Keepin' on

After the death of 3 pups out of 7 due to parvovirus and the subsequent loss of their mother likely due to a bone blockage in her bowels we've had no choice but to move on and make an effort to train a younger female as lead dog. Fortunately for the pups that survived parvo, their mother passed after they had been weaned.  Right now we are working on one female with an older male who she knows and is comfortable running with.  As the vaccine we receive here for parvo & distemper is a live vaccine, if it is suspected that your pups have been exposed they are better left un-vacccinated for the duration of the incubation period of the virus (5 days to 3 weeks).  That alone is a tough call to make, though there is apparently a parvo test butt swab available that is simple to use, making the decision to vaccinate at the present time or not a much simpler choice.  In the future I will likely order the test swabs form Montreal or Iqaluit once we are expecting a litter.  To clarify all this, the first symptoms our pups showed were 24 hours after the vaccine, pointing to the fact that they had likely been already exposed to the virus and perhaps the vaccine pushed their immune system over the limit. It is impossible to say for sure, though the parvo test in the future will help us make a more informed decision.  For the most part Inuit Sled Dogs need very little medical interference from their owners, often times too much "care" can be detrimental in the long run.  The weak for the most part shouldn't survive, nor should the ones who display "fear aggression" or other negative social traits.  Parvovirus & distemper however are relatively new in the North and Inuit dogs have very little resilience them.  Despite the loss of some dogs we are really enjoying the training process and are subsequently learning more in the process.  Here are a couple of shots from the 5th of December.

Pond Inlet Sea Kayak / Mittimatalik Qajaq

Here are some shots from the trips guided out of Pond Inlet this past August.  As usual I had a wonderful time and I'm pretty sure the groups I brought out did too.  Eating gourmet camp food and travelling with good equipment in such a wonderful part of Inuit Nunangat makes it hard to not have a wonderful time.  Pond Inlet and the surrounding area, the traditional and current territory of Tununirmiut is absolutely stunning, full of wildlife and rich with Inuit culture both past and present. I was fortunate enough this year to be able to plan ahead and use some points to get my sweetheart and son up to Pond for some camping before I returned home. The few people I know there made us feel very welcome and came and checked on us at our beach campsite outside of town.  Some people lent us gear and others made sure our stomachs were full by providing us with maattaq.  Nakurmiik!

Many thanks are due to the wonderful people of Pond Inlet.  Sheatie Tagak, Rita at Inns North, Charlie Inuarak, Lee Inuarak & Rhoda Arnakallak, nakurmiimarialluk, you all helped us in one way or another and we are greatful.

New beginnings

Waiting at the airport for an Inuit Sled Dog and her seven pups to arrive was akin to the anticipation felt on Christmas morning.  Hilda and her puppies arrived safe and sound from Iqaluit yesterday and settled in nicely to the pen I built them on the same day.  The mother of the pups was the lead dog from the same source as two of my other ISD's.  By spring I should have a small team running with pups learning form their mother, an ideal circumstance.  I can't wait....

