Darrell Greer
Northern News Services

Rankin Inlet (Apr 10/02) - The love of spending time in the great outdoors led to three people from Rankin Inlet walking to Whale Cove.

Liz Girard, Sue Diederichs and Craig VanDeMerwve left Rankin on March 28 and arrived in Whale three days later.

Diederichs says the group took along one of Dyan Grey's sled dogs, Taffy, just to be on the safe side.

"She was a really great dog, but she didn't eat during the four days because I think she was homesick," says Diederichs with a laugh.

"All three of us enjoy the outdoors and it gives you a sense of purpose if you're walking to somewhere."

The trio were well-prepared for the journey, carrying a GPS and a satellite phone in case of bad weather or any other mishap.

They had a four-season tent with them and made iglu blocks to provide shelter when they cooked.

The group used two small camp stoves and ate mostly dehydrated food for their dinners.

They also carried oatmeal for breakfast, and cheese, crackers, trail mix, chocolate and char for snacking.

"We all had two good sleeping bags, so we were really warm in the nights. In fact, we were almost too warm," says Diederichs.

Diederichs says the three met some interesting people along the way.

"We met one woman on our first night who had to drop her qamutik off a ways from Whale when her piston blew on her snowmobile. We found out later her snowmobile broke down again just after she was talking to us and she had to walk three hours into Rankin," she says.

"A teacher actually spotted her out on the sea ice and picked her up."

Diederichs says it might come as a surprise to a lot of people to find out just how well-travelled the Whale Cove trail really is.

"We hardly saw anybody the first day, but once the weekend arrived, we saw about five or six people a day."

The group never saw any wildlife during their trek, but Diederichs says it was great just to be outside.

"In all fairness, however, you do have to learn some skills out there. Like, how to go to the bathroom without freezing your bum cheeks."