Day: 112

Sad to Leave Our Friends in Pelly Bay

Temperature: 0F

Location: Collette River

Latitude: 68deg 17’ 51

Longitude: 89deg 50’ 43

Distance Traveled: 20 Miles

We are on the move again. We left Pelly Bay about 11 o’clock this morning, and traveled 20 miles under pretty good conditions. Not too cold, a little bit of a northwest wind. The trail was in good shape, and we were able to make about 3-4 miles per hour.

One of our real advantages with the warm weather right now is that the skis, and in particular the sleds, slide much better over the snow. Despite the somewhat heavy loads, the sleds are moving quite well, due to the decreased friction with this zero degree Fahrenheit weather.

For myself, leaving Pelly Bay was sad. Especially the first ten minutes out of town, I thought about the nice people we met there, in particular the family that put us up. We really got to know the kids and the brothers and sisters and parents. It is this way a lot leaving communities. You develop really nice relationships, and then you have to leave, and often never see the people again.

I’ve been traveling up in this region for 40 years now, and Pelly is one of the nicest communities I have been in (this was my first time in Pelly). I’m sure I will be back, I really felt at home. The town itself is nestled in Pelly Bay, which is on the Gulf of Boothia. The gulf is about 350 miles long, and 50-60 miles wide. And on the south side of the gulf is Pelly Bay, at the bottom of which is the town Pelly Bay, also know as Kugaaruk. It is an isolated corner of the world.

Some of the people, especially the elders, still hunt seal with the harpoon, which is an incredible test of patience. You can sit up all night and all day waiting. I haven’t seen that in the Canadian communities, but in Greenland they still harpoon somewhat. I was really glad to see that tradition being carried on.

To our friends Michael and Levi, and everyone there, we really miss you a lot.

Tomorrow I will go over our route. We are actually heading south, retracing some of our route on the day we arrived in Pelly. And then we are taking a detour basically around Committee Bay to get around some rough ice. It is about 150 miles out of the way to the south, but I will explain the route much more tomorrow.