Don's Blog Point Hope I

 From Utqiagviq we continued along the coast sailing by the rocky cliffs of Cape Lisburne and the Alaskan North Slope village of  Point Hope. The Inuit name, Tikagaq, commonly spelled Tigara (see map below) means forefinger. The village sits on a long thin peninsula shaped like a pointing finger which juts out into the Chukchi Sea historically bringing whales close to the shore. Originally called by Russian explorers, Mys Golovnina, the cape was re-named by Captain Frederick William Beechey who wrote on August 2, 1826, "I named it Point Hope in compliment to Sir William Johnstone Hope, of a well connected sea family."

Forty-eight years ago I visited the hamlet of Point Hope with my wife and another couple. We flew in to the airstrip on a small plane on wheels in May of 1970.
 

We were unprepared for the visit. At the time there was no habitable hotel and no restaurants. Many of the white poles sticking up in the view by the air field (below) are the jaw bones of bowhead whales. It is always a lonely feeling when you are dropped off in a distant place and the airplane lifts off.

I had made arrangements  for us to stay in the Episcopal Mission House next to the church. Luckily for us no one else was staying there. We picked up our duffel bags and dropped them off at 'our' mission house. 

Although we arrived unannounced and unexpected we were met immediately by friendly villagers.They were happy to see us and no one asked why we had come. Some children adopted us. Here we are coming out of the mission house. I'm to the left and our friend Helen and my wife Jan to the lower right.

The children showed us around the village. One of the first structures we saw was this traditional Saad house made from bowhead whale bones and covered with sod growing grasses. That is the electric line coming off the pole. An umiak open skin boat is on a framework to the right.

 

The houses were interesting in the details including the guard dog on the front porch. 

These are caribou racks on the roof with heads still attached and on the far side is a moose rack.

Our young guides walked us all around. In the background you can see the pack ice of Maryatt Inlet.

 

Don's Blog Blues 6 - Avalanche 1

Last night my son Gordon and I and a friend went to a St Lois Blues hockey game. Gordon is from denver and the Blues' opponent was the Colorado Avalanche. Gordon's high school friend Becky got us the best seats ever - fifth row behind the goal where the Blues shoot twice. I have NEVER been so close. The players all looked huge and the game was so fast it was hard to believe. Three seconds into the game there was a big fight between two top scorers. We figured it hd to be something from a previous game. The crowd was terrific - very family friendly and mostly young people with many kids. The Blues won 6-1. Here is a photo of Paul Stasney in front of the Avs goal as he scores. The puck is that dark fuzzy object by his right hip.

When you are that close you can take images with your cell phone. 

Don's Blog On to Alaska - Oil drilling Controversy and Utqiagvik (Barrow)

Traveling along the coast from the Yukon's Herschel Island we arrived in Alaska - home at last. We are passing an area of great political contention. The question of drilling for oil in this area has been an ongoing controversy in the US since 1977. As of 2017 the Republicans have attempted to allow drilling in this area almost 50 times, finally being successful with the passage of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017. The Alaska National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) was created by Congress in 1980. It comprises 19 million acres of the north Alaska coast. 

ANWR is situated between the Beaufort Sea to the north, the Brooks Range to the south, and Prudhoe Bay to the west. To the east is Canada with both Ivvavik and Vuntut National Parks. The controversy surrounds drilling for oil in the "1002 area" which is 1.5 million acres in the coastal plain. The conservation issue of the controversy include concerns about possible permanent  changes to the native culture and way of life including issues with sea mammals but mostly with concerns about the calving grounds of the Porcupine Herd of barren ground caribou.

The local natives have been continually involved - some saying that drilling would permanently change their culture and their ability to maintain subsistence living and others pointing out that drilling is inevitable especially at a time when the need for economic resources is high. For instance the village of Kaktovic passed a resolution in 2006 calling Shell Oil a "hostile and dangerous force" regarding offshore drilling and protecting bowhead whales and authorizing the mayor to take action to "defend the community". The controversy continues between the people, communities, state of Alaska and the federal government. What has recently been approved is onshore drilling in area '1002'.

