Yesterday, Thursday, we pitched tent for the first time, these anyway, two new ones from Fjallraven - two tents, each for four people.
Friday was spent preparing the last details. Breakfast was bought, muesli in different varieties. Every evening meal will consist of 4 - 5 bags of freeze dried food + aditional rice and pasta. Should be enough for the seven of us.
Our new cooking equipment was also tested. This is the first time we use propane; previously we've used alcohol. However, we've chosen to the propane solution to reduce weight.
Lastly, we packed everything. Each person is now solely responsible for carrying personal items such as sleeping bags, toothbrush etc. Furthermore, items that we all depend upon has been divided among us all. Two tents, two cooking apparatus, one rifle, one set of camera equipment, map, gps, first aid kit, 7 canisters of propane, 1,6 meter wooden pole to cross rivers, one flag, sun protection.
We are set to go. We leave for Eqaluit, some 55 kilometers east of Uummannaq tomorrow morning, 26th June, around 10 am. Ahead of us lies some 250 kilometers of Arctic wilderness. Can't wait.
We should reach Niaqornat in about 13-14 days. All for now
Our initial plan of a 4 day trip up Storoen, to start with needed to be cancelled due to late arrival of supplies. Our supplies for the entire trip didn't turn up here in Uummannaq before Friday. Hans Gundel has also been out of town, but is back Monday - National day in Greenland. We will use the following days to make individual foodpackages, one per person per day. Every element of our gear will be chekked and re-chekked.
Looking south towards the face-wall of the Peninsula fills one with a sense of being a very small person. However, it's an impressive sight around 12 midnight.
In just 7 days the team will be assembled in Uummannaq. All team members are looking forward to the trail. Before the hike on the peninsula, we will spend 3 - 4 days hiking up Storøen, a 1.200 meter high, and 18 kilometers long island, just 8 kilometers East of Uummannaq. This initial hike will work as a minor training exercise - a preparation to the peninsula trip. The map below presents both the initial hike, as well as our route on the Nuussuaq Peninsula.
GREENLAND BECOMES SEVENTH CHAPTEROF THE INTERNATIONAL APPALACHIAN TRAIL
By
Wilfred E. Richard
International Appalachian Trail – Maine
Paul Wylezol, President
Council of International Appalachian Trails
History
In 1994, the idea of the International Appalachian Trail was put forth by Richard B. Anderson, formerly Maine Commissioner of Conservation, Maine Audubon Director, fisheries biologist, and first President of the Council of International Appalachian Trails.The original Appalachian Trail was established in the 1930s That trail exists in the mountains and in the hills of the eastern United States – from the State of Georgia in the south to the State of Maine in the north.
But, the Appalachian Mountains do not stop in Maine.These mountains continue across the United States / Canada border into Atlantic Canada withnorthern terminus of trail at L’ Anse aux Meadows; this is where the Greenland Norse landed about one thousand years ago. The Appalachians continue as the Caledonides in Greenland, the islands of the North Atlantic (Faroes, Shetlands, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales) and onto Norway.
Since 1994, both length of trail corridor and number of chapters of the International Appalachian Trail continued to increase. By 2009, trail corridor and chapter members included the State of Maine and the CanadianProvinces of New Brunswick, Québec, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador.
Maine to Greenland
For about 10 years IAT – Maine Board Member Will Richard and wife Lindsay have continued to be frequent visitors to Western Greenland with many of those visits to the town of Uummannaq.It was here that Ann Andreasen, Director of the Children’s Home of Uummannaq and of the Uummannaq Polar Institute, became a solid supporter of Greenland as member of the IAT, with the initial trail corridor being located in the mountains and valleys of the NussuaqPeninsula, a prominent land feature of Uummannaq Fjord.Director Andreasen views establishment of the trail as good for the local economy.Even more importantly, the young people of the Children’s Home use the trail to develop outdoor and personal skills.
Greenland to Maine and Nova Scotia
In late August of 2009, Ann Andreasen, Ole Jørgen Hammeken, René Kristensen, and a dozen students from the Children’s Home visited Maine.Through that visit, plans developed for Greenland to apply for chapter membership.Then in April of 2010, René Kristensen and Hans Gundel came as delegates to Maine and then onto a meeting of the Council of International Appalachian Trails to petition for membership
In April, the Council of International Appalachian Trails at its Annual Meeting in Halifax, Nova Scotia, announced the IAT seventh chapter, Greenland
Greenland has elected its chapter board with René Kristensen as Director and Founder, Ann Andreasen as Financial Manager and Co-Founder, Lars Poort as Photographer and Co-Founder, Hans Gundel as Member and Trail Hiker, and Jonas Nielsen as Member.IAT – Greenland has written a trail development plan, and established a website (www.IATGreenland.blogspot.com).
. --This summer, IAT- Greenland will have a two- or three-week hike on the Nussuaq Peninsula
The main purpose of the 2010 hike is trail development on the NussuaqPeninsula and to find solutions for some of the problems we encountered during the hike in 2008 with crossing of rivers and areas with snow. During the hike, we will produce a trail description to be published on the website. As well, news and pictures will be featured on IAT-Greenland website.
The participants in the 2010 hike will be five young boys from the Children´s Home in Uummannaq together with two educators. Three of the hikers are IAT Board members, Hans, Lars, René, who also completed the hike in 2008 as well.
Future Growth of the IAT
At the time of this writing, Scotland announced that it was accepting an invitation to join the IAT. The next likely candidates for this trail which links the mountains of the North American continent with the island states of the North Atlantic are the Faroe and Shetland Islands.
Apart from standard hiking equipment such as a tent, food, and clothes for cold weather, a few things are essential when considering a hike in Greenland/the Nuussuaq Peninsula:
Satellite telephone - outside towns and settlements, in the mountains, a satellite telephone is the only way to get in contact with other people.
Rifle - for protection. Polar bears have been spotted on the
peninsula from time to time.
Police - leave a map and a notice of your intended route and time plan at the nearest police station, from where you begin your hike.
