Good Friends = One Great Weekend

We had a great weekend with some wonderful friends.  We hosted a dinner on Friday night for my DFO buddies Les and Mitch and we also invited Marg and Cat to help us eat the bird.  After dinner we invited others over for a evening of fun playing Kinect.  The laughter lasted until the wee hours of the morning. 

The following day Les, Mitch, Marg, Craig and I planned on heading to Starvation Cove for a day of quadding and fishing.  We finally got mobile around 10:30am and arrived at Starvation Cove for lunch.  Marg started a fire and we threw on some smokies and muskox burgers.  There is nothing like eating something cooked on an open fire.  Marg was the first one who caught a char and Craig followed with another one.  We headed home with the tide still high and we had to find a low spot to cross the river.  We didn't have to drive far to find a spot and then we had to climb the cliff to get on solid ground and back on the trail.  It was our luck that we found a Gyre Falcon nest with three chicks in it.  I really love the 2 1/2 hour quad ride to Starvation Cove as it is mostly along the sandy shores of the Arctic Ocean.  Then you hit this solid rocky hill with zero vegetation and on the other side is this amazing oasis of crystal clear water, flowers and grasses...Starvation Cove.

The bay has been busy with people boating, kayaking, sailing and this past week the first ship arrived, the Sir Wilfred Laurier.  Someone also turned off the heat in Cambridge Bay this week and the temperatures will sit around 5 - 7'c for the next few days.  The sun rose today at 3:56am and will set tonight at 10:10pm so it is nice to see the sunsets again.

Talk soon!

 Arctic Sunset

The sun setting far far away

A close up of the setting sun

This sailboat was one that I photographed last year coming off the barge.

First ship to arrive on the bay - Coast Guard The Sir Wilfred Laurier

Cat, Craig and Marg

Les and Mitch

Marg and Darryl

Craig, Bernie, myself and Al

Craig and Les

Mitch and Marg

Bernie and Al 

Les and Marg playing Kinect

Mitch and Marg giving it a go

Mitch and Darryl taking a turn

Blitz and Les getting their game face on

Craig crossing the river

Next to cross is Les

Thanks Mitch for taking my quad across

Marg crossing - better view of how deep this river was

Beach view

More beach on the way to Starvation Cove

Arctic Ocean

Les doing some fly fishing at Starvation Cove

Marg getting the first Arctic char

Craig and Les watching Marg getting the first catch of the day

Craig (look really hard to find him) fishing at Starvation Cove

Another view

This is where we crossed coming home

Searching for a place where we could climb the cliff

Marg and Craig checking out a small stream

The stream led into this small cave

Gyre Falcon chicks we came across on our way home

View from the top of Augusta Hills

All of us taking in the beauty of the Arctic