As we sailed by this area we passed by the town of Prudhoe Bay (Sagavanirktok). It was named in 1826 by John Franklin after his classmate Captain Algernon Percy, Baron Prudhoe. It is currently used as the supply station for the Prudhoe Bay oil field and is at the origin of the Trans-Alaska pipeline. Oil has been extracted from offshore Prudhoe Bay since 1968.

Further to the west is Point Barrow (Nuvak) which marks the geographical limit between two marginal seas of the Arctic, the Beaufort Sea on the eastern side and the Chukchi Sea on the western side. It was named by Frederick Beechey in 1826 for John Barrow of the British Admiralty who was the father of British arctic exploration. At Point Barrow is the city of Barrow which is the northernmost community in the United States. 

Barrow is among the oldest permanent settlements in the United States. Hundreds of years before the European Arctic explorers came Barrow was a natural hunting place at the base of a peninsula which was protruding into the Beaufort Sea. Whalers sailed here learning about the bowhead whale from Inupiat hunters. The US acquired Alaska in 1867.

The native people of the North Slope are politically involved. When voting on acceptance of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act Barrow rejected it. In 1971 despite their opposition it was passed and became law.That was the year after we moved from Anchorage back to St Louis. Following a referendum in 2016 the name of the town was officially changed from Barrow to Utqiagvik.  In Inupiat this means the place for gathering wild roots. This did not change the name of the geographical cape, Point Barrow.

In Utqiagvik we went through US Customs.  Le Boreal sent out Zodiacs for Customs and Border Patrol officers.They took many hours going through procedures including an extensive safety drill. This was followed by a sumptuous dinner buffet for the feds.

Don's Blog Hershel Island

Heading  west from the Smoking Hills we sailed across the mouth of the Mackenzie River delta. In the northwest portion of Mackenzie Bay we came to Herschel Island just off the coast of the Yukon Territory. The Thule culture utilized this island for more than a thousand years. John Franklin was the first European to visit the island in 1826 on his second land expedition. Roald Amundsen wintered here in 1905.

In 1890 a settlement was established on Herschel Island at the height of the Beaufort Sea whaling period. The number of residents was estimated at 1500 making it the largest Yukon community at that time. Currently it is a territorial park which is open only seasonally.

The day we arrived it rained.  Many of the buildings on the island are set up as museums. One such building had an extraordinary collection of whale bones. Here are some whale vertebra. The plate like circles are intervertebral discs.

The most interesting phenomenon on the island was a massive solitary bull muskox who stood in the rain and watched  as we circled him - but not too close. The challenge was to get a good look at him but not disturb him. He looked lonely.

The muskox (Ovibus moschatus)  is an arctic mammal. It is called umingmak in Inuktitut. Today's muskoxen are believed to have migrated from Siberia to North America between 90,000 and 200,000 years ago. The Alaskan population was wiped out by hunting in the late 19th century. Starting in 1935 muskoxen have been successfully re-introduced to Alaska. The current world population is between 80,000 and 125,000 with an estimated 47,000 living on Banks Island. 

Muskoxen have a two-layered coat. The soft underwool beneath the longer coarse outer hair  is called qiviut. Qiviut is stronger and warmer than sheep's wool and softer than cashmere wool. Through the years I have obtained many native produced items made of knitted qiviut. There is nothing better than light, soft and warm.

Toward the end of our visit we were able to see this off the coast.

No it is not a ship but an oil drilling platform part of the activity we saw on the map of Beaufort Sea in Ulukhaktok.

Don's Blog The Smoking Hills II

Behind the Smoking Hills is the Horton River which I canoed in 1993 (see route in red below). The river starts in a small lake and runs north through a wild canyon and then through hills and flats to Franklin Bay of the Arctic Ocean.

After the canyon the river settles to a mostly gentle flow down to the ocean through broad expanses of tundra with squirrels, caribou, wolves, grizzly bears and muskox.