Inuit Sled Dogs

It's been a long time coming, but I've finally got some real Inuit Sled Dogs that I can breed and start a team with.  It all started when I began skijoring with our mutt Buddy.  As a kayaker and canoeist I have always appreciated travelling slow without an engine.  Despite the royalex, gore-tex, polyethelene and naptha it could be referred to as a traditional way of travel.  Having had no previous experience with dog teaming it hadn't really crossed my mind as a potential pursuit, except for the fact that my friend Charlie has a team of pure bred Inuit dogs or Qimmituinnait (real dogs).  At the time my fiancee was in the second term of our pregnancy and it was pretty easy to convince myself that starting a team now was foolish.  After reading article upon article in The Fan Hitch Journal http://thefanhitch.org/, I quickly turned those thoughts around and decided it would be great to raise a team with our child right from the get go.  After expressing this to Charlie he gave me one of his six month old pups, a perfect age to start pulling at.  There are other people with teams of pure bred Inuit Dogs in town, though I realized the work they had put in to acquiring the dogs they have and I chose to try to bring in some dogs from elsewhere to contribute to the local gene pool.  Perhaps I would be able to give back some day.  After being referred from one stranger to another in Iqaluit I found some one with qimmituinnait willing to help out.  The email exchanges began in February or March in anticipation of me passing through Iqaluit in the summer to guide sea kayak trips out of Pond Inlet.  Upon meeting this benevolent stranger I was immediately impressed by his knowledge, experience and devotion to the breed.  I was equally impressed with the dogs he had kept off island for me to chose from.  I ended up leaving with a 14 month old female and a very experienced 8 year old male, both great examples of potential Inuit dog phenotypes.  Even if a dog is phenotypically pure it may not perform if not from good breeding/working dog stock.  Thankfully these dogs have the performance background to boot.  Raised and living the same way I have and will continue to keep dogs.  Outdoors in an Arctic working environment, pulling loads.

                           Nassalik, from Iglulik & Disko Bay/Uummannaq Fiord Stock
                                                            Born in Kuujjuaq



                                 
                                    Rosebud, from original Iglulik/Hall Beach Stock
                                                           Born in Iqaluit

                              

                                       Bear, from original Iglulik/Hall Beach Stock
                                                           Born in Pond Inlet

                                        Irniq Callum happy to be holding the Nitsik

So far the process has been slow but rewarding, despite the fact that we don't even have a working team yet.  As one can imagine I frequently dream of that day and the whole family is now enjoying pre season training and time spent with the dogs.  Our son has a book on typical Nunavik modes of transportation, he won't let us flip passed the qimutsitiit page with a dog team on it.  He stares at the dogs and says "Uuit, uit!"


I will post another update once there is either some sledding to show for a litter of puppies..... that's all for now.

Pingualuit "Ski" Trip

I have just returned from a five day ski trip with the Cadets that took place at Pingualuit Park, which is located about 100km west of Kangiqsujuaq, Nunavik. (Arctic Quebec)  All twelve of us left Kangiqsujuaq on Monday the 29th of April by skidoo.  After dealing with some delays due to a broken drive belt we finally got off the sea ice and began our inland climb to a plateau of approximately 500m above sea level.  Once gaining around 100m of elevation we were in complete whiteout conditions to to snow and blowing snow.  Visibility varied from about 100' to 25' or less and winds were reported to be 70km/hr gusting to 120km/hr.  Our lead guide did a remarkable job of leading us through about 70km of flat, featureless white.  Of course this wouldn't have been possible without the convenience of GPS.  Cabins spaced at 30km intervals with inukshuks built in between all the cabins, save for the last stretch gave us an added measure of security should the GPS have any kind of failure.  Satellite phones and spot messengers also gave us a further security buffer.  We finally made it through the blizzard to our destination at Manarsulik camp by around 6:30pm.  Manarsulik camp is located about 2.5km north of the Pingualuit crater on Manarsulik lake.

Basically the crater was created by a significant meteor impact a long time ago.  There are no known meteor bits kicking around, but there are lots of melted bits of local granite, pock marked with holes.  The lake within the crater is called Pingualuk or pimple in Inuktittut and it is reported to have the 3rd clearest water in the world.  With very little salt of other minerals present in the water it is almost pure h2o.

for more details on the crater look here:
 http://www.nunavikparks.ca/en/parks/pingualuit/index.htm

Day 2 brought us whiteout conditions again, this time caused by fog.  There was wind too, but this time only blowing around 15-20km/hr.  We skied to the the crater and back which made for a short 6km round trip.  Again, visibility was at about 50' at best and this was the first day of skiing ever for some of the cadets.  In complete whiteout conditions, even with goggles or sunglasses it is very difficult to see shape or form in the snow, which makes the slightest slopes quite intimidating for first time skiers.  Never the less the cadets did a great job and accepted the challenge gracefully even if we weren't all graceful on our feet. The afternoon was spent fishing by most of the cadets at Manarsulik lake. A few lake trout were caught as well as a landlocked char.  The skies cleared briefly in the evening and some of us took to the skis again and watched the sun set.

