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Home | Arctic Landscapes
The Arctic and Sub-arctic cover vast areas of the
North American continent and exhibit widely varying terrain. I have visited
only a very small portion of the North, primarily in the Barren Lands and
the drainages that flow into the Hudson Bay. The land feels big and open
with a lot of sky. I took the following images while paddling some of the rivers of the
North and are representative of the landscapes in this part of the Canadian.
“The preferred
route” A romantic watercolor depicting
summer travel.
An inuksuk on the Kunwak River. The Kunwak was regularly
visited by the Inuit.
Late
evening on the Caribou River. The Caribou River starts just out of the trees
and
flows through
stunted growth as it nears the Hudson Bay
The
inuksuik were generally constructed on the river or lake's ridge line to
stand out
against the sky when viewed from the water.
An unusual
flat day on a big lake. We have very few pictures of these lakes when
they were up as we were usually too busy to take pictures.
As dark as
it gets on the Kunwak River in early August.
Still
frozen in the middle of July. Snow showers were not uncommon in the middle
of the summer.
Another
flat day on another very big lake.
“Window
on the world”. An iconic inuksuk on Thirty Mile Lake in the Kazan drainage.
Inuksuik were very common on the
Kazan.
This is the shoreline of Franklin Bay, Beaufort Sea a
couple of miles south of where
the Horton River broke through the headland. One of the
many burning anthracite
deposits is shown above, burning spontaneously at the
surface.
The Horton River broke through the headlands into
Franklin Bay, creating a
large delta.
Our last camp on the Horton River in early August. We were about 72
degrees North.
The signs of the vanished people are common. Inuksuik,
tent rings, and tool and
food caches abound on Thirty Mile Lake.
Flat water on the
Thelon River.
These structures were
very big and would have required a good deal of effort to
rect.There were
numerous Inuksuk on Thirty Mile Lake.
Wind and weather in a
land without trees. The high winds made the lake crossings
difficult
and at times rather hazardous. Paul asked me more than a few times,
"Is the shore moving
away?". Sometimes yes, sometimes no.
There were numerous
examples of the past near Kazan Falls.
Some of the constructions near Kazan Falls were very
unusual.
Some of these structures
would have required more than a few people to erect. This
area near Kazan Falls exhibited over a
dozen constructions.
This spectacular wall cloud roared over our camp on the Horton River
and produced
gale force winds.
A view looking up the Kazan
River near Kazan Falls.
Looking down
the Kazan River toward Kazan Falls.
It is August and starting
to get darker.
Kazan Falls and the canyon was a guaranteed walk if you
were going to get to Baker Lake.
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