Mighty glam furnishings inside the Arctic Circle. And as the only solo traveler amongst the wealthy, brother lucked out with his own tent. My Arctic animal: the Owl. Choice of 2 cots, both topped with sleeping bag & down quilts. Hours into my first nite, would raid covers from the spare. LOL> Crazy windy, even in the inlet. Tents well-protected from precip but found myself [in] gloves & beanie as summer night dipped near 10 degrees.
Camp generators kicked-in every morning @ 5am. Heaters blasted for an hour, taking the chill off while campers dressed, stumbled to the central lodge & community bathrooms. Lodge, big as a circus tent & heated (50 degrees) 5am to 9pm. Dining area, library, living space adorned with comfy couches & chairs. Briefing every morning detailing day’s excursion opportunities (signup first come/first served), most activities lasting 6-10 hours.
Evening meal: Guides stand & reprise excursion highlights, introducing guests & day’s top experiences. Musk ox sightings. Wolf tracks. Birding. ATV rides. Kayaking. Fishing. Canyon hikes. Waterfalls. Permafrost finds. Ocean ice-shoeing. Polar bears. In addition, camp included summer residents — scientists, photographers, float pilots & Netflix crew awaiting [breaking ice] to film season’s beluga whales 🐋
Lotta cautionary speeches/warnings & public shaming Day 2. Never EVER go on a long run pre- 5am. Diatribe probably didn’t last more than 10 minutes but mighty humiliating. Added to the love & opinion many share of Americans. So... solo traveler/solo vacation first couple of days. Kept a positive attitude, head high, eventually shed my horrible American persona.
first impressions: AMAZING DAY hike. Rugged interior/canyons. Snow-fed waterfalls. Hike athletically aggressive.
Slept hard Day 2, ‘though never managed 5am wake-up with 24-hour daylight. Would layer-up, hat/parka/gloves & sit quietly outside, soak-up ocean solitude ’til the noise of generators (smell of gasoline) denoted morning run-time again. No further drama 🙂
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- HIKE day
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- RUGGED canyons
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- snow-melt waterfall
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- Arctic Circle layered
Somerset Island Day Hike
Up-n-showered, fueled on Tim Horton’s coffee & 3 hours sleep. Ding, ding, ding. WhatsApp chat begins. Party-line for all folks traveling to Arctic Watch today. We’d fly from Yellowknife but from a local airstrip serving helicopters, float planes & private aircraft. Yellowknife, most Arctic I’d ever been. Today’s flight: 4 hours further NORTH — inside the Circle, past Resolute Bay. WOW!
Explorer Hotel lobby with my bag. Started introducing myself to others. Guide from Churchill (Canada’s polar bear capitol) corralled us together, tagged luggage, helped us board a bus.
4-hour delay… similar to my Vancouver fate nite prior. Hurry up & wait — but today, notta weather issue. Sizable # of folks never saw their bags — now 2+ days. Guess it’s common for Air Canada & because limited flights to/from NWT’s capitol, ya don’t necessarily retrieve them right away.
So first… an impromptu shopping spree at Overlander Sports. Coats, boots, spikes, poles, run shoes, fleeces — this store made a killin’! LOL> EVERYTHING needed/used/desired would be carried on today’s aircraft. Food, water, wine, fancy bourbons, cheeses. Huh? Appears I tagged a trip with the world’s über wealthy. Britain, Canada, Australia, Asia, Italy, Mexico. NO ONE concerned with card limits. Not your typical marathon crowd. Honestly, few were even aware of the run. Would take couple days to make mates. Travelling solo & of course, being American. USA, loud & proud 🇺🇸
Airstrip warehouse/terminal arrival. One last detail: COVID test. No medical on the island — & no masks! Whoop whoop! Boarded back of the plane. Sack lunch. Couple folks moved for weight distribution. And… I slept. Out cold. Bouncy rumbling dirt landing. Touchdown, ARCTIC!
Snow pack. Wind a blowin’. COLD. Reminiscent of Antarctica. Group of ATVs awaiting. Kayak crossing & a mile hike to Camp.
Arctic Watch. Without words. Absolutely incredible. Top of the world!
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- the Owl tent
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- Lodge ‘Library’ & MAPS
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- Cunningham Inlet
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- LIFE under ICE
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- SUN worshippers
Touchdown ARCTIC
Yellowknife Airport NWT
Whole lotta marathoning this year — 54 YTD — which has dominated any balance to my March rewirement. Spending the next 2 weeks settling-in with FAMILY & letting the body heal. Age a reality. Not bouncing back as quick. Extraordinary #s I’ve posted in 2024 have come with sacrifice. Hip pain/muscle injuries potentially limiting my 12-month horizon. So... gonna get quiet, enjoy New England & [o’er the next week] blog-share one of my biggest adventures from June/July 2022.
2 years ago travelled to Baffin Bay, inside the Arctic Circle. Main objective to complete a marathon in Canada’s Nunavut Territory. Quest to run all 13 Canadian provinces, similar to my 50 State USA journey. Northwest Passage Marathon is your only option to record 42K (marathon) distance in Nunavut. Scheduled every other year (half-event in Iqaluit/territory-capital but no Full). Running on frozen ocean, threat of polar bears, waiting for a weather window. HUGE life experience!
All started with a Google search, email chain/WhatsApp call while the Weber family wintered in British Columbia, then placing a trip-deposit 6 months before the world pandemic. Argh!
2020 Plan: Antarctica (North Pole) in February, Somerset Island (North Pole) in July.
2020 event cancelled, 2021 travel-restricted, 2022 my year. Denver-Calgary-Vancouver-Yellowknife. Long 20 hour day of flights, landing in NWT almost 3am. (thankfully) Luggage arrived, taxi-share with a group of fishermen. Destination: The Explorer Hotel, Yellowknife’s only lodging.
WhatsApp chat started 6am. Charter flight to Somerset Island leaves at 9. Fuel stop in Resolute Bay, then 12 days at Arctic Watch camp on Cunningham Inlet. No words, WOW!
Denver-Vancouver-Yellowknife
Resolute Bay fuel stop
