Wk 12 Chukotka Riches: Bears and Cucumbers!
Date Posted: 5.7.2007
Location: 64º54N 172º29W
Yanrakynnot, Chukotka, Russia
Weather Conditions: Sunny with clouds, 32°F (0 °C)
"I'm exhausted." says Jeff with a smile when asked to sum up the day. Eleven hours of running with the Polar Huskies. Waking up at 4 AM and out of the tent at 6 AM and on the go about 45 minutes later. Our campsite was located on the Bering Sea with long sloping valleys surrounding us. Our vista was a floe edge where open water meets sea ice. The ice had numerous black dots where seals basked in the sun soaking up the heat. Scorching temperatures in the forties (3 - 5 Celsius). Overhead, flocks of Sandhill cranes were crossing our path above. With the backdrop of mountains as we descended down the mountainside, the chaos of Polar Huskies, skis, peoples, chain brakes and sleds took us onto the ocean ice. Yanrakynnot appeared in the distance. This is Artur's home community and it has been a long day to get here - a day filled with riches, incredible sights, exciting surprises and ever lasting memories. Just as it has been every day and every minute of this week.
"Chukotka is very different from anywhere else I have traveled in the Arctic. We may not be covering great distances on the year's expedition, but the riches of Chukotka is like nothing else I have ever experienced in the Arctic. We are getting bombarded with Arctic landscapes, new impressions and experiences we had only dared dream about. Never have I felt so intensely rewarded by an expedition." says Mille.
One experience we had not dreamed of was our visit with the Chukchi reindeer herders. Making our way across the tundra in yet another mind boggling vehicle, 5-foot high tires (1 2/3 meter) mounted with a jeep, and once again kindly guided by the mayor of Lorino, Andree Gino, it was with the greatest possible anticipation we saw the yaranga appear on the snow covered tundra in the distance while we could see the reindeer herd to the north. This time of the year the reindeer herders have separated the cows away from the bulls so that they can give birth to their calves. A small group of herders take the cows towards the coast and northwards for good grazing on the tundra in cool and breezy conditions.
Andree explained to us that it is the first time in ten years that the reindeer herders have brought a herd this close to Lorino. "Reading about the reindeer herders - their way of life, the descriptions of yarangas and how they still live as nomads with the reindeer as they have for thousands of years, I was just baffled with our luck." says Mille. "And, I was so incredibly excited I could barely get myself through the opening of the yaranga to meet Vera, the matriarch who was cooking lunch - a soup over the fire." Inside this incredible structure, centered in the middle was a large wall of reindeer skins. Vera signaled for us to slide under the skins. This took us into a dark room, lit and heated by lamps burning seal skin oils. Large enough for six or eight adults to lie next to one another to sleep, the floor was covered with a comfortable mat of skins.
We even got to experience the building of a yaranga! Outside, a few hundred feet away, the rest of the reindeer herders were setting up another smaller yaranga. It was time to drape on the canvas which was sewn together by reindeer skins. After watching the incredible teamwork, we all joined for tea, lunch and cookies. "We could not say much to each other but exchange smiles and show our admiration for their way of life. Sitting in the yaranga with people that still live in such close concert with the land, the animals, the hymns of mother nature - gave me a deep appreciation of life on earth and its many beautiful people. I feel more than fortunate to have had this experience." says Paul.
Another unexpected and unique experience was the taste of Arctic cucumbers grown in a 300+ foot (100+ meters) greenhouse powered by the soon-to-be 24-hour-a-day Arctic sun blasting from above - and heated from below with water from an outside hot spring running through pipes. Yes, of course we also had to take a dip in the hot springs ourselves surrounded by the snow covered mountain slopes, ice flowers and a brisk Arctic wind.
The greenhouse and the hot springs are part of 'The Keeper - an agricultural enterprise.' Employing more than 200 people and owned by the community of Lorino, this is an organization that employs the locals to work and live off the land - hunting and collecting berries, wild-growing plants and mushrooms. The Keeper (which means wolverine in Chukchi) includes a sewing shop that produces traditional clothes, traditional hunting gear, dog harnesses, and beautiful souvenirs for the region using animals bones and furs. It has a vehicle workshop, boats of all sizes made from walrus skins to aluminum, and snowmobiles and dog sleds for the local hunters to hunt on the sea for whales, walrus, and seals. It also has an Arctic fox farm with more than 14,000 animals and breeds more than 3,000 reindeer!
As soon as we pulled the dogsleds into the community of Lorino we were greeted not only by the Mayor Andree, but also by the local hunter Jacob, who had just returned from a successful seal hunt. Jacob ran his team of sled dogs alongside the Polar Huskies out on the trail and visited with Mille when we passed through Lorino on our way North to Laverentiya. Knowing we planned to return from our stop Laverentiya, Jacob was eager to talk dogs and stories from the land. This also included stories about bears, yes many bears!
