Day: 31

The Canadian Barrens

Temperature: -44F

Location: Canadian Barrens

Latitude: 63deg 08’ 00’’

Longitude: 107deg 14’ 10’’

Distance Traveled: Not reported

We had our usual 42-42 below zero on The Barrens today. I think we had our coldest day so far. In the morning the wind picked up quite a bit from the southwest, and for a while we had what’s called a ground blizzard, which is where it is crystal clear, blue skies above, but the wind kicks up the snow off the ground for about 10-12 feet, and the visibility is greatly reduced. Luckily, around 11 o’clock, around lunchtime, it died down, and looked like it had the makings of a really good day.

We had good visibility. We’ve been traveling on a lake, and it’s hard to see these lakes sometimes in these conditions. When we left at noon the visibility was good, but then suddenly, as can happen here on The Barrens, clouds appeared from the south and southeast, and then the wind started really picking up, which was not a good sign. We are now hunkered down, and the wind is really blowing from the east. We’re hoping this will pass, and that it will not be a really large storm. Tomorrow is our day off, and we’re taking the day off for the educational component. We’re officially up on line for a few days, so you might want to check out the PolarHusky site [www.polarhusky.com] to check out the educational activities. If you have kids listening or others interested, the site will be very interactive.

We’re sitting in the tent here now. We have a very nice spot for the dogs, we’ve been looking for deep snow, especially now that we are on land. We look for spots that have 2-3 feet of snow, and there’s some brush that sticks out of the snow, and this is just perfect bedding for the dogs. So we dig holes for the dogs, so that they can get underneath the snow and into really good cover. They hunker down and get out of the wind and sleep very, very comfortably. They’re much happier here than they were on the Great Slave Lake, where they were sleeping on hard snow. The dogs are used to sleeping on snow, and they have an extra thick coat, but they are especially happy here in their holes on the tundra.