Day Four: February 17, 2001

We awakened to more than minus 30 degrees celcius this morning in the hydro-electric/dam-based town of Radisson, named after one-half of the famous French explorer team of Radisson &Grossellier, early competitors to the English Hudson Bay Company. The town, founded in 1972, was established as a base for the giant hydro-electric project in northern Quebec. Radisson is also the furthest north you can drive by road, and gets you to within about 125 miles of Hudson Bay.

It is also the only non-native community in this part of Quebec.

After gassing up and breakfast and a yappy send off by the two �husky� type dogs we had literally been dogged by, we inched the half frozen vehicles onto the roadway for Le Grande Dam 4 (LG-4), for a 400 plus KM drive east to the area where the caribou are. No new snow today!

The power lines followed us all day, through this otherwise pristine wilderness. Not much traffic on this purpose-built road, only a few hunters here and there.

Again, another spectacular sunset before we arrived at our destination. Cold, very cold all day. Some switched to the arctic parkas.

On arrival at the Mirage Provisioners, where we had taken a comfortable cabin, the sign that greeted us over the door said �please remove your boots if they are bloody�. This facility is a base camp for the caribou hunters, whose season just ended a few days ago.

We are preparing tonight for long snowmobile ride tomorrow in search of the caibou, to photograph. Michael & Ted were busy comparing the qualities of Michael�s Sorel minus 100 boots as compared to Ted�s minus 100 Baffins.

Tomorrow we compare long johns !