The Last Post

My gig in Yellowknife proves that you can have your cake and eat it too. This humungous cake, complete with edible photos, was the highlight of my last day at the CBC station in Yellowknife. Over the course of the day, I served up pieces, while packing up my desk and putting the finishing touches on my work. And I went out to lunch with a few people to the Gold Range Bistro where you can get a hefty portion of fresh whitefish with rice and frozen vegetables.
It was an emotional day for me, and as I walked one last time along Frame Lake Trail, I took a moment to reflect on the beauty of the north. I left, as I did in 1979, knowing I had to go, but feeling as though the place once again had seeped under my skin and that, somehow, I'm not finished with this place.

Au Revoir Yellowknife

Here's the crew from The Trailbreaker, the morning show for the NWT on CBC radio. We have what we call the huddle each morning at 9 a.m. to talk about the show and what's coming up, before the main morning meeting for the station. From left to right: producer Sonja Koenig, news reader Kirsten Murphy, reporter Dawn Ostrem, fill-in reporter Joslyn Oosenbrug, ME, host Randy Henderson and director/technician Phil Morck.

Tomorrow morning I have to return my laptop to the station on what will be my last day at CBC North and, so, this is my last post from Yellowknife. When I get back to Nova Scotia I may blog some more about this wonderful adventure and add more of the gazillion photos I've taken. But for now, here's a rogue's gallery of some of the faces that I snapped at the office today.

Florence Yaxley recently switched from reception to admin. assistant. We're neighbours on the second floor. She has great taste in jewellery--check out the ring.

I've written about the adventures of Snookie Catholique, the Chipewyan reporter for TV. Here she is in full frame!

TV reporter Lee Sellick has built himself a fortress of tapes in the newsroom. And this is after the office cleanup!

Rassi Nashalik is the host of Igalaaq, the daily TV show in Inuktitut that airs before the English program.

Here's some inside info about Rassi--she's phobic about meeting a bear.

Donna Lee is the online journalist for the north, covering all three territories.

And Terri Boldt plays many roles in TV. She's up for the whackiest person award. But it's a tight race in this cast of colourful characters.

Rae of Sunshine

Brian reporting:

Okay, first the irony...I am reading a book about John Rae, the Scottish doctor who is a legend in the North (albeit mostly unknown to average school age kids and even their teachers, I suspect)...
Rae worked for the HBC, solved the Franklin mystery and is linked to the discovery of navigation through the Northwest Passage by Europeans...and, he was the best snowshoe traveller of his age covering thousands of miles across Canada...Moose Factory to Montreal - no problem!..



So, where did we go yesterday? To Rae (I didn't even realize the irony until today), the Fort established by John Rae in the 1850's on the shore of Great Slave Lake, 100 kilometres from Yellowknife. Today it is called Behchoko and its 2000 Dogrib descendants, having survived measles, tuberculosis and influenza epidemics brought by the fur traders, now spend their time fishing, hunting and in arts and crafts and local services...



You don't sense poverty here and the houses are spartan but maintained and the kids have a modern school to attend...large pickup trucks are everywhere and each house has a dish pointed towards southern culture....
there are some attractive band offices and a great collection of canoes parked on shore...
















A modern highway connects Rae to Yellowknife and the only restriction is speed...anything over 90 will get you in trouble when you bounce over the little asphalt valleys that appear out of nowhere on the road surface as you are cruising along...However, it was immeasurably better than Saturday's mud derby on the Ingraham Trail...

The scenery is pretty consistent along the road....scrub bush and rock outcrops and little lakes dotting the countryside...
Perfect countryside for a paddle or a hike or a little fishing or hunting...
except near Yellowknife where you can head out for a little walk carrying a bag from one patch of elevated grass (the tee) to another elevated patch of grass (the green) connected by a long stretch of sand (the fairway)...it's called golf..

The Last Suppers

Here we are enjoying what's been for me one of many wonderful meals at the home of Aggie and Terry. (Behind Aggie are their friends Lois and Pat.) Terry had just returned from a filming project outside Kugluktuk (formerly known as Coppermine) about a cultural camp for elders and youth. He came home with Arctic Char, which we enjoyed on Saturday night.

We watched some of his footage from the trip above the treeline where the people are wearing their parkas already. During Terry's stay, they caught a bearded seal and the immense hide was spread out on the tundra, drying in the sun. He had scenes of women chewing on caribou to soften it and of the young people working on the hides. Terry pointed to one of the youth, commenting, "I'll be surprised if he's still alive in a few years time."

