Day: 34

A Marvelous Arctic Day

Temperature: -2F

Location: Canadian Barrens

Latitude: 63deg 4’ 46’’ N

Longitude: 105deg 49’ 6’’ W

Distance Traveled: 19 Miles

Today was a most pleasant day. Actually, the best day of the trip so far. When we got out of our tents this morning it was minus 2 and no wind. There was absolutely no wind blowing at all, and it was just a marvelous morning and afternoon. We had time to hesitate and look around. Packing up the tent, hooking up the dogs and the various other chores were absolute joy. The dogs are extremely happy, and really energized by this warm weather. They’ve been sleeping on the land now, so they’ve been sleeping really well, and their energy has really peaked. All day long we had a hard time stopping the dogs, they just wanted to go on and on. It is an excellent problem to have.

There is quite a spirit here when we get this kind of warm weather. I’ve never seen the Barrens in the kind of light we have here now. I’ve traveled across the Barrens several times, and have probably spent six months here, but this is one of the prettiest days I have ever seen.

We had nice lighting from the clouds that would break up and with the valleys and the shadows it looked like a white moonscape. We also had areas of stunted trees on the eskers that we traveled alongside today. It was just a marvelous day.

The lunch break was really festive, the best we’ve had. For myself, lunch is usually the most painful part of the day. I freeze up really fast when I stop, and it is all I can do to mix up some soup and get it down, and I am always the first one up, running around before the others are finished eating. But today was a leisurely lunch. I did some repairs on my video camera with bare fingers.

We covered 19 miles today. We’re getting ready for our resupply, we figure it will probably be another three days. We’ve got four days of dog food left, so it’s coming along pretty well. I talked with Eric Hindyar out of Yellowknife who will be flying in and everything looks good. They said the forecast is clear and cold. The clear sky will be good, and the cold doesn’t affect us that much. But if it stays around minus two like it is now, we would prefer that. It is almost like a spring day. And it was a good Groundhog’s Day. We say a shadow, but I don’t know what that means up here in the Barrens.

We’re sitting in the tent here, a very low flame on the Coleman stove. We’re just keeping everything warm. There is no frost on the wall, and it is just like life in the city here.

I would like to encourage anyone listening to visit the journal entries that I write every day. You just have to click on the JOURNAL button on the home page to read the journals. And I also really encourage you to visit PolarHusky.com, the educational site for our expedition. And if you are a student or anyone else, feel free to print out my journal entries as well.