A little boat I had photographed in Cambridge Bay this last summer, abandoned a while ago.
In doing some digging on this boat, I have come to find out that it was abandoned in 1954 by a famous local priest who had worked with the Inuit of Cambridge Bay, Father Steinman.
He had it originally towed from Tuktoyaktuk (over 200 miles to the east) and it leaked the whole way. Unfortunately he was restationed that same year and this little ship has since not moved. So here it sits, abandoned on the gravel beach, just like the famous Baymaud in the water next to it, a time capsule that is most of the time frozen under ice.
On the way back - Great to see the white whales are still congregating in the Churchill River
mouth. Just have to watch the tides and the river current.
Landed near the mouth of Hudson Bay and drifted over the belugas.
Then watched the building sized metal buoy zip past me, or I should say, I
zipped by it - what appeared to be well over 10 knots by the wake behind that
fixed buoy. I knew it was going to miss the plane, but it was the next buoy I
was worried about.
Mix the river current with the outgoing tide. Almost got too close to the
ocean. The river water was frazzling in a churning high dance at the line where
it actually met Hudson Bay. Had to abort takeoff before I hit that stuff, the plane would not get on the
step. I was heavy and the wind must have changed to cross. Took nearly a mile
to takeoff upriver, but made it out ok. Scary river. Now I know how people die
there. If canoeing across, you would have to start upstream and row 45 degrees
up river to make it what is well over one mile across. Otherwise over the
breakers and into the open ocean you go.
Avoid the buoys, and especially the dangers beyond. View looking northeast to Hudson Bay.
On my last hike on the coast there on KWI I saw a cluster of seagull activity so investigated to find a small musk ox carcass being fed on by a polar bear. Also saw a couple of arctic wolves there about too. Like the prior kit fox video, I was hoping to get some up close video by leaving the camera there. When I approached within 200 yards the bear ambled off over a nearby rise so I placed the little GoPro camera strategically there and vacated. When I came back several hours later the camera was gone, with just a couple of plastic shards of it nearby. I guess attaching a string like the last time wouldn't have helped?
I have seen now how difficult it must have been for the Franklin men to hunt in this particular place, Except for caribou, which you can approach fairly close (if they happen to be here, I did see very few tracks in the muck flats). The musk ox herd I videoed saw me one mile away and immediately began to move off once I remained still. Same with the snow geese. I was amazed at their eyesight and attention. Whenever I came over a rise they would immediately waddle away (never fly) from a minimum distance of 1/2 mile away. I measured it.
Before I leave this place, had to visit the famous "Boat Place". It is truly a remarkable spot. A finger of land jutting out to the ocean, surrounded by brown sandy colored muck tidal flats. The icepack looming out in the open ocean. I could her the occasional booms of the ice shifting and cracking. To me it sounded like duck hunters in the distance - shotguns unloading.
As I stood there and looked out in all directions, I could just imagine the desperation and despair. For me, just after a few days of hiking this land, it is unthinkable to imagine being stuck here for even weeks, let alone months or years. And here I am hiking and camping in the good weather. How much suffering did they endure through the winter after leaving the ships? Unthinkable.
They all must have certainly died here that very first winter, after all leaving the ships for the last - that desperate march towards the Back River.
The flights east across Victoria Strait from Cambridge Bay on Victoria Island to King William Island in the early mornings, when the weather was stable, was spectacular.
Spent the past several days alternating flying and hiking a good part of the southern shore of Erebus Bay, logging about 45 miles on my handheld GPS, zig zagging on foot. Three seperate locations stood out for further investigations where I observed odd looking wooden objects from the air.
On my way on the first hike, I found very old two tent rings. In general, tent rings date as back as old as 800 to 1000 years and up to recent times. These rings are particularly intriguing because of they are on the Franklin trail. They are located along the the northern front of a small rocky enscarpment that rises only maybe 5 or 7 feet - and are placed there for a one reason - protection against the wind. But in reality, there is virtually no protection there, or anywhere here. One can see though that there was absolute attention paid to topography when they chose this location in an attempt to use any slight edge that the terrain contours might offer. This edge was practially nill, as it is with almost all the areas around here - very flat with the ocassional boulder. They are probably Inuit because they are circular. English patterns were square.
To get to these, the closest I was able to land was 2.5 miles away inland. I used two lakes for these puposes. The average depth was 8 feet with fair water clarity from the air, to avoid bouders and shalows.
Two finds were more very interesting. One, a rectanglar column or beam, the other maybe a column or post - definitely man made and definitely old.
Most intriguing, from my notes from overflights from these same spots last year 2011, these articles were not there then. They are probbaly new. I may be wrong - but possibly pushed up by this year's pack ice.
Or I missed it all last year.
Also some other wooden objects found, one very large, very old and man made.
Below - It appears that this pole could be part of a mast. The rope in the middle turned out to be fur and guts from some animal and there were no unusual markings or sign of holes or places where bolts or other attachments could have been. Have to try to determine what type of wood this might be. Did not touch or turn over, perhaps there were markings on bottom.
