Day 67: June 8, 2026
Crossing 10 mile rolling valleys through ankle- and knee-deep slush, enjoying perfect weather, and “talking” with caribou filled out the experience in today’s dispatch.
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Yeah, Will here. It's June 8th. I'm not sure if it's day 67 or 66, but whatever. And so this is the second day of the most gorgeous weather. Yesterday was my day off, rested up. It was 60 degrees. You know, spring, spring's here for sure. And the most beautiful, like April showers. They're clear in the morning and then the cumulus come in as a front and then they form these squally clouds that hug the land. It's just like the prairies. And they come in in waves in the afternoon.
And then last night it rained quite a bit in the squalls. You know, they hit real hard, pour, and then there'd be sun. And then this morning it was foggy. In that period it was, it cleared up above. And then the cumulus developed and now it's the same pattern. So it's just gorgeous.
I've been traveling. The problem I'm having now is the rivers, this weather that we've had, the actual tundra is just flowing with water. I mean, it's like, it's almost like a river itself on land. There's so much water coming off. And as a result, all these streams are just flooded. So I had to go up to the highest elevation, to go right to the beginning of these little tributaries that make up a river. And I got, it wasn't as bad as before, but I still was spent most of, half the day at least, in ankle-deep slush, knee-deep slush. I did have some good grassy land that I hiked. It was just so gorgeous up there. I could see for almost ever this rolling, great, not small rolling, but valleys that go down and then 10 miles later it rolls up on all sides.
And then high level, the top of one of these big rolls, there's a lot of grasslands, they're just hummocks, it wasn't easy hiking. But I came upon 10 caribou during a break, and they were so curious about me. They walked up quite close and talked with them. I mean, in other words, you don't say, "hey, how are you?" You kind of find a tone, something that, well, a couple syllables and pretty soothing and sounds good and repetitious. And I tried a number of things, and I got this one tone, and they were just like mellow. There were three young, young caribou from—there's a squall coming through right now in the background—I had three year-old calves that were just so cool from last, calves from last year. They just could not get enough of me. They did not want to leave. They were like 20 yards away and really fascinated on what this was.
That was a good sign, but I managed to get across a number of these streams. And then there was a major stream that I did have concerns about when I hit right about 6 o'clock. And it does not look good. I've got to go downstream to see if I can cross. There's water, too much water in it. Not enough for a makeshift raft, you wouldn't try that. And that river, it might spread out because if you find a spot where it spreads in like into a marsh, you can get around it. So I've got to scout that out. And after this, I've got one more divide like this to go over so I can make it that far. Then it's a straight north-north-east or north-north-west shot right straight to Paulatuk. I can't be out of the snow and out of this divide country. But we'll see what happens here tomorrow. And this is just one of these squalls coming in right now. Rain and tent flaps and so forth. So I've got to cut it short here. My batteries are low. And I'll catch you tomorrow, then. Will, over and out.
The overland progress continues to be a battle with slush. Visit Will’s interactive map for complete control of magnification and orientation.
An evocative set of caribou antlers in a snowy field on the 2022 solo expedition. In today’s dispatch, Will has an encounter with a larger, more expressive, and live group of caribou.