Wonderful days in Laverentiya had us enjoying festivities and warm hospitality from the local principal, high school students and teachers. They were also very excited to take part in our new Arctic program 'What's Climate Change to You!'
After all the excitement in Laverentiya, we were eager to get on the trail for some Polar husky dogsledding action and more Chukotka adventures. Heading through the pack ice we were following the trail of a hunter's sled and dogs. It turns out it was Jacob's! The trail we were following was the blood of the seal he had hunted followed by tracks... of a bear following his trail. Although it had to be a small polar bear, we decided to move quickly while our eyes keenly followed every direction the Polar Huskies would look. As it turns out, Jacob told us it was not a big white - but a big brown bear. Traveling by a river bank, Jacob saw the brown bear sunning and soaking up the heat. Soon, the bear was on Jacob's tracks and he had to chase it off so it would not follow him into the community. With that said, apparently we did pass a polar bear. Jacob saw the polar bear sleeping along the edge of the ice floe right where we unbeknownst came through!
Jacob explained that it is a couple of weeks early for the brown bears to be out of their hibernation, but that it is just one of many changes that he and other hunters in the Bering region are noticing - both on the land and in the sea. Artur, our teammate who works as a park ranger for the Beringia Park to observe the land, animals and birds explains that locals have many observations of change. For example, last December more than forty bowhead whales came close to shore. "It is not normal. We see maybe one or two bowhead whales once in a while that get separated from the herd and their normal route of migration. We have grey whales here, but not bowhead whales. There is no knowledge of bowhead whales passed on in our traditional knowledge from generation to generation." says Artur. Besides from bowhead whales, a shark was recently hunted and even dolphins were seen! Artur even showed us how the permafrost has melted, making areas on the land collapse. Hunters in Yanrakynnot also told us about taller bushes growing on the tundra, more blizzards, the prevailing winds changing from the North to the Northeast, and the ice becoming thinner. Edward, a hunter in Lorino, shared how the changing ice makes it much more dangerous for him and others to hunt.
What are your thoughts on these observations? Does it matter to you? What do you know about climate change? Make sure to post to Climate Zone and join this week's expert chat - the last of GoNorth! Chukotka 2007 - with meteorologist Dan Dix from the Weather Channel on the topic of Climate Chaos Friday, May 11 at 10am CST.
When Jeff yelled out "Spider! It's a spider!" Mille burst out laughing on the other side of the sled. Watching down as Jeff skied out to not ski across the black dot in the snow, the Polar Huskies were brought to an abrupt halt. It was a spider! A spider! In the Arctic!? Sure enough, it was no sign of climate change and no new discovery to Artur and the Natives of Chukotka as there is such a thing as spiders on the tundra in Arctic Chukotka. Yet, another example of Chukotka riches. Add that to the many tasty ones we tried this week - Arctic Char, muktuk (blubber and skin) from a grey whale, green onion, black berries, seal meat, fried tomkat fish, reindeer soup, and murre birds. You can also add to that...wonderful people. "I am completely overtaken by the kindness of the Chukchi and Yu'pik people. We enjoyed a wonderful night with the native hunter Edward, his wife Victoria, and their sweet family in Lorino, as we were welcomed into their home to share delicious delicacies, lots of laughter and beautiful gifts. At the end of the night Victoria handed me a gorgeous red dress and a delicate beaded headband for me to bring back to share with my fifth grade students. I promised I would tell them all about the amazing traditional dancing we had seen night before" says Jeff.
Lorino is renown throughout the region for its incredible dance group performing traditional dances. Followed by a tea party, we had had a stunning evening treated to the graceful, cute, funny, and powerful moves of traditional dances as the community hall filled with the amazing hymns of throat singing and a beat of thumb-thumb thumb-thumb drumming from large drums of walrus skins. "We were more than honored as a dance named 'dogsledding' was dedicated to our team" says Paul with a broad smile. "This is something that will forever stay in my mind - it was totally amazing to me" adds Jeff. 
Leading us to the many riches of Chukotka, this weeks Polar Husky Superstar Tucker is truly proven the riches of his nature. Brave, crazy-wild, super-charged and hyper-enthusiastic, Tucker is becoming an excellent lead dog. He is a crazed explorer roaring to go. Tucker has always been on the hunt for adventures. When just a small puppy he was part of an escape from the puppy pen orchestrated by his sister Xena. While Tucker's siblings - Xena, Rubi and Buttra soon returned to the pen (after a minor overnight search party), he instead kept on going further into the wilds of the Minnesota Northwood's. Tucker was not found until a week later when an older couple stumbled upon little him sitting howling on the trail looking slightly bewildered and a bit hungry. There is nothing bewildered about Tucker these days. He strides with beaming confidence, great power, and a terrific attitude leading us all as we set out for the last week of this year's adventure learning expedition and the final Trail report next week!
