Its going to rain? Oh! Well, hmm... It rained for two days. Not pouring rain, just a constant drizzle slowly washing away a foot of snow or more changing much of the landscape. The town of Ivalo pretty much turned from being covered in a blanket of white to brown and grey. We headed to the store for some fancier rubber boots than the standard emergency-rubber-boots-in-case-we- should-run-into-a-bit-of-that-most-of-dreaded-weather." We also emptied out the sleds to store everything in a shed at the Tanama Kennels.  When the equipment gets wet and starts freezing it simply is no good. And, unlike what we were seeing in the forecasts, freezing was what we were hoping for. It would be many days before the temperature would even drop below freezing at night. "Drip, drip, drip"....the sound of rain, melting snow and splashing water. Yes, splashing water. 

Before worrying too much about any sort of weather or issues that it might bring on, we had another challenge that needed be overcome. One we unfortunately had about as little control over as we have over the weather. It was time for another round of 'veterinarian check ups' for the Polar Huskies! While we were able to cruise (back and forth) across the border between Sweden and Finland with absolutely no hassles and really no signs of a border (!), we knew it would be a different story between Finland and Norway. (We didn't exactly know just how much of a different story it would end up to be, but more on that later). As you might remember, back in the United States before leaving on the expedition each Polar Husky had a microchip injected in the neck for identification in order for them to be allowed to enter Sweden. The rules demand that within ten days of crossing the border to enter Norway, a Finnish veterinarian must sign off on the vaccinations, matching it with the microchip. Each Polar Husky was also administered a pill for worming. Hoping for no further delays on our trek dogsledding onward, Mathias and Wilma, our kind hosts, helped us set up plans with the veterinarian in Ivalo as soon as we arrived at the Tanama Kennels. The word was that we would be set and cleared to go by Saturday. 

On Monday afternoon, still at Tanama Kennels, we loaded Sable and Nazca into a small car to drive to the veterinarian office once again for a 'random-two-dog-control.' To our great relief we walked back out with a new one-inch stack of paper work stamped to go. And as it turned out, the delay might have been for the best. Still raining, we were now in a position to possibly adjust to these new conditions instead of just dealing with it as a not-so-great-reality while already heading northeast on Lake Inari, us 'water-skiing' and the Polar Huskies swooshing through waves of water for days on end then traveling with the direction of the moving rain. 

With Aaron and Wendy about to join us in twelve days meant the plans was to be on a fast-track northeast then west to meet them. Once again, we pulled out the maps and started calculating. Hmm. Well, we could try to make some changes. Instead of dogsledding northeast the length of Lake Inari, we looked at heading northwest across and straight to Karasjok in Norway via the border crossing in Karigasniemi. Aaron and Wendy can then meet us further down the trail than originally planned, which will allow us to then get up into higher, and hopefully drier country. While traveling in the Arctic we learned early on to 'work with' mother nature, never to try to overcome her.  That is, make sure to respect her hymns and go with the flow, Or, in this case, not work against the flowing streams and lakes of water being created on top of the river and lake ice by melting snow, rain water and water seeping up on top of the ice from cracks being created in the ice in the balmy temperatures. 

Plowing through 'little lakes and streaming rivers' of water on top of the ice covered Lake Inari by Tuesday, we had no doubt we made the right decision. Sure, in between the water (and mud!) were sections of slick travel with the snow available being much like sugar. The well-rested Polar Huskies flew the first 50 kilometers (about 30 miles) across the lake towards the community of Inari! This was despite strong head winds followed by a small snowstorm we literally watched rolling in much like a sandstorm. Actually it was much like a sandstorm in every way. Like sand grains, the snowflakes were tiny; it was whipping and stinging just like hard-blowing sand as well, and it came out of nowhere and went just the same. We were lucky to make it to yet another open log hut where we could stay for the night. Not much more than eight by twelve feet at most (about 2.5 by 4 meters), this was just a perfect place to get the wood stove cranking to really dry out the wet and damp clothing.

And then it froze. The swooshing sounds were replaced by weeeeeeeee and woooooooooiiiiii and some uuuuuuuuuurgh's as the surface became slippery glaring ice mixed with wash-board-bumpy trails. We had only little control of the sleds, but as long as we were traveling on relatively flat surface all was great and we really covered some distance on lakes and rivers as we got off Lake Inari. But then there were the hills. Of which there were many...

Yip, yip, yiiip was ringing through the crisp air. Ever wondered why we make all those really loud kind of crazy noises when we are going up 'anything steep?' It's to get the Polar Huskies in sync so to speak! If you have ever watched a crew rowing a boat, an individual called a coxswain stands at the one end of the boat yelling out the rhythm so that each crewmember can stroke at the same time with their fellow rowers. The crew rows the boat as a team with the greatest possible strength! To a Polar Husky those yipping sounds also means, 'don't look back to check if the sled is stuck! It's heavy, but take that one more step and together we keep the sled moving.' 

