Day: 124

Pushing Thru Narrow Canyons

Temperature: 10F

Location: Melville Peninsula

Latitude: 67deg 38’ 02’’ N

Longitude: 85deg 53’ 07 ” W

Distance Traveled: 15 Miles

The beginning of today was a great day of travel. We went through a number of really tight canyons, just incredible country. We had pretty smooth traveling, thanks to overflow, which is water that flows over the ice and then freezes. So it was almost like frozen lakes in these valleys. This smoothed things out, eliminating any rocky travel. We were also able to get around the ravines. The country was really stunning.

But then later in the afternoon we got stumped in one canyon. It was actually very beautiful, but also quite tight. There were heavy drifts, up to 20 feet high, and a lot of ice. It took us most of the afternoon - actually until 6 p.m. - to shovel and chop our way through. We had to unload the sleds, about half a load, to get through, so there was a lot of exercise.

I’m up high in an open area now, looking to the east, down the narrow canyon we have to travel tomorrow. These canyon walls are about 1,000 feet high, and extremely narrow.

The weather has been great. I actually skied today without a shirt for about half an hour. But the ultraviolet sunlight here is incredibly intense, and you can literally feel it frying your skin if you don’t keep it covered. The radiation is much more intense than in the more southern climates, where there is more water vapor and a thicker atmosphere.

Yesterday, May 1, we had a polar bear come into camp. One thing about polar bears is how silently they can come into a camp. This bear got within a dozen feet of our alarm dog - the one that is highly attuned to trouble - before we heard anything. The bear came from downwind, and kind of snuck up between some large ice blocks. It was a little scary how the bear came in. But I wasn’t afraid, I know their habits. The bears are most just curious, especially about the dogs.

But you do have to be careful when you are scaring the bear off not to make it mad. But it is usually there just out of curiosity. It feels like it owns the place. Even firing shots over its heard didn’t really scare the bear off. He would move away a little, then turn around and walk back. But not in a charging mode, I could tell from his position. But we did have our guns there, just in case there was an emergency. It would be rare that something like that would happen, but you do have to protect yourself.

Polar bears are kind of a yellowish white, not completely white. The color is sort of that of really old ice. They fit in really well to the surroundings, except for the black nose. It was actually kind of an exciting experience, to have a polar bear so close to us.

We are now very far inland, about 20 miles, so there is no fear of bears anymore. They will sometimes venture inland 10-15 miles, like on certain islands, such as Devin Island. But here we are on the large Melville Peninsula, which is about 100 miles across.