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From Go Go to Slow-mo
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"Red" found a new gang of friends in the Polar Huskies AND as a bonus there seemed to be lots of food to share! So he and his friends, "Princess" and "little one", set out from Shammatawa to follow us along on the trail! |
Date: 02.22.03
Position: 55.46N 89.31W Lake Pemechekamak, Ontario NAN
Weather Conditions: Clear and crisp -32F/-35COur grand departure leaving Shamattawa went flawlessly - and very fast! As we told you in last week’s report, we were quite nervous after we had scouted the route out of town. We realized that in order to get to the winter road, we would have to run down a trail alongside main street, go through a couple of intersections (left turns, too!) and then the true test - after traveling on a trail that went behind a bunch of houses, we would need to climb a row of large snow banks before finally turning left on the "winter-road-to be". This may not sound complicated but be assured that 11 top-tuned, bored Polar Huskies pulling a 1000 lb. sled can make that little jaunt quite the adventure! And if you add to the cocktail a gang of local dogs who had taken to the Polar Huskies like their own family (of course, they were encouraged by Flicka and Aksel), the chances for a GRAND departure were very likely! |
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| Not wanting to make the departure TOO spectacular, we decided to do our best to take charge of the situation. Instead of both of us hitching the dogs and taking off together, we split the teams up. We loaded both sleds, and hitched Paul's team with Aksel in lead, leaving Mille's team to sit on the stake-out chain. Then, we both jumped on Paul's sled and headed through town. This way one of us could run out in front of the team if needed, while the other could hang on to the sled. The plan was then to tie off Paul's sled and dogs at the "winter-road-to-be snow banks" where our host, "Bob", would be parked in his van to pick us up and run us back to Mille's team. Thanks to a terrific job steering through town as real pros, Aksel and Mille's lead dog, Freja, put our worries to complete shame! (But better safe than sorry, eh'?) Setting off on the "winter-road-to-be" - which the winter road crew "Knox brothers" had just begun working on that same morning - we waved good-bye to Shamattawa. We both felt pretty much in control but quickly realized that we were not too be in control for long. The two 14 ft. Komatek sleds were taken over by Polar Husky speedmania! |
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Paul grew up with the business of machinery, so he loves heavy equipment. Here he is on top of a CAT Challenger, one of the machines the Knox brothers are using to build the winter road. Pictured with Paul are Steve Knox and Sammy Gros who are in charge of making this section of the road. |
The beginning of the ride on the winter road was nerve-wracking. The hard-packed, slick surface resulting from the bulldozers breaking in the road meant that the dogs were able to run as fast as they wanted! With no actual breaks on the Komatek sleds, our only tool of control the first many miles was our voices. We threw our bodies over the sled load, clung on to the sleds for life, and hollered "whoaa"! Mille, who was running second team (and has not lost a team for many years), lost her team twice! At one point she literally fell backwards off the sled as the team burst into an insane sprint. Then when Mille's team caught up with Paul's team, a massive pile-up would result. Having had enough, Mille dug out a large chain brake (an 8 ft. chain folded with two pieces of rope on each end) that is normally used to slow the sled going down steep mountainsides. She wrapped it around the front of the sled runners so it would drag on the ground. The brake did not exactly stop her team but it at least it brought their speed down to a more manageable level. Of course, as a result of flying along on a hard-packed surface we were able to make excellent time. At times we would actually catch up with the road crew with their big machinery and pass them. After the pass, we would have to run in deep soft snow but then they would soon catch up to us, pass us and - do you get the picture? Very quickly we decided to leave a little bit later everyday allowing the road crew to get ahead and make the trail. This meant less work for the dogs and about the same mileage as we would cover otherwise. |
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With all this talk about winter and ice roads - Paul is very fittingly reading the book, "Ice Road"! We did not enjoy some parts about being on a road-in-the-making. |
Traveling through a landscape dotted with lakes, marshes, and bogs it was pretty disturbing to see firsthand how the "ground" was being torn up and shaped into a winter road by the bulldozers. They operate with a similar force as the glaciers did 20,000 years ago - making this landscape what it is today. The only Polar Husky not enjoying the journey on the winter road was Spank. Running on a hard surface at high speed means a lot of pounding on muscles and joints, which is of course especially hard on the older dogs. And to begin with Spank, who is a 4-wheel-drive-low-speed kind of dog, has never really been one to enjoy high speed. On the second day tearing down the road, it became obvious something more than the speed was bothering him. On an expedition two years ago he was injured in the joint of his front left leg. The injury did not seem to bother him in training this past year but now with the hard running he was definitely developing a limp. If a dog has a problem one option is to have them ride on the sled. Spank however is a VERY proud Polar Husky and did not think that this was a good idea, although he finally gave in. Actually, we think he almost took a liking to it as he began to sit with a "king-of-the-hill" attitude overlooking the action on the sled. |
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Everything gets brittle in the cold. Taking down camp on Husky Lake we unfortunately broke a tent pole! |
