Surfboard Run: Day Four

This is a recap of day four of our surfboard run from Houston, Texas to Sayulita, Mexico. If you missed day three, you can catch up here.

On day four we decided to soak in the view a little longer, and have breakfast by the water. We ordered lattes and shared this plate of pancakes with fruit. It was as delicious as it looks.

We could have spent the day there just enjoying the view, but we also wanted to get to Sayulita and maybe find a wave. Sayulita has grown as well, in the 3-4 years we’ve been visiting. The official population is about 5,000, but there were tons of people in the streets and walking around the town square. We stopped off at Casa Aves to drop off the boards, but we were unable to stay as a nice family from Canada was renting the place for the week. Instead, we booked another place in town and then hit “Wild Mex” a coffee/surf shop across from a local break. They’ve expanded too, going from just a coffee stand, to a restaurant with lots of tables and open air seating.

The break, called “Burrows”, was pretty busy but we found our spots… Edgar hit the lineup and I headed down the beach where it was smaller and less crowded. I was comfortable in my shorty (wetsuit that comes to the knee) – the water temperature was on the way up but not bath water yet. We caught some rays and nice waves and enjoyed the beach.
We always seem to be starving after a surf session so we hit the showers then hit one of our favorite beach-side restaurants for Mexican pizza. People were still surfing the beach break, wringing every bit of swell out of the day.

Sayulita has a square where people are usually lounging or snacking, or just watching others go by. This visit we noticed a new selfie opportunity. New letters have been added to the square for pictures and there are no shortage of models.

There are a couple of places in Sayulita that serve ice cream and we’re quite familiar. We got our treat and then enjoyed an evening stroll. We spotted the guy who offers folks a seat on his burros for a small fee. He only had one long-eared friend when we first saw him; now he has three. Business is booming, and more and more visitors are enjoying Sayulita’s charm.

Surfboard Run: Day Three

This is a recap of day three of our surfboard run from Houston, Texas to Sayulita, Mexico. If you missed our run-in with the cartel on day two, you can read about it here.

Day three began with free breakfast at the restaurant next to our hotel. We carried on an animated conversation with the waitress, her side all in Spanish and ours mostly in English. She was sweet and trying to help us, but looked around the restaurant a few times, obviously looking for a coworker who spoke English. We understood each other well enough to settle on eggs, beans and bacon, and a dish we didn’t recognize, but ended up being green sauce over tortillas and very good.

Even if you’ve never traveled to Durango, you’ve likely seen pieces of it. It was a big destination for the film industry beginning back in the 1950s. The vast desert and cheap labor drew many productions to this Hollywood of the South, and there are ribbons of super-sized film above the main drag as a reminder. According to a 2003 article in the Washington Post, John Wayne, Clark Gable, Rock Hudson and Rita Hayworth all shot movies in Durango.

We wanted to stay longer to explore, but we had set our sights on checking out the big fish of El Salto. If the internet could be trusted, this town in the middle of no where had some of the best large-mouthed bass fishing in the world. We couldn’t drive this close and not just have a look, so we headed in that direction.

The tricky part is, we couldn’t tell exactly where it was. We stopped just shy of the city at a gas station, and wandered in. There was a woman working the register, and a couple other folks having a snack. We used our rough Spanish to ask where we could find the pescado with the grande boca. They pointed and gave us directions, but it seemed to be for another place where we could stop and ask. We admired her bottle of tequila with a large scorpion inside of it, which was then offered, no gracias, and we hit the road in the direction we were given.


A few miles down the road we found a turnoff for a camp site that looked promising. The first resident we encountered was an old man who was deep into a rock-painting project, and being monitored by a friendly dog that looked part lab, part pyraness. The painter didn’t know about the fish and sent us up to the office. The girl inside said they had fish there but they were very small. She showed us with her fingers. She said she’d get her husband who spoke English. Kevin spoke perfect English, having grown up in Arizona. He showed us around the fish farm, where they were raising trout. These were not the trophy bass we were after, but were interesting to see anyway, and Kevin and his wife were very nice and obviously proud of the place. Kevin said what people come to do here the most is relax but sometimes they also walk the bridge made of rope and make bets on how far their friends will go.

We got some information about the cabins and made tentative plans to return on our way home. Our fish search had to be set aside as well, since our goal was to stay in Chacala that night.

