Day 12: April 14, 2026
Will has completed his crossing to the Haldane River, into barren lands north of the tree line, making his way north and getting some aerial entertainment in the process.
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Hello, it's Will here. April 14th, day 12. I'm on the Haldane River. Last night was a ... just a horrific stormy wind blew up. Really wicked wind. Real sub-zero temperatures. And in the morning my free[?] studs were [...ed] over real hard pack. But when you get hard pack snow like that especially overnight it's pretty unusual. It's a combination of a very strong wind and very cold temperatures, and it was the coldest day for sure that I had, especially packing up in the morning. It's not like hooking up 10 dogs though and taking up a camp like that. It's so much simpler traveling solo and that. But still, you have to be really careful, go slowly, my feet were freezing. But once I got moving I warmed up okay.
And I was close to the Haldane River. I mentioned it in past dispatches. I made the switch about five, six miles from the Bloody River over the Haldane. And I went across country the first half of the morning. Rather than following the river I could have joined it right where it was at but I went North, to bypass some bends. And the Haldane River to my surprise were very small river. It was nothing at all compared to the Bloody River. It's ... There's these rivers are not much water this time of the year. I mean there's nothing's flowing. There's barely any frozen water in it. But it does get that breakup. There was a big flow [.... ....] goes down. But it's a very small river. It flows in a narrow little -- I wouldn't even call it a gorge. That would be to give it a lot of credit. When I reached it it was about a hundred foot drop down to the river but I found the place to get down from these drifts to get down like that. And I'm traveling, traveling north now. And in places it's a little valley. Other places it's just like a little ... can't even tell there's a river there. But it's very much easier to travel and I made a camp here.
It's still cold but the wind has died down a little bit tonight. I can't believe it's already day 12. I feel like it's been traveling for you know 50 days here. I'm really into the groove. And into the ... what it takes to survive here in these temperatures and enjoying it. I saw, I saw the usual wolf tracks here and there. And two ravens showed up. In these craggy little rivers where there's a ... where it flows through a narrows, the ravens often hang out there. And they [...] it's where it's really barren lands now. No trees in this in the area where I'm in right now. Pretty much I may see a little tree here and there but I'm north of the tree line now. But the the ravens hang out sometimes in these little canyons. They hang out in the winter time in the bad weather. But there was ... they were up ... doing a little bit of ... the wind was blowing over the cliff and they were taking ... I wouldn't call it a thermal but there was an incline there and so they were doing acrobatics. They were in sync. And obviously a couple. Almost like they they have been working on their maneuvers. It was so incredible. They were very quiet. Usually they're, you know, they're making noise and making fun of you or whatever ravens do. They just flew very quietly in this kind of a thermal-like thing, doing acrobatics. Checked me out and then went in the other direction, just having a little bit of a holiday here with the wind and just catching those winds drifting off over the small gorge. So it's a good day tomorrow. I'm going to keep traveling, and this is Will here on day four ... it's day 12, April 14th. Over and out.
Will’s location at the end of Day 12. Visit Will’s interactive map for complete control of magnification and orientation.
The strong winds Will describes in the dispatch bring to mind this experience of the team being pinned down by a windstorm back in 2007.
Location: Auyuittuq National Park, Baffin Island, Nunavut. Date: 03/19/07, Day 24. The team is pinned down by a strong storm in an appropriately named area called “Windy Lake.” After an arduous day of climbing frozen waterfalls, a two-day storm sets in, forcing the team to take a day off and wait it out. The narrow canyon leaves little protection against wind and flying sand.