Easter Weekend

Easter weekend was spent 20 some kilometres north of town camping at Tasirlak.  A few families including us have set our tents in the same spot for the last couple of years.  I makes a for a cozy and safe tent city as we can rely on each other.  Tasirlak is also where the Easter games took place on Easter Monday so it was a convenient location to be.  It was our first time having the dogs pull a fully loaded sled with the whole family (a had done a solo test run by myself the weekend before).  There was a 4 dog race that took place on the Monday which I partook in with an 8 year old, a 2 year old and two 7 month old pups.  They did remarkably well.  All I hoped for was to be able to finish the race, but in the end I placed 5th and walked away with a hundred bucks.  Not bad.

                                         Tasikallak

                                          Tasirlak

                                          Waterproof Iqartiliik

                                          Two Cuties

                                          Fire in the hole

                                          Irnik 5 Gallon

                                         Tasialuk Racing (the only race I know of where you can drink tea while racing)

                                          Approaching the finish line

                                         Apuukuu while Anaana sleeps

                                         Checking out the dogs on a misty Tuesday

                                          The results of that mist later in the morning on the way home

Progress

It has been a while sine I have updated anything on this blog.  Between family, dogs and the making of equipment I've been far too busy to post anything here.  I have however, taken photos along the way.
We have since added two new pups to the group form Iqaluit.  These pups were born on the same day as each other from different mothers on the same team. They are genetically unique from one another but act as brother and sister.  Also, conveniently they are only three days younger than our other pups, making them an ideal fit.  Their names are Kajuk and Misty.

I've also been busy making some new equipment.  I've eye spliced a bunch of lengths of three strand twist (for use as traces) and made uqsiit for the sled side of the lines. More harnesses have been sewed to fit the pups and a whole bunch of sanniruujait have been made for existing harnesses as well as new ones.  I also built a 14' qamutik with 24" napuiit.  After building the qamutik my one year old son helped me assemble the box that mounts on the front of it.

This front mounting box is real Nunavik style.  I had decided I was going to go this route mostly out of tradition without realizing it's unique benefits.  Prior to building the box I had used the qamutik without it.  On ice it really doesn't matter where the box is mounted or if there is even a box at all.  Most of Nunavik doesn't have any trees but there are a lot of land based dog sled routes where the front mounted box really helps in controlling the direction of the qamutik.  Especially in the wooded areas of Kuujjuaq where there is soft deep snow right beside the trail and trees within that snow it is really helpful to be able to grab the antler handle and direct the qamutik back on the trail when it veers off. Some boxes have wooden handles that extend off the sides that also help with steering.  The box closes with a beluga tooth toggle.

The pups are now all approaching six months of age and I've been integrating one pup at a time with the adults while pulling since they hit the five month mark.  There is much variation in opinion when it is deemed appropriate to put pups in harness and I am definitely on the less conservative side of this group.  Essentially you don't want to damage the bones or joints of pups, nor do you want them to be over disciplined creating a negative experience.  Early work in harness should always be fun and the pups should never be pushed to their limits.  They shouldn't finish the run exhausted nor should they pull too much or pushed too fast.  Every situation is unique and in our situation we need to keep the sled slow with some weight so the pups can keep up with the adults.  Even though the qamutik is weighted the pups aren't doing grunt work as they leave that up to the adults.  This is an instance where the fan hitch really has an advantage as it is easy to monitor the pups individually.  In general three to five hour runs with pups at this age should be fine, but individual dogs vary and need to be monitored.  Your pups will tell you when to call it quits if you are willing to listen.

All pulling...

Pups dropping back...

The load it took to keep the adults at a reasonable speed for the pups.  There is a one year old in that amautik too.


Finally, the most important part.  Keeping kids involved:

With a close watchful eye and never ever alone.

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.