Day 3 we woke to nasty weather, temperature hovering above 0 celsius with a mix of rain and freezing rain coming down sideways.  It's a little hard to guess the winds without having any moving references on a flat frozen plain. But I'd guess a moderate gale, winds around the 60km/hr mark.  Complete whiteout again.  When goggles and sunglasses ice up in conditions where you can't see beyond 30' to begin with, you stay in camp.  Manarsulik camp has a wireless connection which was a great delight for the cadets on this stormbound day.

Day 4 cleared in the late morning and we fully embraced the sun.  The previous days' ice storm had left a glaze over everything, as a result we decided to use skidoos to explore the parks' sites while we had a chance.  We started by returning to the crater, which is beautiful when you can see it.  We decended to ice level, cut a hole and drank from it's crystal waters. We spent the remainder of the day exploring the Puvirnituq River canyon about 30km to the NNW of our base camp.

Day 5 Was awesome,  -18 celsius in the morning without any wind.  We had a wonderful trip back to Kangiqsujuaq and took a detour to a gorgeous canyon of a name unknown to me.  Perhaps in English the river within the canyon walls is called the Joy as it empties out into Joy Bay just south of Kangiqsujuaq.  This canyon has the steepest and most dramatic topography that the park has to offer.  We then drove dwon to sea level where 2 dog teams awaited our arrival.  With the qimutsitik's support the we all got a chance to go for a ride on the final stretch back to town....

Skiing in the fog on the way to the crater.

Landlocked char

Lake Pingualuk, the crater

Massiu, one of the guides about to chisel a hole for some of the purest water in the world.

The North end of Manarsulik Lake

Qimutsik on the sea ice, en route to Kangiqsujuaq

The final stretch, Kangiqsujuaq or Wakeham Bay in the distance.

Tea Time

Tracy and I went for a skidoo (bravo) ride with our son out to Stewart Lake today to have tea and go for a walk.  This is a photo of Tracy enjoying a cookie with our son in her amautik on this beautiful late March day.

via Instagram http://instagram.com/p/XQWzkpLakP/G

Test Photo

The above photo was taken in July in Iqaluit.  I really don't have much to say about it, I just like boats, especially old boats.  I put it up on my blog as an experiment.  If I  write this: #blog in the subject line of my Instagram account, it will also post the photo on my blog.  This may prove to be confusing or annoying, but I will keep at it for a while and see how it goes.  The real drawback is that the automatic posting or remote posting does not include text.  Anyways, more on old boats.....  I stumbled upon this guy and his old boats:

www.traditionalkayaks.com

For anyone interested in the history of kayaks and or building their own Harvey Golden has done us all a favour.   I purchased a copy of his book, Kayaks of Greenland which looks great though I haven't really looked at it thoroughly.  I have recently read that he is to release two more books, one on the kayaks of Alaska and the other on the kayaks of Canada. This is great news as finding good research on Canadian Arctic kayaks can be tough to find.  The Canadian Museum of Civilization has published some gems, though they seem to no longer be available.

This blog was lacking posts for a while as I was busy having a baby.  My son was born early Christmas morning, what a gift it was!  This is a whole new adventure in my life and the little guy is now big enough to accompany us on some of our more tame outings.  He has been on a number of skidoo rides to various locations around Kuujjuaq, mostly with the goal of drinking tea or eating country food.  He spends most of the time sleeping as he is in Anaana's amautik.  For evidence of these activities go to my sister's blog here:

http://gwylangoddard.wordpress.com/2013/03/04/kuujjuaq-winter/

For Kuujjuaq in September go here:

 http://gwylangoddard.wordpress.com/2012/10/03/kuujjuaq/#comment-130