Winter Diary Extract 2004 - 2005

Email from a contact in Iqualuit with three sibling Canadian Eskimo dogs for sale. Originally the brothers were bought from an Inuit gentleman by the name of Panuele Okango in Pond Inlet. Born November 17th 2003 makes them one year old yesterday. Apparently they’re all strong pullers and were harnessed for the first time last April. Getting them from Iqualuit won’t be a costly deal either. Luckily I know someone flying the route to Inuvik this year. Dogs can go as access baggage that costs a snip. If they were to go as cargo the freight cost would quadruple. The sun rose at 11.25am and set at 3.55pm, four and a half hours daylight.

I ran on the river ice this morning with Twizzle. In a few weeks I’ll harness him for the first time and take him out with the adults for a short run of less than two miles.

Ran on the river early. There’s an old native guy living in a wall tent just outside of the community. He watched me for ages before I passed him on the other side of the river. He was axing through the ice for a bucket of water.

Good two and a half hour run with the adults up river. Lots of play with the pups this afternoon. Everything now is fair game for an investigative chew, everything.

I had someone from the UK email, asking me to add my name to a petition to stop Americans in helicopters shooting wolves. I replied:

“Thanks for your 'petition email'. I'm still in the Arctic. In a week we'll see the sun for the last time, until next year. As usual every year, since the freeze-up wolves have been coming into the community here and killing dogs, even penned pups. Wolves carry rabies here and are always a potential threat in the community, especially to kids on their way to school. Alaska suffers this too.

I did notice from the most recent signatures that not a single one is from a northern state. It's very easy for someone to say ban something when the gripe doesn't affect their everyday lives. Sorry, but I won't sign the petition. I wear fur and feed my dogs seal meat and a lot of people would fail to understand that too. You've got to live here to see why”.

Gary Rolfe

A swift email reply apologized for offending me.

I don’t know what it is about dog owners and their fascination with wolves and making out they own a wolf hybrid. They used to say the ancient Inuit would stakeout their in-season bitches for a male wolf to mate with her. The reality is nonsense. Male wolves are unique in that they are only fertile at certain times of the year. Instead of a love bite a staked out bitch is likely to be eaten. And in any case any hybrid progeny make useless sled dogs. They’re antisocial and won’t breed.

Once the east channel freezes wolves hit Inuvik every winter. Soon enough rabies awareness posters appear throughout the community. I remember wolves slaughtered eighteen dogs here in the winter of 2001. Last February they were everywhere. I made a trip and I passed moose kill after moose kill. What a way for a dog to die.
 

Rested adults and took pups out individually this afternoon. More ‘sit’, ‘stay’ and for fast learning Blitz and Twizzle ‘lay down’ training. I’m so pleased and proud the way they’re going. Ran alone on the river, late, in the dark and returned to eat a huge amount of food.

Weighed everybody best I could hold them while I stepped on scale placed on a piece of plywood. Blitz weighs 31lb and Spoons 26lb.

I smear Bag Balm over my face after running alone on the river this morning. This protective gel doesn’t contain water that would otherwise freeze to my face. I apply it to the dogs too. Open wounds heal fast with it and it protects a dog’s frostbitten dick. This happens if they get an erection in the cold and keep thinking about it.

Running at - 37°C this morning I wore:

• 2 x RAB Vapour – Rise smocks, with hoods;
• 2 pairs of RAB Vapour-Rise Trail bottoms;
• 3 pairs of Horizon socks, Coolmax liners and double padded wool mix expedition socks;
• 1 pair x Outdoor Designs Summit mittens with two pairs of Summit liners, a large pair fits into an extra large pair;
• 1 x Arktis Merino wool neck and face warmer. Wool is better to breathe through and doesn’t ice-up like fleece.
• 1 x hat, trapper style with ear flaps;
• 1 x pair Asic Motivators. These trainer soles don’t crack in extreme cold. I tape over the breathing mesh and wear quality cycling overshoes.

Total weight? 10lb.
 

The river is where I continue to train to make life that little bit harder. Running on the river is several degrees colder than a shoreline trail. I cough like a smoker until air humidifies before hitting my lungs. I draw my neck warmer over my mouth to warm air quicker.

I get indoors and steam like a race-horse. Over the phone I paid for one ton of processed chicken. Judi’s husband Olav will bring this back on his return from Edmonton on his freightliner. Splitting wood tonight a piece shot into the side of my dog flight crates. It shattered like glass in the cold.

I was with Albert while he checked his net under the ice.

Tonight I begin boiling all fish catches before feeding. Everything I own smells of fish.