American quest for North Pole followed daily by thousands
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (Apr 23/01) - Covering 192 kilometres a day in the most unforgiving of climates, two American adventurers are opening up the Canadian Arctic to North American students.
Chris Martz and Otto Bakemeier and their dog Bear passed through the Kivalliq on the second leg of a journey to the North Pole by snowmobile. They were in Baker Lake April 16 and from there headed to Gjoa Haven.
The pair arrived in Gjoa Haven April 20 after "rough but spectacular ride."
According to the expedition Web site, the team experienced mechanical difficulties about halfway to Gjoa Haven.
They made arrangements to get parts shipped to Gjoa Haven where repairs were to be made.
Hailing from Indianapolis, Illinois, the two began planning Arctic Trek 2000 about seven years ago and covered the distance from Indianapolis to Churchill, Manitoba last year.
They began the second part of their journey on March 30, 2001, each machine towing a 3.6-metre qamutiq loaded with supplies.
"I built the qamutiqs in Indianapolis and we came up with the special box design ourselves," said Martz.
The qamutiqs are two tiered, with 455 litres of fuel occupying the first layer.
"We have our heavy weight on the bottom and stack our gear on top of that.
"We have tents, satellite phones and equipment to allow us access to satellite pictures and the Internet for any information we may need.
"We also carry a good deal of the information materials we distribute to the schools as we go."
Education is an important part of the adventure.
The duo's efforts are being documented on the Internet where literally thousands of students track their progress daily. When they visit communities, they stop in at the local school.
Martz said the school program has been a part of the trip for the past four years and the Web site for the past three.
"The kids can log onto the Web site and learn about where we are every day.
"We actually have a lot of Canadian kids participating from British Columbia all the way to Newfoundland."
Students who visit the site (www.arctictrek2000.com) are able to interact with each other via e-mail.
There are about 20,000 kids involved with the trip and the number continues to grow every day.
Web visitors can also enter various contests, with the opportunity to win items from the actual team or a local sponsor in their community.
"We've been fortunate enough to pick up local sponsorship in just about every community we visit.
"We have Calm Air and a lot of other different people throughout the North helping us out, but it's important to have businesses in each community we visit get involved too."
Schools play a role
Martz and Bakemeier go out of their way to visit as many Nunavut schools as they can during the trek, including those in Baker Lake, Rankin Inlet, Arviat and Iqaluit.
The two explain their journey to local students, talk about the Web site and pass out promotional materials.
Martz and Bakemeier had practically no Northern experience before training for their journey.
Martz said their combined love for the outdoors and desire to see the North sparked the trip.
"I've been an avid snowmobiler for years and once we decided to make this a reality, we started to put together a game plan.
"We started going into Ontario to train, then on to James Bay and eventually out onto the pack ice to decide if we could achieve our goals."
The Americans were pleased with their first-year efforts, covering about half the distance to their destination.
They also learned a great deal, made friends and convinced themselves they have a real shot at reaching the Pole.
"If it doesn't happen this year, we'll get it done next year for sure."
As one would expect, there have been some tense moments during the trip.
"A real tense situation was crossing the Nelson River.
"There was a lot of wide-open rushing water and that was a pretty scary deal."
There are many who have successfully made the trip to the North Pole who, given the opportunity, may warn the two Americans -- that the scariest is yet to come on the trail
