Daily Log - August 21, 1998

We were going to get up at around 3:00 am, but we left it up to the guides to decide. It was still too windy then, so we were able to sleep in a bit. It calmed somewhat by 7:00 am so we had breakfast, broke camp and hit the water by about 9:00 am. It got calmer and calmer throughout the day. The water right now is like glass, absolutely smooth. There's zero wind and a brilliant orange sunset. It has been just a fabulous day! There's a huge ice floe in front of me, you might call it an iceberg, but they don't have icebergs in this area. Spectacular!
Ice
THIS HUNTING SHELTER IS TYPICAL OF
THOSE TO BE FOUND ALONG THE COAST.
THEY ARE BUILT BY THE HUNTERS AND
TRAPPERS ASSOCIATION FOR THE USE OF
HUNTERS AND FISHING PARTIES.

At about noon, as we were making our way up the coast, we were invited in to a camp - there are all kinds of camps along the shore here. People leave Taloyoak for days at a time and come up and enjoy the hunting and fishing and whatnot. We were invited in over the radio. We came in and had coffee and bannock. Bannock is like a bread, made in a frying pan, about 1-2 inches thick, and it's excellent. We had our first taste of seal meat, which was strong but not unpleasant. We quite enjoyed that. And then we headed out up the coast again.

We made over 50 miles today. Right now we're nicely camped at Cape Adelaide, which is where we wanted to be - our prime spot. The boys went out hunting. I went out with Tommy and Abel, and they shot a large bearded seal out in the water, and safely brought it to shore. They were after the skins to make mukluks (boots). At the same time John MacDonald and Ron went inland with Doug, and shot two caribou. We have lots of fresh meat! We didn't do any fishing - Abel said he might do some fishing tomorrow. It would be nice to have some fresh char.

We've had a very successful day. Tommy and Abel didn't think that they would get us as far up the coast as they did, but we're very pleased to have reached Cape Adelaide. We haven't had a chance to do any searching today, but we will do that over the next two or three days. We'll do a methodical search of the area.

Ice floe in front of our camp It's about ten degrees right now, the air is still and we're very comfortable.

(Webmaster's note: I asked a question from a reader: "How do you build a 12 foot Inukshuk? How do you get to the top?" John repeated the question to the rest of the team.) (Laughter from everyone) That's a good question! We have pictures to prove it was that tall. How did they build the pyramids?...I dunno... Maybe they had ladders. We'll try to find out for you.

Is Clinton still president? What was the answer on the Quebec referendum? Will the country still be there when we get home?

John MacDonald reported that on their first hike (yesterday) they saw at least 30 tent rings. They saw another tent ring today, and a torn-down cache. The terrain is different, but as we go north it's getting to look more and more like King William Island.

The light on the phone has gone red, so we'd better quit for now. Talk to you tomorrow.


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