|  Nunalla
Trading Post: Lords of Dogtown
Trip
Journal: On the Hudson Bay Quest, Halfway to Nowhere
Its
6:30am and dog city is collapsing fast. Last night, twelve mushers
arrived at Nunalla checkpoint for their mandatory six hour layover.
Nunalla is an old Hudson’s Bay Company trading post, lying
on the Manitoba/Nunavut border, one hundred miles from Arviat,
Nunavut.
It
is the mid-way point and the key to the Hudson Bay Quest dog sled
race.
This
is the fourth time the Quest has run between Churchill, Manitoba
and Arviat, Nunavut. It covers a barren and moody piece of Hudson
Bay coastline. The trees wither and drift away just north of Churchill,
leaving a whole lot of nothing that can wear you down with cold,
wind, snow, rain or simply sun. The only constant being that it
will wear you down.
All
of this nothing brings together teams from Nunavut, northern Manitoba
and beyond for a mix of mushing styles, dog breeds and of cultures.
Of the fourteen starting teams, seven are running traditional
fan-hitches. In a fan-hitch, each dog has its own line, a controlled
chaos where the musher must untangle the dog lines at each stop.
You
can find modern racing sleds next to traditional Inuit komatiks,
low-lying sleds where the musher simply packs his camping gear
and sits down on top of it. Caribou-skins mix with Canada Goose
parkas, worn canvas tents with geodesic goretex domes. Southern
mushers (in this race, Churchill is considered ‘south’)
boil water as the Inuit throw a chunk of seal to their dogs before
cutting off some for themselves. Even the dogs are no exception,
their bloodlines a tattered mix of everything from African hound
to Siberian husky to Canadian Eskimo dog.
After
fourteen hours on the trail, this mishmash of teams were greeted
and guided into Nunalla by the Canadian Rangers, a volunteer,
reserve arm of the Canadian military. It is the Rangers who man
the checkpoints, providing logistic support and ensuring that
the race runs safely. Without their participation, the Quest would
be simply too dangerous to run.
With
Rangers from both Manitoba and Nunavut stationed here, Nunalla’s
two weathered Hudson’s Bay Company buildings were already
surrounded by canvas tents and snowmobiles. As each team pulled
up, Rangers barked orders, ushering mushers into camp and recording
their arrival times before turning their attention to the next
team, already sighted in the distance. Dog city was slowly coming
to life. By 2am, Nunalla was a mass of mushers, tents, sleds and
dogs. Headlamps bobbled through the night, mushers foregoing sleep
to feed their dogs and fix their sleds.
But
that was then and today, it’s a whole new race. Despite
arriving third, Quincy Miller, from Potato Lake, Saskatchewan,
is the first musher out of the blocks for the final push to Churchill.
It is a position he will hold for the remainder of the race. Despite
unseasonably warm temperatures that turn the trail into slush
and ruts, his dogs settle into an even pace and work well on the
home stretch. In eighteen hours, he will win the fourth annual
Quest and set a new record of 37 hours, 57 minutes, one hour ahead
of David Oolooyak of Rankin Inlet but only minutes ahead of the
Quest’s annual snowstorm.
His
departure is heralded by the anxious barking of his competitors’
dogs, still tethered to their sleds but now wide awake; their
jealousy overriding the need for sleep. A domino effect has begun
as mushers rise from their tents and dogs begin to stir, the fate
of dog city is sealed.
Former
champion David Oolooyak and newcomer Darryl Baker are still breaking
camp. They hurriedly pack their sleds and set out after him. After
dominating the race throughout the first day, they have been at
Nunalla for seven hours and are now forced to play catch up on
an unseasonably warm day. The trail quickly turns soft and heavy,
a bad day not to be in the lead.
Ed Obrecht, a turbulent mix of red neck and hippy from Lady-Smith,
Quebec, is next on the trail, running on zero sleep and a newly
(albeit temporarily) repaired sled. He is soon followed by Churchill
musher and originator of the Hudson Bay Quest Dave Daley. It is
still dark and both initially lose the trail, Ed Obrecht recovers
just on the edge of Nunalla but Daley heads out towards the sea
ice before correcting the mistake. He returns to camp and captures
the HBQ ‘Best Use of Profanity’ award before getting
back in the race, now behind Andy Kowtak’s team as well.
Daley runs strong, arriving fourth at the next checkpoint along
the Caribou River, but here he loses the trail and eventually
withdraws with two injured dogs.
Tents
continue to fall as four more mushers follow suit - Charlie Lundie,
Philip Kigusiutnak, George Sinclair and Dominic Pingushat leave
with the first light of day. Arviat’s Jimmy Mukpah, an ordained
minister and community elder, watches intently, savouring his
morning tea as he awaits his announced departure time. All will
eventually finish the race a little worse for wear but still in
tact. For Harry Towtoongie and Gerald Azure, Nunalla is the end
of the line, both scratch after a long and frustrating day.
Its
9:30am and as our Bombardier track vehicle pulls away, dog city
is all but gone. The chaos has dissipated quickly and silence
looms, ready to reclaim Nunalla for another year. Canadian Rangers
watch the last teams leave before settling in for some much needed
army rations, campstove coffee and their last day at Nunalla.
What was a bustling community of mushers only eight hours ago
is now little more than sled tracks and dog scat.
-
by Kelsey Eliasson
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