Today was a beautiful day. It is July 17th and I decided that a walk to the “waterfall” would be good. I also went last weekend, but it was raining and horrible. My thought was that the bugs would not be there to bother me. Wrong again. This weekend the wind was blowing at 35-50 km an hour so the bugs were not too bad. They were so bad this week that yesterday I ordered the “original bug shirt” which I am hoping will come asap. It has screens so you can zip up a hood and not be bothered by bugs in your face. It also has screens in the sides so you have lots of air and mobility.
In the south we would call the “waterfall” rapids. They are beautiful and the walk is probably about 2-3 km, along the Inukjuak River. Going along the road from this house to the beach I followed the road to the airport. This is a friendly little town and everyone says hello, or waves from their atvs and cars. The road is paved, but has large potholes that everybody drives around, so you have to be careful when you are near these, and give vehicles a wide berth.
As soon as the houses end the flowers start. It is quite amazing how large they are in comparison to Rankin. Today I was thinking that some of these very large flowers looked like the Arctic Saxifrage in Rankin, but much bigger. As you approach the turnoff for the river and sandbank, where there were people fishing, there were many more flowers and bushes.
The walk itself is along the river, and you can either walk along the top of the bank or on the rocks by the water. I chose to walk along the rocks today, and last weekend walked part way along the rocks as well. Only problem last weekend was that they were quite slippery. Today, they were not, but you had to watch your two feet much of the time, to avoid them moving...same as on any river trail.
Of course, there was no shade today. There are no trees. This week I did a comparison of latitudes because I was interested in where villages were in relation to each other, on opposite sides of the Hudson’s Bay. Although Inukjuak has no trees, it is further south than Churchill, which does, they are only a few minutes of latitude apart. Puvirnituq is about 2 degrees north of here...about 140 miles and Rankin is about 4 ½ degrees north of here, so about 310 miles north of here. It is obvious that latitude is not the only factor in “no trees”. The breeze was beautiful and part way there I took off my jacket, and rolled up my short sleeves to try and get a tan.

From the time I turned off the road until I was back in the village birds were screaming at me. I think they nest in the small bushes or rocks. They were most annoyed with me travelling through their territory. I would have liked a photo, but they were not sitting still long enough for that. If they were bigger I think their tactic would have been dive bombing!!
As you get further along the river, there in one section where walking on the rocks is difficult. I did it today but last weekend did not. I chose to walk along the top of the embankment instead, where there were masses of small bushes, lichens, and berries. At first I thought I was walking on moss, and then looked more closely and realized that they were berries, which now I know to be cloudberries, and they make wonderful tea.
Today the walk was along the river itself, and sitting on some of the rocks just watching the world go by. Last weekend there was a man fishing, in the rain, on the other side of the river, by the falls. He got there by red kayak, and during the week, when discussing weekend activities, realized it was one of the docs who is here. He if permanent, more or less, going to a number of villages but living basically in Inukjuak, and has the comforts to make life fun here. He said he caught two fish, and there was a huge one that got away.
One can well imagine that large fish inhabit this river. It is deep in sections, and quite flat, as is the land here. There are seals that come and hunt/fish in this area, and I was very excited this week to see one while out, just fishing around the river. I suspect that is not a good activity for seals here, as they are hunted and eaten. However, hopefully, that one was not. I know it is not terribly exciting to see seals when you live on the east or west coast, however, as I had seen almost no wildlife in the Arctic, it was great to see...even a seal.

There are actually two rapids, not very far apart. They are quite pretty, and I expect would be fun to “run”. Today the whole area was green and verdant. It was surprising how much greener it can get with rain, only because it already seemed so green.
Both walks I came home by the top of the embankment. Last weekend was a mass of bugs. I had on a waterproof/windproof jacket with long sleeves, and spent my time trying to keep them away from my face. It was so bad that when I tried to take a picture, I had four mosquitoes on my hand. Quickly put my camera away and pulled hands back into my sleeves once the picture was taken. Today it did not seem to be too bad, but surprisingly, since there was so much wind, there were little flies up on the embankment. Luckily they were nothing like the mosquitoes last week.
I came home very happy to have gone both times, and enjoying the beautiful sunshine, today, and the lovely scenery.