Day: 17

Caribou Games

Temperature: -25

Location: Great Slave Lake

Latitude: 62deg 49’ 35’’ N

Longitude: 110deg 6’ 9’’ W

Distance Traveled: 14.1 Miles

An extremely windy day today. We made 14.1 miles. Yesterday afternoon we hit a bad storm as we left Shelter Bay, and only made it two miles before turning back, as I mentioned last night. So we spent the night in Shelter Bay. The wind really picked up last night, even in the shelter of the bay, billowing our tent. It was a very loud night.

We set again this morning, and it had warmed up to 25 below. It was calm when we left, but we knew better than to expect that to last all day. As soon as we were out past the point we could see the wind blowing across the lake, and the glare ice. The wind was about 30 mph, which wasn’t as bad as yesterday. It actually wasn’t that bad of a day, the windchill was down around 60-70 below. And we traveled all day against this stiff wind. Typically in weather like this everything has to be bundled up. The windchills are such that you can only bare your fingers for 20-25 seconds. I do a lot of video photography, and that is becoming quite difficult. But you’ve still got a little bit of leeway with your flesh - skin doesn’t freeze on contact. Our faces are also covered - for example, today I had on a neck gaiter from Patagonia (Patagonia is one of our sponsors of equipment), and I used that along with a balaclava and a fleece helmet. I covered my entire face except for a very thin slit for my eyes. Even with that slit, sometimes the bridge of your nose will freeze when the wind is blowing across it. In the most extreme conditions, I sometimes just have a little peephole to peep out one one. But it wasn’t that bad today. And sometime you have to get the top and bottom of that slit really tight that it limits your visibility.

Some of the others use goggles. Paul has really good luck with that, and he breathes through his mouth. But as soon as you breathe through your nose they freeze up. I find them very cumbersome. The can actually be quite dangerous, because if they fog up you can’t see your skis, and a lot of time you might find yourself skiing headlong into a block of ice, which is quite dangerous, and you can throw your back out that way.

It’s difficult for the lead dogs in this kind of headwind, because they can’t hear the commands. Fortunately, we had a few caribou herds around, and when they are up wind they can’t smell you coming, and can’t get a read on you. I’ve seen this many times. When they see the train of dogs and the sled they are really curious, not frightened. They all bunch up and look in our direction, almost like they are baiting the dogs. And then when the dogs get within about 30 years, the caribou bolt forward in a line. Then they will come back together in a pack, and continue baiting the dogs on. So we had a lot of fun with that, making about a mile and a half. I think the caribou we playing games with us. But eventually the sort of S-hooked around us, when we were near shore, and they headed off into the treeline of the thin woods.

It’s really quite elegant seeing the caribou hit the woods. The walk in a straight line through the woods, because of the deep snow, whereas on the lake they just walk in bunches. They are almost a whitish color, similar to a Perry caribou, but about three times larger. The Perry caribou is a polar caribou, actually quite rare and almost extinct. But they do have a whitish tinge to them, probably camouflage for the winter. So the caribou kept things lively for us today.

We made camp near the shore, and found some really deep snow for the dogs. As long as we can find deep snow, the dogs are very comfortable, and they are out of the wind. Hugh and I are in the tent now, and we cooked up a great big meal. In the fry pan we melted down a stick of butter, about a pound of cheese, making a kind of grease slurry. But put some organic sausages in for flavor and then dropped in chunks of caribou. The caribou we are careful not to overcook, we just sort of warm the edges, and the center is sometimes almost frozen. So it’s rare, almost raw, all the way through. This is the way the Inuit and the Eskimo people eat it. The meat is extremely safe, it’s not like meat purchased in a grocery store. It’s very clean, with no parasites. And this is the way to eat when you are traveling really hard. The body craves an immense number of calories, particularly in the form of grease, butter and cheese, and around four o’clock in the afternoon that’s all you are thinking about - grease. I’m not a particularly big meat eater, but I do here at these windchills, as it really takes a lot out of you, not like running all day long. Running and skiing are actually quite easy compared to working in these windchills, as it just saps the energy out of you.

We are coming up on Dave Oleson’s house. Everyone in Ely knows Dave. He is originally from Wisconsin, but lived in Ely for several years. When I started out with my dogsled school in 1974, I had a partner named Duncan Sterling. Dunc and I were Outward Bound instructors together during the winter, and Dunc would run the rafting and kayaking courses in the summer on the Colorado River. But in 1974 he moved back to Minnesota, and we started our winter dogsled and ski school. It was the first such business in Ely, and we were actually quite successful with it. I was able to make my living off it for about ten years, and it was one of the ways I got started with dogs. But Dave worked with Duncan in 1974. Duncan was based in Minnetonka, one of the suburbs of Minneapolis, by a large lake, and Dave used to help him with the dogs. In fact, Dave was my first employee. In 1974 I hired him to do a course, and he and I worked together. We took our first long trips on the Hudson Bay together. We were planning at that time to do a trip from Baker Lake, where we will be in a few weeks, to Greenland, and then spend a year living with the Greenland Eskimos. But we finally realized that we couldn’t do that trip in one year, because we couldn’t make the crossing from Ellesmere Island. So Dave decided not to do the trip, which was kind of a blow to me at the time. But I ended up finding a good partner to travel with.

Dave at that time took a fork in his life, and bought some property up here, the only piece of private property on Great Slave Lake, a real wise thing to do. He bought that I think in 1980 and ended up moving here, eventually marrying his wife, Christine, from Outward Bound, and they have two young children that they homeschool. Dave is a pilot, and makes his living flying in the summertime. He’s quite a remarkable man, and anyone who knows Dave knows what I’m talking about. He’s a good writer, and very brilliant. The reunion between us will be quite special, as we haven’t seen one another in about 25 years. I’m not sure if we can make it there tomorrow, but we will by Sunday for sure. I’ve been in touch with him by satellite phone, and he says they’ll have dinner ready when we come.