Daily Log - July 22, 1997

We moved camp today, and are now heading south toward Cape Crozier. Our new camp is located at North 69 degrees 13 minutes by West 99 degrees 29.54 minutes. (GPS - Global Positioning System)

We travelled about 10 miles today. As well as carrying full backpacks weighing about 50 lbs, we are also taking turns pulling a "rickshaw" full of gear. It is working "just fine".

John and Derek pulling the rickshaw, heading toward Cape Crozier.

It is nearly 10:00 pm here, and the weather is brightly sunny and clear with a slight breeze. The temperature is about 7 degrees Celsius. We are very thankful for the breeze. The leeward sides of the tents are covered with mosquitos, but the breeze offers some relief.

We experienced heavy fog last night, and very nearly spent a cold night on the open tundra. We had set up camp and then explored about 8-10 miles beyond. Dense fog rolled in and surrounded us, and we got disoriented. The battery on our GPS was low and we had difficulty getting proper readings to find our way back to the camp. The terrain is almost featureless - it was pretty scary.

To answer the e-mail question about the terrain: the topography is basically "flat as a pancake" and very smooth, although there are "rills" from 6 - 10 feet high containing larger stones. We had to cross a few of these today. Generally, the surface is covered with sharp, loose, broken rock - much like walking on broken china. It is very sharp, and if you did not have heavy boots it would certainly cut through the soles and cut your feet.

We did not find any Franklin sites today. Derek managed to get close to three caribou, and got some good pictures.

Fortunately, the transmission tonight is clear, perhaps the problem last night had something to do with the weather. We will reach the cache by tomorrow, and will have the solar charger. We are also looking forward to the fresh vegetables and apples which we left there. The cache is about six miles beyond Cape Crosier. Since Cape Crosier is a significant landmark, we expect to spend a considerable amount of time in that area doing a thorough search, looking for a cairn.


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