As far as expedition departures go, this one was pretty painless. Sure, I got only two hours of sleep in the last 48 hours, was pulled over by two different cops for a dim headlight in South Dakota and spent a less thhan ideal amount of time being interrogated by a grumpy border patrol agent at the Canadian border, but we lucked out in Winnipeg boarding the train and experienced only a minor parking snafu.

Now? 44 hours on a train to Hudson Bay and the sleepy little town of Churchill, Manitoba. Its not the end of the world but you can see it from there. One of the engineers commented there could be quite a few polar bears hanging around as there is an unusual amount of open water nearby which doesn't bode well for training and filming.

My goal for the week is to train and test gear for several upcoming expeditions.

As usual, I left Maria behind with another unattended house chore - this time a finicky pilot light on our furnace. She texted to tell me she had fixed it but it had gone out again. Its hard to describe how not being able to help makes me feel. Luckily, she has a pre school teacher's patience and a strong sense of independence.

We are an odd mix of filmers, photographers, athletes and enthusiasts. Jeff Danzer from Terramar is in for the adventure as well.

It is dark and we have the entire train to ourselves. No self respecting tourist ventures north now. We have each settled into our own little quad of chairs creating a fleece, down and Gore Tex for the nigh - the movement of the train so calming that it even makes the occasional whistle blow sound more like a lullaby than alarm.

Image: Our first stop just outside of Winnipeg. Warm and sunny!?!