In one of my previous postings I showed Terry with his flute cane--one of many novelty canes in his collection. Here, his brother Steven plays one of the most unique canes --the fiddle cane.

On Sunday night Brian and I were invited to yet another feast, at the home of Magdy El-Beheiry, who recently moved to the CBC in Yellowknife from Mississauga. He's been here since January, but his wife Debbie and their children Sabrina and Tarik joined him at the beginning of July, after school ended. They cooked up dish after dish, including stuffed grape leaves, taboullah (after searching high and low for fresh parsley) and baklava to die for. Magdy is from Egypt and Debbie moved to Canada from Zimbabwe at age 15.

Magdy had invited several people to the feast, including the regional director for the north, John Agnew and his family. Here, his wife Jody and their two kids, six-month-old Jane and three-year-old George are engaged in pre-dinner play with Tonka trucks and dinky toys.

Where the Rubber Meets the Muck

Our attempt to get to Cameron Falls was thwarted Saturday by the rain that turned the already challenged Ingraham Trail into muck. The hard ruts had been churned up, making it as difficult as driving in slushy snow. Even the smooth areas were treacherous because the wet created a slickness that had the same result as driving on black ice.







Above you can see the new section of road being built, but we were on the mud in the foreground. This photo taken from the window in no way shows the worst stretches--Stay tuned for the video.


The rented Chevie Malibu (the same one Carsten and I had when we were on the trail) was no match for the mud. A pickup ahead of us at one point fish-tailed all over the place. We were probably close to the destination point when I gave up and stopped the car in the middle of the road, fearful of back-sliding into the lake on one side.

Brian took over the wheel, got us out of the muck and we headed back. More rain was about to come and the road would have become entirely impassable in this vehicle. Here's a little video of what it was like...listen to the tires churning up the mud...








Instead we went to Prelude Lake to eat lunch in the drizzle.
The weather--and this sign--deterred us from wandering around. I think I'm done with the Ingraham Trail.

A Gaggle of Girls

I am not going to tell you what our camera person said to produce all these big grins--something about batteries and pleasure devices ... This photo was taken at the home of Erin Ward during a going away party for me, a week before departure. Yes, there were males there too, but most of the guys were in the kitchen at this moment, except Phil Morck, who offered to be the shooter. And we all know girls have more fun ....

From left to right: Catherine Pigott (Trail's End producer), Julie Green (resources reporter), Kirsten Murphy (news reader and new bride), Sonja Koenig (Trailbreaker producer), yours truly, Marie Morck (departmental assistant) and Erin (hostess and producer-at-large).

Erin and her husband Jake have carved out a comfortable life in Yellowknife, with a lovely home (and hot tub which they plan to use in winter), two dogs, canoe, snowmobile and giant tent with woodstove which they plan to park in the bush. They were married up here in what must have been one of the most stunning weddings ever--they arrived by dog sled to be married in a snow castle. Tony Below, aka the Snow King, hosts the morning show for the Native Communications Society, and he builds the castle on the lake every winter. When he found out Erin and Jake wanted to be married there, he added a chapel. Under her cape and fur and beaded caribou muff, Erin wore a gorgeous champagne evening dress, with train, and beaded kamiks. The intricate kamiks Erin had made for Jake as a wedding present are now displayed on a shelf in their dining room.

Footnote: Erin and Jake met at journalism school at King's College in Halifax!

Bullocks Bistro

Brian reporting:

Yes, this is a food place...no, the name does not reflect the prime ingredient in the cooking..

Susan has been here before and the local lore is that it serves the best fish in Yellowknife...
Certainly the fish is very fresh because nothing sits around for long...there was a crowd constantly coming and going and by the time we left they only had two orders of fish left which they were explaining to more arriving diners...the newcomers would have to be satisfied with Caribou and some shared fish...

And the varieties are very local...there were three choices on tonight's menu - Arctic Char, Northern Pike and Inconnu, a type of whitefish found only in the Arctic...the server tells you the ways it should be cooked and you choose a method...














I had the Pike pan fried (above)....and Susan had the Inconnu done on the grill...both were delicious


We were sitting at the bar in front of the chef who cooks, washes dishes and occasionally answers the phone and takes your money at the end of the meal if the two servers are busy...he seemed totally in control and not flustered in the least by the enormous number of orders that kept pouring in...

