Day: 43

Navigating by GPS

Temperature: -20F

Location: Canadian Barrens

Latitude: 63deg 3’ 14’’ N

Longitude: 102deg 37’ 2’’ W

Distance Traveled: 17 Miles

Yesterday we were pinned down by a big storm, though it actually began to clear up yesterday evening. It was bitterly cold, about 30 below, and very windy, and the temperature was dropping around 5 o’clock. We expected it to clear off and really drop in temperature, but to our surprise this morning it was only 20 below. It was very windy, but with enough visibility that we could travel.

It took us over an hour to break camp, and we had to dig a lot of things out. The sleds were under quite a bit of snow and the tents were all snowed in. So it was quite a bit of work getting things going. It was about an hour and a half by the time we got out of the tents that we got moving.

The weather turned a little uglier as we traveled. The wind picked up to at least 40 mph and visibility dropped quite a bit, to the point where it was only about a yard. It looked like we might have to stop, but I was hoping that it would lift a bit. It lifted just a little bit after lunch, but dropped some later. The windchills were really bad, though it was OK on the leeward side of the sled.

Towards the middle of the afternoon it lifted again, and we could see about half a mile ahead of us. We saw a couple of caribou. We’ve seem many caribou tracks, and caribou are all around out here. We are now on the Baker side of the caribou herd, so I imagine we will be seeing caribou for the next month or so. The dogs saw the caribou, about three o’clock, and that really picked things up. We zipped across a small lake, but then we got into very rocky terrain. It was a real nightmare to navigate. We ended up on this huge rock pile about 4:30 in the storm. We made camp on the leeward side, and managed to find a little bit of protection.

I’m not sure how we’re are going to get out of this rock infested area tomorrow. We’re going to need a little visibility to get out of here. We’re going to need to see at least half a mile. It looks like we can move to the south, and we hope to be down to Dubont Lake tomorrow, about 15 miles from here. Once we get to that lake we will have pretty clear sailing.

Things are going pretty well. The temperature - 20 below - is nothing to complain about. And although the visibility isn’t great, we can still travel. We travel exclusively on a compass bearing, and the GPS gives us that bearing. We have waypoints punched in, usually about 5 miles ahead, and the GPS will give us our distance and direction. We go pretty much by the waypoint and the bearing. Without that I don’t know how you could find your way through this country. People did live here, but I think if you lived here you could figure it out.

We’re sitting in the tent right now. Hugh is reading and writing in his journal. It’s actually pretty peaceful. Probably about 20 below outside. I can tell by the frost level in the tent that it is not bitterly cold. The dogs are sleeping well, they had a pretty good day today, they are pretty well rested after the storm.