.

Home page

Text size

E-mail this page

MITTIMATALIK/POND INLET - As the Nunavut Quest's 16 mushers and their dogs raced from Arctic Bay to Pond Inlet, snowmobilers carried supplies and provided the safety net to make the epic race possible. The youngest was a 12-year-old from Pond Inlet named Michael Inuarak.

"It was hard," he said through an interpreter. "There's a lot of work involved. Setting up the tents, setting up the camp. Driving that much distance was tiring for me."

Michael Inuarak, right, celebrates his arrival in Pond Inlet with his uncle Daniel Inuarak. Michael was the youngest snowmobile driver to accompany the mushers of the Nunavut Quest race on their week-long journey from Arctic Bay to Pond Inlet. - photo courtesy of Niko Inuarak

Normally a snowmobile trip from Arctic Bay to Pond Inlet takes only half a day, but because the snowmobiles were travelling at the pace of the dog teams, the trip took a week, covering roughly 50 miles a day.

Each musher had two snowmobilers to carry the bulk of their supplies and drive ahead to prepare the camp at the end of each day's run. Michael's musher was his uncle Niko Inuarak. Michael helped chain his uncle's dogs each night, then secure them in their harnesses for the next day's run.

Michael already has experience with dog teams, having accompanied his grandfather Charlie Inuarak on the land. Charlie was the lead trail-blazer on the Nunavut Quest, being very familiar with the trail.

Michael said the weather was excellent during the trip. Some of the snow machines had difficulty early on, as the snow was thin on the land east of Arctic Bay and caused mechanical breakdowns. Towards the end of the trip, thick snow on Eclipse Sound was difficult for the tiring dogs, making progress slow.

Michael said a high point of the journey was learning to make an iglu from an elder from Repulse Bay.