Day: 106

Changing Tentmates Tomorrow

Temperature: 0F

Location: 10 Miles from Pelly Bay

Latitude: 68deg 20’ 52’’ N

Longitude: 89deg 56’ 29” W

Distance Traveled: 16 Miles

There was loose snow on the ground today, but the weather was clear. We probably had about 15 below Fahrenheit this morning, and it got up to about zero. In the evening the temperature dropped again, but the wind calmed down, and it was a very beautiful evening.

The German film crew came in today, and we met them at one o’clock. They traveled along with us, filming mainly on the sleds, and occasionally filming from a distance. They are camped with us tonight. We’ve been doing some filming inside the tents, and tomorrow morning we will be doing some filming of our breakfast, packing up and so forth.

We should be in Pelly Bay tomorrow around 3 o’clock. The film crew is doing a two-part documentary, a Christmas and New Year’s show, in Germany on the Arctic. And this expedition is part of that series. Our project on global climate change is what they are really interested in. It is great to work with them, they are a very intelligent group. We had a nice discussion here this evening about politics, filming, and the world in general. It’s great to have people to talk to again. I think we’ve been gone about 36 days without seeing anyone.

We are looking very forward to getting into Pelly. We’ve already met some nice people from there on the trail. We plan to do a school talk in Pelly on Friday, along with a conversation on the local radio station. We usually try to do such interviews on the local station, which allows the community to find out who we are, and we can answer a lot of questions.

We will also be meeting with some elders over the weekend, talking about climate change, and their observations over the years, how they see things changing here.

Tonight is the last night together for Hugh and me, after 106 nights. After Pelly we will be switching around, and I will be traveling and tent with Paul, and Eric will move in with Hugh. We’ve had a good 106 days together. We had a nice fish dinner tonight, the film crew brought in some char. Hugh is sleeping now, it is very late at night, and I will sign off.