Jan 11 2011
Day: 2
Camp: 2
Location: N 53 05’ 02” W 98 52’ 02.4”
Distance: 16.5km approx
WX: – 25 deg overnight -13 daytime high, light North West breeze 6km
Travel Time: 5hrs 43mins
Long sleep last night, we slept in a bit late, up at 7:45am. Tent was quite frosty this morning and even with the VBL and a bivy pulled on over half way I still had frost some how on the outer layer of my bag? Maybe the only way to go is with a huge over bag, also the collar of my bag was iced up from my breath. I sweated my ass off last night so much that I couldn’t sleep most of the night but I was afraid to peel back my VBL and get my bag damp, especially so early on in the trip. Got down to -25 deg last night with no real wind only the odd gusts. I worried all night about the dog “Frisky Dingo” and if he would still be alive? He was up and at her as soon as I was out of the tent, he was all frosted up and had slept the night curled up in a ball on top of the bag on my sled. I gave him some sesame snaps; G.OR.P and some dry Mr Noodles for dinner. Amazing how much energy he has. I’m going to have to feed him now and see how long he survives.
Weather was good today, light icy snow in early am, the sun was out on and off, slightly overcast and dark at times. Mix of ice conditions, snow was not to deep, some spots were glare ice with a light dusting of snow on top, barely enough to grip with your skis to move forward. We would also pass huge fields of busted up ice blocks which we would have to navigate through, at the same time stabbing at the ice with our poles to make sure it was solid. We came across some long ice ridges and some big pressure cracks, no open water today. Hard to distinguish land features as the scale is so big everything just blends together and nothing looks as it seems. We could see land unfold 16km away; we have now passed Horseshoe Island and are camped in the vicinity of Sturgeon Pt.
Tomorrow we hope to get out earlier as to put in a longer day and hopefully hit our first 20km day, it is a lot more work then anticipated by Marc and Neal but this is roughly what I had calculated as for as progression for the first few days moving at approx 3.5km an hour. We have dialed in our camp set up even better tonight working together to get the tent up, kitchen set, ice busted up for cooking and our beds set up (we just leave our foam pads and sleeping bags in the bivy sack and fold it up on top of our sleds) fast pack up in the am, fast set up in the pm. I think we can be out earlier tomorrow as tonight we have pre prepped our sleds, packed our lunches or multiple snacks, boiled our drinking and breakfast water and breakfast food is prepped and ready to go.
