Day: 21

Leaving the Olesen's in the Morning

Temperature: -35F

Location: Olesen's Homestead Hoarfrost River

This is our second day at the homestead of Dave and Christina on the Great Slave Lake. I’m near the dog yard outside. I don’t know if you can here them, but I have to shout over the ruckus. There are 30 dogs right beside me. The reason I am outside is that satellite phones do not work in cabins. They are fine in nylon tents, but here I have to do the calls outside, which is a little cold, and is hard with the dogs.

It is probably about 35-40 below, beautiful, calm, clear arctic evening. There is a band of northern lights around the Big Dipper. I’m looking straight north here, and see the silhouette of Dave and Christina’s three-story cabin. It’s not a large cabin, area-wise. Their living room is on the second floor, and the first floor is kind of a mudroom and pantry. Their main stove is also on the first floor, and that keeps the floor of the second floor warm - you can actually go barefoot. This is a very good idea here in the arctic. I’m looking at their frosted windows, with the green northern lights in the background.

The dogs are calming down a little. Their dog yard is almost like a barn yard, with a wooden fence all around. Then each dogs has its own house, with its name tag on it. There are a number of other building here. There is a sauna that is going. Our first night here we had a really great, hot sauna. I rolled in the snow three time, in usual Finnlander style. There is a cache, which is like a food storage cabin on stilts, which keeps the animals away from the food.

Looking out over the lake, Orion is up, as is Sirus, the brightest star, which is flaming red and green. It’s really just a pristine evening here. It’s about 8 o’clock our time, pitch black, of course. The last few days have been really wonderful. We’ve done the usual expedition things of sewing our gear, sewing dog harness that have ripped, as well as clothing and so forth. Most of the time we’ve sat with the family, really enjoying the two kids. Liv is four years old and Anika is seven. Anika is quite a dog musher. She went out on a dog run all on her own today. Their lives are kind of centered around the dogs. They are home schooled in the morning, and then have the afternoon to play with the dogs. They are really into this type of life. It’s really great to see two kids so social and so well-adjusted. They are hoping against odds that a big storm will come up tomorrow and we will have to stay longer. They are going to be sad to see us leave. We’ve been a big part of their life here, and the family has been alone since Christmas.

But we’ll have to hit the trail again tomorrow, back to reality. We have another five hundred miles before our next village. Probably the longest crossing in Canada between villages, up to Baker Lake, population 1,000. Looking up again, the northern lights are swaying, and the pines are covered with snow. It’s just a really beautiful evening, and I wish I could share it with everyone visually.