While in Coral Harbor, Lonnie and Eric also made two new Inuit friends Sam Emiktowt and Eepah Netser. They were very generous with their time and resources and kindly allowed us into their lives. We were sad to leave, but spring was rapidly approaching and so were the snow geese. Eepah and Sam were anxious to go hunting.
Because white out conditions prohibited the arrival of a needed helicopter, the team flew back south to Rankin Inlet. There, Lonnie and Eric were shuttled out to the floe edge to paddle and pull kayaks along (and in) the ocean. Local legend John Hickes snowmachined out with two kayaks while the helicopter relayed the film crew. Along the ice edge, the team skied across very fresh polar bear tracks!
How do you make an 8 1/2 foot kayak hold nearly 300 pounds of expedition gear? Easy - find a jigsaw and cut off the deck! In order to complete the first summer crossing of the Arctic Ocean, the One World Expedition team will need to be amphibious. That means the kayaks they use will have to be pulled like sleds and be paddled like kayaks. Recently, Lonnie and Eric spent an afternoon cutting off the deck of a creek boat and attaching a homemade spray skirt. The skirt adds extra storage capacity to the boat while still shedding water as it is being paddled. Welding plastic runners to the hull further modified the boat to reduce drag. The end result: an Arctic summer crossing secret weapon. Look out ice pans! Here comes the One World Expedition team.
Winter training for a summer expedition? Of course, Lonnie and Eric will be traveling in the summer, but remember that summer across the Arctic Ocean and at the North Pole resembles a Minnesota winter. Lonnie and Eric have progressed from fall training of pulling tires and backpacks full of bricks up the Sawtooth Mountains to pulling kayaks across the frozen lakes of the Boundary Waters.
