Stopping to refuel in the tiny airport of Hall Beach.
Location: Resolute Bay, Nunavut, Canada
by Tyler Fish
Hello. This is Tyler Fish calling from Resolute Bay. It is the 25th of February and it is now about quarter to eleven where we are here. I believe we are still in the Eastern Time Zone. The temperature is somewhere between 10 and 20 below Fahrenheit and there's a little bit of a breeze blowing outside. We aren't outside and with our thermometer so we don't know. We're actually staying at the South Camp Inn here in Resolute.
Today John and I flew from Iqaluit on Baffin Island to Resolute Bay. But leading up to this the last couple of days have been spent trying to go over our last details, do our last shopping and make sure that we have everything that we needed because that was our last opportunity really to get things.
Our plane on the runway in Hall Beach.
But, we realize that we had too much with us, that our sleds were going to be too heavy, so we have been engaged in a lot of conversation about "We can we leave behind? What do we not need?" And so we've been trying to think of what is redundant, what is not necessary, you know? What can we do with something we already have so it has a couple of different purposes? What do we like that maybe we just have to let go of? So, it's been great and actually John and I feel pretty good right now. We're able to go to the airport with 3 duffle bags and one ski bag and we felt like we'd really accomplished something and we're going to continue doing that.
You know it's always a great feeling when you have a list of a lot of things to do and then everything is crossed off or you let go of the things that aren't crossed off and that's how we felt today. So, leaving our friends that we have been staying with, leaving the McNair household - that actually felt pretty good. We felt it was time to go. I don't know if they felt it was time for us to go but it felt like it was ok for us to leave.
We got to the airport today and I tell you I've never been on a bigger plane with fewer people and call it a full flight. The plane is mostly a cargo plane then the rest of, the back portion of the plane, is for people. And there could have only been a dozen people on the flight, at most.
Tyler arriving in Resolute.
Now in the Iqaluit airport before we took off I happened to see a sign in the gift shop that said "Road to Nowhere" And it reminded me that there is a road in Iqaluit called the "Road to Nowhere". And that's what I felt like we were on when we were on our flight today because we stopped in a little town called Hall Beach and now we're in Resolute. And both these places the airport is very far out of town - outside a very small town. And so you feel like you are really out there and there's not much going on.
On our flight today we also we saw the sea ice for the first time and that's just a curious feeling. What's it going to be like? Is it going to be like that? I see that now what's it going to look like when I'm down on it. So that was pretty fun.
We have arrived in Resolute tonight in the dark and I think it's always fascinating when arrive in the dark because you get to get up in the morning and it's like arriving a second time so that will be enjoyable in the morning when we get to see what Resolute is actually like.
So, that's the update for now. We're on the road to nowhere and when we get to the end of this road, nowhere is exactly where this expedition begins. So stay tuned and you'll be hearing from us.