Not many people can face an angry polar bear, temperatures as cold as 40 degrees below zero, and breaking ice underfoot and live to tell about it.
Pam Flowers can.
Flowers, 59, will speak about those experiences at 7 p.m. March 20 and 21 at the Brandon Township Library when she presents, ‘Alone Across the Arctic.? The slide show and talk each night will detail a 2,500 mile journey from Barrow, Alaska to Repulse Bay, Canada that made her the world record holder for longest solo dog trek by a woman.
Flowers has done nine expeditions in the past 25 years and now travels across the country, giving speeches about her experiences as a dog musher.
‘It (dog mushing) was something I wanted to do ever since I was a little kid,? says Flowers, who grew up in Sault St. Marie, Mich. and recalls a man coming to her school who talked about the subject.
Flowers moved to Alaska in 1981 and began training to be a dog musher at a dog farm in Willow. She learned about the equipment necessary to make a trek, including a sled, harness, and lines that hook the dogs to the sled, as well as a snowhook? a large anchor that holds the dogs steady. She also learned how to properly care for sled dogs, including housing and vet care.
Flowers began taking small trips, with three dogs and a sled and as she became more knowledgeable, increased the number of dogs.
In 1983, Flowers participated in the Iditarod, an 1,100 mile dog sled race across Alaska. It was her first and last race. Although she enjoyed the comraderie and sportsmanship, she didn’t enjoy all the pressure to keep moving over the course of the 20 days she raced.
‘I enjoy expeditioning because you can stop when you want,? says Flowers. ‘If you find something interesting you can explore it. You can take a day off to play with the dogs, it’s just a better experience for me.?
In 1985, Flowers sledded around the west coast of Alaska, a 600-mile, six-week trip. She did several more expeditions and then on Feb. 14, 1993, she left Barrow, Alaska with eight Alaskan huskies on the trip that would set a new world record.
As with all her expeditions, the trip required extensive planning. Flowers would retrace as closely as possible the route of Danish explorer Knud Rasmussen’s portion of the fifth Thule Expedition, taken in 1922. The expedition would take her across the Northwest Passage. A trailer sled held a tent, sleeping bag and all the camping paraphernalia she would need for the winter, as well as mats for the dogs to sleep on. She took food to start with and mailed non-perishable food to the villages she would stop in along the way.
‘I’ve been doing (expeditions) for a long time, so I am ready for any challenge that can happen,? Flowers said. ‘Part of my responsibility is to make sure there is enough food and fuel to weather whatever happens to us.?
The dogs covered about 3-4 miles per hour and the time between villages varied from 2-6 weeks. Traveling required a lot of attention. She watched the dogs closely to see if they were tiring or needed a break; she scrutinized her location using 38 topographic maps to ensure they didn’t get lost; she listened to her own body signals to make sure she wasn’t too cold or hungry; and, she scanned the skies.
‘Storms do not come out of nowhere, no matter where you are, contrary to what some may believe,? Flowers says.
When she saw a storm on the way, she would break for camp, setting up her tent. Flowers tried to get nine hours of sleep each night, because she was so tired. The dogs would sleep outside on their mats, with the sled set up as a windbreak. When there was a storm, Flowers needed to rise every three hours to check on them, to make sure the windbreak was still above where the dogs lay, but she says they do just fine out in the cold, with their thick, heavy coats.
Flowers wore five layers of clothing to help guard herself against hypothermia? two layers of long johns; two layers of wool, and a big heavy parka and snowpants. She wore heavy boots, gloves and three pairs of wool socks to complete her ensemble.
Flowers contracted three bad colds on the trip, but the dogs never got sick, because, she says, they were young and healthy with a good diet and lots of exercise.
The hardest part of the trip for Flowers was, she says, when it was ‘really, really, really cold? and trying to keep her fingers warm.
On the trip, she was very much ‘in the moment,? not worrying about anything except what was going on around her at any given time. On days when the weather was gentle and it was nearly impossible to get lost, she occupied her thoughts with writing magazine articles in her head, so when she arrived in a village, she could type up the notes and save them.
‘I do a lot of writing in my head and playing around with words and sentences,? Flowers said. ‘I write about the experiences and things that happen with me and my dogs.?
On the expedition, Flowers said she and the dogs saw thousands of caribou, lots of arctic foxes and occasionally an arctic wolf. From time to time they would also see a polar bear, ‘but they tend to stay away from you.?
An exception was a polar bear and her cub the team came across while rounding a corner. The mother polar bear made a hoarse, hissing sound and got in amidst the dogs while the baby sat nearby.
‘I had my shotgun out and I would have defended us if she tried to harm someone, but she didn’t try to,? Flowers said. ‘She got tired and frustrated that she couldn’t get us to leave. The dogs weren’t listening to me at that point, they were barking and I had no control over what was happening. She finally left.?
The dogs are normally very good, well-trained since they were pups to be sled dogs. Flowers says they know their job and are very responsive.
No training can prepare for the threat of breaking ice? which the team faced while crossing a portion of the sea. Although Flowers had faced breaking ice before and says there is no point in being afraid of it? if you’re afraid, you may as well not go? she spent two terrifying weeks while the ice broke, stopping only for a four-hour break every afternoon and a five-minute break every hour.
‘It was remarkable when the ice was breaking up, the worst one we ever had,? she says. ‘I thought we were going to die, it took us 2 weeks to get off, but we did.?
Because the ice broke up so early in June, Flowers and the dogs lived with a family of Inuits on an island for five and a half months.
It was not as different as you would think,? she says. ‘They have houses with electricity. The family I stayed with had an extra room. We made my dogs dog houses. They were very kind. I wrote a lot during that time and updated my journal.?
Flowers, who is single, stayed until December 1993 and spent that Christmas with another Inuit family. On Jan. 9, 1994, she reached Repulse Bay and the end of her trek. The team missed the trail into the village and came into a bay piled up with rough ice, but villagers saw them and came out to help and get she and her dogs through to the shore.
‘That was nice, they took pictures and congratulated me and it was a very moving moment,? she said.
Flowers had borrowed $18,000 for her trip, but her funds were depleted by the end. Donations from strangers brought her home to Alaska.
Flowers? favorite part of the expedition was spending time with the dogs.
‘You get to spend a lot of time with the dogs and form a really close relationship,? says Flowers. ‘They’re dependent on you and you’re dependent on them.?
Flowers still has three of the dogs from the expedition? Anna, Sojo and Roald are all 14 years-old and retired now, something Flowers probably won’t ever do. She is currently planning her next expedition, hiking the Appalachian Trail in 2008 with a pup not yet born (she is getting one this spring).
‘For me, the thing I love most is to set up a challenge for myself, something that is difficult, but realistic and set off and see if we can accomplish it,? she says. ‘You work your whole life thinking you’re going to retire, but then you get close and think ‘what am I going to do?? I don’t think I’ll ever retire.?