Vrooom!

Saturday, December 8, 2007
What an excellent Saturday! This early afternoon (12:30)ish a group of us (Monty, Petra, Nick, April, Aletha, John and myself) set off on skidoos hoping to make it out to Cowboy Canyon to spin and rip around for a little bit. Unfortunately, there was not enough snow down on the tundra yet and it was rather rocky, so we are going to try again later on in the year (like late February or March).

Not to be deterred, we set off instead for Victor Bay to check out the icebergs (yes, bergs, as in two). The first one we rode to was one that I hadn't seen yet ... and it was cool. One side of it was shaped up almost like a mushroom cloud with it's top cut off, and the other half was a typical iceberg. Sadly (and this is part of living in the North) there was not enough light for me to get good pictures of it. But, I can always get back out to it when the sun comes back up. We then next went off to the iceberg that I had already visited for a quick drive by and soon we were zooming off towards Adam's Sound to check out the next iceberg.

The ride out to Adam's Sound wasn't as bad as I was told it was going to be, as it is usually rather chilly and windy as it is a wide open space (as we are zipping across the frozen bay). So we bundled up, and all put on our extra face protection layers and off we went zipping across the bay. The ride out to the iceberg was I'm guessing 25 minutes (as there isn't really any way to really judge how long it took us as it was .... well... darkish out) - but I do know that we started heading out to Adam's Sound at 2:30pm.

The iceberg out at Adam's Sound was quite impressive .. 4 times, if not 5 times the size of the one in Victor Bay. We didn't stay out there too long, just long enough to go for a stretch and decide that we will have to definitely come back when it is light out again.

Now, not having a skidoo can be a bummer here in the Arctic (as I am beginning to discover), but there is always someone that has an extra seat (or space) to take another person. Fortunately for me, one of our permanent RCMP members here will probably become my skidoo buddy as he has access to two seater skidoos for the duration of his posting here. And, if I decide to extend my contract for another two years in Arctic Bay or to another community, I am strongly considering buying a skidoo. Looks like I have some research to start doing.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Any chance of getting a "new to you" model?

Kennie said...

There is one up here, but it is rather old (and I would have to be a mechanic to keep it in shape) ... and it would be a lot better to buy one new as they ride their skidoos hard here (as in 10,000 km + per year). Plus, economically, it is cheaper to buy new ; used skido = 7500k , new = 8500k with zero miles. But I have time to make that decision, I'll see how this winter goes then do a little research over the summer.