02 06 99
Position: 66° 08' 20" N 40° 46' 48° W
Diane's note: I am relieved to have heard from Laurie. Since they travelled through the night on the 31st, our communication schedule has been interrupted. The team is trying to switch back to day travel without overtaxing themselves or losing valuable time.
Elevation 6300 feet
We made camp about 12:30 am. We travelled all day because we had to wait for the storm in the morning to clear, so we set out in the late afternoon and travelled right through the night. We watched the sun go down. The next morning dawned beautifully. This was actually June 1 now, but because we've been in bed so late obviously we weren't going to get an early start. We finally got underway about 12:45.
It's our very first day with ideal conditions. The first day with no bad winds, no sudden changes in the surface, and we were able to travel a good solid day and achieved our first day of over 20 km, actually 20.1 km. That .1 km. is very important to us.
We made camp after 10:00 in the evening at 66° 11' 27" N 41° 12' 26" W at about 6700 feet. Once the sun starts going down in the evening, it is very cold indeed and we have to get our gear into our tent as quickly as we can. We are going to try and move it up a little bit so we get just a slightly earlier start each time and are able to stop earlier as well.
The surface is very rough, but quite hard so the sleds come from behind us as we haul them over a wave and when we put down the other side, the harnesses hit us in the back. Then we continue hauling and up through the next series of waves. Even though it was a rough surface it was the best surface we've had so far for travelling.
Just for interest, and I don't think I've mentioned it before, we are heading towards a place called DYE III, an abandoned DEW line site which is in direct line with us and our finish. So it is something of interest the young folk might like to follow up on... the old DEW line site, its purpose and lack of purpose at the present time.
End of transmission
For more information and pictures of the site, (DYE III), Laurie mentionned, visit:
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