Winds
gusting out of the northwest hard. Luckily I refueled right after I came back 2
days ago while the weather was better. No way to be on a ladder alone today
filling the wingtips in these winds and rain. Was checking on the plane every 4
hours yesterday during the storm. 2 am last visit, all secure. Took this
picture this morning, clearing skies, but still windy. Hoping tomorrow is the
day to depart again.
After flying a large part of the southern shores of Erebus Bay and taking pictures of the shallows and deeper waters of the bottom of the ocean there, have made some intriging finds. A couple of compelling targets.
Also found a spot from the air with some interesting objects which appear to have been washed up by a tidal flat. A very straight pole, like part of a ship’s mast. Or more probably a driftwood tree trunk. But another item nearby that looks to be man made, and unusual. It's just intriguing because there is other small unusual wood debris in this area too. I suspect that these pieces were pushed up by the melting ice pack, and very recently, because as one can see in the picture below, the pole has moved in the short term. I think it was ice pack movement from this year because it sits just out of the boundary where the tide comes in and recedes, in other words - it is just barely outside of the light camel brown sandy muck zone which creates the high water line.
There looks to be some kind of marking on the pole, near the middle. Or maybe just a weed.
And nearby - a plank or column of some sort.
Pole and beam object
Close up on beam or column object from another angle
Will back get out soon as soon as the weather clears here. It's 48 degrees F and a storm right now - NW gusting wind.
O'Reilly Island, looking from the northwest to the southeast
Nordenskiold Islands, looking from the southwest to the northeast (enroute from Cambridge Bay to O'Reilly Island)
Just completed over flight missions to the areas of O'Reilly Island and Grant Point and other intriguing spots along the north shore of the Adelaide Peninsula, then in addition - Erebus Bay. On one of the trips, searched some other nearby hunches, scanning the shallows offshore. Was surprised at the clarity of the water. The key was waiting for sunshine coupled with low winds.
Took over 500 pictures from exactly 3,000 feet MSL with 24.5 megapixel Nikon D3X with 80x400ml lens with polarizing filter, zoomed out all the way. The imaging was as spectacular as hoped.
Kirkwall Island (upper island to the north) Uppermost north in the group of islands to the northwest of Grant Point
A couple of typical shots from 3,000 feet MSL. Note how clear the water is.
After getting back and analyzing some of the data, found three interesting
targets to start. With the altitude set, these all sized up to be between 100 and 150 feet long. But after doing my own imaging enhancements with different tools, and
comparing those to my similar enhanced changes of the over water picture that
is published from the HMS Investigator wreck, I concluded that these targets
are improbable - most likely natural anomalies.
Flew north across Storis Passage to Terror Bay to look around. Took a picture to my left of
the place that was described by the Inuit ancestors as the "Bad
Place". A location where a handful of Franklin men were purported to be in
tents in wretched condition from scurvy, after having cannibalizing the dead,
languishing to their sad end. It was said that inside a tent was a crude
cooking pot with human parts in large spoons. Here below is a picture of that place.
Spent a few days at a remote location, not on KWI, on a hunch that the ship or ships that may have retreated here - late in the summer of 1848 or 1849. There may quite possibly have been a warmer summer and ice pack conditions with earlier melt off. If so, a handful of the men could have hastily made it back to one or both of the ships in order to sail back to the north.......or even west.
This was one of my most physically exhausting endeavors ever. I hiked - in all - about 40 miles, through all types of terrain. Of course I didn't do this all at once or in a day. Biting swarms of July mosquitos were the rule. The challenge was keeping them out of the airplane when turning in for sleep. Also, keep your mouth closed at all times. I probably choked on a few dozen before I adapted. The weather was haunting with fog and squalls moving in and out for half of the time there.
In addition, I flew over the water on 2 sorties, covering almost all of the surface area of the bay and mouth to the ocean. One could clearly see the bottom, especially at the bottom of the bay. In certain parts, which are well protected from the pack ice, like at Beechy Island's bay, there was interesting rock terrain and small rises suitable for a camp. But no sign of there ever being a human here.
Had some scary moments with the engine sputtering several times about every 5 or 8 minutes. On the last occasion it practically quit. Of course it always happens when you are at the most remote point from base, right?
I was at 2,000 feet with nowhere really suitable to glide and land. There was no warning when it would happen. It was sudden and alarming. No time to limp to a safe landing spot, so I had to constantly try to manufacture an out. Luckily in the end, I finally ascertained that I was getting carburetor ice, so applying the carb heat in the engine system quickly took care of that. It made sense - there was a lot of low wispy fog on the ocean shoreline coming in, from the condensation of the melting pack ice. And the weather was overcast with small squalls. All the perfect ingredients for icing up here.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
+-+level+7.jpg)
+-+photoshop+enhanced+-1.jpg)
+-+photoshop+enhanced+-1.jpg)
+-+photoshop+enhanced+-1.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
