 | |||
| Illustration from The Arctic Prairies |
Summer, forty-two years ago, I came across Seton’s account
of his 1907 exploration of the Arctic Prairies. I thought at the time that
re-creating that adventure, or at least a part of it, would be a worthy goal.
Finally, after years of desiring, I am just days away from the beginning of
that trip. Thomas and Patty are joining me from the Academy for the Love of
Learning.
Our journey begins where Seton’s ultimately ended (in 1946),
Santa Fe. Quick flight to Denver, then a longer flight to Calgary, then another
flight to Yellowknife on Great Slave Lake, capital of the Northwest
Territories. The Arctic has its challenges (weather, grizzly bears, mosquitoes,
etc.) but the only one that bothers me is making airplane connections – three
different airplanes and two airlines to get to Yellowknife. Arrival there
scheduled for 9:00 pm. There we will join up with project co-curator Michale.
I will be making travel notes along the way; I searched for
but did not find any publications on how to plan an expedition. Among the four
of us we have considerable wilderness experience, but it is the advance
preparation that may be the greatest challenge. So I will present a planning
few tips.
Why are you doing this? Lots of money and at least some risk
is involved. TIP 1: Write out a statement
of purpose. What is the justification for the expenditure? What do you hope to
accomplish? How will you share what you learn? We have spent considerable time
on this. Several people have edited and re-edited my original statement of
purpose; it may also get additional post-expedition revisions. Our historical
research will result in publications and exhibitions; we have not discounted
the possibility of personal growth as well.
Pre-positioned supplies at Aylmer are limited. When Seton
went there, additional supplies were non-existent. We are working with an
outfitter who will supply food and much camping equipment, but not everything.
Whatever we don’t take we won’t have. TIP
2: Make sure you understand what gear you will need, create a checklist to
use when packing. Share the list among the expedition participants to make sure
all anticipated needs are covered, but also be mentally prepared (as much as
possible) for the unexpected.
The following morning we need to arrive at the Air Tindi
Float Plane Base at 5:30am. Planning the trip to avoid such a tight schedule
that allows for no major delays of airplane cancellations would have been a
better course. TIP 3: Get to your
location (Yellowknife, in our case) well in advance to avoid stressing out over
missing air connections.
If you are planning to conduct research (this is a working
trip, not a vacation), develop a workflow plan. I have put this together along
the lines of the scripts I develop for museum exhibitions. Our goal is to
explore and photograph the most important areas around Aylmer Lake visited by
Edward Preble, Seton, and their two First Nations companions.
I have spent months studying maps starting with those drawn
by Seton, and continuing with a contemporary topographical map and satellite
imagery from Google Earth. Combined with Seton and Preble’s written accounts, I
found GPS coordinates for all the places we need to reach. I know what days we
need to be where and what we need to accomplish once we reach each of those
places TIP 4: Know your territory
before you even get there. Our time there is both short (eight days) and
expensive ($$$$) so creating a daily schedule should get us the most value out
of our time.
Anticipate what might go wrong (starting with TIP 1). In
addition to travel delays, what happens in case of major medical injuries? If
you are so wealthy that the prospect of spending tens of thousands of dollars
on medical evacuation is not daunting, then you don’t need the remainder of
this paragraph, although you should consider making a substantial donation to
the Academy for the Love of Learning to help underwrite the expense of this
trip. TIP 5: Get travel and medical
insurance to cover as many disaster contingencies as you can imagine.
TIP 6: The Arctic
sees lots of summer travelers. Be sure to make needed hotel reservations well
in advance. Also, let your credit card company know you are planning out of the
ordinary expenses.
TIP 7: Remember
to take all your research files (old maps and written accounts in our case) and
photographs. I will read (possibly aloud) the words of Seton and Preble to
guide and inspire us.
TIP 8: Take a
satellite phone or other communication device. Establish regular check-in time
with home base: family members and/or co-workers should have a copy of the expedition
member’s contact list. One person should be designated as the home base
contact.
TIP 9: After the
expedition, evaluate by comparing what you thought you might learn or experience
with whatever actually happened. Were the original purposes met? Did new ones
emerge?
After each adventure like this, I return to all the above
criteria and reassess, starting re-creating gear lists of what I took
needlessly or what I should have brought. I will also review every other
category to see how I might have improved on the plan.
Apparently Seton and Preble did a good job of planning as
they returned alive from a nearly six-month canoe trip. We can only hope to do
as well as they did.
No comments:
Post a Comment