Day: 136

Arrival In Iglulik

Temperature: 33F

Location: Iglulik

Latitude: 69deg 22’ 42’’ N

Longitude: 81deg 15’ 14” W

Distance Traveled: 23 Miles

We arrived in Iglulik today. A good travel day. It was foggy in the morning, we traveled 23 miles on an excellent trail. The dogs were a little sluggish in the morning, but they picked up later in the day. It started to clear off when we reached Iglulik, and we had the most wonderful reception here. Hundreds of people came out onto the ice to meet us, where we had staked out the dogs. There were snowmobiles, and people in the distance, and you couldn’t quite make them out at first, they looked like bugs. As we approached we were literally swarmed with people shaking our hands, welcoming us to Iglulik. It was a most wonderful reception.

We staked the dogs on the ice, and we are all staying with families in groups of two. It has been a wonderful, typical Inuit reception. Just walking down the street, people come up to us, shake our hand, welcome us. We didn’t realize how tired we all were until we got into a heated room. We’ve been traveling pretty hard, covering 80 miles in the last three days. And we’ve been going non-stop now for seven days.

We made a big push to get to Iglulik, and everyone is very happy. The dogs will now have a little rest, and we are going to be talking to elders here about global climate change and their culture.