The atmosphere is early frontier overladed with thousands of pictures, trinkets and bumper stickers that remind you that if you leave children unattended they will be sold into slavery or that your village called looking for their idiot...a great diversion while you are waiting for your food...

Don't ask for a drink...just head to the cooler and pick one out yourself...at the end of the meal you go to the cash and tell them what you had...it is the honour system but I think the woman who was serving and greeting would remember every face and detail of what you had...it is that well organized amidst the chaos...

And for dessert you just step outside and watch the float plane come in...yummy

Going to the Dogs

What I really wanted to post here is a video I made of Brian at this dog depot. But I can't make it work, though you're supposed to be able to download video to blogger now.

So, here's a photo of this crazy place on the edge of town in an industrial area called Kam Lake, where people keep their sled dogs in a communal kennel. It's as big as a football field, with all these makeshift dog houses and hundreds of barking, howling canines, which don't look like anything you'd think would pull a sled. It's quite surreal--and noisy.

We went there after dinner at the Wild Cat Cafe, as I searched for a different setting for his arrival photo. Stay tuned for the movie...

Today we had lunch together at the museum. True to his Slow Food philosophy, Brian ordered the Bison Burger. (He had the muskibou stew (muskox and caribou) at the Wild Cat.

I returned to work and he explored the museum and the legislature, then made the trek back to Nova Court on the Frame Lake Trail.

Here's a wideshot of the cafe--quite a stunning setting.

culinary note from Brian...
When my Bison burger arrived the server recommended that I put HP Sauce on it..
Later, while viewing an exhibit about hunting and eating Beluga whales in the Beaufort Sea I saw a reference to a dried whale meat that the aboriginals enjoy best with HP Sauce!
First we spread religion...then we spread HP Sauce...nice going, White People...

As promised, here is the video of the sled dog compound...

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Meet the Murals

This is the street mural I should have posted when I was writing about the bear invasion in Yellowknife. It's right on Franklin Avenue, near the Noodle House. On Sunday, I went on a photo excursion for this and some of the other many paintings on the side of buildings in the city.

Some murals are quite vibrant; others are weather-beaten.

And the styles range from primitive to surreal.

Love and Rivalries at a CBC Station

When I arrived at News of the North in 1978, the editor Craig McInnes, was leaving, along with his partner of the time, Elizabeth Hay who worked at CBC radio. So I never really go to know them. But I read Craig's articles while he was at the Globe and followed Liz's career as a writer. Her upcoming newest work of fiction is creating a buzz up here. It's set in the 70's in Yellowknife--and, well, here's the description on Liz's website:

Elizabeth Hay's new novel is set in motion when a man hears a voice on the radio and falls in love. The story is set in 1970s Yellowknife and centres around the loves, rivalries, and entanglements of a small and unlikely group who work at the local radio station. One summer they embark on a canoe trip that takes them into the arctic wilderness, following in the footsteps of the legendary Englishman John Hornby, who starved to death in the Barrens in 1927. In the wilds they find the balance of love shifting, much as the balance of power in the North is being changed by the proposed Mackenzie Valley gas pipeline. Weaving stories from the past into the present, Hay builds a fresh, erotic, darkly witty and moving tale about the power of a voice and of a place to generate love and haunt the memory. Like radio, the novel creates sudden intimacy over long distances, and like the North, it is spare, compelling, and charged with unusual life.

A lot of people will be reading this one, trying to match the characters with people from the past--even though we all know authors never base their characters on real people ... I'm just glad I arrived after she gathered her material.

Michael Moore and Old Friends

At the end of a week when the Canadian Medical Association elected a president who wants to expand the role of private health care delivery, it's rather fitting that I went to see "Sicko" tonight. Michael Moore, as usual, takes the viewer on a journey that is both entertaining and enraging. Ok, so he sees universal health care, from Canada to Cuba, through rose coloured glasses, but it's the contrast with the American system he's after. What a storyteller--and humourist.

