Tanquary Fiord

10 Jul Tanquary Fiord

Stunning weather today, 18ºc and sunny! Back home, that may not sound like much for the peak of summer, but here, it’s definitely T-shirt weather. I guess it’s like the first warm day of spring after the snow is gone. Carl and I hiked behind the Parks Canada Camp for five or six hours to get acquainted with the surroundings. Tanquary Fiord is surrounded by mountains and is fed by a few huge river valleys. The consolidating of these creates a massive, flat, land; and a criss-crossing of thousands of river braids. This means there will be a lot of rivers to cross before we reach the mountains. A view of interest was the Ad Aster Icecap. It sits atop a large mountain rising up impressively to the north of the camp. Although it seems like one could walk over there easily, the distances are very deceptive. I don’t know if it’s the clean air, or the sheer scale, or the combination of the two, but a study of our map showed it to be 12 kilometers away. Hardly an afternoon jog, and that doesn’t include the multiple river crossings. I did find a view a couple of kilometers away from camp, and began a new painting. We finally turned in at camp at 2:30 a.m. It’s tough to get to bed early when you have a 24-hour sun.