Finished?
I competed the third hard day walking across the frozen lagoons, bays and rivers of the Arctic Ocean.
My guide, Curt Lemen of Barrow, has a specially equipped truck for enduring the bumps, crevices, and snow drifts which block the slippery ice bound surface.
After 5.5 hours I have now walked a total of 42.6 miles while fighting high winds, surviving three falls and keeping a frightened eye out for hungry Polar Bears and wolves.
Surprisingly with my Alaska parka, insulated pants, lined boots, thermal under ware, two wool hooded shirts and ski goggles I was never really cold.
Today it took 5 hours to drive to the only lodging back at Barrow. At that point my guide now with a damaged vehicle and concerned for our safety and a possible approaching blizzard, asked to quit. All things considered I reluctantly agreed.
Fascinating People
As always the people of Alaska were as intriguing as the magnificent landscape. The grandfather of my guide’s wife was born in New York. His whaling ship got stuck in the ice; her granddad then struggled to shore, married a beautiful Eskimo girl, made a lot of money, and never returned to the Big Apple.
On Sunday an Eskimo named Billy joined us. “My granddad was fishing when the plane carrying the famous Americans Will Rodgers and Wally Post’s plane crashed in the ocean”, he said. “Granddad ran 13 miles back to Barrow to get help. Later they named the fire house after him.”
Still on the move
Even though my mileage was small it all counts toward my attempt to become the first, crazy, person to walk from Point Barrow to the southernmost point in the U.S. at Key West, Florida. Step by step over the last three years I have now walked1,335 miles along the route. There are only 4, 588 miles to go! With warmest [?] regards
{Note to reader: This stage actually took place in March 2009. I adjusted the year on the blog inorder to provide a cohesive north to south story]