Day: 74

Norman, an Inuit Elder

Temperature: -30F

Location: Heading Toward Pelly Bay

Latitude: 64deg 49’ 9’’ N

Longitude: 96deg 12’ 39’’ W

Distance Traveled: 19 Miles

We traveled 19 miles today. It was a bit of a cold day, about 30 below. Temperature-wise it wasn’t that bad, but we had a strong head wind to contend with. It was hard on the face, even though we all had face masks on, and I was viewing the world through just a little slit. We managed to stay warm, being all bundled up around the face, but as soon as you took your gloves off to do any type of chore your hands froze. But the good thing is that we have a lot of sunlight now, during the day, and there is a little bit of heat coming from the sun, and any type of black clothing absorbs the heat.

In addition to the dispatch every day I also write a journal. I am now on part IV of a series about how I got into dog sledding and the breed of my dogs. The journal is written, there is no audio portion. But there is a text version of this dispatch, which also includes the latitude and longitude.

I want to continue talking a little more about Baker Lake and some of the people we met there. The day that we arrived was a very cold evening, 40 below. And when we got to the place where we were going to stake our dogs there was a huge snow fence, not the kind like you see by the side of the road, but one about 12 feet tall, made out of steel. They’ve always had problems with the houses literally drifting over with snow. When I was here in 1980 and 1982 on dogsled expeditions, the houses, especially the ones at the top of the hill, were totally covered.