The river parallels the Smoking Hills in several places allowing for close inspection of the smoke sites. The smoke occurs on both the inland and the ocean sides.

We were able to climb up to these areas which had a strong odor of sulfur.

As the river came close to Franklin Bay we climbed up to see the bay, our first view of the Arctic Ocean.

Around 1800 the Horton River meander broke through the shoreline to Franklin Bay. This rare natural phenomenon created a new delta about 60 miles south of the previous one. The Old Horton riverbed can be seen on the map.

Back to this trip on the Franklin Bay side - the weather cleared and the Smoking Hills were phenomenal.

Don's Blog The Smoking Hills I

On our Northwest Passage trip we are working our way across the top of North America. Starting in Nunavut we have come across the Northwest Territories toward the Yukon and Alaska. After leaving Banks Island we crossed the Amundsen Gulf just south of the Beaufort Sea heading for the Smoking Hills. This amazing natural phenomenon is on the western side of Franklin Bay between Cape Bathurst and Cape Parry.

The Smoking Hills are smoking cliffs to the east of the Mackenzie River delta, above on the map and near the delta of the Horton River further east. The cliffs are about 37 miles in length. On the day of our visit the weather was too bad for us to go ashore.

The Smoking Hills were named by Robert McClure in 1850. Franklin searrcher RobertMcClure, on the ship Investigator, was sailing  from the west approach to the presumed Northwest Passage. Seeing smoke arising from crevices in the cliffs McClure sent his men to check. He departed believing that the smoke was volcanic in origin (below).

Some sources have indicated that John Franklin named the Smoking Hills during his land expedition of 1825 and 1826. This was probably not possible. During Franklin's third Overland Expedition to the Polar Sea Franklin and John Richardson descended the Mackenzie River to the sea from Great Bear Lake. The parties separated on July 4, 1826. Franklin's group with officer-artist George Back in the Lion and Reliance went west to map the shoreline. Richardson's group, in the Dolphin and Union went east to survey the coast between the MacKenzie and Coppermine Rivers. Only Richardson would have seen the Smoking Hills since they are east of the Mackenzie River.

As the weather cleared  we were able to see smoke arising from the cliffs.

The smoke comes from the spontaneous combustion of mud stones which creates boccanes or fire baked rock. The mud stones originated in the Cretaceous period,the age of the dinosaurs (Mesozoic), about 145 million years ago.They contain pirite and lignite. Pirite is iron sulfate (FeS2), also known as fools gold. Lignite or brown coal, is a soft combustible sedimentary rock formed from naturally compressed peat. The landslide strata of these mud stones are exposed to atmospheric oxygen with resultant oxidation that results in the high temperature required for the autoignition and spontaneous combustion of the coal. This is facilitated by the fine particle size and large surface area  of the pirite. As specific areas burn out new areas begin burning. This has been going on for hundreds of years. It results in bleaching and reddening of the stone. 

Don's Blog Banks Island: A Chance Encounter

Note: This is a repeat from September - placed in the context of the trip, edited and with updated pictures.

We sailed from Ulukhaktok across the Amundsen Gulf to DeSalis Bay on the south eastern shore of Banks Island (upper left on map).The bay  was named by Franklin searcher Francis Leopold McClintock. 

Inuit culture has thrived on Banks Island for 3,500 years. The Thule Inuit occupied the area about 500 years ago.  It was first sighted by Frederick Beechey of the Sir William Parry expedition aboard the ships Hecla and Griper (1819-1821). It was also where Roald Amundsen completed his Northwest passage in 1905.   

It was beautiful foggy day, great for exploring.

After a long hike we saw two musk ox - two black dots that seemed about 10 miles away. I was somewhat disappointed and decided to return to the ship alone on the left bank of a mostly dry stream bed. On the tundra as I was hiking I felt something moving to my left. I looked  over and saw that an animal was walking parallel to me. It was an arctic fox. I put my walking sticks under my left arm and started shooting one handed with my 100 mm Macro lens.

We continued to walk parallel for awhile.

