Day: 18

A Dogsled Visit from Dave Olesen

Temperature: -35F

Location: Great Slave Lake

Latitude: 62deg 50’ 59’’ N

Longitude: 109deg 33’ 28’’ W

Distance Traveled: Not announced...

On the Great Slave Lake. The storm cleared off yesterday morning. It’s beautiful, clear, not a storm in sight. It’s 35 below. We traveled in the shadows of the cliffs we have been following. Around 11 o’clock we struck out into the main part of the lake, into the sunshine. The dogs are running really well. The lead dogs are doing really well, happy that the weather has improved. We traveled on a lot of glare ice, which is a testament to the recent storm.

Around noon we saw a dogsled heading our way. This was Dave Olson, friend I talked about yesterday. He lives about 12 miles from where we were at that time (about 20 miles from yesterday’s camp). We had lunch together and caught up on the old times. I did my first major arctic expedition with Dave in 1980. I had seven dogs and he had two, and combined them into one team and traveled from Churchill, Manitoba to Baker Lake. We had a lot of bad storms then, and it was a real learning experience for both of us, but we rebounded. But we haven’t really connected in the last 24 years, and I am looking forward to catching up, and meeting his children. He has a four-year-old and an eight-year-old, and the eight-year-old is really excited. In fact, she was mad at her Dad because he didn’t let her go along on the dog team this morning, because it’s a 40 mile round trip. She runs her own dogs, and is really excited. So we’ll see her tomorrow, along with the four-year-old and Christine, Dave’s wife.

We’re in the tent right now. It’s clear skies, lots of star. 35 below, no northern lights. The sun set about an hour ago, and the dogs are sleeping very quietly. Again, were out over the deepest part of the lake, about 1,800 feet, and the ice is really rumbling, which is a sign of how cold it is. The rumblings are a deep baritone, and we’ve got about 1/3 of a mile of water between us and the bottom. Hugh’s just finished up refueling the stove, and we’ve got a couple of candles burning, it’s very peaceful. We’ll be at Dave’s tomorrow, and I’ll talk a little more about his life then.