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the smooth surface in the morning.' But then, when we woke up this
morning, everything had changed. The smooth surface of the after-
noon before had become pitted with pressure ridges thrust up in the
night. The whole landscape had changed.
Brooke and Dillon have been sending me texts asking me what
it's like, and I've been telling them everything is fine. I haven't men-
tioned the pain and the cold and the wind and the pressure ridges, or
the ominous polar bear tracks I've seen. No point in worrying them.
This is so damned hard
. There's only one solution to end the hard-
ship: get to Canada.
aPril 16
The day began sourly. Our gear took longer than expected to dry out,
and we were ten minutes late starting off. Lately, Eric has been playing
the sergeant major. I think the equipment failure, seven broken bind-
ings and Clark's damaged kayak are on his mind. To top things off, our
billy has a hole in the bottom, caused by continual crashing against
ice platforms. Eric is spending two hours a night repairing equipment.
He likes to do this work himself, and sees it as an integral part of his
guiding duties. We stand around watching. The pain in my hands is
almost unbearable.
I feel we are wasting too much time having breaks through the
day. We had five today. They make us cold and cost us valuable kilo-
metres, but Eric is not happy making changes to the routine he has
always followed.
We sighted more polar bear tracks.
aPril 17
Here's my quote for the day: 'Even bad luck has to run out sooner or
later.' Each day feels like Groundhog Day, but I have to believe that we
can make better progress. This trek is tough on our equipment and
even tougher on our spirits, but I will not give up, I will push on, I will
win. I must not lose my head, I must stay calm and focused. I can do
this.
Tonight, we pitched our tent on a block of ice surrounded by
water. Suddenly a treat: a seal popped its sleek head up out of the
