Another One Done...

Another new web site for the books this week. The Innavik Hydro Project is being undertaken by Pituvik Landholding Corporation in the village of Inukjuak in Nunavik. This town is one of my favorite locations in the entire country and is a great place to visit. If you're looking for a different kind of adventure for your vacation this year then this would be it. There is a great little hotel run by the local CO-OP and you can easily arrange a guide to take you out on the land, up the river or out to Hudson's Bay.

If you're an amateur archaeologist then you might be interested to know that the oldest rock in the world is located near the community. It has been dated and fully documented at well over 3,000,000 years old. Access to the community is only by plane and you would most likely take an Air Inuit Dash-8 aircraft out of Montreal and could possibly make stops at La Grande, Kuujjuaraapik, and Umiujaq on your journey.

One last time...

I can't stop watching out my window at the land passing beneath us. Although Northern would like me to stay on the relief circuit for at least a few more months, what if this is my last flight... ever. What if that ice field south of Inukjuak is the last one? What if that maze of caribou trails between Kuujjuarapik and LG-2 is my last hint of the herd? What if I never again feel the glory of rising above a cloud layer into the rays of the setting sun? I want to experience and feel it all over again and all at once.

A strange and morbid thought has just come to mind and I can't help but wonder if this is what my death bed will be like. I can almost hear myself saying... "Please, let me see it all again, just one more time."

Sleep, hah!

OK, should have known that I wouldn't be able to sleep right away. Call me crazy if you want but I always have the exact same feeling every time I leave a community... I could have done more.

I could have finished just one more task, one more file, and one more shelf. I could have had more patience, been more of a listener, more of a teacher and coach. I could have spent more time with the new guy and maybe could have understood if his bearing was one of arrogance, confidence or just a feeling of being overwhelmed at accepting his biggest assignment to date. I could have thought back to when I was put into a similar position and tried my best for days to hide my uncertainty, fear and panic.

I could have done more...

Withdrawal...

I was once told that I was addicted to adrenalin. This seemed ridiculous at the time but it almost seems to be true on occasions such as today. At the time of writing this note I'm sitting at the Inukjuak airport struggling to keep my eyes open.

Leaving the store about an hour ago started the process. I had checked in my suitcase late this morning and then was dropped off myself by the Meat Department Manager on his way home for lunch. As soon as he left I sat myself down in the corner to wait the arrival of the Dash-8 that will take me to Montreal and at that point the rush and energy necessary to manage a large store left me.



The only way I can describe it is a draining of power or being. Sure, the new Store Manager got here a couple days ago and I handed over the keys and safe combinations to him, but I was still there as the resident expert up until this point in time. It's hard to put into words but it's just the feeling of relief with a long, hard job being finally over.

Time to board the aircraft now and I'll probably sleep all the way to Montreal. See 'ya! ZZZZzzzz....

On the road...

I’ve been off the air lately and just now getting caught up on everything. I’m up in Inukjuak, a community of about 1,300 in Northern Quebec doing a Store Manager Relief job. The house I’m in had no telephone and it took about 3 week to convince Bell Canada that the dwelling even existed. According to their records it was demolished several years ago and they could see no reason why I wanted a telephone installed in a pile of rubble. Finally I called one of their service representatives in Ottawa and asked her if she had a telephone. “Of course,” she said and I then asked her if she had a house. When she said yes I said “prove it to me” and I had my telephone the next day so my internet connection is now up and running.

I know, they have their systems to follow and we have ours. For example, we used to have control over customer accounts at the store level and now it’s all handled by our head office people. As a result when we may have someone we know is an excellent customer with years of loyalty to us who wants to maybe just charge that one more thing we can’t approve it. To be fair, when the stores had full control things sometimes got out of hand and we can normally also get in touch with someone at our head office to stretch limits a bit but it can be a bit inconvenient on a busy day to have a customer wait in line with 10 people behind them while we get approval. Would I like to go back to store control? Not a chance because this makes things a lot more smoother and also much easier to say no to an overdue or over limit customer when necessary.

