Day: 91

1000 Miles Total

Temperature: 0F

Location: Quoich Rvier

Latitude: 66deg 13’ 52’’ N

Longitude: 93deg 14’ 14” W

Distance Traveled: 23 Miles

We reached the 1,000 mile mark today, from Yellowknife through The Barrens. We began the day off by talking about the need to ration food and fuel, which is the big conversation now. We’re laying out a plan to keep supplied until April 15, in case we into really tough terrain. We are hoping to get out of the river system here before mid-April, but you can’t take any chances at this point. On Friday we will have a meeting and decide on how things will be divided up.

We started out today with very good travel, the conditions couldn’t have been better. We had wind at our back, and clouds came in, almost spring-like weather. We got up to zero degrees Fahrenheit, one of the first times we have even seen zero. It whited out, however, as we traveled, and visibility dropped. There was a south wind and it looked like it was really going to blow for a while, but then around noon, like a miracle, it cleared up. By one o’clock it was totally clear, and the wind shifted to the southwest, and we ended up having a good travel day - 23 miles.

The landscape is just crawling with caribou, we saw about 100-150 in one area this morning. In the whiteout they look like little dots crawling all over you. It’s hard to distinguish them from rocks until you see them move. Around three o’clock today we saw some really large wolves ahead of us. The largest in the pack looked like one of our dogs, he was at least 125 pounds. When they spotted us, that particular wolf was really curious. I could tell by his body posture and the way he walked. He wasn’t really afraid, just curious, and sure enough, he followed us for about an hour and a half. He would disappear behind the hills, but then show up again on occasion.

I was in the lead skiing, and the wolf got about 100 yards from me. I could tell again by his body posture that he wasn’t interested in me at all, but very curious about the dogs. He was getting their scent, and seemed like he wanted to be part of the dogs. Sometimes wolves will come into camp, or close to camp, out of curiosity for their brethren.

We hit some rock fields today around 3 p.m., and our optimism plummeted. Though we made 23 miles today, the rock field slowed us down quite a bit. For the next 60 miles, the area we are in almost part of a divide. We are coming off the area where the water flows to Hudson Bay, and are now in a kind of highlands. It is not a sharp divide, more up and down, and we are starting to see relief and actual topography. The topography here now is mostly glacial - high moraines and eskers. The eskers are almost like mountain ranges here they are so large.

We have our fingers crossed that we can make this next 60 miles and get into the Hayes River system. The first drainage of the Hayes is about 35 miles up ahead.

The wind is blowing very hard from the southeast, and the barometer is dropping very fast. We’ve got the tent all screwed down with ice screws, and are ready for a storm. The weather here is totally amazing, you never know what you are going to get in the next 12 hours. But we will be ready to go again in the morning, and see what adventure lies in store. So stay tuned, as it should be pretty interesting the next few weeks here. We are in completely unknown area, completely fascinating, and it has really galvanized the team. We’ve got good spirits, and the dogs are happy with the lightening loads.