We first met Noelle Tufts a few years back when she joined our 'Dance with Wolves' trip as a client. While on that trip she fell in love with the Thelon country so much that she stayed on for the rest of that summer right through our autumn caribou trips as a volunteer helper at the main wildlife camp. She then came back again for the entire next season as an assistant leader-in-training, and worked very hard for us co-leading wildlife day trips, operating the boats; doing the never-ending camp chores and helping out in the kitchen. In her spare time she would spend hour after hour hiking the eskers with camera in hand, and as you will see below - is really quite an accomplished amateur photographer in her own right. Her smiling disposition & overt love of the barrenlands made her a true pleasure to be around & to work with for both staff & clients alike. We truly hope to see her back north with us on our future wildlife trips in Nunavut.

"I had a really hard time trying to put into words the actual high I get being in the Thelon - the feeling thats drives through the soul and awakens you to new aspects of life..."

"Exploring the tundra makes you want to walk on and on. Every ridge you come to has another ridge just past it."

"At first it seems like a very empty land..."

"Yet here is the opportunity to experience creation through the eyes of the Infinite."

"I let go my expectations and assumptions, let go the definitions…let go of who I think I am, of who I think I'm supposed to be..."

"Describing in first-person adaptation, and pondering the existential questions about the chronological path through time." 

"On top of the small rise lies a wolf. He remains lying down, regarding me as he would any new curiosity."

"The white wolf rises and trots off, disappearing over the rise, shortly he appears again, watching. He progresses this way across the tundra until one last time he rises and trots off." 

"Watching him, on the other side of a pond, in the quiet, low bright evening light, the wolf changes from a white wolf, into a white shape, to a shape outlined by the disappearing light."

"The weather feels more like what I would expect in September. Stacked strata clouds sit at the edge of the horizon, brought to earth by their reflection in the water." 

"The Thelon represents a place of new life, touching native beliefs, it has long been home to the Dene' known as Ethen-Eldeli-Dene (caribou eaters) who were attuned to the life patterns of caribou."

"These Dene were nomadic, following a steady pattern of movement between the forests and the tundra. The Dene of this era were dependent on caribou for most of the basic necessities."

"They followed caribou northward to their summer grazing grounds on the tundra. Tent rings and chipping stations, it is evident that everything has been here a long time."

"Left behind by the post glacial rivers and streams deposited gravel and sand under the retreating glacier, huge miles long and up to 100 feet high sand bars were created, known as eskers...possibly dating back from the early Pleistocene time (1.8 million-10,00 years ago) or Pliocene (5-1.8 million years ago)."

"There are kettle holes ( small ponds) scattered about the eskers that were formed by blocks of ice that were seperatd from the main glacier from the last ice age."

"Everything seems to open up even more now as an unexplainable feeling drives through your soul, the sky seems without borders..."

- Noelle Tufts
Yellowknife, NWT Canada

Dr. Ella Trussell