On a previous trip, a local had told Edgar about a secret wave south of San Blas. We had that on our minds as we made our way toward the coast, and caught our first glimpse of the Pacific Ocean.

We got on the road to the secret break, passed by the outdoor restaurants and pack of stray dogs and rumbled through the jungle a bit. The swell turned out to be small, so we moved on to Chacala.

This is the “road” to the secret surf break.

Chacala has exploded in the past couple years. There were more tourists on the streets than we’ve ever seen before. We found a hotel with rooms available, and made friends with the clerk’s daughter Alice, who was about three and lugging around a baby doll. She and her father helped us find a place to park, and then we walked to a beachside restaurant for dinner.

Nearby La Cruz is a popular starting point for sailboats making long trips across the ocean, so we saw many bobbing around just off the beach. We dined on shrimp (Chacala translates to “where there are shrimp”) with avocado and chips and guacamole, and then went to bed dreaming of waves.

On day four, we finally pull into the driveway of Casa Aves, only to realize we can’t stay.

Surfboard Run: Day two

This is the story of our surfboard run down to Mexico. If you missed day one you can read about it here.

Our hotel had free breakfast, so we dined on biscuits, eggs, sausage and potatoes and then hit the road for the border. The line was long coming out of Mexico, but going in was a breeze. We cruised right through and were so pleased with our progress we missed the turn for car permits, a critical stop before going on into the country.

The turn was tricky. We knew we needed to be in the far left lane, but it appeared to have traffic going only in the other direction, away from the car permit place. We made the turn and found ourselves on the wrong path, headed to the checkpoint back into the United States, and right into the lanes jammed with traffic. A concrete wall was to our right, so we couldn’t swerve over into the appropriate lane. We slowed as we considered our options, and saw a man in a yellow vest motioning to us on the side of the road. Our official position is that Edgar and I don’t speak Spanish, but I must say I was considerably impressed when after a quick back and forth with the man Edgar said, “This guy will let us in for twenty bucks.” I did understand when the man shrugged in that “what can you do” sort of way, and explained it wasn’t his doing, it was the jefe. Uh huh.

We were in no mood to argue, having seen the line to go back into the states. We knew $20 was worth it, so we gladly paid our first mordida (“the bite” – i.e., everyone gets one) of the trip, and followed our new friend as he moved some orange barriers and let us cross an empty lot, and merge into the appropriate lane. The alleged “jefe” was a very quiet, older man, who didn’t give off the jefe vibe exactly, but hey, we were across, and headed to get our vehicle permit, so we got over it in a hurry.

The process of getting a car permit involves a number of steps, but if you plan ahead and have the right documents, you can follow the procedure and get it done. Part of that procedure is checking in when you leave the country, to cancel the permit. We had not done that when the Land Cruiser cruised on out of Mexico last year, so we were sent back outside, to go into another line to cancel our vehicle permit. Thankfully, that was a little drive-through area that came with no charge, and we ticked that box, peeled off our old sticker and got back in line. We showed our registration and title, and got our new sticker, good for 180 days in Mexico.

After a few minutes on the road, we had a need for a bathroom and a craving for a diet coke. Even though we knew better, we stopped at a gas station not too far from the border. As soon as we did, we were reminded why it’s not a good practice. A car pulled in next to us, and the passenger was making aggressive gestures before we even shut off the vehicle. He made an exaggerated motion to roll down the window. I didn’t see it at first, as I was busy counting out pesos for the diet coke. He made the motion again and Edgar gave him a hard look. The driver made a more gentle motion, and Edgar rolled down the window.

Passenger: (in English) “Where are you from?”

Edgar: “Where are YOU from?”

Passenger: “We’re from the cartel around here.”

It’s at this point that I made slow motion moves to slyly place the money I’d been counting under my seat.

I don’t know if you’re from the cartel, if you actually say you’re from the cartel, but clearly they had some sort of ill will in mind. Edgar didn’t say a word – just gave them another look like, “and..?” and the driver decided this wasn’t going to be worth the trouble. They tossed it in reverse and took off. A few seconds later we did the same. There was no sense sticking around at the border, when there were such nice places inside Mex to explore, and they were likely to have diet cokes as well.

We ticked off happy miles and not so happy tolls. You have two choices for most routes across Mexico: the toll road, or cuota, or the libre, the free road. The toll road has just that, tolls every so often. But it gets you to your destination a lot faster than the free road, and it’s better maintained, so if you’re not familiar with the area the toll road is the way to go. Just resign yourself to the fact that the tolls do add up. The amounts very from 30 to 270 pesos at each stop, so by the end of the trip we’d paid more than $200 USD in tolls.

