Outside Adventure Grant journal entries

Del

The rest of the team — Hope, Tristan, Dylan, Patrick, and the Inuit who we met in Pangnirtung, Tommy Aluviluik — is shuttling our first load of gear up the valley today. I’m still in Pangnirtung.

Today at breakfast in our Overlord camp, Julia began to cry. She is so quiet that it was difficult to hear what she was saying. But her tears spoke clearly. She wanted to return to her home on Broughton Island. What a huge disappointment. Especially after Jamie left the expedition yesterday because he didn’t think that he would be able to make it. Jamie was afraid he’d quit once he got in the field. Now Julia has.

Tommy Aluviluik

No amount of discussion and encouragement from the rest of the team could change Julia’s mind. Yesterday’s six kilometer hike up to our first load carry must have been too much. Tristan explained to her that they will carry her weight. Julia’s reply was that it would still be too difficult. I said that it gets easier every day. She cried. It was clear that her mind was made up. The only good news was that we were still on the ocean within hailing distance of an outfitter’s boat that passed by this morning.

Julia and I hitch a ride back on the boat to Pangnirtung. She leaves with a part of the expedition — Timberland boots, EMS daypack, and her Patagonia jacket. Back at Pangnirtung there is sadness between us as we say good-bye. “Del, I will come to the North Pang Fjord with the outfitter on August 16th.”

“But Julia you could still hike there with us.” One last try, but she is gone before I even finish my sentence.

There will be plenty of time for the team to sort out the lessons of our attempts with these two Inuit teens. Right now, they are focusing on the expedition and our remaining Inuit companion, Tommy. But questions about Jamie and Julia are running through my mind. Did we make them feel welcome? Were we clear in describing the commitment it takes to hike across Auyuittuq Park? Could the Jacksons have spent more time in the initial interviews? Regardless, we are now a group of six. It doesn’t look like I’m going to be able to catch a boat back to Overlord tonight, so I’ll have to meet the team early tomorrow morning, before they make any major river crossings which I wouldn’t be able to do on my own. It seems that I am caught up in a time loop in Pangnirtung. Twice I tried to join our group in the field. Twice I have been delayed in town.

Four days ago, Pangnirtung was celebrating its first bowhead whale kill since 1946. There were over 230 strips of baleen in its jaw. The elders of this hamlet were given a pair each. A few days ago, we feasted alongside the rest of Pangnirtung’s residents on a 40-foot long table covered with whale blubber. Older Inuit women dressed in traditional clothing cut the skin off the blubber. The black skin, high in Vitamin C, is the prime cut.

Today, there is a more modern celebration in progress. The cargo ship Alvit is in the bay. All day, D-9 tractors unload freight. Julia had told me that the kids in Pangnirtung are happy because this is the first cargo in three months and now the Northern store will have Pepsi again.

Walking through the docks, I see supplies everywhere — a car, a boat, tools, a new prefab home, insulation stacked 15 feet high. All of this is piled up where the whale feast was just a few days earlier. I wonder how many people here have noticed that fiberglass insulation and bowhead whale blubber are the same color? Both serve to keep Inuit families warm ... And today for me they represent all that is the new Nunavut territory.

Tristan

July 29, 1998 — Auyuittuq National Park Day 2 of trek
Another tragedy struck today. All started well-breakfast at seven and we were all ready to load up the packs and start hauling our loads north when Julia surprised us all by announcing that she didn't want to go on. We all tried to convince her to stay, but her mind was made up. Yesterday's walk, she said, was too much. And while we volunteered to carry part of her loads, we knew that there were much harder hikes to come. The tough part now was evacuating her from the park. We called a boat on the emergency radio and Del ended up going into Pangnirtung with Julia. Our plan is to chill for the day and be ready to go whenever Del can make it back from Pangnirtung — hopefully tonight or tomorrow morning.

Toward evening, a 30-knot wind kicked up and there was no sign of Del. Somewhat discouraged by the loss of another member of the team and the ensuing delay, we all retreated back to our tents early. Only Tommy, who we didn't know anything about till we got here, is left to represent the Inuit.

August 12, 1998 — Auyuittuq National Park
Today we left our camp set-up and went for a side hike up June Valley. We hiked about four miles in and 2,000 feet up. Early this morning during breakfast, we saw five lemmings in a mound of turf. They were eating seeds and completely oblivious to us. Great entertainment. They are smaller than I though, the largest not clearing three inches and the smaller ones looking like gray golf balls. How they escaped from being called voles, I'm sure I don't know. Aside from color, I fail to see the difference. In the drier parts of the marsh are crowberries by the thousand. Yesterday, we picked several cups of them. Today we picked another quart on our way back. These are one of the only edible plants up here. The only other things we have eaten are blueberries and mountain sorrel. We haven't seen a live snow owl that is the namesake of the Owl river that we're following towards the ocean. However, we did find a dead one on the hill today. In June valley we found at least 20 caribou antlers. They lay randomly on the ground and appeared to have been shed naturally. I would like to see this place when all of the caribou "without number" were here.