Spank’s attitude changed once we ran out road.You see, the Knox brothers were only responsible to make the road within Manitoba, which is the first 55 miles of the 180 miles to Fort Severn in Ontario. The last 125 miles of the road on the Ontario side are made by a crew from Fort Severn. Hearing lots of rumors but no hardcore facts, we could not get a good idea of how that crew had gone and we knew they continued to experience a lot of delays. On Wednesday night we reached "the end of the Knox road". Camping on Husky Lake, right on the border between the two provinces, we could see the opening in the trees ahead where the road was to be... and we could see very deep snow. We were in for a BIG wake up call! Instead of running on a road, we now had to plow our way through deep snow! This change cut our speed about in half. It was like going from 60 mph to 30 mph in an instant (remove the zeros and you have our actual speed!). But Spank loved the change! He was in charge again, being the dog with the power to start the sled, barking at the young guys to get to work! |
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| And we all did work. The big Komatek sleds really sunk into the snow, making for a sharp contrast to our previous days of travel. Sure, at times when we were flying down hills, zigzagging wildly from side-to-side (and once flipping one of the sleds 180 degrees in the air so it landed upside down!!), we had been crying for slower conditions. But now the pace was a little too slow! At least finding our way was not an issue with a large clear cut in the landscape from where the road had been previous years. And that was good, because we do not have any maps of the area with which to navigate ! As you know we did not plan to travel this section by dogsled at all, so we did not bring maps that cover it. The maps we use are on the scale 250,000:1 which give us a lot of detail but much like the natives, we always pay close attention to land features. We were truly traveling the old fashioned way, simply experiencing the landscape as we traveled through it without knowing what was ahead. We both have to admit it was a strange feeling. Even though we had a clear path to follow, psychologically not being able to set a goal for the day was difficult . |
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Aaron's GPS shows us our location on a map! The line down the middle of the view is the Manitoba / Ontario border. The arrow is where we were located on Husky Lake. |
Normally in these conditions we would be looking to camp on lakes as it is a lot easier and faster than wading through waist deep snow to set up the tent and tie up the stake-out chain for the dogs. Instead of following a plan, we had to go with the flow and travel with our minds open to whatever the land had to offer ahead. Of course we did record our GPS position every night anyway so we could keep track of our approximate mileage and direction. And we did find a really smart feature on Aaron's GPS (which we already have with us) which can at least show us where we are related to the coastline! - According to the ol' plan Aaron was suppose to join us out here on the trail next week, but with the route change he will probably be joining us towards Attawapiskat. We will have to make Fort Severn before we know much about our plans, though. So far we have had to take it one day at a time in order to stay sane. |
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With the temperature at minus 40 below, last night was a cold one. The ice built up on the tent wall behind Mille while she was writing. |
Knowing we needed to take a rest day, both so the dogs could rest and we could write and send the update, our plan was to camp in the woods (out of the way of the road) in the hope that the bulldozers would be making it our way! Shortly before time to call it a day yesterday, we met a trapper from Fort Severn, Jim, who was out on snowmobile checking his trap-line for marten. We have seen so many marten tracks we figured he must have trapped quite a few. He did -- 175 marten so far this year!!! Jim also brought us great news. The winter road crew was only 5 km away! Pedal to the metal - at 3 miles an hour - we very fittingly crossed paths with the first sign of the road as we came out onto Pemechekamak Lake - which the Fort Severn road crew later told us means "Cross Lake". The real reason it is named Cross Lake is because it lines up exactly east/west so the sun rises on one end, travels across and sets on the other! |
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| Full speed ahead, with about 80 miles to go, we should be able to reach Fort Severn in 3 days. We will keep our eye to the horizon because once we see a huge wind generator, we have been told there will be only 30 miles left. For years we have been talking about how we could utilize the big winds of Hudson Bay for something positive by putting wind generators on our sleds!! Looks like Fort Severn beat us to it! Join team member Aaron in the "World Resources" chat this week on Wednesday, February 26th. To share your thoughts about the importance of natural resources and how we use them, visit this week's discussion boards |
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This week’s Polar Husky Superstar, Terex, showed a hardcore work ethic all week pulling the sled through deep snow using his great chest power. |
We can't wait to see the wind generator, Fort Severn and the coast of Hudson Bay, but first the dogs are enjoying their day off and we are about to feast on to great big T-bone steaks given to us by the Fort Severn road crew. Yummy!Who really deserves big bones are this week’s Polar Husky Superstars, Terex and Ginger! Along with Spank on Mille's team, Terex showed the way with high spirit and sheer pulling power as he used his broad chest and immense power to break loose the sled again and again. |
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This week’s other Polar Husky Superstar, Ginger, did a great job keeping her spirit high and her tugline tight as she had her first encounter with really deep snow and heavy loads. |
On Paul's team, puppy Tucker really impressed us but the star still goes to our soft-mannered Ginger girl. This is the first time Ginger ever really experienced deep snow and hard, hard work - and she stood up to the challenge, pulling with all her might while keeping a positive attitude. Way to go girl!
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