Now, here’s another interesting note. Most of the toll plazas are manned by official-looking men and women in uniform, collecting a set amount listed on signs and digital displays. But in a few places, there are no uniformed staff, and the booth is manned by what appears to be locals from a nearby village. Dozens of people stand at the gate, and one is designated as the one to push out an orange barrel, usually on a rope, to stop the approaching vehicle. Another, usually a young girl, is enlisted to step forward and ask for the toll. The amount seemed a little arbitrary. At one stop the girl asked for cincuenta pesos – 50. When Edgar asked again how much, she said ciento – 100. He corrected her that she had just said 50, and she looked back at the group, unsure. An older man stepped forward and immediately showed off his conversational English, “What’s the problem, man?” Edgar explained there was a discrepancy with where we landed on the toll amount. He told the girl that 50 would be fine and we paid and went on our way.

More miles, more tolls. Beautiful country. We snacked on oranges from our pack, and offered some to the attendant when we got gas. All the gas stations are full service, so we learned and practiced the words for “fill it up!”

At one of the stops I had to visit the bano, and was about to let the attendant know they were out of toilet paper, when I remembered the fee. A lot of places charge you to use the restroom, and I found this contraption at the entrance. I gladly put in my 5 pesos and hurried back inside.

We made good time to Torreón so decided to push on to Durango. We arrived in town around 8pm, or what we thought was the town, but we more on the outskirts. We found a gated hotel and got checked in. The place next door served us a delicious meal of shrimp and boneless wings, and we saved room for an incredible apple crisp dessert. There were turtles at the restaurant, and I’m assuming they feed the turtles instead of feeding the turtles to guests, by the way they all swam over to me when I visited.

On day three we left Durango in search of El Salto, and the tales of a world-class bass fishing village. You don’t want to miss our efforts to communicate this to random gas station attendants and customers.

Surfboard Run: Day One

When I told my friends and coworkers I was going to vacation in Mexico, they nodded in an understanding way and asked, “Where in Mexico? Cancun?” Well, not exactly.

This was a vacation with a mission. A misscation. Edgar has some… let’s call them “extra” surfboards that he wanted to take to his rental house in Mexico, where guests could use them. The airline wanted $150 per board to fly them down there. We did the math and a new plan emerged… drive the boards down to Sayulita.

Houston to Sayulita is about 1,139 miles give or take, so about 21 hours of driving. That’s an average, but we were going to take Edgar’s 1992 Land Cruiser, and although it’s very reliable and roomy, it’s no speed demon. It’s a cruiser. We planned for three days down and three days back. We wanted our trip to be tranquillo, so we loosely planned out the stops without making a firm booking. After all, this wasn’t our first Mexico road trip. Edgar and I drove a baja bug down from California to Baja Mexico and across on the ferry to the mainland last year. (You can read about that journey here.) Edgar took his motorcycle down on one journey and back on another, and the Land Cruiser spent some time there over Thanksgiving a couple years ago. This wasn’t new territory, and what’s more, it sounded like fun to us, so we packed up a backpack each, and filled the rig with boards.

We left Houston on a Saturday morning, planning to spend the bulk of the day in Rockport, Texas, working on Edgar’s boat. He recently purchased a 40-foot trawler, and it’s been pulled out of the water for some TLC.

We spent a few hours working in the engine room and driving around town for parts. We paused for lunch at a place on the water serving chips and queso and oysters. (not combined) In the early evening, it was time to make our way to Laredo, which feels as much like Mexico as any city can, without the visit with the federal agents. We’ve done our research over the years, and always cross the border at daylight. We found a place to stay and a restaurant down the street. The order of mango habanero wings looked great, but when I took a bite I shot hot chicken habanero sauce directly into my eye, and it burned like fire. I had to rush to the restroom to rinse out my eyeball before I could get back to my meal.

After dinner we settled in for a good night’s sleep, our last one for a while on this side of the border.

On Day Two, we cross the border, hand out our first mordida of the trip, and run into a couple of dudes who claim they’re with the cartel.

