Snowmobiling With My Sweetheart

Just another spring day cruising around with my sweety.

Breaking new trail, as the Nathan flies. My back hurts today.
Smashing helmets together.

No, I'm not the Pink Power Ranger.

Boys will be, well CRAZY boys! This cliff may not look hard core, but let me assure you that it was at least a 90 degree cliff. And someone thought it would be a smart idea to drive up it.

Nathan from the top: HEY...HEY....DON'T COME UP HERE!!
Jen from the bottom: THANKS CAPTAIN OBVIOUS!
Nathan (after he came back down): Yeah, that wasn't a good idea.
Jen: Ye think? You almost gave me a heart attack!
Nathan: I started going and realized it was a bad idea and knew there was only one way to go, so I stepped on the gas and gave 'er.
Jen: That's it, I'm taking the lead from now on, you numb nut!

I think Nathan looks like a Yeti in that photo.

Snowmobiling with the dog

The flat sea ice is optimum for taking the dog out running on. The problem is getting him down there. On the way we have to go through the icey hell bit (choppy ice where sea meets land) and past the sled dogs on the ice and still keep his mind on the prize. The sled dogs are tied up on the ice, they all stand up and get excited when we pass, but don't have the social manners for Tallinn to just drop in for a quick smell. He might get hurt. I have to keep him moving. Once out on the flat ice, we can cruise along at moderate doggy chasing speeds and not worry about anything distracting him or harming him. Chasing us on the snowmobile works him pretty hard, an alternative to him walking me, he likes to pull. I disagree with anyone who says Malamutes couldn't cut it as sled dogs. However Tallinn being a sled dog might not jive, just because I think we raised somewhat of a paw massage, doggy treat eating fluff ball that enjoys watching television. But regardless he still needs his fluffy Malamute body worked.

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.

How to Pee on the Tundra

Out again, out again snowmobiling. Nathan's parents have been up for the last 10 days and it's been a blast. I took Nath's Dad out snowmobiling and I can only compare this trip to getting thrashed around in a blender. What exactly am I talking about? Well all of the snow has blown into a billion mogul hills that have hardened. I couldn't go more then 20km/hr because I kept launching off of these tiny hills and smashing back down again just to hit another one. My whole body hurt the next day!
But lets get to todays topic "how to pee on the tundra". First of all let me assure you I tried everything to avoid this, but at some point I gave up trying to avoid doing it. So the next question was how, when you are miles away from a potty, it's minus 20C out and your bundled up in your snowsuit? (hey why is it when you put on a snowsuit you have the urge to pee? Does everyone remember Robert Munsch's Book "I have to go!"?) My biggest fear was getting frost bite on my bum, but it wasn't too cold for the minimum exposure. Thank god I had a giant rock to hide behind! I am going to leave the rest up to your imagination but everyone should try this liberating experience! I feel like I could truly take on the world!
Here are some pictures from the trip!

A New Addiction

Addiction : Enthusiastically devoted to a particular thing or activity.

It's so extremely fun going out on the snowmobile. I went out last weekend for a little day trip and took some photos. I plan on going again Tomorrow and Sunday, as long as the weather is nice and predictable ( and I don't get anymore dreams about falling through the sea ice).

That's some Big ICE!

On the Subject of Snowmobiles...

I had my first ride on a snowmobile the other day. It was frightening to say the least, except for the parts where I was driving and Nathan was tucked behind me away from the controls. I do not have need for speed. Up in the North, the snowmobile is a normal part of everyday life. Most people don't have a car, and most people don't need a car, as a car can not be driven out onto the land to hunt.

I would like to share with you what a snowmobile is like mind, body and soul. It smells like burning gasoline, feels like frozen leather (except for the acceleration pedal, a lever your thumb presses, that part gets really hot), and most importantly it gets you from point A to point B, where the baguettes are fresher and less expensive. The sound of a snowmobile can best be described as a very loud and irritating lawn mower and at night time when the air is is clean and fresh, you can hear every single snowmobile in town and it sounds like the 401 has opened a lawnmower lane! And because the snowmobile is so flexibly moved, there are new paths formed, where there were no paths before. Our neighbours have a snowmobile route that was forged right next to their house, it gets pretty noisy. Block the path you say? Well it's just not that simple. Think of a snowmobile as a renegade machine that goes where it wants, when it wants! If thou path be blocked, it will forcefully be pathed a new, so don't bother pissing off the locals. Nathan and I are extremely lucky though, we managed to get a place off the beaten path and rarely have any one driving around our place, it stays pretty quiet.

This morning Nath lent one of the RCMP snowmobiles to help the search for some lost hunters. It's an incredible idea that would seem scary to anyone from the south. Some people get up one day and decide to go hunting, get dressed, hop on their snowmobiles or dog sleds and head out onto the land. Not just any land, a land with out pit stops or hotels, and more importantly a land without gas stations along the way. These hunters will go out for days at a time and survive in 100Km/h winds and -40C temperatures in only what they have on. I heard a story (this took place in the south) on the news the other day of a family getting lost in the wilderness after running out of gas. The husband tried to make it to a local town to save his family, but died along the way, after only one day of exposure(of probably pretty moderate temperatures). I also heard as story of a group of inuit hunters(from our town) getting trapped on a piece ice heading out to sea. They had all been soaked through after a wave had hit them and still they managed to stay alive for days until they were rescued. It's just incredible the difference in how exposure effects people. But I credit the people up north with a certain cold toughness.

In the Meantime, back to the individuals who were lost today, there is this group up here called the "Rangers", a bunch of local people who know the land very well, and they will travel out on their snow mobiles looking for the lost ones. Nathan came home at lunch and said that they were at least a day out, hopefully they will all make it hope safely. If I know one thing, its that there ain't no Hilton out there, and the sun is almost gone. It's life or death out there and that's not just a saying.