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Upernavik Greenland Travel Notes Gail Ferris |
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Friday night July 31st.
I noticed that the bird colony late in the evening around Eastward from this beach
below in this photo there is an extensive colony filled with gulls and
awks. They are quite noisy - to say
the least! |
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#049 |
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Then the bird colony
gradually woke up as the sun came around the face of these cliffs in the
photo above at They woke me up. I did not know that these
birds had this rhythm in this area where the sun does not set until mid
August. I thought that they would be
up all night and keep me away with their endless cries. Now the colony is noisy at
around The eiders woke my up early
in the morning as they were out eating weeds in the brook and inspecting the
beach near my tent. |
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It is a quiet bright sunny
morning. Tide is making up the beach
but it had a long way to go from the bottom, there had been no wind and water
was still flat. |
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Oh boy! Now I had to deal
with the next big problem. Guess what
the tide had dropped, strange that it should do that but it did and now it
was a long way down the beach to the water.
The question was how was I
to get my kayak down the beach without doing much work? Ah there we go! I just
happened to notice that a couple of short smooth 4 inch diameter logs had
washed up on the beach. Very nice I
thought to myself when the light went on in my brain and I realized that I
could indeed use these nice big cylinders as rollers for my kayak. Nothing like necessity
being the mother of invention! All I had to do was to
straighten the kayak by lifting up the stern and swing the kayak on the bow
until the kayak was perpendicular with the beach. Then I would just lift up
the stern by the grab handle on the deck of the kayak put a log under that
end. Then I would do the same with the
bow. From the weight of the kayak I
cannot lift it high enough to fit a log under it mid ship so I have to
sacrifice rolling surface of the hull by lifting up the other end. Even though the kayak does not roll very
far before the hull comes off the log still I can reposition the log back
under the uphill part of the hull, the bow, and continue to roll it down to
the waterline. |
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Ready to get my kayak down
the beach I donned my drysuit and booties why? Because I was going to put the
kayak into the water so that just the bow was on dry land. I rolled my kayak down the
beach which was at low tide swapping end for end the logs as they worked out
from beneath the hull. Very nice, couldn’t be
better, I took these short log lengths worked out just fine, saving me tons
of arduous labor. Then I opened my hatches
and stuffed in my drybags being careful to load the heaviest items in the
stern. I set up my gps, maps
cameras on my deck and cockpit for access.
I zipped up my drysuit, donned my sprayskirt, lifejacket, put on my
hood and hat, put on my binoculars around my neck, got out my sunglasses and
there I was read to paddle. Without these mentioned
items easily available it is not good.
I always keep these items I expect to use immediately when I am on the
water and things that I may need immediately such as extra hand protection in
my lifejacket pocket, as well, so that I do not have to fish for them in the
cockpit. |
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#050 |
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Once I had my kayak on the
water I headed east down Amarqua passage along Nutarmiut to look at the coast
hunting for more archeological sites and points of interest such as an
ammassat fishing site I had heard about. Looking over the side of my
kayak I saw lush clusters of seaweed in the shallows which indicated at how
enriched this water is with effluent from the glaciers of rock flour and
manure from all the seabirds and ducks.
In the photo below you can
see dense colonies of filamentous algae some fucus seaweed endless barnacles
and there would be many blue mussels as well. In 2003 in Laksefjord I
have had the experience of the swimming stage of blue mussels landing on my
paddle blade just a few miles from here on a warm August day. Below is a photo showing
what it looked like just over the side of my kayak. |
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#051 |
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I started out passing by the
bird colony down along the coast inside a kidney shaped extensive inlet. Just inside the pocket I
saw this dramatic outcrop of rounded granite protected on the west inland
side behind by smooth rounded granite.
It looked like a wonderful
place to live in a tent during the summer.
Approach could be made off to the inland side. The view was expansive, as hunters prefer,
out over Ammaqqua passage and down inside.
