Pam Flowers - Alone Across the Arctic: One Womans Epic Journey by Dog Team

Pam Flowers

with Ann Dixon

To my friend Dorothy Nicholson, who never once stopped believing in me, and whom Ill never forget.P. F.

To Nanette, Marcia, Kaylene, Monica, and Michelle, who encourage me on the writing journey.A. D.

Robert

Text 2001 by Pam Flowers and Ann Dixon

All photographs except for the one on page 32 2001 by Pam Flowers

Illustration 2001 by David Totten

Photograph on page 32 is from the book Across Arctic America by

Knud Rasmussen, published in 1927 by G.P. Putnams Sons.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without written permission of the publisher.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Flowers, Pam.

Alone across the Arctic : one womans epic journey by dog team / Pam Flowers with Ann Dixon.

p. cm

Includes index.

ISBN 978-0-88240-836-1 formally published as: 978-0-88240-547-6 (hardbound)

ISBN 978-0-88240-539-1 (softbound)

ISBN 978-1-941821-64-0 (e-book)

1. Flowers, PamJourneysArctic regions. 2. Flowers, PamJourneysAlaska. 3. Flowers, PamJourneysCanada, Northern. 4. Arctic regionsDescription and travel. 5. AlaskaDescription and travel. 6. Canada, NorthernDescription and travel. 7. DogsleddingArctic regions. 8. DogsleddingAlaska. 9. Dogsledding Canada, Northern. I. Dixon, Ann. II. Title.

G635. F56 A3 2001

919.804dc21 2001000636

Copy Editor: Linda Gunnarson

Design: Constance Bollen, cb graphics

Map: Gray Mouse Graphics

Alaska Northwest Books

An imprint of

P.O. Box 56118

Portland, OR 97238-6118

(503) 254-5591

www.graphicartsbooks.com

I would like to thank the following people for all the welcome help each of you gave. Some of you believed in me and encouraged me along the way. Many of you met me as a stranger in your town and gave me good food, a warm place to sleep, and a badly needed shower. Others helped place caches, find Douggie, or gave directions and useful advice. Some of you read the manuscript and made many helpful suggestions so we could tell this story.

Ive made a sincere and thoughtful effort to include everyone in these acknowledgments. If anyone has been left off this list, it is by accident, and I apologize for the error.

Dorothy Nicholson; Natalie and Earl Norris; Alice Holinger, Bridgette Preston, Jeff Veteto, Larry Eichmann, Paul Maloney, Bill Kuper, Mike Bowman, Doyle Deason, Craig George, Geoff Carroll, Adam Linn, Doug Barrette, Doreen Church; Eddie and Millie Gruben; Mary Lane, Peter Green, Andy Kudluk; Michelle and Alex Buchan; John Nantoak, Bill Lyall; Steve and Brenda Mercer; Alfred Rowan, Jill, and Mark Taylor; Rawley Garrels, Peter Semotiuk, David Amagana; Henry, Lena, and Karen; Salomie, Gideon, Sean, Aida, and Naomi Qitsualik; Naavee, Mark, and Jason Tootiak; Charlie and Carey Cahill; Martha Dwyer; Maurice, Patsy, and Tara Randall; Lori and Doug Nichols; Brian Ladoon, Judy Langford, John Norris; the people at Calm Air; the people at VIA Rail; the people at U-Haul; Marie Barnes, Jean Holinger, Sallie Greenwood, Matt Maniaci, Diana Conway, Kathy Pruzan, and Nori Dixon; and Ellen Wheat, Tricia Brown, Kathy Matthews, Susan Dupere, Linda Gunnarson, Constance Bollen, and Dave Totten.

A special thank-you to Knud Rasmussen, Anarulunguaq, and Miteq for inspiring me. We all need heroes.

Most of all I thank my eight best friends: Douggie-Dog, Anna, Mighty Matt, Alice, Lucy, Robert, Sojo, and Roald.

The tundra under cloudy skies.

DECEMBER 2, 1992

Were on our way! Days of packing, weeks of training, months of planning, years of dreaming. Now its all really happening. My dogs and I are flying from Anchorage to Prudhoe Bay. This has been such a big dream of mine for so long, the idea of actually getting started is almost overwhelming.

As the plane lifted off, I didnt bother looking out the window. Instead, I closed my eyes and began daydreaming. A smile spread across my face. Soon I would be standing on the runners of my dogsled, skimming across the Arctic snow under a huge, blue sky sparkling with cold. No roads, no buildings, no other human beings would be in sight. Just my dogs and me, all alone.

Wed already been to the Arctic several times on short adventures. I was returning because I loved it. Now I wanted to try a longer expedition, one that would allow us to stay, not for weeks, but months. The trip I had in mind would test all the dog mushing and survival skills Id been working on for years.

Id decided to retrace an expedition taken in 192324 by Danish explorer Knud Rasmussen and two Inuit companions from Greenland, a man named Miteq and a woman named Anarulunguaq. Together the three traveled the entire length of the North American Arctic coast from east to west by dog team, from Repulse Bay, Canada, to Barrow, Alaska, a journey of 2,500 miles. If I accomplished the expedition, I would be the first female and first American to mush across the same route solo.

Because I lived in Alaska, I decided to do the trip in reverse, starting in Barrow and traveling east through Canada. My dogs and I would cover the miles, about a hundred more than the distance between Seattle and New York, one paw at a time, powered only by our own muscles and wits. There would be no helicopter support, no photography crew, and no human traveling companions. I expected the trip would take three to six months to complete. It was the expedition of my dreams.

The desire to make this expedition didnt just appear suddenly, out of nowhere. When I look back, I can see it was part of a much larger dream that began when I was a kid growing up in Michigan.

I was eleven years old when a scientist came to my school to show slides and talk about Antarctica. I dont remember anything he said. But I clearly recall an image: a photograph of endless snow-covered mountains under a brilliant blue sky.