Anyway, this is one of the nicest locations we have in our entire system which stretches all across Canada, into Alaska, the Caribbean and now all the way to Guam way out in the Pacific Ocean. If you want to see some great photos of the Inukjuak area just go to WWW.PITUVIK.COM and check out the photography area. This is one fantastic place to visit so feel free to contact the Pituvik people to see about your next (or first) vacation to the north. And to you Toronto people out there… NO, Barrie is NOT part of the arctic, get out in the real world will you?

Notes on a plane...

Thursday, May 17th, Day 42 of this trip.

Out of Inukjuak on time at 3:00 p.m.. I had been a little bit worried last night when the snow started blowing and the wind started rattling the windows but the dawn brought calm weather. Apparently the main storm had hit south of us as our Dash 8 aircraft skipped over Umiujaq as they still hadn’t had time to get enough snow off the airstrip for us to land. So it was straight to Kuujjuarapik for the mandatory debarking, luggage claiming and security clearing routine that I have spoken of before. We were all surprised by the warm south wind that greeted us as we got off the plane. Some passengers were still wearing their winter parkas and I heard one woman comment that it felt like berry picking time. This was a bit of wishful thinking as there is still lots of snow on the ground and Hudson’s Bay is still ice filled. Much of it does have the distinctive blue “candled” appearance in many places so it won’t be long before it starts to seriously beak up and melt though. I would say that we were close to the La Grand hydro complex before the last of the snow started disappearing from the shores around the lakes and rivers below us.

Once again I was surprised by the appearance of trees around Kuujjuarapik as my mind seems to forget their existence after a month or so on the tundra. You seem to get so used to seeing the open horizons and rock strewn islands that even the smallest bush can cause excitement. I remember once years ago when I was taking a vacation after almost two years inland that I was downright shocked by the colour green around my hometown in the Eastern Townships of Quebec. It wasn’t so much the trees as where I’d been had lots of scrub spruce and other fir trees but the appearance of a leaf on a maple or oak tree just shocked me for several minutes. I had simply forgotten about their existence.

Anyway, we were the normal group of passengers coming out of the north on this flight. Patients headed south for doctors appointments, people who had been visiting or were going to visit relatives, workers like myself who had finished up their assignments and contracts and even a couple students who were headed to Montreal to pick up graduation gowns and other paraphernalia. Those of you who head to Sudbury or maybe locations farther to shop may find it hard to believe that people in the north may have to travel thousands of miles and spend well over $1,000.00 just on a plane ticket to Montreal to pick up a prom dress but it’s true, and a fact of life for many arctic citizens.

I’m going to close this off now before it drags on too long but I’ll continue this saga in another blog entry. See ‘ya!

Welcome Pituvik!

And the latest member of the family of web sites maintained by yours truly is that of the Pituvik Landholding Corporation of Inukjuak, Nunavik, Quebec. Check out the photos including the ones under the "Community" section and you'll see why I keep heading north. Of course, Manitoulin scenery is fantastic also but there is just something about the Barren Lands of the Arctic and the tundra that appeals to me.

The Walrus...

Since we seem to be on a wildlife theme lately, did I ever tell you that they call me “Aivik” in many of the Inuit communities? I have no idea why.

I’ve also been mistaken for Wilfred Brimley, “Mr. Oatmeal” occasionally and was once even asked what my favourite movie had been.

Missed again...

I understand that we've had another visitor around town the past few nights. Haven't seen him/her either yet, darn it!

I Missed It Again...

Once again, in a location (Inukjuak) that regularly has polar bears wandering around... I missed it! A decent sized bear wandered through town the other morning while I was pouring my first coffee of the day. (Well, actually he only made it half way through.) Anyway, it seemed strange that there were so many other people up and about so early but it never occurred to me that Nanook might be around. Oh well, a polar bear sighting outside of a zoo still evades me but I'll probably stumble into one when I'm walking home with an armload of groceries some night.

Day Two... to Inukjuak