Our itinerary for today had us scheduled to leave Toronto for Edmonton at 8:45 am, then fly from Edmonton via Yellow Knife to Cambridge Bay at 11:40 am, arriving in Cambridge Bay at 3:30 pm. The weather when we arrived was about 10 below, hazy but sunny, with winds about 20 mph. We're staying overnight at the Co-op hotel in Cambridge Bay.

We had a "stumbling start" out of Toronto, after mentioning to one of the attendants that we had a stove in one of our packs.
"Is it new?"
"No, it isn't new."
"Well, then we've got to find it."
This caused a flight delay at the Toronto airport as they tore the plane apart to find it, which they had to do for safety reasons. In the end it turned out that there was no problem. It's a propane stove, but we do not travel with fuel, we buy our fuel after we arrive in Cambridge Bay.

Our flight to Edmonton arrived on time, and we flew out on schedule to Yellow Knife. On that flight I decided to paint up some of my log books from last year's trip to present to one of our sponsors. Since I had just picked up the books before we left, I had brought my paints along. My work caught the attention of the passenger next to me, who happened to be a CBC radio reporter. He asked about the books, and our activities, and asked to interview us. During the stopover in Yellow Knife, he got out his taping equipment and interviewed all of us. I believe the program will be on this Saturday night, (CBC 740AM) on a radio program called "After Six", at 6:00 pm.

We arrived at Cambridge Bay at about 3:30 local time, and were met at the airport by Doug Stern. It was decided just a few days ago that he would accompany us on this trip. We had met Doug up here on our first trip, in 1993, and have crossed paths with him briefly a couple of times since then. To show how small the world is, my wife Fran teaches with his brother! Doug was wearing an amazing outfit. He had a down jacket with wolverine trim added to it. It was a wolverine he had shot, with the claws still part of it, hanging around the neck of the jacket. His skin has darkened from the sun, and he was wearing sealskin boots. With his jet black hair and eyes narrowed from squinting in the sun, and he looked every part an Inuk. He will be an incredible asset to us on this trip.

We went to Doug's house. He is providing us with animal skins to sleep on. This will be much warmer and easier on our backs. He had caribou skins, musk ox skins and a grizzly bear skin. He had a grizzly come at him on the mainland a year ago and he had to shoot it. He will have lots of stories to tell, I'm sure. He will be bringing an emergency radio that will enable us to call Polar Shelf if necessary. He will also be bringing a large kitchen tent, an extra stove, and an extra gun. We should be just fine!

John MacDonald is particularly pleased with the addition of Doug to the team. He commented that, on top of being a guide who lives on the land, Doug is also interested in and knowledgeable about the history of the area.

We'll no doubt be up telling stories into the wee hours. It does get almost dark up here at around midnight. Tomorrow we expect to contact Adlair at 9:00 am and fly out in the morning to King William Island. I'll let you know if anything changes.

GETTING READY TO FLY OUT

FOR SNOWY LANDINGS

FLYING OVER CAMBRIDGE BAY

18 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 HOMEPAGE

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