Been trying to formulate an answer to that.......both. If folks knew what Gunther and I went through to get this material the price would double! When you pilot a freighter canoe you stand, open ocean crossings can be brutal on good days. On rivers current and sand bars can mean getting thrown around, It was 2 hours from town to the main site and 4 hours from town to the secound. In the opposite direction. We put in a ton of river miles and a couple open ocean trips. The sand bars are everywhere and most of the coast is mud flats. The crossing back to point Olikkat was gnarly and took about 3 hours due to heavy seas and a channel that had shifted during our stay.
The bugs were surreal!!!! I took this pic in a 20 mph wind. If you faced the wind you were alright but there was always a cloud of the blood suckers behind you! Bug hoods were a must for Gunther and I and we switched to being outside in the cool of the "night" for most of the trip. These skeeters are BIG and there bite hurts like a horse fly! They did become manageable the last week of our stay when night time temps dropped below freezing along the coast and the winds picked up to a steady 30mph. I have a pic of the bacterial mat on a mud flat rolled up like carpet from the wind!
Gunther and I put in long hours and worked very hard. We collected a large amount of material, explored 100's of miles of river ways and streams and about 100 miles of coast line between the crossing and our own wanderings. In the last 3 days of our visit we harvested enough caribou to feed my family for most if not all of the next year. We hauled over 800 pounds of meat out of the feild, processed it and packed it for shipping in 3 and a half days! I did the entire trip home in one jump because temps in the interior reached 80 yesterday. Had I stopped our work and the lives of 3 bulls and a cow caribou would have been waisted. Mechanical issues started at 10am with the out board and made repeat appearances, including an encore on the haul road when the boat rack had to be rebuilt!
I thrive on challenge! Too me a trip isn't a good one without a test of spirit and ability, a sence of adventure and a punch of adrenaline. "Adapt, overcome and thrive or die!" In that regard the trip paid off a hundred fold and there is potential for a great deal more! The trip was a great success for my business interests, a bit short on mammoth but I have made several really good contacts and more is on the way! Gunther and I had an AMAZING hunt! I harvested my first big game animal above the arctic circle, my biggest caribou and it was my sons first firearm big game hunt. He helped in every step of the pack out and took his first steps to earning the right to carry a field knife by learning to skin a caribou. His teacher was my freind Suvlu, a Eskimo hunter who has lived a subsistence lifestyle his whole life. Gunther needs a great deal of practice and time proving his respect for the tools before he can use a knife on his own but he is off to a great start! I can skip dip netting and move on to hunts that have spiritual meaning for me or are fun for my whole family, for the first time in several years........We are even planning a camping just to camp trip in a week! I can not wait to fly fish for fun again!!!
Damn strait I will do this trip again! WITH several adjustments. Timing I was too early for the major spawning runs of fish and I arived at the peak of skeeter season! Isaac has a cruel way of teaching ya what not to do.....ha stands back and laughs. Strip down the gear and food! No time for cooking or lazying around camp! Less town time, tent is more comfy and Gunther and I had our best times at camp. Explore more! We have the basics of the area time to branch out! Bring Tracy! I would have stayed for the fish had she been with us!!!!!!