Up and down, up and down, getting closer to the Norwegian border we began crawling our way up above the tree line onto a vast white mountain, and within a short time we could look back across the land of trees, lakes and marshes that we had traveled the last few days. "We have been traveling so much in the forest where the trees protect you from the elements and more than anything from the Arctic winds. Thinking about it I had not had to cover my face much on this journey, but when we climbed up on the mountain it was a white, white, white vista that seemed so pure.  The wind, however, sweeping like crazy made the snow whirl and dance, pricking the skin in my face. It was like an old familiar friend. And yes! I quickly covered my face," laughs Mille. 

The thing about hills and mountains is that once you climb it, as in our cases, we most often also have to go down it.  And believe it or not, we often prefer the hard work of going up in contrast to the scary ride back down. The reason is that going up is about getting the job done, it is about team work and we have control of the situation. Well, hmm, humans are never in control when in the Arctic! But compared to when we are going down a hill. That's a different scenario - one of "Oh!" And that combined with the loads of bridges that we are meeting on this expedition soon becomes an "oh oh"... 

There were reindeer Bridges (built for reindeers not to cross them), bridges across rivers and creeks flowing with open water, and one very large bridge at the end of a one-mile downhill at the border crossing between Finland and Norway.  This downhill was with a customs booth about 2/3 the way down, with trucks, stop lights, taxis, snowmobiles and lots of curious people wondering why one team of mighty big Polar Huskies were tied off to a flag post, while the other stood half way up a large snow bank with a large sled sideways on the road blocking the traffic. 

Coming out of the woods through a reindeer gate to cross the highway, we had run in the ditch going down an incredibly long slope for a mile or longer taking us down into a valley and the community of Karisganiemi. We planned to stay the night and the next day here for Education Day. That way we could wait entering Norway. Once in Norway we would only have seven days to make our way back into Finland or we would have to go through a whole new procedure with the Norwegian veterinary authorities, which is not in the plans. We had checked with several mushers about their experience crossing the border and no one really had any problems to tell about as long as they had all their paperwork in order. And we sure did! "Now, one trick was that all these mushers must have traveled by dog truck," says Paul. You see, the trail simply ended by a large sign which swung out onto the road! We simply stared, both exclaiming a loud, "Oh!" Looking to the right, trucks and cars were coming down the hill at a high speed, and looking to the left was stop lights and cars coming through open custom lanes from a steep uphill with absolutely no chance to be forewarned of a team of Polar Huskies on the icy road. 

We decided that Mille would run to a white building that we assumed would be the customs building. Here she explained the situation, that we were stopped with two large sleds and two teams of sled dogs a bit down the road. What did we have to do to be allowed to cross the border? And how would we get back on a trail or somehow out of the customs area? 

"The Finnish toll officers were very nice and smiled a great deal. However, they told me we had to drive the dogs there, come inside to go through our paper work, and then continue across the road where a snowmobile trail running on top of the snow bank would take us down the rest of the hill and onto the river.  In other words we would be crossing the border into Norway and by-passing the town whether or not we wanted to!" says Mille. Hmm. It was not a good plan to say the least. Not least because that snowmobile track was glare ice and it was within feet of the road with nothing separating us from the cars and the stop lights. Mille goes on, "I was just about as terrified as I have ever been in my 16 years of dogsled expeditions." However, nothing could be done but to, well, hope for the best. 

Disko in lead of one team and Tucker in lead of the other, we moved one team at a time tying the other team off. Paul was on the backend of the sleds steering and braking while Mille ran full sprint in front of the teams to show the way and wave at on-coming and-passing traffic. It was quite the show! And quite the sight as the sixteen Polar Huskies laid down for a nap in front of customs with trucks and all pulling up and passing by. Finally, standing on the river, the whole ordeal took us almost three hours and it actually went great! Well, except maybe for when we set out to go down the hill and one of the sleds got a bit stuck onto a snow bank.  This meant drivers had to be patient for a bit as we had to basically move the sled out in a 90 degree angle blocking two lanes of traffic to get it onto the bank (we are pretty sure everyone was plenty entertained while waiting!)

The trick was, now that we were in Norway, that we had no other option but to continue going as fast as possible trying to make it to our next destination - the Engholm Husky Lodge outside the community of Karasjok about 30 kilometers (18 miles) further down the river. It was past 9 PM and getting dark as we finally pulled in front of the Lodge - some 13-hours of dog sledding later! The Polar Huskies surely showed us once again why they are the true legends of this business! 

