Day: 52

Who's Snoring?!

Temperature: -25F

Location: Canoe Lake

Latitude: 64deg 40 ’ 4’’ N

Longitude: 100deg 29’ 50 ’’ W

Distance Traveled: 0 Miles – Day Off

This is Friday, our day off. We take every Friday off to post the education report that goes up on PolarHusky.com on Monday. Paul, and Mille and Aaron are hard at work on that. They work really hard, and are often at it until the late hours - two, three, four in the morning on Saturday.

We are having a problem with our small Honda generator. It is problem a freeze issue with the gas line. But we were not able to get the generator going, so we’ve got a little bit of a power problem right now. We do have enough power in the batteries right now to get the report out, so I think we are OK for tonight. But next Friday we might have a problem getting the report out.

But we had an absolutely gorgeous day, perfect day for a day off. Totally calm, clear, not a cloud in the sky. Very strong intensity to the sun, very out of character for the weather we have had since we left Yellowknife in late December. It’s very warm, and the dogs are sleeping like rugs out there. The dogs with the black hair were actually warm to the touch. It’s warm in the tent, there is no frost whatsoever. It almost felt like springtime. It probably only warmed up to 25 below Fahrenheit, but the key is that there was no wind at all, and the intensity of the sun is increasing. It’s pretty warm from about 11 a.m. to 2:30-3 p.m. But the temperature drops pretty fast as soon as the sun begins to disappear over the horizon.

We have a dog on our team, presently on Hugh’s team, named Misha, who snores. And this dog snores all night long. We fed the dogs at about 7 p.m., and by ten minutes after she snored all night until we got up in the morning. It took me a while to figure out where the snoring was coming from. The other night, I heard it when I went to bed, and when I got up at two in the morning I still heard it. And I’m going to be tenting with Eric in a little while, and he is a snorer, and I though, my gosh, this is coming from Eric’s tent. And his tent that night was a little distance away, so I was a little worried that it was Eric snoring nonstop. But we’ve figured out that it was Misha. I’ve never heard a dog snore like that. It’s actually kind of a soothing snore, not really high pitched, but sort of just a drone in the background. It’s actually quite peaceful, now that I know where it is coming from.

So we’ve got snoring dogs today, they are really rested, the sleds are getting lighter, and we are looking forward to the travel week. We are going to go cross country a little bit to avoid this next section of the Dubawnt River. We made the decision that we do not want to travel by this river, as it is really a dangerous river, deep water. While we wouldn’t take any chances there, we could get into some massive delays. And the river banks get steep, so we could get boxed in and then have to retreat. We’re going to go cross country tomorrow, about a 23 mile shot, and hopefully we will get some good terrain. There is a big lake called Mallory Lake that we are headed for, which is where the Dubawnt River empties into. So were are going to take the map and compass and use GPS readings. We’ve got about 10-12 waypoints, going around eskers and steep terrain, and try to get the low drainage on lakes, and try to stay in areas where it is easy to navigate and travel.

But it looks good. Right now it’s about 7:30 here, it’s crystal clear, the stars are just gorgeous. We can see Orion at this latitude. Siris, the dog star, is rising now. Another really noticeable thing is that around six o’clock at night we have a little bit of light left. So we are gaining a tremendous amount of light now, about 6-10 minutes a day. So life is getting a little easier now. February is usually the time of the clearest weather in the north. At least in Minnesota, statistically February is the clearest and calmest month. And we are hoping the weather will be like this in the Barrens. In about two or three weeks, when the low pressures move in, is when the blizzard season begins.

But we are mid-winter right now, really enjoying ourselves. Hugh is cooking up some bacon, and we are enjoying the candlelight. It is really warm in the tent.