| Day #63 Sunday
August 11th, 2002 Cold you say? Well, we got up at 6:00 and when we left I had
on my heavy fleece underwear, a pair of wind pants and
gortex pants on my bottom half and all of that was hidden
under the spray cover. The top half was a tee shirt,
undershirt, windshell, gortex and a toque with earflaps.
On top of this I wore my lifejacket all day. I was still
cold long past noon when it started to warm up a bit.
Anyway, as to the here and
now. It cleared off all afternoon until now at 7:00 it is
just about nice. Not quite but just about. Of course, who
knows in this country? Is it any wonder that a
sociologist I read about described the Inuit in the 1930s
as the world's only true existentialists? What would be
the point in making any plans in this country?
We saw several more tundra
swans and the caribou are back. We stopped at one spot
and saw 16 all within close range.
The morning was hideous
with a big wind in our face across Ranger Seal Lake. Huge
waves - 2 1/2 to 3 foot and more- and it seemed to take
forever. But then we hit the river and the wind started
to back off a bit and we flew. We are now within 15 miles
of salt water.
Two big rapids today. Both
were ledges that involved a lot of ferrying from side to
side. A ferry here from side to side is a long way.
Easily 1/2 kilometer and more. When we slipped past the
ledges I got that "Oh, my God, if you ever fell into
that, you'd be toast!" feeling. The river is huge
and in places it feels like you are on lake. Then you
look at the GPS and see that you are going 6 to 7 mph.
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