Slides Around

On a recent trip to Fairbanks Alaska, Marie and I had an interesting insight offered on a pretty slick (couldn’t resist) form of transport….dogsledding. We pulled into our accommodation and there were loads of dogs and sleds, literally. As we burrowed in to the goings on, our education on the event began. It turned out all of the dogs, mushers, and their supporters were just finishing up a thousand mile overland dog sled race. Every sled team was comprised of 14 dogs, one musher, and their support unit. The support came in to play, mostly at check points, some scattered over 200 miles apart. This would leave the 15 mostly in transit, and enjoying one another’s company.
The goal of the game is to…make time, and of course live to tell about it. One of the most interesting rules was centered around the dogs.
If you had a dog “fall out” due to exhaustion, sore feet, or just losing interest, the dog could not be replaced. Furthermore and to this point, any teams with under 7 dogs remaining were disqualified.
I thought these rules truly spoke to the commitment of the musher. The underlying behavior derived from this spoke to me of human and canine supporting one another in a pack fashion, and conjured thoughts of ancestors in tune with their world slipping along under mystical and primordial lights, happily sustaining themselves by an understanding of their world and their role in it, and with no WiFi connectivity. Amazing!!


The human spirit is something incredible. These things that are unquantifiable like love, passion, and the spirit of freedom are deeply rooted in us.  Our current condition becomes inconsequential when we recognize and feed that spirit, even if we don’t fully understand why, or how. We need to transcend; it is required to touch even fleeting joy.
Run and skate under the mystical lights. Howl, even if only in the privacy of your pack, and realize the chill in your blood does not belong to the frigid wind.
Cheers to you, Jack!

Edgar

Into the Tundra: Part Eight

The following is an account of day eight of our trip to the Arctic Circle.  If you missed day seven, you can catch up in quick fashion with a recap found here.

Thursday, day eight of our trip, was our last day in the field. Or so we’d planned. It was cloudy and rainy again when we woke up, and we were a little hesitant to crawl out of the tent. At 8:30 we used our Garmin inReach to send a text to our outfitter, giving them the weather report. The micro-climates of the Arctic Circle can vary greatly, so just because it was sunny with no wind at our camp, didn’t mean it would be the same at the base. The reply came that the odds of flying were marginal at best, and that we should text again at noon.

We didn’t want to break camp prematurely, especially in the rain, so we took some time for candy and a little more rest. The camp supplies included plenty of sweets to keep our blood sugar spiking, and we made a dent in the remaining stash while we avoided the rain for a bit.

Rain not pictured. Please enjoy this view from the tent on a nicer day.

Properly wired, we ducked out of the tent to glass for a while, but didn’t see any animals. At noon we texted with another weather update: light drizzle, no wind, clouds breaking up. This time the reply said to check again in 45 minutes. We glassed again, and decided to do a little more fishing while the wind was down. I could have gone for another hot lunch, but the fish only teased us with some showboat splashy moves, and no bites. Then came the text. Our pilot was taking off and would be at camp in a hour. That didn’t seem like quite enough time to get back to camp and break everything down into bags and tubs, but we surprised ourselves with how quickly we packed our dry bags, chairs, broke down cots and stuffed sleeping bags back into their sacks. We waited until we heard the plane’s engine to pull out the poles and fold up the tent.

All packed and ready to go!

All our gear had to be loaded into nooks and crannies on the float plane. We kept our waders on as we delivered our bags and gear to the pilot. Edgar even had to split his antlers so they’d fit on board.

It was a smooth 90 minute ride back to “civilization”. We saw two bull moose and a muskox from the air. Mike the pilot said most of the camps on the river saw bears that week, but camps on the lake (like ours) did not. We landed on the water “runway” in Kotzbue and unpacked the van. We took some time to cut up the meat back at base camp; anything we didn’t plan to take, we donated to the locals. Even the scraps were set aside as food for the sled dogs. We took the sections we wanted back to the hotel, where they agreed to freeze them for us overnight. Back at the hotel, we took everything out of our bags and reorganized for the flight home. I took my hair out of the braids I’d had for a week… it was time to lather, rinse and repeat.

The hotel had a restaurant that was a little pricey, but we were in no mood to bargain shop. We enjoyed a meal with a view and revisited the highlights of our trip. We’d conquered the tundra, taken a bull caribou, fed the locals and enjoyed the beauty of the Alaskan landscape. It was an adventure like no other, and we were grateful to have experienced it.

