Sunday, August 26, 2007


Chewy the Bear (pictured investigating one of the Inuit camps)

We are desperately behind on blogging, sorry!

So, after being on the peninsula for 3 days, Chewy the Bear showed up. Chewy is a juvenile male grizzly and he showed great interest in everything that holds (or used to hold) water, air, or fish. Chewy scored 12 points against Heidi and Marilynn and managed to maim and/or destroy floats, 2 seal bags, 1 boat, sunscreen, a cooler, Heidi's cart (!!!!!!!), etc etc. He was completely unfazed by bear bangers, shotgun shells (as noisemakers), and airhorns. After Chewy's second visit, Heidi and Marilynn took stock.

Heidi: Let's take stock. We are currently in the middle of nowhere, floating in the Arctic ocean in an inflatable dinghy with no motor. In other news, a bear is ripping into our fish cooler and he now has his front paws on the zodiac. It's 10 p.m.

Marilynn (Looking through binoculars): Heidi, I'm not going to lie. Your cart is dead.

Heidi: Hmmm. I feel we should call camp and get some advice.

Whereupon Miramar kindly agreed to send out a bear monitor to help us keep an eye on Chewy. The bear monitor arrived at 7 am the next morning via the Scare Plane and found us where we had camped on an island so as not to be eaten by Chewy. Chewy showed up twice more. The last time, Mark the bear monitor reported that he ran down the shoreline, stopped briefly to bite our inflatable dinghy (a.k.a. Spinny - more stories to come), and kept running. Spite in bear format and definitely worth a laugh.

Wednesday, August 15, 2007


The Most Beautiful Place in the World

After Neil left on his plane, we walked to the cabin to check it out. As we walked along the rapids from Nauyuk Lake to the Arctic Ocean we saw fish swimming everywhere. At any one time, we could count about 20 fish, mostly lake trout, but also some charr. The view from our front door was breathtaking, looking out at the bright blue ocean, between the mesas, with the river in the foreground. This place is truly special. On the top of both mesas, there are inukshuks, which Heidi and I came to regard as our guardians. The best word that we could find to describe this place is ‘sacred’.

Sunday, August 05, 2007

Takin’ the Scare Plane to the Kent

This year at Windy Camp there is a Beaver (single engine prop plane on floats) that is stationed at the camp, making it easier to get people around. The pilot of this plane is named Neil, or as we like to call him, Jack Black in disguise. Imagine Jack Black (as per School of Rock) in a bug shirt, black carrhart’s, and an inflatable fishermen’s vest (in case of a hard landing) peeing off of his floats in front of eight or so people. Imagine Jack Black stuck behind a deflated zodiac in his plane with his legs waving in the air yelling, “Son of a Gun, Son of a ****.”

This is Neil and the Scare Plane. Neil, somewhat like Dick the helicopter cowboy, likes to fly low and fast. Our trip to the Kent Peninsula was somewhat of an exception because he climbed high enough to hand over the controls to Heidi so he could enjoy an ice cold Coke while doing his paperwork. Heidi, white-knuckled at the controls, pondered this state of affairs and decided to get her pilot’s license. Marilynn, white-knuckled in the back seat was busy hoping that Neil would NOT let Heidi land the plane.

Neil spots the sampling site and we circle a few times looking for float-eating boulders. Neil lands safely (Marilynn thanks God) and we get stuck in the mud slightly offshore. Neil (ever the manly man) handily jumps off his floats in Carhart’s and work boots to anchor the plane. Marilynn and Heidi (more sensibly) don their waders and proceed to hump the gear out of the plane through the mud to shore. “The gear” includes: one 15 hp 4-stroke motor, 1 12 ft zodiac, 5 coolers, 2 tubs, 1 12-V battery, 1 generator, 1 freezer, 5 jerry cans, etc etc. Jack Black lifts everything down from the plane and hands it to us. Upon completion, Jack Black (looking back at us from the floats) says, “You girls just impressed the SHIT out of me. He then hops in his plane soaking wet, and yells out the window, “when do you wanna get picked up.”







The Scene:

Heidi and Marilynn are sampling from Zippy on Hope Bay (Arctic Ocean) at 1 am on a very windy night. Large waves are rocking the boat and occasionally dragging the anchor. Marilynn forgot to pee before leaving shore. She discusses the situation with Heidi and decides the best course of action is to hang her ass off of the back of the boat and hang on.

The Script:

Marilynn: Heidi, does it make you uncomfortable that I am peeing less than a foot away from you?

Heidi: No. Could you please pass me the depth sounder?