He started going a little faster as I continued to walk slowly. He crossed over in front of me and disappeared down a draw to my right. I thought ,"Well that's that. He's gone."

But as I neared the draw he reappeared. He was curious, just checking me out. 

Then he surprised me - he got more curious. I was in my red parka with my hiking poles under my left arm and my camera in my right hand still shooting pictures with one hand. I was not moving at all. He started walking slowly up the draw. 

To my amazement he turned and started walking right towards me.

He slowed but kept coming. I decided that no matter what, I was going to be entirely still and utterly quiet. There was silence except for the occasional sound of the shutter. He kept on coming.  

As he approached he squatted down a little on all fours. Throughout this we were eye to eye - both curious and neither wavering. If he were to jump I was going to get a shot of him in the air.

When he was about eight yards away he stopped and we continued to stare at each other. Then he calmly turned and loped slowly back down the draw. I was both disappointed and relieved that he was gone. I don't get close to wild animals and never eye to eye. That we experienced each other so close was more than amazing.

Don's Blog Holman II

 Do you remember the name of the uninhabited site on Devon Island was Tularuti which meant 'woman with tattoos on her forehead'? In Ulukhaktok there were several older women with forehead tattoos.

During our stay in the hamlet we met many hospitable folks.

There were young adults,

and  teenagers. 

Captain Rouzic invited a large contingent of villagers aboard Le Boreal. They came out in Zodiacs and were shown around the ship. Here is some of the group on the bridge. 

This young boy is like any other kid on the continent.

The captain put one of the 'elders' in his chair on the bridge.

Many years ago I obtained two miniature carvings by Rex Goose, a famous carver from Ulukhaktok. I had hoped to see him during our stop. I was disappointed - everyone knew him but told me he was unavailable. Here are the carvings. His sister told me he had not done any miniatures for years.

Inuit have been doing drum dancing and throat singing for centuries. The drum (qilaut) is specially made by its 

own drummer. The drumming is performed by hitting the side of the drum with a wooden beater (qatuk)and is usually accompanied by dancing and a form of chanting/singing. The most recognizable and recurring type on our trip  was  an 'ajaaja'  song.

Throat singing requires the singer to use a bass note and then utilizes the shape of the throat and body to bring out the natural harmonics of that note. The air goes from the lungs out through the trachea, through the laynx with vocal cords fixed in one position and then out the mouth. By precise movements of the lips, tongue, jaw, soft palate and larynx throat singers produce unique harmonies using only their bodies. Inuit throat singing is called katajjaq. 

One contemporary singer who employs some throat singing is Nathan Rogers, son of Stan Rogers, who made the song 'Northwest Passage' so popular that many call it Canada's unofficial national anthem . Stan Rogers died in an airplane fire in 1983. Nathan Rogers is still touring.

Don's Blog Holman I

Passing by Lady Franklin Point and through the Dolphin and Union Strait. We approach the hamlet of Holman on on western Victoria Island.

We are now in the Northwest Territories. Holman was initially named for J R Holman, a member of a Franklin search group aboard Inglefield's ship the Isabel. It is now called Ulukhaktok or the place where ulu materials are found. The slate and copper to make the namesake ulus are found on a large buff near the town. 

The villagers turned out for us, skinning some char with ulus and baking up some fresh bannock. A treat. I asked a welcoming lady if I could take her picture. She said, "No.  Why don't we do a selfie?" Her name was Laverna Klingenberg and she is the Mayor of Ulukhoktok. Politicians know how to take care of you.

We  walked around the village finding the Arts Centre, the COOP Store and the Community Center.

In these villages there is a real emphasis on health related issues.

 

Addiction continues as a force.

Another area of interest is the omnipresent issue of oil exploration in the Beaufort Sea,

 and where it is happening.

The villagers are very aware of pollution issues and even required another visiting tour ship the Crystal Serenity, with its one thousand passengers and 600 crew and its accompanying supply ship, to agree not to dump its waste  nearby. There are about 1400 inhabitants of Ulukhaktok.