Into the Tundra: Part Seven

The following is an account of day seven of our trip to the Arctic Circle.  If you missed day six, you can catch up in quick fashion with a recap found here.

Day seven began with our now standard mochas – that Swiss Miss really hit the spot. After taking note of the grey sky, we shimmied into rain gear once again. Breakfast was granola bars, with an option of chewy or crunchy, and then we packed up for our last full day of hunting.

Just look at all that firewood. 🙁

We made our way east along the lake and then up the valley where we knew the flat area thinned and created a funnel for the caribou to travel right by us. They were not so accommodating. Hour after hour we glassed and listened. We stopped for a snack with the wind at our backs, then moved on to cross a boggy “bottleneck” toward the Double Spire. When you look out over the land, it looks grassy, with scattered tussocks, and barren areas that look orange from the dirt beneath. But when you step, water shows up out of no where and oozes up over your boot. I nearly lost mine a few times when I sank deeper in the muck, but always managed to come out with it.

Afternoon came, and still it rained, and still no caribou. We hiked to the top of a ridge deeper into the valley. The thought was always, if we can’t see beyond that ridge, we should just go there. Maybe there are tons of caribou on the other side. But in this case there weren’t tons… just two small ones huddled up together. Edgar made a noise like a momma caribou, and they got up and came toward us for a moment, before spooking. They looked too young to be alone, and I hoped they would find their herd again soon.

We took the long way back toward camp, picking our way along the bend where we had seen the limping bull and the others the day before. The sun made a brief showing so we leaned against our packs and feasted on almonds and the rest of the beef jerky. No caribou appeared, but this rainbow made a lovely showing.

We slowly headed “home”… swapping stories and singing songs. Back at the tent we built a fire, and cooked over our little two-burner stove. Dinner was potatoes and onions, and fresh caribou. Not long after dinner we were ready to turn in. We had walked 8-10 miles in the rain and wind, and were looking forward to our warm, dry bags.

Day eight was our last day in the field, or so we’d planned. But our outfitter warned us we should be ready to stay longer based on the weather. Keeping that in mind… we drifted off to sleep.

Effort and Ease

I’m teaching at a new gym, and sometimes potential students ask me if the yoga classes I teach are hard. That’s a difficult question to answer.

Depending on your flexibility, and the way your body is structured, some poses that are hard for me, will be easy for you, and vice versa. There’s no set level of difficulty in any given posture.

To add to the complication, some poses that look cool in photos, aren’t typically all that “hard”. Take 8-angle for example. You’ll see a lot of yogis using this one in profile pictures and such, because it looks really cool. But if you have the flexibility it takes for the first step of the pose, the rest of the journey there is pretty easy.

It’s practically a law to post a photo of yourself here if you live in or visit Houston.

Baby grasshopper is another one. The tricky part is grabbing your extended leg. If you’ve got that part down, you just have to shift your weight on to your planted foot and… voila!

This was taken at a surf break in Mexico. Edgar is somewhere in that water behind me.

Meanwhile, poses like happy baby, that don’t really…. uh… photograph all that well, can be really really hard. I inserted this pose into a sequence for a long hold recently, and had second thoughts when I was rehearsing it myself. I decided to leave it in, but made sure to give students the option of coming out of it mid-way through the set time. It’s no joke.

Other poses are “hard” for other reasons… especially if you’re someone with a long to-do list, that’s not getting “ta-done” while you’re on your mat. It can be hard to sink into child’s pose, or surrender to savasana if your mind won’t slow down. I struggle with this, and tend to give myself permission to think these thoughts when they come at me for three breaths. The idea stays for three long breaths in and out, and on the third one I exhale it away.

Ease and effort …. effort and ease. There’s room in everyone’s practice for both, but only you can decide where you find it.

Cheers to Santa


A traveling man, plump and grey
Weary and wrung out on Christmas Day
Jolly and hollies all through the night
Up on the rooftops can cause quite a fright
Zinging around spreading the joy
Packing and tracking and giving out toys
When the sleigh’s finally empty, he gives Rudolph a pat
Scarfs down a cookie in one minute flat
Then you can spot him, softly singing a tune
The wind in his beard, south bound to Cancun

Merry Christmas from TSY!

Into the Tundra: Part Six

The following is an account of day six of our trip to the Arctic Circle.  If you missed day five, you can catch up in quick fashion with a recap found here.