I thought it would be a good place for hunting on the water. |
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#052 |
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I took a photo to
illustrate the overall growth of plants on these rocks below just to show how
lush and extensive the plants are even though they are just able to grow
where they have dirt. The rest of the
area does not have dirt suggesting wind scouring. |
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#053 |
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I took a photo of some
plants in the area because I thought these lush plants were indicators that
people might have lived here in temporary dwellings during the summer which I
am on the lookout for when I see lush vegetation such as you see in this
photo above. Also in the photo above the
rocks you see on the horizon I have no idea whether they were just glacial
erratic boulder deposits or whether some one may have positioned them
purposefully as a form of communication. Although there are many
glacial erratics in all of this area sometimes there may be a possibility
someone may have put those stones there. In the photo below I
discovered as I walked around near the rocks above that this mound and
several other mounds of moss and plants was at least six inches thick, sort
of like a big soft sponge. When you step on it you just sink right in because
the sphagnum is so soft. I had never seen so much
very soft moss as this in one place and it makes me very curious as to why it
grows like that in this spot as you see in the photo below. There is also extensive white
heath and blueberry pushing out of the crown of sphagnum as well. It is
rather interesting what a plant will do to survive a smothering contest. Who is winning the one that grows faster
and denser or the ones that have longer branches so that they can peep out of
the dense mesh of sphagnum – tune in tomorrow for the next episode of “who is
winning this time!” As I am standing there
wonder who might be winning I hate the thought that if I disturb the sphagnum
in any way to damage its delicate matrix that I might ruin the contest for
which plant ought to be the winner. So I just looked, admired
these plants robust competition and concluded by just taking their
photograph. |
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#054 |
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In the photo below I found this
interesting crowded combination of both dry and moist area woody and
vegetative stemmed plants. There is
birch in the middle. Can you believe
that is a birch tree? To the side of the birch all
the rest of these plants are in the Ericaceae family where blueberries heaths
and rhododendron are found. Near the birch in the
middle is the arctic form of blueberry with its rounded toothed leaves. The blueberry has these unique with thin bluish
green leaves on woody stems. The
berries are like low bush blueberries in taste. Then there is crowberry
which is related to blueberry with spiky leaves but there are none of its
little round glossy black berries in view. Lastly is the odd shaped vertical
four sided stems covered with tiny scale-like leaves belong to White heather Cassiope tetragona which makes a lovely aromatic fire to cook with even
when gathered green. |
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#055 |
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This photo shows the
remains of sod house walls where birch is growing in this inlet. These odd hummocks that are organized in a
linear fashion, as you see in this photo below, usually are collapsed sod
house walls. You can notice this when
you look at the rest of the terrain and see that all else is quite flat and
the plants are lot as robust as you see they are on these collapsed house wall
remains. Some places you will find
stones that may have been entrance structures on top of one another or stones
used in the interior of a structure laid in such a way as to adjoin each
other to form a floor. Heavy boulders in a
depression may have been protection for a meat cache. |
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#056 |
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There were interesting
little areas inside this broad protected inlet where it is easy for people
access. Just as soon as I rounded
the entrance along the west edge after having passed the bird cliffs. I saw rounded yellow granite above the
water which looked just perfect for tents.
The size and gentle flat rounded shapes of the yellow granite
flattened dome shaped ledges were very convenient. They were not only high enough above the
water but most importantly offered the advantage of a good overview of the
area. I landed just twenty or
thirty feet form them in my kayak where it was easy to get out and
explore. As I was doing this I thought
of how these people would have chosen to live on top of the rocks in tents
during the summer |
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#057 |
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I paddled along the north
shoreline only to find this area not very interesting with stony gravelly
soil. I don’t think people bothered to
live there. Then in great glee I
paddled past another bird colony but I was dismayed to find that it was only
inhabited with lots of loudmouthed herring gulls, some shags
or cormorants and a handful of guillemots, not a very interesting collection
as compared to the two previous bird sites.
The odd thing to me was
that this was on basaltic cliffs facing north so it was in shadow while I was
there but maybe later in the afternoon it is in bright sun. |
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I got to the end of the
cove and took an interesting photo of low clouds which you can see have this
curious sort of brilliant under-glow.
This glow is actually light reflected off the ice of the nearby
glaciers onto these low altitude clouds.
