


This is Gary's Arctic winter diary 2004-2005
September 29th,
2004
- October 9th, 2004 |
October
12th, 2004
- October 26th, 2004 |
October
27th, 2004
- November 6th, 2004 |
November
7th, 2004
- November 16th, 2004 |
November
17th, 2004
- November 28th, 2004 |
December
1st, 2004
- December 12th, 2004 |
December
13th, 2004
- December 23rd, 2004 |
December
24th, 2004
- January 2nd, 2005 |
January
3rd, 2005
- January 12th, 2005 |
January
13th, 2005
- January 22nd, 2005 |
January
23rd, 2005
- Febraury 2nd, 2005 |
February
3rd, 2005
- Febraury 12th, 2005 |
February
14th, 2005
- Febraury 25th, 2005 |
February
26th, 2005
- March 10th, 2005 |
March
11th, 2005
- March 18th, 2005 |
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Winter
Diary Extract 2004 - 2005 |
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Wednesday,
December 1st |
Rest day for adults. Both morning
and evening feeds are done in the dark. Without light from my
head-torch I’d see nothing. I fed Twizzle last and sat
on the deck of his kennel and watched him guzzle grub. Finished
I patted him and I said, ‘I’ll see you tomorrow.’
Canadian Eskimo dogs don’t bark. They sing, howl or give
a warning ‘gruff’ to anything untoward. Tonight
Spoons gave a ‘gruff’ while I was sitting with them.
I raised my head. We were being watched. The eyes sparkled yellow
and vanished, quietly. I waited to inspect the prints. A wolf.
Whatever the temperature I always leave a window open and chain-lock
the puppy pens. I kicked myself for not praising Spoons for
raising the alarm the instant she did it. |
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Thursday,
December 2nd |
Blitz and Spoons are four months
old. Saw three wolves on frozen lake when walking the puppies
out. Twizzle was particularly upset when he sniffed the huge
pad trail. His tail, a sensitive mood indicator, is usually
a tight scythe shape when he’s happy and relaxed. This
morning he was anything but.
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On the phone tonight I mentioned
this to Jo Kelly. Apparently a wolf pack tried to separate
Twizzle from his mum. I haven’t noticed Saxon being
bothered by a thing but I know wolves in Churchill, Hudson
Bay, ate his father. A bounty was on the head of the killer.
Forty-five days and nights of waiting and the dog killer was
shot dead. Three and a half hour run with adults. I Sewed
beaver trim cuffs on to my parka. Spear headed glover needles
are best for sewing fur. |
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Friday,
December 3rd |
Two and a half hour run with adults
today bought this week’s training hours to ten. |
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Saturday,
December 4th |
This morning I fed the pups and
ran myself on the river as usual. Rest day for adults. Around
noon I made bread and a mess, as usual. Walked the puppies
for an hour and a half during this afternoon’s twilight,
wore my sealskin mukluks.
There was plenty of sniffing amber stained driftwood marked
by foxes, wolves and lynx. The stumps will no doubt be sporadically
anointed while locked in the river ice until the break-up
next May. To the north the sky was made up of beautiful shades
of pinks, mauves and tinges of blue. The south looked ablaze
with flaming colours of tangerine and orange, as though a
city beyond the horizon was being bombed and left to burn.
Thing is there’s no city for 1,500 miles. The puppies
were oblivious as they made fresh footings over wolf tracks
several times bigger than their own. It was forty-five below
zero.
Friend Albert dropped by with fish and moose leg bones. I
paid six bucks for the lot. |


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Monday,
December 6th |
I filled my steel Aztec
vacuum flasks with water last night. This morning it was -
42°C but the water was still piping hot enough for a
brew. Quality flasks can keep water to at least tepid after
three nights and days left out at forty below. My flasks do
this. Fitted the adults into their new harnesses today. I
had eighteen made up in four different sizes.
Three and a half hour run with the adults at forty below
under a splendid display of northern lights and spangled stars.
There will be no rest day for them until Saturday. |
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Tuesday,
December 7th |
I was on the phone for best part
of the day. Olav is on the way back from being down south
with his freightliner. I gave him some cash for smaller items
and today it was time to pay for major stuff. Everything is
cheaper in the south. So what’s coming? Nearly fours
tons of Nutrience
dog food kibble, one ton of tripe (cow stomachs), a ton of
processed chicken fat, high density plastic for new sled-runners,
twenty litres of cod liver oil and loads of food for me such
as 33lb of dehydrated banana chips, 66lb of dried fruit, 11lb
of dried milk.
This will see me and the dogs through training and a couple
of extended training trips before the ice breaks-up in May.
Another chainsaw of mine is also being serviced. It’s
2,800 miles to here from Edmonton. Olav usually does the journey
in three days. Sunrise was at 1.31pm and set for the last
time at 1.57pm. It won’t appear now for six weeks. I
was up until 2.30am sewing, making gear alterations and mending.
Listened to Motorhead, Sex Pistols, GBH and Sham 69. |
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Wednesday,
December 8th |
After an hour’s run with
the adults I came back and harnessed Twizzle for the first
time. I took him alongside the adults for a mile, enough for
him to have experienced a load. He took to it instantly. Apparently
the UK is going to experience a cold winter. It’s 10°C
there right now. Here it was another forty below day.
I ran myself without mercy for an hour and a half run in
the dark, on the river ice. It felt cruel. My eyelids felt
gluey like sticky clotting wounds and were in danger of freezing
together. Another late night sewing and altering gear.
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Friday,
December 10th |
Ran adults and Twizzle for two
and a half hours. Nine hours total for the week. Pups are
growing. I adjusted their collars. |
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Saturday,
December 11th |
Rested adults. Long hike with puppies.
Judi tells me Olav tried to collect the Nutrience
dog food. The food was on a train that de-railed. Olav has made
arrangements with Hagen, who manufacture my dog food, and another
delivery will be sent up from the US ready for collection in
Edmonton on Wednesday. Finished making sled handle bar bag from
canvas. Took me three nights. I buy canvas and fur from what’s
called North Mart. This was formally a Hudson Bay Company fur
trading post. |
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Sunday,
December 12th |
Rested adults. Reporter Claire
Watson asked me a few questions for a Western
Morning News feature article expected out over Christmas. |
This evening I went along to the carol service in Inuvik.
The church is beautiful and shaped like an igloo. Inuit elders
sung Silent Night in Inuktitut, the official language of western
Arctic Inuit and I thought of my folks in the UK. Late this
evening I made new tug, neck and mainline sections for new
dogs arriving next Saturday.
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