We woke up to another thin layer of ice on the tent. Our bodies were a little sore from the pack out, but not as bad as we’d feared. We had our mochas, did a little stretching, and decided to try our luck at fishing. Prior to the trip we’d investigated what kind of fish might be swimming around in the lakes and streams of the arctic, and learned grayling and arctic char were a likely bet. They allegedly loved the Blue Fox lure… so we made sure to pick up a few of those before we left.

We headed out of camp and toward the spot where the Oregon boys told us they were catching fish one after the other. Trout, they claimed. We brought our collapsible poles and a rifle… we did have one more tag to fill, and didn’t want to see a huge bull with no way to bring it down.

The morning fog and drizzle refused to go away, but our Gortex gear kept us nice and dry. Back in the lower 48, I was skeptical about buying a rain jacket and rain pants… but I was glad I did. They fit over my layers and would not allow any of that Alaska moisture in.

On our way to the fishing hole, the decision to tote the rifle proved a good one. We spotted a herd of caribou. They were plodding along on the far side of the hill, headed toward Whale Rock, near where Edgar had taken his bull the day before. We also saw a lone bull, who decided to lie down in the field about two miles away. We decided to put off fishing for a moment to track the single bull. We crept toward him, quietly as possible and without exposing ourselves to the horizon. We were just about on him when he heard the other group of cows and calves calling, and got up to join them. We could see then that he was on the smaller side, and limping.

I’ll pause here to get a little personal with how I feel about hunting. I love animals. I have always loved all sorts of furry creatures, and even thought about being a vet at one point. I also eat meat. I’ve been one of those people who understands where my food comes from, but sort of ignores the delicate details of how that all happens. Until now. Now that I’ve been on some hunts, I understand the process a bit more. I understand that there are different kinds of hunters, and that there are many who really like animals as well, and have a great deal of respect for them. I understand that there are “canned” hunts where the outcome is all but decided, and true hunts where your skill and persistence as a outdoorsman is required. I appreciate the skill and enjoy the adventure, but I have never taken an animal myself. It means something to me, and I can’t just pull the trigger without a lot of thought.

This is a photo of me, giving it a lot of thought.

So for weeks leading up to the trip Edgar would causally ask me, “Are you planning to shoot a caribou?” and for weeks my answer would be, “I don’t know.”  One day I was sure it was an experience I wanted to have, to prove to myself that I could be a hunter, and I could fend for myself in the wilderness. The next day I thought about looking at that beautiful animal and taking its life and thought there was no way I could do it. “I might cry,” I told Edgar. “You will cry,” was his reply.

Now the moment had arrived. I could track this wounded bull and probably get within shooting distance. I had practiced at the range with the 7mm-08 and did better than I thought at 100 yards.   If I could get into position I had a chance at making the shot, but did I want to?  I admit ego was also getting in the way of my decision. I could shoot the wounded animal and it might be a way of showing mercy; he likely wouldn’t make the winter with an injured leg. But if I did shoot him, did it show some kind of weakness on my part, for taking a specimen who could not run away like the others?

While I pondered, the group moved off, and I decided I didn’t want to track them. I would hold off for a better opportunity, and perhaps a better bull.

As we headed back toward the fishing hole, we saw two more groups of caribou, but they were cows and calves, so we stuck with fishing. A few casts in, we had dinner. Two nice-sized grayling jumped on our line. We cast a few more times just to see if the char would bite, but they weren’t interested, so we headed back to camp.

Our camp supplies included some onions and potatoes, so I got to chopping those while Edgar prepared the fish. I don’t know if it was because of the cold drizzle or the calories we’d burned the day before, but I was starving and that fish really hit the spot. Even now I remember that meal as one of the best of the trip.

After our dinner, we warmed up in the tent for a while, and then Edgar wanted to go for a walk. My knee was bugging me from the pack out, so I decided to rest it and wait to see if he saw anything good. He came back from a wander over toward Elephant Mountain and said he saw a bunch of caribou by the spire. We took advantage of the last hour of daylight to see if a bull might be among them. As we walked along the lake the rain got more and more serious, and dark was coming quickly.  We realized it wasn’t going to be the right time to pull the trigger even if we did see something, so we headed back to camp.  We made the most of the trip back, picking up driftwood to burn for a little warmth, and taking a moment to enjoy the brisk night air and arctic sky. 

On day seven, we nearly lost our boots in the muck of the tundra, and spotted some young caribou who definitely lost their herd.