Wednesday, July 16, 2025. It’s 9 a.m. and we’re all up after less than six hours of sleep. Nature had been calling me out of bed for hours (which I ignored and tossed around as if that was a magical way to stop it). Once outside, the battle against mosquitos trying to bite my butt is on…and the idea of returning to the cabin to try to sleep seems fruitless.
While walking behind the cabin to take a leak, I pass by a board with this poop on it. I have no idea what kind of poop it is, but I’m jealous of whatever the animal is because it probably has a tail, and dropping a poop in the tundra is no big deal. Me? I’m hoping to make it back to the lodge before I need to poop.
Because it was so special, we did one more video of the inside of the cabin.
Even though he went to bed long after we did, Aidan is already up and cooking bacon, scrambling eggs, and frying potatoes. I could have eaten a ton of his potatoes, but I had observed that he let Mark and me take what we want to eat, then ate every last bite of whatever we didn’t eat. I pass on the bacon, eat a few bites of egg and potatoes and I’m ready for a fine day of fishing.
A video of Aidan cooking breakfast.
As Aidan packs up all our supplies, I take a moment to pose by a tall, skinny, small pine tree. I did the same thing at our property in northern Michigan, picking a tree about this size when we first bought our property. I named our home tree Slim, and the poor tree has been scraped by a buck (and so I wrapped it), and this past March, toppled over due to ice (and so I wrapped it more and supported it with several stakes).
I name this tree Canada Slim and I wish him an easier life than Michigan Slim.
We also take this video of Professor Mark sharing information about the various sizes of pine cones.
Good Hope Bay continues to awe, as the morning is flat calm and the reflection from shore amazing. This video captures more of the amazing shoreline. In this video, the water is so calm it’s hard tocan’t that we were moving in the boat.
We spend time trolling the flat calm waters. Mark drags the lure to the right, which is about 12 inches long. It sorta looks like a redfin trout.
The fishing is very slow.
A few hours into fishing, nature calls. As we approach the shore, I see three birds, a tern (which I do not photograph), a seagull, shown here, and….
…and this bird, which is a parasitic jaeger. In German, the word “jaeger” means “hunter.” Parasitic jaegers will harass other birds like terns and gulls and steal their catches. Worse, they eat small birds and eggs.
This is what the island loos like. It is another amazing place in the arctic.
This is a nest, we guess, belonging to a seagull, but we are not sure. The island has dozens of nests like this.
We find several cracked shells from birds that had hatched. We also find five skulls, which we guess were baby birds that had hatched but hadn’t survived.
The island has several other bones, including the one to the left, which was bleached white. I’m guessing a bone-oologist would know what animal the bone was from.
Crosswise Island was a place where life and death happened side-by-side with regularity, it seemed.
I really need to spend more time with my 120 mm macro lens. This wintergreen plant is amazing.
The plants near the arctic circle are also amazing. To the left is wintergreen. Above is River Beauty Willowherb. Below is a flower I couldn’t identify via the usual iphone app.
Before we leave Crosswise Island, we hold a stone skipping contest in honor of my dad, who was competitive about everything and engaged me in contests whenever possible, including stone skipping. See video to learn who won.
Fishing is terribly slow and we continue heading back to the Smith Arm of Great Bear Lake, towards the lodge. At around one p.m. we stop for another break at a very rocky spot that I think made Aidan nervous for the safety of the boat prop.
We catch small trout on and off all day, and finally, at around 3:30, Mark catches a fish Aidan weighs in at 30 pounds. Mark loves the fish he catches and releases, as seen in the photo to the right.
Note the storm brewing in the background. Shortly after this photo was taken, we hear lightning and Aidan takes us closer to the lodge, near the Airport. It poured rain.
Indeed, our raingear and resolve are both tested the rest of the afternoon. At times, the rain came down hard. I am again grateful for my SIMS rain gear.
We return to the lodge and hang up everything in the room, with the slim hope that it will all be dried out for us in the morning.
I shower to get warm, change into clean, dry clothes, and decide that my evening walk-around will have to wait until tomorrow.