the flight

My original flight from Inuvik to Tuk this morning was cancelled because of heavy fog here Tuk (yes, I am in Tuk now). The gravel runway doesn’t have lights so pilots can’t land planes if they can’t full see the ground. After some uncertainty about if and when I would get off the ground in Inuvik this morning, I did manage to get on an afternoon flight and arrive here in Tuk safe and sound. At the moment, I don’t have an internet connection so I am typing it on June 12th but I will have to post it later.

During my flight the views were really cool. The snow is gone from all of the land and it all looked deep brown from the sky. The area we flew over is northeast of the delta and although there aren’t any rivers/streams/channels, the land is covered with little ponds and lakes. All of these little landlocked water bodies were ice-free and dark coloured. As we got closer to the coast, I could see that the sea water near the shore is still ice-covered. Husky Lakes (inland waters that are called ‘lakes’ but are actually connected to the sea) is also ice-covered. (For those of you heard about the belugas that were trapped last fall, it was Husky Lakes where they were trapped). These ice-covered waters made the whole landscape look interesting because of the bright white and aqua blue areas where the ice is melting. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures to share from my plane ride. As I was getting on the plane, one of pilots had me leave my carry-on bag at the back where we were boarding and my camera was in that bag. The windows were tinted, though, so I am not sure if pictures would have worked anyway.

I am staying with a young couple that I stayed with for a week last summer, Rebecca Pokiak and Robin Felix. Rebecca gave birth to their first son in February and he is a cute little guy. His grandfather (his daduk) and grandmother (nanuk) [I think that they are called daduk and nanuk] are especially fond of him. It has felt good to arrive back in Tuk and see some familiar smiling faces. I got here too late in the afternoon to do much, but I am here now. I may go out for a walk tonight and get a feel for what has changed around here.