Monthly Archives: September 2007

Twenty-four hour sunlight is highly overrated. At least in winter you get some atmosphere.

Inuvik is a town of 3500 people, but you can still catch live music most nights of the week.

The Mad Trapper has a house band, which plays classic rock. (You know, stuff like Trooper and the Rolling Stones.) They also break out a fiddle for some jigging now and then.

These guys have top skills, after playing hundreds of shows.

This band is called Back Up and Push: A familiar technique to anyone who’se gotten their car stuck in the snow during Inuvik’s long winters.

A pretty regular scene around Inuvik. Youth vandlism, perhaps?
Pretty soon this entire town will be plaxiglas-only.

Why is it that so many huskies have different coloured eyes?

This post isnt specifically “northern” but I recenty lost some photos in a file corruption accident.

While I used a program to recover the files (somehow getting them back from wherever digital stuff goes when it’s deleted) they came back garbled.

Looks like a wierd art piece, no?

Here’s another view from last Saturday at 3am.
Dig those crazy green swirls!

NorthMart has some interesting lamps, and a cross-hatched lens filter only adds to the effect.

“Last skateboard ride of the season” indeed…

Northern lights were faint on Saturday night, but visible nonetheless.

With a slow shutter speed (almost five seconds) and a slow sync flash (meaning the flash goes off right at the end, freezing the foreground) I was able to capture these images. A tripod was essential for stability.

(Note about the beauty and reality of Inuvik: These photos were taken at 2:30am, and I had to move away from some drunks who were fighting on the wet lawn of the church. I also met some kids on bicycles, who happened to be riding around.)

Snow in September. How about that?
It’s not staying on the ground, but it’s certainly a preview of the coming months.

Here’s just a shot from the archives.
A big truck rumbles through Fort McPherson in summer 2006.
(Motion blur here adds a sense of danger!)

This link will bring you to Canadian Geographic’s photo gallery of the Beaufort Delta.

There are about 30 pictures, and they are quite excellent. It also offers a view of Tuktoyaktuk.

Cheers to photographer Patrice Halley.

Here’s an interesting poster from Samuel Hearne high-school.

While the halls have plenty of anti-smoking posters (i.e. health warnings, even images of diseased lungs, etc) this one calls for traditional use, not tobacco abuse.

It’s an interesting message, geared to aboriginal youth. Keep tobacco sacred.

We remind readers the “Mad Trapper of Rat River” is a legendary fugitive of the Northwest Territories, who evaded the RCMP for several days and hundreds of miles in 1931.

His body was recently exhumed in Aklavik for a documentary set to air on the Discovery Channel. (Rest assured, this won’t be the poster!)

The Inuvik RCMP station has an antique cannon in front of its headquarters.

Fall definitely has its appeal in the Beaufort Delta.

(Note: Those corrugated metal pipes are utilidors, which are Inuvik’s outdoor plumbing system.)

This photo is actually a leftover from Canada Day, (July 1). I hope you don’t mind!

This is Inuvik’s Legion Hall. It’s a popular place for BBQs, town dinners, music, darts, cards and gambling on “nevada” tickets. (That’s a $1-per-card game where you seek three matching fruit, like a slot machine.)

It also has a wide variety of history books and a bar.

The Inuvik golf course has a pretty convincing putting lawn…

This Arctic Circle road marker is a few hours south of Inuvik. It’s 2623 kilometres from the north pole.

Incidentally, the “arctic circle” marks the part of the arctic which has 24-hour sunlight.

No words are necessary here. It’s just a beautiful sunset!

Here’s some youth throwing rocks at a sign, around 10pm Wednesday.

Here’s the latest news from Samuel Hearne secondary school in Inuvik. Someone threw rocks and broke about 26 windows! The total bill for replacement — since shipping glass is so expensive here — will be almost $30,000.

This means $30,000 which could have gone towards field trips, new materials, renovations, etc, will go to new windows.

What a waste of taxpayers’ money!

Only in the NWT will you see this.
“Inuvik NWT Golf club: *Warning bear in area use extreme caution!*”

While the temperature has dipped as low as 2 degrees in Inuvik, it’s not quite winter yet.

It would seem we have about a month to enjoy the fall colours.

A sunset illuminates the cockpit of the Inuvik’s pilot monument.