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Stuck in the Woods!
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We are enjoying Bob's great company and top notch cooking! |
Date: 02.16.03
Position: 55:51.95 N 92.05 W Shammattawa, Manitoba, Canada
Weather Conditions: Clear and crisp -32F/-35CThe northern lights are dancing, you can feel the hairs in your nose freeze and we are learning new phrases in Cree language. We have finally come to the north though we are not as far north as we had hoped to be. We have only been able to truck as far as the community of Shamattawa in Manitoba. We have been very fortunate to have a terrific host here in Shamattawa. Bob at the A1 camp took us in, letting us stay in his trailer. |
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| Shamattawa is Cree for "Big Fork" which makes sense since the community of 800 people is placed on the east bank of the God's River at the fork of the Echoing River. We - Mike, Paul, Dan, Mille AND the dogs - were all VERY happy when we finally arrived here late two nights ago after a bone-breaking trip up the brand new - and let us tell ya' - barely finished winter road. Well, finished is truly not quite the right term considering it is actually only half done. The other half which was supposed to take us to Fort Severn, for our planned departure by dog team from there, is still barely even started! Let's just say the NOMADS team has been thinking, sleeping and dreaming winter road for the last week. At 5 to 15 miles an hour max the trip up the winter road was a REAL adventure. |
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With three huge dams on the Nelson River, Gillam is known as the "Hydro Town." Most of the hydro electricity produced by these dams is actually sold to the United States. So all the power lines you see on this picture run from here all way down to the States - maybe straight to you power outlet. Imagine that! |
The last time we checked in with you we were in Winnipeg, setting out for Thompson and then onto Gillam which is the last community at the end of the all-year-road system. Everything went very smoothly but, there was some tension in the air with Paul and Mille trying to get a handle on the winter road situation, knowing the expedition was getting delayed for departure by the minute. Driving into Gillam and meeting with our good friend, the Mayor Dennis Soloway, we still really did not know what to believe about the winter road ahead. We were pretty sure the 120 miles of winter road from Gillam to Shamattawa was open, but depending on who we spoke with the last leg from Shamattawa to Fort Severn: had been open for days...was almost ready to open...or the worst case, was not even started yet! Unfortunately the last situation turned out to be the truth. |
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It was with mixed feelings that we waved goodbye to our truck drivers Mike & Dan as they took off to bring the truck back to Base Camp in Grand Marais. The reality was that we could not truck all the way to Fort Severn but a big "thank you" goes to both of them for all of their help. |
Paul and Mille are very bummed by the news since it means changing our route. Dog sledding from Shamattawa to Fort Severn will now add another 180 miles to our expedition which to begin with was to total about 600 miles. On top of that, because we have had to wait for the winter road, we are about 5 days delayed departing on the trail. This all means that instead of covering 600 miles in 5 weeks, we would now have to cover 800 miles in 4 weeks! Originally our plan was to travel an average of 20 miles a day. Even if we average 30 miles a day, that schedule will not allow us to spend time in any of the communities along the way. Since that is a very important part of why we are out here to begin with, we have decided to shorten the expedition on the other end, allowing us to do our job right! |
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| So get out your map and trace the new route...we are now setting out to travel here from Shamattawa to Fort Albany as our final destination. To begin with this makes for very different and a little slower travel. Leaving from Fort Severn would have meant traveling along the coast of Hudson Bay on hard blown surface where it is "easy" for the dogs to pull the sleds. Now we will set out traveling on the "winter-road-to-be" through the trees all the way to the coast. Even though the trees are not big around here, being so close to the "tree line", it still makes for deeper snow and softer surfaces. The Komatek sleds we brought are not the best for that kind of travel but we are sure the mighty Polar Husky gang will get to work and get the job done! |
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Traveling in the northern part of the boreal forest the trees are getting smaller and smaller. This tree Mille is comparing to the size of her thumb could be pretty old even though it is a midget! |
The good part is we may see a lot of animals. On our bumpy way driving here in the truck from Gillam we saw lots of tracks - moose, wolf and tons of snow hare. We may have actually seen a wolf already. We are not sure. Mike was driving the truck, Paul and Dan were sound a sleep and Mille was on the computer when all of a sudden Mike said, "Mille, there is a dog." Sure enough when Mille looked up she saw something running down the side of the road straight at the truck but considering we were driving in the middle of nowhere it didn't make sense for it to be a dog. As we passed a few feet from it, it seemed smaller than a wolf; more the size of a coyote. But that couldn't be either since we were already too far north for coyotes to be hanging around. Both Mille and Mike were so stunned we forgot to take a picture. When we pulled into Gillam we had lunch with Dennis and another friend, Thomas, who happened to have flown into town that day. Thomas is a much respected interpreter from Rankin Inlet which is an Inuit community much further north where Paul and Mille went on an expedition 2 years ago. To our surprise, they told us it probably was a coyote! |
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We saw tons of tracks driving up the winter road, here are some big snow hare tracks. |
Beginning last winter many people have spotted coyotes as well as white tailed deer much further north than normal. These two animals did not used to be able to survive in the cold harsh conditions of the sub arctic but it looks like that is changing as the climate is altering. Thomas told us of many other changes they are seeing in the animal populations lately. There is a small type of ground squirrel the Inuit call the "sik-sik" that has adapted to survive the cold winter by hibernating from late October to late spring. This year sik-siks were seen running around as late as the beginning of December! Paul just read in the paper yesterday about biologists here in Canada who found that red squirrels have changed genetically to deal with the warming climate over the last ten years. They even breed earlier in the year now than just 10 years ago! What time of the year the squirrels breeds or that the coyotes are moving north may not seem like a very big deal to us humans, but think about it. It means that there are big changes going on around us. If the changes are already affecting the animals, it will not take long before we humans will be affected as well.To share your thoughts about biodiversity and threatened species, visit this week's discussion boards. Then, participate in the "Threatened Species" chat on Thursday, February 20th with Base Camp team member Eric Larsen and expert Andy Larsen - Retired Director Emeritus of Riveredge Nature Center in Milwaukee, WI. |
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This week’s Polar Husky Superstar Aksel is the main lead dog on the expedition. |
Oh well, hopefully Timber is up for some serious polar bear alertness! It does not do us much good to get to worried. For now we are just concentrated on heading out of town tomorrow, taking the right turns around house corners, making it onto the trail and then full speed ahead.Very much of how we handle the job will be up to this week’s Polar Husky Superstar, Aksel, the oldest and most experienced lead dog on this expedition. Aksel can be an excellent lead dog with a lot of confidence and strength, but he can also be very stubborn if he does not agree on the direction we ask him to go. Since we arrived here he has been constantly slipping his collar, so he already knows his way around Shamattawa - running around town having loads of fun! |
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Flicka, has been having a blast around Shamattawa with Erica and other new friends. |
His partner in action is the second Polar Husky Superstar of the week, Flicka. A very gentle and kind young lady, she just loves to play and being next to Aksel on the stake-out chain, she apparently has learned a trick or two. Flicka now has a whole gang of doggy friends in town that she happily entertains by throwing plastic bags around, playing hide-and-seek and treating to a share of her food! Flicka’s kind nature has also helped her to make lots of friend with the kids around Shamattawa. |
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