Day 2 on Devon Island!
Well, I wasn't exactly "fine" in my zero-degree-mummy-sleeping-bag. It was very very cold. I don't think there was any way to be warmer, except perhaps putting a hot water bottle in with me. Someone suggested that this morning. Now, why didn't I think of that? I spent the first half hour wriggling into some extra long underwear, which I wanted UNDER the ones I had on already. That was interesting.. wriggling into my long underwear, while inside of my mummy bag. Then I decided I needed my thicker wool socks, and even that was a challenge. Then I remembered that my contact lenses were probably freezing in their case, so I dug those out and kept them in my shirt all night. I put my clothes for the next day in with me too, hoping they'd be warm in the morning, but then realized they were acting as a heat sync and taking precious heat away from ME. So I threw those clothes back out. Then I needed a pillow... Finally I was all set (but still freezing). Then I was distracted by a very strange scratching sound on my tent. Was it the doggie? Nope, it was rain! It rained all night long.
Breakfast is at 7:30AM, and I manage to make it here at 7:29, teeth brushed! Pascal was supposed to be my alarm clock, but I woke up automatically and got right out of my (still cold) bag, hoping to get my blood moving. I'm the 2nd person in the food tent, and the other one is typing on his laptop. I take this opportunity to run back to my tent and grab my laptop. We have wireless in here, and I was given the spot next to the heater. Most everyone else showed up shortly thereafter. There are twenty or so of us here. We are served scrambled eggs and toast, and anything else we want to grab from the snack table. There is coffee, tea, tang, and anything we can possibly think of to drink this morning. I am in the lap of luxury! I'm tired from my almost sleepless night in my freezing tent, but I'm hoping to do better tonight. Tonight I'll try earplugs and remember to dig out my eye mask. Maybe I'll find a bottle I can make a hot water bottle out of.
Pascal called a short meeting to get organized, and then sent us newbies off for ATV training. What fun! We only got to drive a little ways and then come back, but I'm sure we'll get plenty of chances to drive around during our stay. Then it was directly to mandatory gun training! We all get trained in the off chance that we may need to fend off a polar bear. The bears have never come to base camp, so there is really only a fear of bears when people are on a traverse. Mel, our camp cook this season, and Joe, our gun trainer, had a close call with a bear yesterday when they were fishing for Arctic Char. They were miles from camp at a lake. The bear was hiding in the water behind some ice. They saw something moving, but thought it was a duck or something small. Once the bear was in sight, Mel and Joe stood up and the bear apparently was startled and left. The were very lucky that this bear was apparently not too hungry. In our gun training we learned that the fat, happy bears will get annoyed and run away if they hear a gun shot, or even just realize the human sees them. Our guns have room for five bullets. The first three are only meant to make noise for warning shots, and the last two are real bullets. The skinny, hungry bears may keep coming after the warning shots, and we only have two real bullets to finish them off. yikes! If anyone does have to actually kill a bear, the HMP gets charged $25k. It's a sticky situation to find yourself in, and luckily no one with the HMP has had to shoot a bear, nor has anyone been eaten. Four out of five of us hit the cardboard box (our bear target, which wasn't far away), and I'm proud to say I was one of 'em! Luckily I remembered my earplugs!
It seemed like in no time it was time to eat again! There is certainly no shortage of food here, and Mel caters to the vegetarians (myself and the cameraman from Discovery Canada). We have corn and potato chowder (YUM!), Inuit fried bread, fruit salad and brownies for desert.
I had a short meeting with Pascal in the HumVee about the logistics of the video. He then showed me some video footage that I might be able to use for my music video. I don't believe we'll get to start shooting my video until later this week, or this weekend. There are quite a few projects that need to get done in a very timely manner before people leave this Wednesday and Saturday. So, I'll have a few days to finish riveting my costume, work some more on the lyrics, and create a story board for the video shoot. I'll be tagging along on other people's traverses to get a lay of the land. We aren't allowed to traverse on our own, and I don't expect that I'll be able to lead my own expedition quite yet!
After dinner we had some frosted brownie cake to celebrate Brian Glass's birthday. I did some riveting work on my video costume before retiring to my sleeping tent. It was warm tonight because I finally got my air mattress filled, and I didn't have the entire Earth acting as a heat sync like I did the night before.
Posted by Elaine at July 23, 2003 02:57 PM