Speaking of legends, Sven Engholm, the owner of Engholm Husky Lodge is a legendary figure in the sport of sleddog racing. With his kennel of Alaskan Huskies, he has won the world's most northerly dogsled race, the prestigious Finmarks Løpet no less than 11 times!!! He has run the Iditarod dog sled race in Alaska six times, won the Olympic Dogsled Race and has led part of the historic Olympic environmental expedition in Siberia. He is truly a man of huskies and today he runs the most beautiful set-up at the Engholm Husky Lodge offering a unique place for people to stay 'in the woods' as well as longer over-night trips and adventures on the coast of the Arctic Ocean on the Norwegian Sea-all by dog team. But that is, we discovered, only one side of Sven who so kindly opened his home to us that late night for some turkey dinner and a place to sleep! Sven is simply one of the most creative people we have ever met. Besides the guest-lodge, which is a large log building, there are seven small log cabins and also Sven's own home here. All the building were built by Sven himself! 

Everything inside, the furniture from candleholders, to chairs, lamps, bookshelves, utensils, doors, tables, you name it (!) is designed and made by Sven - all from nature's own materials. Rocks, hides of Arctic animals, antlers and flowers, rope, feathers, cast iron and everything wood. And we mean everything wood! Not the kind of wood you go buy pre-cut at the lumberyard either. He works with branches, trunks, barks and burls shaped by nature in funky ways that Sven somehow sees to fit just perfectly for whatever purpose it is to serve. Now, making what you live in, and most of what you put in your house from materials from your own 'backyard' is obviously an incredible way to have a 'tiny foot print.' Not something easy for all of us to do though. 

But then, there are other things we can think about to make a smaller foot print in how we use nature's resources. Like how to heat our house and get electricity! And of course, every buildings here is heated by a wood stove too! "We have really noticed that heating by wood is very prevalent here in Arctic Fennoscandia," says Paul. "That is not something that is seen much in the rest of the high Arctic, simply because elsewhere there are no trees at this latitude- it is above the tree line. That said, the Fennoscandian countries are all very active in researching other options for energy and using their true renewable resources. For example, before she left Aksana explained to us how a huge plant for 'algae energy production' is really thriving in Finland. We do not know much about this option in the US, but the potential for other resources are sure great here as well. I just read that if we used the energy potential provided to us by geothermal energy that exists underneath the United States to a depth of two miles, it would supply America's power demands (at the current need) for the next 30,000 years!" 

Mark sure to join this week's chat  about world resources with Peter Sullivan from GE's Ecomagination on Friday, April 11th at 11 AM CST. Have you made your sense of place, or any other cool projects that relate to how we see and use the land and our resources? What's the size of your foot print? Please post it in 03: Earth Zone! We just checked out the terrific designs that have been submitted to the "Stop Bullying Now" T-shirt contest. Just amazing stuff! Did you vote on your favorite design yet? Else, do it by clicking right here... 

This week's two Polar Husky Superstars are both true Polar Husky legends and great resources of both powerful energy and sweet loving. Hershey is probably one of the toughest Polar Huskies in the kennel today. He is a tough-minded personality who does not back down for most anything and he is indeed tough on other Polar Huskies. It took us some years to realize that Hershey, much like his sister Sable, is tough about getting the job done. For us, it often seemed that he was just a bit short tempered and maybe taking advantage from the fact that he is so intense and that other Polar Huskies often choose to back down when he gets short fused. However, as we started running him with young dogs we started seeing that as long as they work, work hard and do not show any signs of slacking, he is actually a mellow smiley kind of guy. That is until there is any indication that the sled is not moving and he has been asked that it be moved. On this expedition we are often pairing Hershey with Jupiter who can be a bit clowny-dreamy, but Hershey keeps him straight on that! That said, Hershey is ever so sweet and affectionate with people. He always gets up to show how he appreciates your attention and one to love giving 'bear hugs.' 

Just as affectionate - as well as tough on other dogs - is Khan, this week's second Polar Husky Superstar. Khan and Hershey are indeed brothers, but Khan is a whole lot more social with other dogs than Hershey. That is, as long as Khan can be in charge. A 'ruler' by nature (which is why he was named Khan) he likes everything to be just his way. Already as a little puppy he showed great mental strength, as he would often lead his littermates on 'missions' to explore. At first we actually thought Khan had a future as a lead dog because of his behavior of loving to lead out while his other brother, Disko, was much more playful and silly about it. But just like the name goes, Khan is not that much about taking commands.  He is more about applying his great physical strength and happy mood to getting the sled moving from the back of the team!