


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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Friday,
December 24th (Christmas Eve) |
The wind woke me a couple of times
last night and bought another foot of snow. Fed puppies and
made a soup broth to encourage adults to drink. All drank merrily.
I walked along the ice of the east channel and into Inuvik this
morning. It was darker than ever and snowing. Went to bed at
8pm. I’m so tired, physically from training and mentally
from a busy first half of winter. |
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Saturday,
December 25th (Christmas Day) |
Woke at 7am. My stove was out
and it was cold. Fed Blitz and Spoons. Twizzle is six months
old today. From now on he’ll get one feed a day. The
last Christmas I experienced alone was during a journey from
Alaska to the Northwest Territories in 2001. I’d forgotten
how hard it hits. Funny but I thought about my first bike,
the independence it gave me and the huge distances I covered.
Not once did I feel held back as a kid. I thank my folks forever
for that.
I thought about my great uncle Jack. He was the youngest
company sergeant major in the British army during World War
1. He was only 18. I thought of the millions of others who’d
endured atrocities of war and sacrificed so much for future
generations to be free.
The moon is in the sky all day and night. A parhelion ring
wrapped itself around the moon. Christmas is no time to be
on your own especially meal times. |
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Sunday,
December 26th (Boxing Day) |
Ran by light of the moon with Saxon
on the river. Bought Twizzle inside. He lay down chewing a moose
bone. For weeks I’ve had Blitz and Spoons loose and running
between the adults on their stakeout. Today I crated the pair
and took them out on the run. Once on the river I unclipped
the door and let them run alongside the adults in harness.
Twizzle has been thinking a great deal of himself lately.
I paired him with Saxon. Submissive, Twizzle soon buckled
down not daring to look Saxon in the eye. Warm still. Snowed
a little this afternoon. |
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Monday,
December 27th |
Four hour run with the dogs. |
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Tuesday,
December 28th |
Looked over maps planning spring
trip. Lots of choices. Essentially I want to cover at least
four hundred miles in about a month. Where shall I head for?
West under the Yukon North Slope and into Alaska or east into
Liverpool Bay. Both options will have lots of ice with possible
open water and polar bears creating situations I want to have
my dogs experience before the snow season is over and the
mosquitoes return. Thule breaks through her third collar this
winter. I told her there’s no prize for this.
Saxon won’t use his kennel at all. It’s turned
out to be his piss post. I dig down into packed snow to create
a deep nest of straw for him.
Olav’s freightliner broke down with my dog food on
board yesterday on the other side of the Yukon border. He’s
a full day’s travel away from Inuvik but hitched a lift.
Everybody stops on the Dempster Highway where there’s
a vehicle breakdown. Lives could be at stake.
The plan is he’ll order new engine parts and we’ll
go back to rescue what we can with another truck and trailer
tomorrow. Apparently the ravens have already found the kibbles.
Rest day for all, except me. Ran morning and night on the
river. |
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Wednesday,
December 29th |
Up at 6am. Ran by moonlight for
an hour on the river. I couldn’t believe two riders
on snowmobiles letting off fireworks. Throwing them and setting
them off horizontally, they careered off snow and ice. Drugged
up, drunk or stupid snowmobilers I didn’t think a lot
to the performance.
Drove 230 miles in five hours down the Dempster Highway with
Carl and Olav. Crossed 58 miles down over the Arctic Circle,
crossed a time zone (Mountain to Pacific) into Yukon Territory
heading for Eagle Plains to fix Olav’s freightliner.
60mph winds made haste off the Richardson Mountains, the furthest
appendage of the Canadian Rockies. We stopped and shovelled
snow into the empty trailer. We wanted to keep the thing on
its wheels else it would have gone airborne.
Eagle Plains is the midway point between Inuvik and Dawson
City. There’s a vital complex of self-contained maintenance
shops, a motel, a diner and gas station here. They’ve
no outside supply for power, water or sewage. It’s a
remote location. Behind the gas station pay counter is a wheel
rim; a very worn one. I asked how it got like that. Apparently
some tourists burst a tyre on the Dempster Highway. Basically
the Dempster is nothing more than a wide dirt track through
wilderness. So here were tourists who apparently wouldn’t
get out of their vehicle to change their tyre for fear of
bears. They drove and shredded their tyre and proceeded to
wear down their wheel rim.
In these temperatures if you want to drive you connect your
vehicle into electricity with a power cable capable of withstanding
brutal cold. Plugged in cars here warm the engine’s
cylinder head. Else it freezes solid. Not so long ago bush
pilots drained their planes of oil and warmed it overnight
in their cabins while sleeping. Both Carl and Olav are qualified
pilots. Carl lived here for a month flying biologists around
during a caribou survey. He plugged his plane in outside his
motel room to keep the oil warm. I bought my running gear
and ran while Olav and Carl worked on the freightliner. |
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Thursday,
December 30th |
Back late evening. Dogs were excited
to see me. Unpacked some cargo from Olav’s freightliner.
Bed by12.30am. |
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Friday,
December 31st |
Ran alone this morning on the
river. Rested my dogs today while I unloaded six tons of my
dog food and supplies by hand. I ran on the river this evening
and ate well. |
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Saturday,
January 1st 2005 (New Year's Day) |
Ran for over an hour on the river.
Unloaded a ton of ground chicken meat and a ton of tripe into
a 10’x10’ cargo crate I lived in for a month before
last summer’s journey. With no run for my dogs on Thursday
or yesterday it was good to get them out for a two hour run
tonight.
Fresh snowfall and warm temperatures have created pockets
of overflow on the river. The weight of snow bows the ice
creates cracks and river water rushes to the surface. It can
have a brutal effect on the dogs’ feet when it balls
up in between their toes. This time no-ones’ performance
was hampered. Fed tripe for the first time with Nutrience
kibbles. Devoured in seconds. We won’t see the sun rise
for another week. Hence the reason for lack of pictures. |
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Sunday,
January 2nd |
I ran the dogs late afternoon
for an hour. I bought Thule inside and she slept on my bed.
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