Day 6: Feb 19, 2001

Second day at the end of the road. The new definition of primitive is not having internet access. The daily digest are being written everyday, but we are unable to transmit them. The phone system here is FM radio to LG4 where it is converted to microwave and finally regular phone lines way down south. We are going to try and experiment with the satellite phone tonight but we are doubtful, since the sat phone was a last minute addition and the system wasn�t tested before leaving.

The weather this morning was a balmy �15C or twice as warm as yesterday. We started the day with a wonderful snowshoe trek across the lake, up the mountain pass on the south side where Mickey was breaking trail in his high tech snowshoes and special hiking poles. These guy�s have taken a leisure stroll through the snow in an extravaganza of expensive special gear, while I stayed with the tried and tested old fashion wood, sinew and leather snowshoes. As opposed to yesterday�s snowmobile trek, the only sound to be heard was the creaking of the crisp snow beneath our feet. The view from the top of the ridge overlooking the lake and surrounding area in total quiet embodies the true essence of the north; complete serenity.

Now for the required Disco content, I�d like to talk about the suitability of the Land Rover as an expedition vehicle. The amount of gear required for a trip like this is quite extensive, and the Disco was able to swallow up all of it with room to spare, including a couple of nato gas cans, 5 gallon water container, more cold weather gear you can count, full camping gear, snow shoes, food, tools, recovery gear, computers, gps, camera equipment, extra fluids and spare parts; all this without a roof rack! Up to this point we have traveled over 2000KM, with most of it over ice covered roads, in snowy conditions ranging from freezing rain to �35C. The Disco�s have keep us warm, comfortable and safe with clear windshields, excellent handling and faithful starting on the coldest mornings. The only problems so far are Mickey�s Disco ran too cold on the highway, so he covered the grill with cardboard (on the inside, so the indignity of it could not be captured on film), and Ted and Mary�s developed a steering reservoir leak which was temporarily fixed with a metal collar. Considering my Disco has 150,000KM on the clock, and lots of offroad abuse it is performing it�s duty in classical Land Rover style.

While we went out snowshoeing, Ted went scouting for possible offroad trails. So after lunch we regrouped and tried the trail he found that leads to a lake. In case it wasn�t mentioned earlier, the snow around here is deeeep. Ted made it over the first snow mound and got a whole car length into the trail�. and got stuck.

Of course he�s sporting the stock Michelin tires, so Mickey thinks he�ll get further. We winch Ted out, and Mickey gives it a try, sporting his 265 mud terrains and rockware trick suspension. He gets the front wheels over the mound�

and gets stuck right there.

Well, Mickey not being the type to give up easily, decides to winch forward and try to go in further. Since there�s no tree�s available, we bring out the new toy�the pull pal. This thing is awesome! Walk up 70 feet, plant it in the snow, hook up the winch cable and pull. The pull pal dives like a submarine for about 2 feet, grabs and the Disco gets pulled forward until it's out.

We unhook the pull pal, rewind the winch cable and Mickey gives it a try�and moves forward 7 inches and gets stuck again. At this point we decide this is going to be futile so we winch Mickey out from behind. Ted�s car gets pulled forward, so we anchor my Disco to Ted�s with a strap and successfully pull Mickey out.

Off we go further down the road to spot more trails around the beautiful countryside, and spot several caribou on the road ahead. The Disco�s being a lot quieter than the snowmobile, we are able to get very close to them and get several good shots of them with the traditional camera and Mary was able to get off a shot with her digital camera from behind us. All the live pictures are courtesy of Mary and her trusty digital camera.

The small heard of 5 jumped over the side of the road into the chest deep snow and into the woods. We drove until another beautiful sunset, and headed back to base camp without finding any more offroad opportunities for today. On the way back we had another sighting of 2 groups of caribou and got to observe their unusual gate.It looks like their legs flare out sideways and then forward.

For this evening�s activity, myself, Mickey and TJ are going snowshoeing to the island close by and setup camp for the night.

Hopefully the temperature will not drop much bellow the �23C it is now, or they will come and pickup our stiff frozen body�s from the snow�. Ted wants dibs on my mitts if we don�t make it � nice.

Michel