The weekend of August 22 Larry and I embarked on a new adventure with good friends Scott and Suzy to Cormack Bay in Ward Inlet. We were to leave at high tide on Saturday and picked up again on Monday, again at high tide.
Cormack Bay is known for its good fishing and historically was one of the first outpost stations for the Hudson’s Bay Company. The picture below shows the foundations that show the evidence that buildings indeed existed.
A common site when travelling out on the land are cabins; pictured below is a cabin that is used by the many different travellers that arrive at Cormack Bay. Usage is based upon first come first serve, however in times of poor weather and extreme circumstances no one would be turned away from shelter.
Our trip down the Frobisher Bay went without incident. On the way out from Iqaluit we were able to get “close up” views of the fuel tanker that is unloading diesel and oil for the year (millions of litres will be transferred to the tank farm) as well as two sealift ships. The pictures inserted show one of the sealift ships unloading their cargo onto a couple of barges. The folks that have as of yet to receive their ‘sealift’ are no doubt happy to see the two newest arrivals.
Whenever you travel by boat in the Arctic you must always wear a floater suit. If there is one thing that does happen up here, is people pay attention to safety. These suits were quite large, however they kept us warm on the trip down the bay. A couple of landmarks on the trip are the Frobisher narrows (self explanatory) and Frobisher Furthest an island. Both are good geographical markers to remind you where you are.
We arrived at Cormack Bay around 5:30 and set up camp. There was another group at the more traditional landing spot. Once we had our camp set up it was to the water to do some fishing. It wasn’t long before we had our catch of day. The Char were huge (10-15 pounds).
We had a real treat while out fishing. The other group were also fishing, however they were using nets and needless to say they had a plentiful catch of Char. In true Larry fashion not an opportunity went by. We were given a treat into Inuit traditional ways and allowed to hear their stories and take the pictures you see below to share. Of particular interest is the way the Char is hung to “dry” and watching the female elder do all the prep using her ulu was a real lesson, of which we won’t ever forget.
Our two days at Cormack Bay were wonderful. The weather cooperated and the bugs probably only got a litre from each of us – including Holly. Holly was a real trooper. She went on all the hikes and enjoyed every minute. Of course, she also slept from the time we put her on the boat for the return trip home til about Tuesday. She was one tired out dog.
The landscape around the area was breathtaking. Not a moment would go by that you weren’t mesmerized or appreciating what was surrounding us. On the second day we hiked to two waterfalls. We enjoyed the nearest and took lots of pictures of the one in the distance. We all agreed that none of us wanted to hike up that last hill. We had already done a fair bit and looking from a distance was okay. We constantly thought of safety and were always on the lookout. We also made sure that we had the rifle with us when venturing away from the campsite.
On the last day, the adventure was extended. Our boat appeared for us to watch it anchor out away from shore and then a voice yelling “we just have to change an alternator belt.” We looked at each other and all thought uh oh!. Two hours went by, our kit was sitting at the shore and now we had to start moving stuff as the tide was still coming in. The boat finally came alongside and the owner informed us it was going to be a long trip home because we only had one motor working. On we piled, and all we thought was – how long is long. Lucky for us it wasn’t too cold a night (we started loading at about 6 pm) and the waters were calm, there was hardly any wind.
The “three hour tour” (remembering a certain TV show) turned into a 7.5 hour ride back. We came ashore just before 2 am. Holly and I spent most of the trip below deck. When we were getting closer to Iqaluit, the jelly fish were plentiful and you could see them glowing in the water after the motor of the boat stirred them up. It was quite a sight to see and few probably have the opportunity. We saw some wildlife while away and of particular not were seals, sea birds and fox.
It was a trip for the memory books and one we would highly recommend to everyone.
