Storyline: Dogsledding Nunavut Apr. 2000
Introduction
In August 1998 I spent twelve days in the arctic, hiking with my sister and her family in the area around Pond Inlet in northern Baffin Island and on Bylot Island. This second trip to the Arctic was my attempt to learn more about this part of Canada, and to experience it in a different season.
In the days before online travel agencies, Google, Wikipedia, etc. had caught on, it was still possible to do a reasonable amount of research online. Lonely Planet had a TV show documenting a dogsled trip from Iqaluit, capital of the new territory of Nunavut (which had formerly been part of the country’s Northwest Territories) across the Meta Incognita to the hamlet of Kimmirut (“The Heel”) on the south shore of Baffin Island overlooking the Hudson Strait. I looked up the outfitters who had transported the show’s host on this trip and was fascinated with the result. NorthWinds Expeditions, headquartered in Iqaluit, was then owned by renowned husband and wife Arctic explorers Paul Landry and Matty McNair. Matty had led the first ever all-female expedition to the geographic North Pole (read about it here). She and her co-leader Denise Martin, had been the only two women who had made the entire trip. Others in the expedition were brought in and taken out on a relay system. Figuring that it would be reasonably safe with leaders of this pedigree, my spot was soon reserved for a five-day round trip from Iqaluit across Frobisher Bay, onto the Meta Incognita.
The following series of posts is from my journal of that trip, edited a bit, and recast from the present to past tense.
Sunday April 23, 2000—8:05 a.m.
Months of planning and wishing and excitement finally wound down to the big day. I was on a FirstAir 727 en route from Ottawa for Iqaluit via Montreal and Kuujjuak. I’d never been to Kuujjuak before, so I was interested in seeing a new place, even if only for a short time. Kuujjuak lies south of the base of Ungava Bay in Nunavik—the northern part of the province of Quebec. The hour-long layover in Montreal allowed FirstAir to take on several huge pallets of cargo—the plane was configured for more cargo space than passenger space—there were only seven rows of seats, room for 42 passengers, although safety regulations limited actual seating to 36 as several of the emergency exits were blocked by the cargo bulkhead.
For the rest of the flight, I studied my dog team commands…I was anxious to get out onto frozen Frobisher Bay and onto the snow-covered Meta Incognita (Unknown Limits) Peninsula. We’d had very little evidence of winter in Toronto that year. By the time March rolled around, winter was pretty much over. It was even looking warm in the forecast for Iqaluit, with a high of -2°C predicted for Wednesday. For my arrival on Sunday the forecast high was -8°; a nice, comfortable temperature, although the First Officer told us it was about -18° that morning.
I was met at the airport in Iqaluit shortly after noon by Denise Martin who was be the guide for me and three other fearless adventurers. According to the itinerary, we were to get oriented that afternoon, and take a short familiarization run with the dogs. The next day, Monday, we were heading off across Frobisher Bay and beyond. We were to return on Friday and I was to fly home late Saturday. Here’s an excerpt from the tour introduction provided by NorthWinds, the tour company:
The keys to a rewarding dog sledding experience are a well-trained team and the rapport you develop with this team. The dogs will judge their relationship with you based on respect, consistency, trust and fun. These Canadian Inuit Dogs do not suffer fools easily! You are the “leader of the pack”. A good leader must communicate clearly and effectively what you expect of them. You need to do this verbally with words, tone of voice, with body language, and sometimes physically. Be consistent. When you give a command, make sure that they follow your orders or else! After a long hard day, thank them for a job well done, feed them, brush them and have fun with them.
‘Til then it was time to relax, enjoy and anticipate. There’d plenty of time for terror….
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