OK today, Monday Feb 13th, [2006] Karl and I finally moved from Teller to Brevig Mission, 6 miles across the bay, even though they still have not been able to deliver my sled from Nome. The trail across the bay between the 2 villages was well marked with bush branches planted in the snow, and the trail was hard packed by the snow mobiles who commute between the 2 villages. As a result, the crossing only took us 2 hrs , where we took turn pulling our one sled across. Since we crossed though, the weather has changed, there is now a strong wind storm that is supposed to last 24 hrs. In any case, we are supposed to wait here in Brevig Mission until after tomorrow (wed) when they are supposed to fly my sled from Nome. Would have to be patient to live here... Apparently sometime, they get no mail flewn in for more than a week... In any case, we are now in Brevig Mission school (907-642-40210) and have already picked all of our mail and food drops from the post office. The inupiyaks in this village are known for the hats/gloves they make with spotted seal fur and I might get a seal hat which will become handy and warm in the crossing....we will see. Btw, Karl took a good picture today when I was holding in my arms a frozen seal before it got fed to the mushing dogs....a new frozen pet for my frozen fingers...

Btw, my middle finger now known as "blacky" has been getting a lot darker and somewhat start to smell like dead meat. Yesterday, while playing with some strong mushing dogs, one came straight at my finger and bit it... Gotta have to wrap it up good so polar bears can't smell it in the weeks to come...

On a sidenote, one of the highlights of the weekend spent in Teller was definitely Saturday night when I spent several hours in the sweat lodge of the local musher/celebrity Joe Garnie. He invited me to spend some time and discuss in his sweat lodge buried under the snow. We spent a few hrs covering a wide variety of topics, mostly quite political and that I would not feel comfortable describing in details in this forum. Let's just say that I continue to learn more and more about what it has meant to be an American Inupiyak in the 20th and 21st century. After the talk, we retrieved to his home where he prepared for me what would be the ultimate feast for a Capitol Hill Vegetarian: nothing else but a smogarsbord of local favorites: frozen muktuk (whale fat), frozen seal meat, dried seal meat, frozen trout, smoked salmon, smoked white fish with salt and/or seal oil for seasoning. A great and interesting evening that I will hopefully never forget.

OK, that's all for now. Have a great Valentine's day, girl ! I will be spending mine with Karl.... well, we all got our crosses to bear ! ;-)

Later, Dim Sum in Brevig Mission, last town before getting on to Wales, 55 miles away and along a very windy coast.

================ Previous news sent that you might not have received : =============

Mail sent on Friday 10th Feb 2006

Hello everyone, and thank you for your nice emails. After having been fixed for my frost bites in Nome, our kind sponsoring airline (Frontier Flying) flew me back in Teller (village of 300 inupiyaks/inuits) to get back on trail with Karl. I am now waiting for my sled which is going to be flown on a cargo plane, hopefully tomorrow. I could no longer stand being in Nome, left behind. Last year, while following the Iditarod by foot, i took countless pictures of injured dogs left behind by their mushing teams. At the time, I was wondering what they were thinking, now I know... In any case, it's great to be back on trail, having being released by the hospital in Nome. My frost bites are starting to feel better and apparently, as it currently stands, I may only lose the tip of my left middle finger, aka "blacky".

OK, so, now in Teller, stuck in the 2 years old state-of the art school, Karl and I catch up on emails, and are doing some sewing on the tent with my remaining operating fingers. I was shown around the village last night by the local teenagers and explained to me how drastically different is their winter and summer life. I was glad to meet as well Joe Garnie a local Alaskan celebrity who resides in Teller. One of the very very few Inuit mushers that partake in the Iditarod. A great guy and a great role model for the villages.

Karl and I also did some presentations in front of the inuit kids and they especially liked the pictures of trees (picturing him in the middle of the Central American jungle), which most of them have not seen in real for a few years. Got to go a few hundred miles away South or East of here to see any. Had diner last night with the school principal and we are being requested to attend the major event tonight: Teller HS Basketball girls team playing against the high school team flown in from Shishmareff. Got to support our welcoming village !

We should be able to leave on Sunday, if we get my sled tomorrow... and progress towards Wales. 60 miles in about 6 days if the weather is not too horrendous and considering the fact that we are pulling about 200 lbs each, and got no trail to follow. Of course, this does not take into account if we plan to do anymore surfing off the coast on the ice... ;-)

======= I am sending you all some pictures where you can even see one of a polar bear foot prints next to our tent. We saw tracks every day but have not seen any actual bears dead or alive. One morning though, we saw bunch of foxes playing hide and seek with us.

Finally, to answer to some of your questions, be aware that I still truly enjoy this experience, and that I am as careful as I can under the circumstances.

Later and thinking about all of you,

Humpty Dumpty Dimitri