A Trip To Find Fossils, Foiled By A Fuel Pump

Good day to you! I hope your Saturday was more productive than mine! My wife, @arcticgypsy and I wanted to take full advantage of the one half ass decent day today and head out to find some amazing fossils on Igloolik Point to take photos of and to find some choice small pieces to send to @crimsonclad since she got skunked on her summer trip to fossil country.

Sadly, we didn't even make it half way before our quad started to act up. And since we are on an island in the middle of the arctic circle that means NO HELP IS COMING if nobody knows that you're gone. We quickly decided to spin around and head home, hoping at the very least we would make it back to Cellular reception so we could let a friend know that we were having troubles and on our way back. We had already told them before leaving where we were going and what time to expect us back, so we weren't in the most dire of situation. Plus we were on the ONE road on the island, so eventually somebody would find us and get us home. Eventually.

But I am getting ahead of myself. At the beginning of our quest to "touch dinosaurs" the quad was acting great and I took my wife to a stone circle that I saw in the winter that I wanted to show her.

Igloo means Home. Not snow-dome.

I was absolutely blown away at the quality of the work on this circle. At one time, this was a home for a whole family. It even has a sod outhouse to the side of it which we believe was for storage of meat and food. Although we could be wrong, as more traditionally that "outhouse" would be attached directly to the igloo's front door so you didn't have to go out in the -50 for "no reason."

I could be 100% wrong on this and I really need to interview some of the Inuit about these things. Stuff like this should be put on the chain for all time so the history cannot be lost. And that is my main quest when taking photographs of the traditional Inuit ways of life. I do not aim to exploit their culture, but inform others about it. I pemtion this because there was someone nearby when I went to get photos of the structure the day prior to our journey and I did not get the impression he was happy I was taking photos of the structure. Maybe it was just miscommunication though. Inuit people express more with their faces than with their words sometimes and I am not keen to look at faces when I talk to people >.> I also know that the man I was talking to is an Elder and lives the majority of his life speaking Inuktitut and not english.

But again, I digress. I will do a much more in depth article on this house when I learn more about it. Back to the trip!

The Stone Home In April

Our next stop was because the machine gave us problems. A small freshwater lake on our tiny island (which has an island on it to make an island on a lake on an island! :D) It has the amusing name of "Lake of little fishes," called that for the small fish that call the lake home. In the wintertime, people will go out to this lake and chip out huge chunks of ice to melt at home to use as freshwater for drinking and cooking. It is shocking how clear the water is, and people will often fill their canteens from the lake as it's the halfway mark out to Igloolik Point.

But knowing what I do about microbiology, AIN'T NO WAY I'M DRINKING THAT GOOSE SHIT WATER WITHOUT STRAINING IT AND BOILING IT! 🤣

The lake is also known as "Old lady lake," by a friend because he was fishing there one time and someone stopped by to tell him "Don't you know only old ladies fish there?" 😅

So the quad problems. Probably fuel pump or spark plugs, with the internet and similar descriptions leading me to heavily lean towards fuel pump. Joy! That'll only take a month to get. Just in time to do some outdoor repairs in the negative temperatures. Yay. 😐

Oh well. It still works it just can't do long runs reliably. Getting stuck in town is no biggie. It takes 15 minutes to walk from one end to the other. Our friend's quad is giving her much more grief right now, it straight up won't start. And I also suspect that's a fuel pump issue with the machine. Gummy old ethanol blend. Yum-yum!

Disappointed upon realizing our trip was about to be cut short I decided to make the most of it by taking us over to a very close by set of Inukshuks along the road. I wonder if this section is some sort of memorial to someone or something. There have been a few deaths along this road as people tend to do silly things with the wonderful combination of youth, alcohol and gasoline.

A Memorial Cairn?

Igloolik from the Cairn

Note the soft-ball sized rock below the 2nd stone, acting as a crucial wedge held in by friction.

I also found more of the silly alien head looking Saxifrage plant that always makes me laugh. This time in green instead of red! It reminds me of something that should be in @juliakponsford's #AlienArtHive community!

After these shots the quad was sufficiently cool to get us the majority of the way home. Yeah, Idk, it's NOT a cooling issue, that's all good topped up and there's no coolant in the oil. Nor does the machine run hot Maybe the fuel pump gets too hot and misfires or quits. But everyone on the net suggests fuel pump, fuel pump, fuel pump, when describing a similar situation. Which is simply Quad loses power when holding a steady throttle after 10-30 km or so. Pull over or she'll backfire and sputter to a stop. Let it sit for 10-15 min and go for another 10-30 km. Rinse, repeat, and STOP BEFORE YOU GET TO THE SEWAGE LAGOON so it doesn't die by that stinky pond!

At our next stop I took these shots of Avvajja and its surrounding islands, before we continued on our journey the rest of the way home. Thanks for taking the time to read and look at this failed trip to fossil heaven lol. Oh, we did find one stone on the road that contains about 4 fossils in it. So we didn't come home empty handed! 😁