Into the Cold: A Journey of the Soul Page #4

...loyal friends, l stay up all night

finalizing the remaining items...

...on my to-do list, and

complete packing.

l guess one never feels ready.

They drive me to the airport,

and after a powerful send-off,..

...the plane takes off for Ottawa

where l overnight and meet Keith.

Hey Keith.

-How are you?

-Good buddy, how are you?

-Ready to head North.

A quick dinner and catch up

and then lights out.

Neither of us have

slept last night.

The morning ritual of

excess luggage.

March 19th, 2009.

Early flight out to lqualuit today.

lt takes another three and

a half hours to reach lqaluit,..

...just at the edge

of the Arctic Circle.

A layover there gives us time...

...to make some last minute

food shopping and check...

...the local museum which l

visited last summer.

How do you feel buddy?

-l feel ready to go.

We're still on our travel day.

We have a few more hours;..

our longest flight, so far.

This is my longest flight so far.

We're going to be heading up

North to Resolute Bay.

We're going to go meet Ozzy

at the South Camp lnn...

...and spend the next couple of days

preparing to get out on the ice.

We're like T-minus four days,

l think, three days now.

We're in lqaluit, a stop over on

our way to Resolute.

l think we're both ready to go,

just rearing to go.

lt's mild here temperature wise,

which is both reassuring...

...and surprising at the same time.

lt's been very cold up

North, on the ice.

We've had reports from

a couple of teams there.

They've been just struggling

with the temperatures.

But it feels to me that's its warming

up a bit, so we might get lucky.

The plane finally takes off for

another three hours up north,..

...with a short stop

in Naninsivik.

These are familiar steps, retracing

the itinerary of my summer,..

...but for one detail: when l landed

in Resolute in early July,..

...temperatures had hit a

historical high of 67F degrees.

Today it"s minus 36 degrees

Fahrenheit!

We just touched down

on Resolute Bay.

That's the last stop after

two days of travelling.

-Resolute!

-This is it.

Lovely Resolute.

lt's minus 36 right now.

The landscape is covered

with a sheet of white--

And upon walking out of the plane,

the air explodes in my lungs...

...like a shot of adrenaline.

Resolute is a town of 200 people,..

...but it is the logistics center for

all activities in the high Arctic.

lt has taken five planes and

two days to reach this outpost...

...in the middle of the freezing

Arctic, some 3500 miles north of LA.

The hotel brings back all kinds of

memories and some nostalgia.

l had spent over a month in and out

of this hotel last summer,..

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