The highest landmark is
where I came from a couple days ago. You can see along the right
side that there are many rocks and shallow inlets making for a jagged
coastline. I think this is probably a
tricky place to come with an outboard motorboat because the bottom is just
riddled with rocks a few feet under the surface. |
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#058 |
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At my feet was this
especially interesting diversity of plants with a large amount of grass
combined with some were blueberries, crowberries and bog laurel which meant
that people would come here to gather berries. Ledum/ Bog Laurel is an aromatic herb that likes peaty bogs and is related
to the other berries Ericaceae but is in the laurel family. Its common name of Ledum is Bog-Laurel. It
is a circum polar plant. It has these unusual leaves
which are bright shiny green bumpy along the spine on top and underneath rust
brown fibrous. The bumpy green top of
the leaf I know of no other plant that looks like this even though the leaves
are small still they are noticeably different. The stems are brown and occasionally have
buds randomly distributed on them which is another unique structure of this
plant. Ledum Kalmia makes an aromatic tea which some consider as a toxic and
others consider as a beneficial herb.
I can tell you that nothing else smells like Ledum and it is somewhat
overpowering like a cup of freshly picked sage tea would smell. I also found equisetum here
as well. I do not know why it grows in
one area and not other areas. Where
ever I find equisetum it is usually bright green and in numbers of at least a
dozen plants sprouting up through gravel or matrices of other plants. It is often times the tallest plant among
other plants. For scale the length of
those bluish-green leaves on the blue berry are about the width of your thumb
nail. |
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#059 |
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I hiked up the stepped rock
terrain to what I thought was to be a pond. I found that there was no
water. All I found was a depression in
the extensive flat rock ledge landscape completely filled with brilliant
golden brown sphagnum and plum grass. What is surprising to me is
how much of this terrain is flat granite looking like somebody ironed it all
very flat. This surprised me. Well that was great I
thought to myself, surely there ought to be plenty of water there! I climbed up to the lake
and found that it had become reduced to a sphagnum and plum grass depression
with absolutely no water available.
Forget that idea. I was a little surprised at finding nothing but
dryness, All that gold brown in the
photo below is sphagnum moss superimposed over granite. The hummocky green in the
upper left is just natural deposits of dirt. I doubt that these are remains of sod
structures because they are too evenly distributed. |
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#060 |
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Paddling in 2008 and 2005 I
remembered that it was surprisingly difficult to find water on the north side
of Upernavik Icefjord. Now I really did not expect
to have such difficulty finding water in this area because I thought it was
wetter. Now where would I next find
some water? I was very glad that I
always bring more than just one four liter water bags. Unfortunately this time one
of my bags happened to have a leak at closure. I wish that I had thoroughly
checked that new water bag and discovered that the closure did not seal
before I arrived here in I thought I would scan the
bottom of this inlet just because I could not believe that there was no
water. All I found was a fault line in
the rocks but no water anywhere that I looked. This may explain why so few dwelling
remains because water is very important to any habitation. Below is a scan of my July
31 paddle using a Saga map with a scale of 1:250. I cannot use Google Earth maps because they
show shadows along any north facing elevation because of the low angle of the
sun in this latitude of 72degrees north and are too blurry. |
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#061 |
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This cove had endless
numerous rounded glaciated rounded granite ledge which you can see in this
photo. The granite would have been
sand deposits metamorphosed by heat and pressure into these solid rounded
shapes. Right in the middle of this
picture there was one of them and it really looked like a long cylinder, half
of a sausage, which was an amusing shape to find so well defined. |
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There was an endless supply
in this protected cove of granite ramps or aprons all along the edge of the
water, which makes landings very easy for both dogsled and kayak. I had a delightful time in
my kayak perusing these shallows on the map it looked like there may not be
an opening which you see in this photo.
I would not be surprised if it were dry during some low tides. The island to the right in
the photo below starts out as granite on this east end and then became
composed of basaltic and feldspathic cliffs.
