I think I know snowmobiling isn't for me.

The Subarctic Tundra

The Reindeer Herd!

On Sunday I went snowmobiling for most of the day. I worked nights on Saturday, slept for a few hours and then left my house around 1:00 p.m. I went with my room mate Paul, one of the nurses Judy and one of the doctors Dinesh Mistry. I made it about 45 minutes away on my own but I had a wipe-out. I think my ski must have gone off the track just a little bit and I ended up slamming right into a tree. My skidoo was stuck and it took about 15 minutes and four of us to get it out. We went up and stopped at a place called Beer Hill, which is apparently where your supposed to stop for a beer-hence the name. We didn't take part in that part of the trip though and after the hill I gave up my skidoo to Dr. Mistry and rode on the back of Judy's. Anyway we went up past the tree line, across the arctic tundra and met up with the reindeer herder, who took us up to the herd! It was really cool-you could see them from really far away, just as this big black mass. Then when we were close we herded them closer to the reindeer station. The man we were with sung to them in Inuvaluit and it was really, really cool. He told us there were between 2500-4000 reindeer this year. We also saw wolf tracks which were HUGE. He told us they were probably from the alpha male who scouts out the territory, and that the wolf was probably the size of a cariboo-it's tracks were bigger than his hands!

After my wipe-out, I was really sore and I could barely walk when I got off my skidoo. All I kept thinking about was how much I wanted to be home and having a warm shower. When we finally made it home, I could barely make it up the few steps to get in the front door. It was one of the most uncomfortable things I have done. I'm glad that I did it though because it was so cool to see the tundra and all the reindeer. I think it was just too long of a trip for my first time, especially after having so little sleep. I have a bit of a cold now and I think it's probably from the exhaustion too.