I dropped in to see Aggie this morning to return some books and we decided to go see Moore's doc together. Afterwards, we had some mint tea at Javaroma which holds open mic night on Saturdays. The son of senator NWT Nick Sibbeston was performing, while an older gentleman played his flute. It's been a week of getting together with a number of people I knew from the late 70's. After having dinner with Marie on Thursday night, I had lunch with Anne Crossman Friday. She too worked at News of the North, but left to take up various CBC posts, most recently in Inuvik where she was station manager. Now, she's living in the Valley in Nova Scotia where she edits an online newsletter called Permafrost. It's a digest of articles about the proposed Mackenzie Valley pipeline and other resource related issues. Anne came back to Yellowknife for a wedding this weekend, and this is the first we've seen each other since 1979. We met at the museum restaurant, then that night Judy and I had dinner at the Office, a dark old style restaurant with a great bison steak. It's too bad the group of us couldn't have connected at the same time--just like in the old days when we might meet at the press club, or for Women's Night Out. And then there was the time we printed up t-shirts declaring "This is Not a Wet T-shirt" to protest the wet t-shirt contests at the Explorer Hotel... I still have that shirt.

(And thanks to two of my dedicated readers, I have amended the previous sentence to read "Wet" instead of "Dry". Thank you truenorth and Eustacia Vye.)

Wild Time at the Wildcat

The afternoon radio show celebrated the Wildcat Cafe's 70th anniversary today with a live remote from the summertime restaurant. It was a fabulous show that ended with a live play written by the CBC's own David Miller, who also played the role of "Gumshoe". Dubbed the honey bucket caper, it featured local personalities, including the mayor, an RCMP officer and MLA Sandy Lee (above) who, Dave wrote, has "more curves than the Ingraham trail", yet sharp enough to cut a man in half.

Trail's End host Norbert Poitras went into the kitchen to interview chef Pierre LePage, who is known for using northern ingredients creatively.

Pierre cooked up a sizzling dish of muskox and cranberries, one of the menu items available for $44.

Marie Wilson and I had dinner together at the Wildcat, after the remote. We haven't connected since I first arrived; it was great to meet up again now that I've had a few weeks back in the north under my belt. Rumours are that she's running as a candidate in the upcoming territorial election but, wisely, she neither confirmed nor denied. Marie and her family live in an amazing house in Oldtown, designed by architect Gino Pin. The interior is organic, all angles and curves, with soaring ceilings, lofts, and hideaways. And it's packed with arts and crafts from the north. The yard, too, is far from conventional, with its own twists and turns and surprises. Exposed boulders share the space with trees, lawn ornnaments, perennials and plants potted in everything from buckets to shoe-shaped planters.

Wild Animals Invade Yellowknife

I've been looking for an excuse to post this photo taken on a side street in downtown Yellowknife. It's a powerful and textured mural. Real muskox may not be roaming the city; however, black bears are definitely becoming urban creatures. A bear was spotted on Frame Lake trail on Friday. When wildlife officers arrived, they saw two bears swimming in the lake. The next day a bear was found eating garbage in front of a house near a residential street--not far from my exit to the CBC. That's like seeing a bear on one of the streets near the Halifax Common or around High Park in Toronto. Another bear sighting was reported today near the Explorer Hotel and later at Niven Lake, that other trail with the fancy houses. This one wisely ran off to the ski club when wildlife officers approached. The other one near Frame Lake returned to eat more garbage and, so, it was shot, standard practice around here when a bear shows a lack of fear of people. The good news is that despite this apparent invasion of black bears, no one has been hurt--or even charged.

My entries are probably going to be random as I begin my countdown to departure on Sept. 8th and look for ways to post some of the gazillion photos I've taken. These are the sled dogs, kept by Aggie and Terry, who I've written lots about, including their indoor dog, Magic. They also keep a team of sled dogs which they use to get to their cabin in the winter. My 'hook' for using this photo now is a news item on Northbeat tonight about the challenges of Nunavut dog mushers competing in the NWT. Their dogs, which have bigger fur, have difficulty adjusting to the warmer climate (it's all relative) and to the softer snow here. The trainers have to come two months early to acclimatize the dogs. And the style is quite different: in Nunavut the riders lie down on their stomachs, but they must learn to stand to compete in the NWT. During the interview on TV tonight, the woman had a tiny husky puppy on her lap that whined until she stuffed it inside her sweater.

One of today's highlights was a conversation with Mabel English, the Gwich'in host of Nantaii.

She calls from time to time from Inuvik and today she asked what will happen to all those interviews she's done over the years. As I've posted before, Mabel is 70 and will retire in November. She wants to see those interviews with elders put on CD so their stories and the language are preserved. And, she suggested, the CBC could "give back" to the people. In the course of our chat, she told me about an interview she did at a fish camp this week with people who trap and use just what they need--"no fancy stuff". That led Mabel to recall her life growing up, when they'd pick a barrel of berries, burying some in a birch bark tray to preserve them for Christmas to share with her mother's sisters.

