12 July 2004

Joined: 23 Mar 2004 Posts: 23

Today was a day in Inuvik. We slept in and had a nice breakfast at the MacKenzie hotel. The afternoon we spent picking up the rest of the research team. The researchers are from around the globe and considered specialists in their area, plus they seem to be an extremely nice and welcoming group. There is also a class that is going to Mould Bay and they arrived as well. After unloading and reloading the truck and getting the rest of the 14 member group plus the 6 person class back from the airport we headed to walk around town and visit the visitor's center.
Inuvik the largest Canadian town above the Arctic Circle with a population of about 3,000 people. It is a very nice community that appears to be growing. The town is composed of Inuit, G'wichin, and Westerners living in the Tundra. Subsistence is a way of life...even in the restaurants where you can order Arctic Char, Muskoxen, and Caribou. Sad to say, the supply of Muskoxen has run out and Caribou is close behind. Inuvik is also the center for Arctic researchers before they head to the field so there is a large research center and lots of scientists mingling with locals.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) we were supposed to fly to Mould Bay in the morning but weather has slowed things down. The class will hopefully be able to fly out in the morning which would put us at leaving near 5ish in the evening. We are looking at 4 hours of flying with a stop for gas along the way. As you can imagine, if we leave tomorrow evening we will be up most of the night setting up camp.

So I sign off for today and am not sure where tomorrow will take me. Flexibility is definitely a characteristic of scientific research.