanted another picture of Sonya and also Laura. He went on a bit about this, never once indicating her wanted a picture of me. I think it is very funny that it obviously never occured to him that he was offering me any insult. And this isn't the first time he inadvertently insulted me - one other time he called people who work in office/desk jobs lazy.
Anyway, I told this story to my co-workers, partly for laughs and partly so Sonya and Laura would know the lay of the land. Then when I came in all dressed up for the Bush Gear contest well... as I said to some of the people at work, you would have thought I was wearing Victoria's Secret. I could not have imagined getting such a "positive" response to my outfit. Maralind (who has spent a lot of time in the communities during her career as a nurse plus her partner is Dogrib) had already been teasing me that I should be careful when I'm teaching in the communities or I would end up married. When she saw me in my bush outfit, she declared I should never wear it to the communities or I'd be in real trouble. Now, I'm not really concerned that I'll end up married, but I do wonder if bush clothing really has that much sex appeal in remote communities.
Okay, back to business here...
We closed at noon, as did many other businesses and government offices around town. Mike picked me up at work and we went down to City Hall to see what was going on. We got there for the end of the monster truck races (it was actually remote control monster trucks) but the Barbie fashion show must have ended because I didn't see any sign of it when I was looking for my friend and her daughter.
The remote control truck races seemed to be geared for kids and featured a coloured track in the snow. Here you can see part of the track, two "pit crew" people in white overalls, and a very young driver trying to coax his vehicle around to the finish line.
While we were waiting for the Bush Gear awards, they started the log sawing competition. There was quite a range of skills but it was all in good fun.
They had the Bush Gear awards in the middle of the log sawing contest, at which time we received the award for Best Participation. We left a bit after that because Mike had to go to work and I was really tired. However, I planned to come back later and check out some more events. Some of the other events scheduled for the afternoon and evening included the beard growing contest (well, the judging part), the ugly truck and dog contest, a family skate, barbecue, and fireworks.
I came back in the evening for the barbecue. With the other people in line, I watched the northern lights dance overhead as I shuffled toward the hot food. By the time I finished eating, I was really cold so I ended up going back to the car and watching the fireworks from there. I was impressed by how long the show lasted. Karen says the city uses its July 1 fireworks money at Caribou Carnival because it doesn't get dark for Canada Day so it's no good for fireworks. I hadn't thought about it, but that makes sense. Then BHP Billiton gives sponsors the Caribou Carnival fireworks as well, which makes for a good show.
Today we went to catch some of the Canadian Championship Dog Derby. Mike and I were both a bit pokey in the morning so we didn't get there in time for the skijoring demonstration. However, we watched the Heritage Race, then went to run a couple of errands before going back for the strong dog pull.
The Heritage Race uses traditional equipment and is considerably shorter than the main race, which covers 150 miles over 3 days. At the end of the 20-minute race, the mushers build a campfire and make tea. They are judge on their race performance, the speed with which they get the water to a boil, and the quality of their tea.
Here's the six teams of mushers getting ready for the Heritage Race. You might be able to see some of the people wearing traditional beaded coats, mukluks etc.
Several teams left together at the start of the race, while the last three pulled out more sporadically. In this picture, you can see the traditional toboggan and the teams of 5-6 dogs in front.
One of the later teams had a rough start - the sled went over a bank between the line-up area and the groomed track, which caused the sled to tip sideways and dump the musher. The musher had to let go, but fortunately the drag of the sled on its side slowed the dogs down and, with the assistance of two others, the musher was able to regain the sled and continue in the race.
Here's the last team getting ready to leave. The person in front holds the lead dogs to make sure the team doesn't get tangled or anything while the back of the sled is attached to a truck as an anchor. When the dogs are released, they take off with great enthusiasm and fervour, as you can see in the second picture.
Before long, the first teams began to arrive back at the start/finish. We didn't even realize they had started to return until it was announced over the loudspeaker. We had been wandering around taking pictures, expecting to hear the dogs barking when they returned because there was so much barking before they left. However, we didn't appreciate the difference a short, hard run can make. I don't think I heard and of the dogs bark when they finished the race.
The traditional toboggans come equipped with anchors. The two prongs dig into the snow behind the sled when the musher throws it out. I'm curious how well it works after seeing teams hitched to snowmobiles and trucks as anchors. There were no collisions or accidents, so I guess something's working. This means that the adorable bundle inside the sled was also safe.
Two of the competitors work on their tea fires...
Teams in the main race were started in individual chutes that fed into the main track. The main track then runs from Frame Lake over the highway to Back Bay, around Latham Island then down Yellowknife Bay and back.
We didn't have time to stay and wait for the competitors in the main race to return, but we did stay for the start of the strong dog pull. Most of the dogs were sled dogs, but it seems that not all of them were comfortable running on their own. Maybe they weren't leaders, I don't know. In any case, the dog pictured here was not one of the skittish and uncertain pullers.
I don't know who won today's section of the race because the results weren't posted to the website the last time I looked. There's still another leg tomorrow anyway. If you want to see for yourselves what happened, you can go to the Canadian Championship Dog Derby website.
I'll leave you with that for now. After such a long silence, I wouldn't want to overwhelm anyone. Maybe I won't even send a notice this time... I'll just stick this up and anyone who is checking from my last email will get a 2-for-1 bonus or something...
Jan