Monday, January 28, 2008

Machines of the Snow

At the request of some of my southern readers JULIE & ALEKS, I am creating a new post as so they don't have to look at the gory details of the last post every time they load my page. Although I will have you know most of my northern readers were smackin' their lips and dreaming of caribou stew!

Nathan decided that it was about high time we kicked off our snowmobiling season. We wait longer then most because we are fairly unexperienced city born folk who can get slightly paranoid about falling through the ice. OK that's just me. Most of the quality speeding ground is actually on the ice and growing up in a place where the ice is never thick enough, it can be a little unnerving.

Nathan ended up getting his machine stuck (oh and ladies whose fault was that? Mine of course! Because I didn't want to follow his off trail directions). The machine got stuck in an area that I like to call CHOPPY HELL, where the sea meets land. This is an area where the ice breaks up and juts up into the air, caused by low & high tides. It's an obstacle course, but necessary to drive through if you want to move between land and sea. Anyways someone got their machine stuck and while digging it out my foot went into a slushy area and water flooded up around my boot. It took everything inside me to keep together. My brain said "this is normal, of course there is going to be some water here with the water coming in and out". My heart said "RUN AWAY, RUN AWAY!!" Anyways we lived, but not without the man leading us in the wrong direction and finally the woman finding the way, getting us both home safely.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those are great! The detachment has some nice machines! :)

Jackie S. Quire said...

OMG, i about died when I read that the was water in your boot!

I woulda been halfway to winnipeg (on foot) if it had of been me.

You're so brave!

jen said...

Well it's not being brave, because it's pretty safe on the ice right now. I am just a paranoid freak lol! :)

Anonymous said...

"Choppy hell" is funny and still accurate. I am going to use that too.

I didn't find the previous photos offensive (but then again, I am Inuk and live in Iqaluit). Will it effect (affect?) the Nunies? Some people are pro Inuit culture (hunting). Some are not. But controversy is a hot topic.

Haha. That post has nothing to do with the outcome, I know.

jen said...

Anonymous,

I also feel it wasn't offensive and I'm glad you said you agree. I think that if you want to eat meat then you should be aware of and appreciate where it comes from. I think my caribou post is no worse then taking photos in the meat department at the grocery store. I hope I can convince some of my southern readers of that. ;)

Kennie said...

I wonder how much air I could get on a machine here going over our "choppy hell" area .... hmm..... I think I have tomorrows physics experiment figured out now ;-)

Shelley said...

Hey Jen I didn't mind the caribou pics, I was thinking up recipes! Enjoy the catch. My daughter doesn't appreciate where meat comes from but I grew up in farm country. If it moves, we can eat it!

Anonymous said...

I know choppy hell all too well. One year I got myself stuck several 7-8 km out of town in that crap and a couple years ago I pretty much killed my suspension by speeding too quickly over it. Next year I plan to go it with a chainsaw and an industrial-size hair dryer and then we'll see who screams first!

jen said...

Way way up,
HAHAHAH a hair dryer for sure! I was saying I wished we had of brought a mini ice pick/shovel. It would have made life easier.