On the shady north side of the cliffs was a sizable bird colony of
gulls, guillemots and shags. In the background of this
photo you can recognize those distinctive rocks at the entrance to Laksefjord
/ Eqalugarssuit. I did come here to look for
archaeological remains but did not notice any remains of sod structures but I
think that people might have come here to pick berries or use the rocks to
dry meat on in the bright sunshine here during summer months. |
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From here I started back
out to Amarqua passage heading west along the peninsula you see as the
backdrop in the photo above. All went fine, just lovely
and quiet, a leisurely paddle, as you can see by the riffles in the water. Then I found my lazy paddle
changed as I started up the flank of the peninsula. Funny thing there was some wind in my
face. Oh yes can you believe
that, there they were again those waves again and this time they were cooking
up and I had to work. |
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#062 |
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I started out enjoying
dodging among the rocks peering at the fault line behind this peninsula that
looked like a brook filled with huge boulders. No water there, just a basaltic fault line
adjoining a granitic area I had just come from. |
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I poked along the inside of
the peninsula only to find a few indentations the walls were vertical cliffs
of traprock basalt. No bird nesting
sites because the walls did not have any horizontal pockets for them to nest
on. I found some Laminaria in
the deep water the perforated type indicating how fully enriched these clear
waters are. Tucking in next to the cliffs was fun but at last nearing the end
of the peninsula I had to encounter the seas. I did not think much about
these seas as there was not much wind. Then farther on the wind
arrived the seas were only a foot and a half waves. It was bright and sunny very pleasant
paddling in the shadows looking down in the golden illuminated depths. |
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Now I began the inevitable
make each stroke count as I paddled against the waves. I thought to myself as I
was slugging my way along against the seas that once I got to the end of the
peninsula all I would have to do is just swing out around and past the west
facing end of the peninsula. That
can’t be too difficult I said to myself.
Next once I get past the
end the paddle ought to be a piece of cake because all I would have to do was
head back east and just paddle down wind.
What could be easier, just a easy run. |
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So there I was edging my
way along the inside of the peninsula only something was a little bit
different. I was finding that paddling
against this wind in just above freezing cold water was challenging even
though the waves were only one to two feet they had more oomph to them. I slogged my way along and
figured this can’t be too bad it is just some hard work. I kept to the rocks. The rocks were straight out
of the water of rounded granite with no landing places. Forget that idea, unless I
could become some sort of spider! So I thought “well this
will be all over in a few minutes once I round that peninsula. Paddling will be nothing but a nice down
hill shoot in these following seas”. Sticking to paddling next
to the rocks few feet off the cliffs I did not think too much about me being
in the sandwich between the wind and the cliffs. I just thought it didn’t matter. Well, I should have thought
otherwise because hugging the rocks is okey but this is a very bad idea when the
wind is pushing me into the rocks. So there I was, all alone
out there risking becoming part of the food chain, as I discovered that I was
so close to the rocks that a wave could just smash me into them. Not allowing enough sea room is not a good
place to go. Shorelines don’t just
move to make way. Now some bells went off in
my head as I realized that this could get expensive in a hurry and I better
use all my strength and skill to drive my kayak out away from these
rocks. More sea room is imperative
right now, not later. Now can you guess that my
next problem was how to paddle while getting a double whammy waves smashing
me broadside and the rebounds swashbuckling me on the other side. Nice only
the best I thought to myself, so much for a nice leisurely paddle. So there I was struggling
through getting a free opportunity to practice stability maintenance only
this time it was not practice. One moment I was getting
slammed slapped and pushed downward sideways by broadside waves and the next
I was getting shoved and thrown upward by rebounding waves. This was just the best, the
“how is your stability today” question was not quite what I had in mind here
as my kayak squirreled sideways in this smorgasbord of broadsides shooting at
and under me. I did not think very long
about it but I did say to myself “Oh touchy deal I don’t like this!” Then once I freed myself of
this impending collision zone I could feel myself interacting automatically
with the broadside waves. I worked past the tip of
the peninsula and rounded it heading east along the south side of the
peninsula with the wind and waves following seas. There I was once again able
to handle the situation because I am in this solid cockpit the kayak is part
of my body. This kayak integrates so nicely with my body such that I can
relax and automatically respond to waves.
My body and kayak know each other.
For those who wonder what
the kayak is I can tell you that there is no other boat is as completely part
of my body as my kayak. I can feel the response of
my kayak with the touch of my paddle to the water. As Bart Hathaway used to say don’t rush,
give it time and let the boat respond and you will feel the boat in the
water. This we learned as we practiced
all the maneuvers of English Gates. Rounding the peninsula that
faced west on Nutarmiut and headed east.
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#063 |
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The following seas slapped
slued and shoved me around but I adjusted my stroke to synchronize with the
waves so that motion and stroke felt right. I did no need to think
anymore but instead just automatically adjusted to the waves and even though
things were very weird never knowing where and when the next shove, push or
sideways slue would come from me and my boat just hung together like glue and
it all worked out. Thinking is not
necessary subconscious integration with the action it the trick. |
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#064 |
