I've had a couple of snowmobile outings since my last posting. Last Sunday, I accompanied Ed and John, the RCMP officers on a trip out to the floe edge. Margaret (grade 1-2 teacher), and Morgan, her daughter, also came for the ride. It was a beautiful day, although we didn't get too close to the floe edge, since the last few days have been fairly cold, and new ice has formed out from the edge, and we didn't want to take a chance on it. Yesterday was the big trip, however. Kamikee needed to take his machine to the dealer in Iqaluit for repairs so I went along. What an awesome country this is. The trail is about 150km long; for the first half, it follows the Soper River valley, with huge hills on either side. Then you reach Mount Joy, where the trail climbs over very rough ground, with little snow because of the constant wind, until it gets to a high plateau. On the plateau, the wind never stops, and is constantly whipping the snow around. I was glad to be with someone who knew the trail. We finally made it to Iqaluit, four hours after starting. We had several errands to run, and Kam needed to see his mom who is doing poorly in hospital there. Kam's machine had to be left there, so we rode back double. We started back around 3:00. The first part went well, with a mixture of sun and cloud. I've included a picture that shows a bit of sun, but also some very threatening clouds. Shortly later we were in the middle of a blizzard, and the trail was totally obliterated in a white-out. Even Kam was not sure where we were. Fortunately, I had brought my GPS and had it turned on for the entire out-bound trip. It was a simple matter bring up the track and follow it. What a marvellous piece of technology! This was probably the first time I had used the GPS for much more than a toy, and we were sure glad to have it. Once we got back to the Soper Valley, we were fine, even though it began snowing harder and harder. We made it back about 8:30. After 91/2 hours on the snowmobile I felt like I had been beaten up. This morning my neck and shoulders are very sore from all the bouncing around. It was a fabulous trip non-the-less. One I wouldn't have wanted to miss. It would be nice to make a few more trips, but I have promised to sell my machine, and it may be going this week. cheers!