Ilimanaq to Qasigiannguit Trek

Tuesday 8-21-07

DAY 14

ILIMANAQ-QASIGIANNGUIT TREK DAY 1

It rains at night. We get up at 9:30 and snuggle for a while, listening to the rain. The rain stops, so we pack up and eat breakfast. It is noon by the time we head back to Ilimanaq. My feet are not sore this morning, this is a first. Michael massaged and put pressure on my heels which seemed to help the pain. I have new feet this morning!

I talk Michael into taking the shoreline back. I don't want to walk through the bog any more. It is easy walking on the rock. We make it back to town around 4 pm, just in time before the store closes. We refill our supplies for our next hike. They are out of the delicious bread, so we settle for crackers, frozen yogurt, some cherry pie filling (yes it is good) and fuel. Off we go to find Arni and the map.

Arni is working on the town’s water system. He hands us the map, and off we go on an unknown trek. Well that’s not quite true, the Lonely Planet guide has a sketchy description of the hike, and with Arni’s map we should figure it out.

We leave Ilimanaq heading south on a decent track, and soon meet some local children collecting mushrooms.

We take a short cut and encounter a little rock climbing.

About two or three hours out of town my feet begin to hurt again. We are now following a good quad trek, which takes us to a beach about where we think we are supposed to be. We pitch our tent, eat dinner, and crash. (16 km)

Wednesday 8-22-07

DAY 15

ILIMANAQ-QASIGIANNGUIT TREK DAY 2

It rains again at night (which is beginning to be a theme of our trip). When we get up I am still tired from the day before, and from the Kangerlussuaq-Sisimiut trek. Michael makes breakfast and then fusses with the GPS and the map. Now this map is not very detailed mind you. It has very few or non-existent contour lines to help us determine the topography. Anyway, it stops raining, so we pack up and leave camp around 10:45 am. We continue to follow the quad track; it keeps us off the bog and is easy to walk on. Then the track starts to head too far left. Michael brings out the GPS and it shows us half a kilometer off of where we think we want to be. We have to backtrack. I am not happy with this, nor are my feet! We cut sharply right, leaving the quad track, and end up following the dog sled route, which is incredibly boggy and very slow going. As we continue to hike my feet begin to ache. I tell Michael I have to stop. I need to camp. We have only been hiking for about 5 hours and he is not ready to camp yet. We keep going... Michael stays with me, he hikes by my side which is nice. As we get near to our goal, the lake, Michael takes my pack and puts it on top of his, and continues to walk. I’m too exhausted to refuse the offer. I do feel better once the weight is off my back, literally! Michael finds a flat spot as it begins to rain, so I set up the tent as quickly as I can while he gets water. We put everything inside. We arrange everything with the two of us in the tent. Michael opens the rain fly and cooks dinner. I fall asleep. (12 km)

Thursday 8-23-07

DAY 16

ILIMANAQ-QASIGIANNGUIT TREK DAY 3

Rabbit wakes up at 4:30 am, it is still raining and the seagulls are making an incredible racket outside. There are so many birds at this lake it is amazing (we have cleverly named it “Bird Lake”). I have to pee but do not want to go out in the rain, but I finally do. I jump back in the tent, snuggle up to Michael and fall back asleep. Later we wake up to find that the camelbak has leaked on the sleeping bag because the mouthpiece was under us. Oh well, it's a synthetic sleeping bag.

We start hiking about 9:45 in the morning, hopefully to finish our hike. We go around Bird Lake to the edge of a fjord, then up over a pass. Then we cross to an isthmus, where we find a fishing camp and some old graves…a little spooky.

A little further we see a musk ox approaching, and hide behind some rocks and take pictures. He never sees us.

We climb up to another lake, then higher up on to a ridge, where the hiking is easy. It is windy but that keeps the bugs away! Our ridge ends, so we cross over to another ridge that goes much further. It’s funny how it is a lot easier to walk on hard solid ground than on a soft pillow of moss created by the bog. But by this time both my feet and Michael’s are really sore – I guess even he finally got worn out. We end up on a beach by the fjord around 5 in the evening, with a really cool iceberg grounded just offshore. We decide to camp here and to hike into Qasigiannauit in the morning. And it is finally sunny! We are able to dry out the tent, air out the sleeping bag, and clean things out. We have a good meal. I wash up a bit, catch up in my writing, and I’m off to bed. (13 km)

Friday 8-24-07

DAY 17

ILIMANAQ-QASIGIANNGUIT TREK DAY 4

We get up and it is still sunny! We pack up and start hiking. We go up a steep hillside and have to hike along the side with a faint trail – it is a bit tricky.

Around a hill we go, and down between a lake and the fjord. The tide is low so we are able to rock hop across the lake outlet. After this the trail becomes a lot easier and clearer to find. We decide to stay on top of the ridges. We encounter a woman out running – the first person we have seen on the trek! Then we come down a bit and see Qasigiannguit on the ridge ahead.

We arrive in Qasigiannguit around noon. I am ready for another shower! We go to find the tourist office, which is in the hotel. I want to stay in the hotel. Michael asks to see a room, but the manager says he is full. But then he says if we come back around 5 pm, he might have something for us, maybe a house... That would be nice! We ask if we can leave our packs there while we tour the town. We go to the store where we buy bread and kefir for lunch, and then we go to the museum that Michael wanted to see.

We meet the museum host. What a character he is - a local hunter who speaks very little English, but we end up communicating OK. We find out that he does not like Orca whales, he’d kill them if he could. He is a hunter. He explains various techniques for hunting whales and seals in the arctic. He then shows us the oldest house in town, with a great display of artifacts from the various cultures that have inhabited Greenland. After the museum we go down to the bay and start to eat our lunch, but it is cold so we walk up a hill where it is sunny and sit on some rocks. It is getting close to 5 pm, so we head back to the hotel. It is locked, so we sit on the back deck where there is plexiglas which shelters us from the wind. We finish our late lunch and read. I start a book, “The Devil in the White City”, which Michael has already read.

The hotel proprietor shows up and takes us to a cute little house with dogs next door. He charges us only 300 kroner for the night! This is our least expensive stay (except camping) and yet the best! We take another very long shower. There is a washer so we do our laundry (and hang it in the living room to dry, dryers are pretty rare in Greenland). We go back to the store to get groceries for a home cooked dinner. The Lonely Planet is right about Greenland having very little vegetables, or no vegetable at all. So Michael buys ice cream. We have a good meal and a very comfortable bed where we fall asleep. (9 km)