Evidence of subarctic climate change!

[Subarctichunter]

The subarctic is a large mass of bog, muskeg and permafrost. The land remains frozen deep underneath during the summer. It is also melting slowly and new ponds and waterways are being created annually. The pools that I have seen are interesting. I have seen a new pond that is two hundred feet in diameter. Some are the size of a small living room, some can be the size of a car, while others are no more the size of a bathtub. Some are very deep and bottomless like a silo and they are no more than the size of your body.

A couple of years ago I went on a caribou hunt in early may. The snow had been melting for several days. The river was accumulating water and the river ice was starting to break open in some places. I took off and headed westward and began riding on the open corridors of the muskeg. Less than 20 minutes I ran into 6 caribou, they were just reaching and examining my trail. They took off in a semi-circle when they saw me and stopped about 600 yards. The muskeg is pretty open so I could see what they doing. After they stopped I edged closer and took 2 with a brand new 260 Remington.

I walked back to the main road to unhitch my snow machine and use the machine to haul the caribou back to my sled, and to gut the caribou on the side of the road. But first I drove and made a straight trail several times to pack down the snow to my caribou and back. I was pretty happy I was not even 4 miles from home.

I used a rope and tied both of my caribou behind my machine and proceeded the short hauling distance to my sled. About two hundred feet of my sled all of a sudden my trail caved in. Moments ago my trail was pretty safe! This is what happened. My snow machine began sinking. I had hit one of Mother Nature's new holes. I have been travelling this road since 1975. I had never suspected any changes to it!

Floating Caribou or Sunken Bravo.jpg

As hunters, fishers and gatherers, I salute you all. We are the thinkers, the ears, the eyes, the feelers and walkers of the outdoors. We are the first witnesses to the environment and climate change. I extend my condolences to those families who have lost loved ones due to climate changes and the unpredictable weather in our province.

Catch you soon on the internet highway.

[jim]

Thanks, I enjoy reading your posts. You seem to be the only ambassador of the true north, on this site. You provide very interesting insite.

[TroutSlayer]

Good reading indeed. Did you manage to retrieve your machine and save the meat?

[Subarctichunter]

Thanks Jim! I appreciate the compliment. As you can see, I only joined Ontario Out of Doors this February. I don't do facebook, twitter or texting. Being a shooter I decided I wanted to learn more about rifle shooting. So I first signed up with the US shooters forum and the hunting.net forums. I felt out of place and something was amiss. So I joined this forum to check my brethren of Ontario. Sorry for not being so patriotic at first. I decided to share a little bit. Glad you enjoy my posts.

[Subarctichunter]

Hi Troutslayer, glad you are enjoying some reading. When I fell in my first thoughts were to save my camera. I was able to jump on top of my seat and used that as a spring board so to speak and jumped to the shore safely. I had a nephew with with me, he had a snowmachine but between the two us we couldn't haul the submerge machine out. He drove back to town to get reinforcement and we were able to haul the machine out 3 hours later. The caribou were fine...just a little cold when I was gutting them. And my snowmachine was the heaviest when my seat got soaked right through.