Hope

July 30, 1998 — Auyuittuq National Park
It is very windy today. The worst is when the trail is sandy. Today we got sandblasted the whole way. It really hurts to be hit in the face by sand flying at 40 miles per hour. We crossed the Arctic Circle today and also got to see Shwartzenbach Falls, an 1,800-foot waterfall that lies right on the Arctic circle. There is lots of grass and fireweed here and on the way to our cache at Windy Lake. We are surrounded by cliffs and mountains. The lowest mountains are about 1,500 feet, the highest 6,000 feet. [Don't forget that the team is seeing these mountains from not far above seal level.] I've never seen a place like this before.

July 31, 1998
We figured that the wind is now steady at about 45-50 knots with gusts up to 70 miles per hour. That's the strongest wind I've ever been in and at times it stops me in my tracks. We planned to shuttle and cache our food again, but it is to windy to walk right now! We will have to shuttle our first load tomorrow morning. We are at Windy campsite. We should be at Summit Lake in five days. I cannot believe tomorrow is August. July just flew by. It's hard to believe that we are actually here, in the park on Baffin Island. Dreams do come true!

August 1, 1998
Today we had a great hike — carrying our food cache from Windy lake campsite to Thor peak campsite. The wind has died down considerably since yesterday and the sun even came out for a few minutes today! Thor is incredible. The face is over 5,000 vertical feet. Through binoculars we saw a climber about half way up. Without binoculars, all we could see was a tiny black speck. What a crazy thing to be hanging on for dear life. That climber must of had quite a time yesterday with the wind.

August 3, 1998
My lips are chapped. I have huge bruises on my hips from my pack, and my back hurts. I'm having a great time.

Today was another cache carry day. We crossed two small rivers and stopped before a bigger one that we will cross in the morning when the glacially fed river is running lower. The weather was perfect today, clear and sunny. It was amazing to see Thor from this side. The front is a sheer cliff that goes straight down to the valley floor. The back drops down halfway before jutting out.

August 6, 1998
We have made it to our half way point. Summit Lake camp site. It was wet, foggy, and dreary all morning. We took a rest day and I spent lots of time sleeping, reading, and resting. I have lost total track of time up here. It is 10:15 PM now, but if you looked outside you would never be able to guess that. It's hard enough remembering what month and day it is, let alone the time.

August 7, 1998
It was clear and sunny when I got out of the tent at 5:00 am. Today I am the one who has to drag myself out of bed to start the tea water while everyone else gets to take their time getting up. It is really hard to leave the warm sleeping bag on these cold Arctic mornings. Today we hiked to Turner glacier from Summit Lake. It was pretty amazing: We passed a blue, blue pond, a red dirt mountain, and walked over a huge glacier.

August 9, 1998
Today Del and Patrick hiked before us again. They were gone by 6:30 am. They say they like hiking in the morning because of the light and because they naturally get up so early, but I'm not sure they aren't just trying to lose us. Either way, I like hiking by ourselves, because it feels like the four of us are totally on our own. Which is usually pretty much true.

Today we hiked up and down, up and down, over big old glacial moraines for five and a half miles. A few times we would stop and say "Tommy, where in the world are we?!?" Tommy would whip out his map and say, "I think I've got it. Yep, we're on Baffin Island!" But Dylan, Tristan, and I disagreed. We thought it looked a lot more like Mars than Earth. And it did. We are surrounded by huge piles of rock and sand and mountains and these strange aqua blue ponds.

Dylan

August 17, 1998
The last day in the park. Everyone's quiet. It's a beautiful day, very still and calm. We arrived at our pick-up point on the 15th after a very short hike. The last two days of walking were easy. We stopped often to pick blueberries. Food was running low but the weather was nice and this side of the fjord is beautiful. Near one of the last camps we found fox prints in the river mud. There's a cabin on the shore here. Three wardens had been dropped here on the 15th to do a six day traverse of the park to study human impact. They are friends of Tommy and they gladly gave us some extra food they had brought with them. We are alone today because Del and Patrick got a ride to Broughton Island yesterday. A boat was supposed to pick up two hikers who didn't show up so they were happy to take Patrick and Del.

August 18, 1998
We have been in the park exactly three weeks and we are all eager to get the boat to Broughton. The boat was hours late, but when it arrived, it was obvious why. There was a seal draped over the stern and another in plastic bags on the deck. The ride was only an hour and a half long. I would love to come back here someday just to spend some time on the water among the fjords. We crossed the Davis strait and below huge jagged cliffs, dodging through the occasional iceberg. The water was a jade blue and if it hadn't been freezing, it would have reminded me of the tropics. Del was waiting for us in Broughton with Julia and a crowd of her friends. They took us out to the campground where we set up our tents. It's not far from the fuel tanks. A tanker from Oslo was filling up when we came in. Once we set up, we jogged back into town where I had my first junkfood and coffee in three weeks.