Alert, Nunavut.This is it.

Well, folks, while you are sitting in your comfy chair at home enjoing the ability to peruse one poor man's blog posts, I am in the northernmost populated place on Earth, at 82'30'05 N and 063'20'20 W. This is the town of Alert, Nunavut, with 8 permanent inhabitants and an average temperature of 8C. It is here I shall embark on my mission. Alert has absolutely no services, no industry, none of those "touristy" things. It only exists as a research and military base. My mission is to stop the commies projected to arrive today, June 6.

You see, the Russians have an interest in the resources of the arctic. Underneath the arctic sea is precious metals and oil, and other useful resources. The Russians claim that these resources are Russia's, not Canada's. And that simply will not do.

We all know what to do.

 I must stop the red tide here and save Canada, once and for all, by myself.

Blimey, there's a lot of 'em. probably more of them than I have bullets.

I shall hold off the russian horde with little more than my guns and my polar bear. Though we've already discovered he's afraid of guns, so I don't have high hopes. Did I mention my battlesuit. I don't think it will hold off the reds, but I still think its worth mentioning.

Did I say battlesuit? Just kidding. I meant battleship with legs.

 I don't expect to return alive. I will die as I lived: a forty-foot twenty-ton war machine. Shocked? You shouldn't be. How did you think I got to Iqaluit in the first place? walked across the ice? Are you crazy? Of course me being a gigantic killing machine is the logical solution. And as for the kayak, It was a REALLY BIG KAYAK.

I hope you enjoyed the journey as much as I did. Goodbye.


Forever.

Clyde River

Alright, my next stop is Clyde River. I am traveling by kayak, a traditional Inuit method of travel. The kayak has been used by the Inuit to hunt and fish, as well as transportation.

If he fell in it is likely he would be afflicted with hypothermia.

Polar bears don't fit in kayaks, though, so he'll have to swim alongside and protect me from killer whales.

Seals just don't have anything going for them in my blog posts, do they?

I'll update this post as soon as I reach Clyde River.

UPDATE: I've reached Clyde River. The small town of 820 (though big for towns in Nunavut) is world-famous for its rock  and ice climbing. The community is served by a school , two stores, an arena, a community hall, a church, health center, hotel and an airport with regular flights to Iqaluit. I didn't take the plane, because I'm tough, of course. And I don't think they let Polar Bears on airplanes.If you're curious about the status of my secret mission, I can't tell you yet, as I'm not even at the destination. It shall all be revealed in the last blog post. And be prepared, because it's going to be a long one.

Iqaluit: population 6184 and a man riding a polar bear

Well, i'm finally here. Iqaluit. Upon entering the capital of Nunavut, and its largest city, my polar bear had trouble, eventually collapsing, It puked up an intact copy of the current climatograph of Iqaluit.

No, I don't know why the climatograph compared itself to tokyo, but it seems fairly accurate.

This data suggests that Nunavut is a polar desert region, with little precipitation year-round. It is constantly cold or cool, depending on the time of year. I observed the graph until my polar bear was well enough to carry me again.

Entering the city, I find more useless handicrafts being sold at gift stores as authentic Inuit art. It seems that this is a big industry here.From some of the locals who were not scared of a wild man witha gun wearing snowshoes riding a polar bear, I learned some of the history of Iqaluit. Iqaluit was founded in World War II as a refueling airbase for the americans. In the 50s it was part of the Distant Early Warning Line (DEW), which was a system of radio stations part of the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) to protect North American sovereignty in the North.  In the early 60s, the Candian government established permanent services there, like schools and doctors. In response, the population exploded rapidly. In 1963, ICBM's rapidly diminished the usefulness of DEW and NORAD, so the American's pulled out of Iqaluit, the called Frobisher Bay. These events set the stage for Iqaluit to be chosen as capital of Nunavut.

Before I had to leave on my secret mission, I got visit a few notable buildings, like the Anglican church of Saint Jude, and the government building for the Capital of Nunavut.

Even their churches are Igloos.

Though not Anglican myself, I thought the church was unique among churches. One of the deacons there informed me of the religious demographics of Nunavut. 58% of the population is Anglican, 23 % is Catholic, and 4% of the population is Pentcostal.Together, 93.2% of the population is Christian. Apparently the priests here know what they're doing.  After visiting the Church, I decided to visit the Government building.

Known to some as the Evil Palace Of Repression.

They filled me in on some additional demographics on the region. 84.8% of the population is ethnically Inuit, and 69.54% of the population's mother tongue is Inuktitut. I think this is interesting compared to the rest of Canda, where the population is hardly Inuit.I was also detailed with some problems Nunavut is experiencing.
 Most of the population lives below the poverty line. This is caused by overfishing and exploitation of natural resources. because Nunavut is a resource based economy (mostly based on mining and furs) it is vulnerable to out-of-country interference. In coming years they will also be at the forefront of potential wars for resources in the Arctic, which the Canadian government is trying to ready them for.

We are the little Eskimos. The monster is America.

I felt much more educated about the Arctic now. Next stop: Clyde River.

Onward, to Iqaluit!

Yea, the sea is frozen COMPLETELY over. Fancy that.

This'll be easy.

I'm using snowshoes. They look like this:

They make you feel like a duck.

Snowshoesmay look silly, but they're actually quite useful. without these, I would most likely fall into the snow and die. Their wide span spreads my weight evenly on the ground, allowing me to avoid plunging to a watery grave.

Afew hours later, I encountered this:

Awww....  how unmurderous.

And then he was all like this:

Such cute teeth!

And then I was all like

Then the polar bear was all like:

Long story short, I wrestled a polar bear to the ground and he became my pet.

Its hard to find people riding polar bears on google images.

Then, together we set off for Iqaluit. Almost there!

Let's go.

wondering what I'm traveling by to get to Iqaluit? No, not a dogsled. No, not a kayak. No, not a polar bear mount. I'm walking. Yeah, I'm pretty tough.

Pictured: ME.

I leave this town and this is what I see:

Not shown:  murderous Polar Bears.

I have to climb over this hill to reach the sea, then walk across the frozen ocean to Iqaluit. This may be difficult elsewhere, but I invite you to remember that this is the arctic, where merciless hunters club baby seals to support their livelihoods.

Mmm, delicious.

It's no-mans-land out here, and fortunately it's summer so I don't expect the sun to set any time soon. And before you ask, no, global warming is not happening. It is very possible to walk across the ocean to Iqaluit to save money. At least, that's what my debriefing agent said.

he was American.

He did tell me however, about the arctic region. With freezing cold winters, I am glad to operate during the cool summers.The ground is permanently frozen, and there is very little precipitation, making it effectively a desert. Not very hospitable.

This is not the Arctic.

I hope to be in Iqaluit by tomorrow. Wish me luck!