I'm learning to appreciate random.

Snow, Suds or ....?

The fluffy white stuff is foam on Frame Lake, whipped up by the wind. As I walked to work this morning, there were whitecaps on the lake and bits of foam tumbled across the trail. It's the second time I've seen this foam. It isn't pollution, as far as I can tell. Most foaming of lakes is a natural process, created when the surface tension of the water is reduced and the air is mixed in, forming bubbles. Decomposing algae releases cellular products into the water, which lessens the surface tension even more--and voila, sudsy white foam. However, swimming isn't allowed in this lake, for reasons I have yet to learn. Maybe the foam is, indeed, evil.

Simon Says: Cats Rule

Simon isn't the cover cat for the 2008 SPCA calendar for Yellowknife. But he couldn't care less. At 15 years of age and a weight in excess of 20 pounds, he's happy to hang around on the furniture, eat, and drink water out of the bathtub. And he definitely had no interest in making friends with me.

Simon's servants are Mark Solnoky and Gabby, who invited me over for a barbeque this afternoon. And what a glorious afternoon it was--summer reappeared, allowing us to enjoy the outdoors, including an after-dinner walk around Rat Lake. It's yet another interesting neighbourhood, near the old Con Mine site, the last of the gold mines.

Their house is two trailers, stacked on top of one another, and nestled into the boulders.

We ate in the screened gazebo, though bugs weren't a problem, nor have they been an issue in Yellowknife this summer. I have used neither my bug juice nor my bug jacket.

It was pleasant to spend time at someone's home, sharing food, stories and laughs. I'm starting to get cabin fever at the hotel.

Mark is the senior producer of Northbeat, the daily TV supper hour show; Gabby teaches special education. They came up from Toronto two years ago, where Mark worked on CBC News Sunday.

While Mark is proud of his manicuredgrass lawn, a rarity around here, his next door neighbour has a zen-like pebble and rock front yard. The owner does pottery, and here you can see it used as lawn decoration. Sure beats gnomes, and those carboard cutouts of women bending over in the garden...

Cruising the Downtown

It's my 13th full weekend here and, I have to admit, I'm running out of things to do. There's one last trail I wanted to hike, Prospector's Trail in Fred Henne Park, but I'm told even the visitor's bureau admits it's not well marked. Given my experience with the so-called marked trails, that's not a good sign. And the fact a bear was sighted in the park this week, convinced me to stick to the downtown. It's not extensive, but here's a bit of a pictorial tour. First up is the Diamond Plaza, one of many government buildings in this government town.





Across the road is this dental clinic, festooned, with flowers, and one of the low rise buildings between the towers that have sprung up since my last visit. Just behind this building is another new highrise, home to Canadian North, the aboriginal-owned airline, and to Javaroma, the coffee spot in the city. It's very popular, but they're desperate for help, as are so many other service industries here.







The downtown a study in contrasts--as is all of Yellowknife. Among the spanking new office towers are some old-time buildings that maintain the capital city's frontier look. The Gallery is a bar that I haven't had the pleasure of frequenting. Though I did have lunch at Surly Bob's, a sports bar just down Franklin Avenue, with the host of the morning show. It has that beery smell of a well-frequented bar, with over-priced, uninteresting food and yes, Bob, is truly surly.

The Greenstone building is yet another government edifice, a federal one, that you may have seen in TV footage when Prime Minister Harper flew through the north last week. And this is the front entrance to the Centre Square mall, home to everything from Reitman's to the upscale By George women's clothing store, as well as a music store, Hallmark, jewellery and a dollar store--as well as the library. The mall was built around the Yellowknife Inn (I've blogged about the once thriving Mackenzie Lounge there), which clearly is past its prime. The mall may not be pretty but, along with many other new stores in the city, it provides a lot more options than the days when the Tog Shop was the only place to buy women's wear. And, so, my retail therapy sessions have continued, unabated.

I started my day by helping to judge photos for the SPCA calendar. Now that was an interesting exercise. Not as many cat photos as dog pix had been submitted and there was a strong anti-feline contingent among the panelists. However, I'm happy to report that a cat made the cover, and a rat photo did not get selected for any of the months.