Day 35: May 7, 2026
Switching to an early start (4 a.m.) to catch the frost paid off on Day 35 as Will recorded his highest hauling mileage of the trip.
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Yeah, Will here on May 7th, day 35. I got up this morning at 4 o'clock to get the crust. Travel early mornings like this now. It was a clear night, so I figured it would be frozen really well. At 4 o'clock it was crystal clear, just a beautiful morning. Very, very hard frost. A lot of friction, although on the crust, because you get these crystals that are real sharp in this type of a crust. But the expedition is a little bit different right now because this is not going to break up any time probably soon. So now what I'm doing is taking advantage whenever there is a crust, whenever it freezes like that, especially on a clear night, I get up early and I travel on that crust, and today I managed to make 17 miles, which was a pretty good day. One trip, three sleds, 200 pounds. And so that's pretty respectable. Again, that's because of a harder crust.
I thought it was going to be a really scorching day, but it didn't turn out that way. The clouds came in, kind of lower clouds. It came and went. It wasn't too depressing of a day, but it kept it real nice and cool. I don't think that the actual temperature got above freezing. I hauled until 3 o'clock. Yeah, I'm pretty tired. Tomorrow will be my fifth day in a row. So I'll be up early tomorrow, too. I'll be doing this traveling on the crust. This is a typical spring travel. When you're traveling long distances, especially overland or on lakes. Not so much ... rivers are a wild card. They can do anything. Like the last expedition was on the East River, a small little tributary. It broke up within 36 hours. Within 48 hours, it was solid ice. And then this rampaging small little river was Class 4 Rapids. And I figured maybe something like that would happen this year, but rivers run on their own clock. And because it's up high here, maybe because it's a colder, you know, unusually colder season, I'm not even sure what the averages are now, [...] check with anyone.
But so I'm going to be traveling whenever I can when there's a crust to get some miles in. And then that means I'll be actually traveling on the river as it probably starts breaking up. I'll eventually get down to the rafting part of it, but it's not going to be an instant change or just sitting around waiting. So it's turning into a hauling expedition, at least right now. This is 35 days hauling, which I don't mind doing.
But it is beautiful. It's easy in the tent right now. So I can exist pretty well without a stove. It isn't real warm yet, but once the clouds go, it gets warm in the tent. So I go to bed now about 8 o'clock. I'll be up again at 4 on this routine. And so I'll keep in touch. And so this is Will on May 7th, day 35, on the Horton River. Oh, yeah, I saw some really nice mountains all the way lining the southern horizon. Smaller mountains for the Arctic. I mean, you're not looking at the Alps or the Rockies, but it was pretty substantial. It really surprised me. Again, size is different. You know, sometimes things small look big and vice versa. But it was really quite a beautiful day. And so I'll turn, over and out then, and talk to you tomorrow. Bye.
Hard frost makes for an increased travel rate as Will switches to an early morning schedule to keep himself on hard frozen surfaces. Visit Will’s interactive map for complete control of magnification and orientation.
“I saw some really nice mountains all the way lining the southern horizon.” This photo shows formations photographed on the 2007 Baffin Island expedition.