Route: Pond Inlet - Out and Back, Width of the Town

Submitted by openlynerdy07 on Sun, 07/03/2022 - 04:18pm
Location
Nunavut, CA
Distance
5.5 mi
Vertical Gain
575 ft
Description

Pond Inlet is the northern most town* in Canada. It is considered the Jewel of the North, located at the northern tip of Baffin Island.  This route showcases the great views of Lancaster Sound and the mountains of Bylot Island (one the largest uninhabited islands in the world) while you cover the entirety of the town, west to east, and back again.  It is also quite a challenging course.  The town is located on the side of a hill, so all the elevation gain occurs during the 'out', the first 2.7 miles of the route.  If you run this between early May and early August, you can run it at literally any time without a headlamp because there is 24 hour sun!

 

*There are four locations further north where people live.  1) Alert, NU has a census population of 0.  The Canadian Forces, Environment Canada, and Global Atmosphere Watch have stations there and all residents are temporary. 2)  Grise Ford, NU is not where the Inuit traditionally live.  This community (and that of Resolute) was created by the Canadian government in 1953 to assert sovereignty in the High Arctic during the Cold War.  It has a census population of 144. 3) Resolute, NU has a census population of 183.  4) Arctic Bay, NU is a location where the Inuit have traditionally lived for over 5000 years.  It has a census population of 868. 

All of these locations are considered either settlements or hamlets, rather than towns, due the extremely small population size.  Pond Inlet is considered a town as it has more than 1,000 people living in it (1,555 at last census)

 

Sources: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pond_Inlet

https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/the-8-northernmost-settlements-of-canada.html