By Susan Bromley
Staff Writer
Brandon Twp.- In April 1991, Pam Flowers became the first woman in modern times to make a solo trek from Resolute Bay, Nunavut, Canada to the Magnetic North Pole. She will share the tale of her 403-mile journey with just her three Alaskan huskies as companions during a presentation at 7 p.m., Monday, March 15, at the Brandon Township Library, 304 South St.
Flowers, who has also held the world record for longest solo dog trek by a woman, is now 63. When she decided to journey to the North Pole solo, she trained at home in Alaska with her dogs Douggie, 8-years-old, Matt, 6, and Robert, 5. The dogs pulled the sled and she walked beside it.
The Magnetic North Pole, explains Flowers, is a nomadic location where all the magnetic forces of the earth enter the earth. It rotates in an elliptical orbit and is in constant motion, with a slight migration north/northwest. In 1991 at the time of her trip, it was located on the Noice Peninsula of Ellef Rignes Island, but is now located many miles north/northwest of there, because of the 10-12 km per year migration.
On her journey, Flowers said she experienced one big storm and temperatures that reached 27 degrees below zero, but she called the weather overall ‘not too bad.?
What was more frightening was the the polar bear she encountered whom her dogs almost ran up to.
On a typical day, Flowers sledded from about 8 a.m.-6 p.m. with hourly rest stops. Breakfast was sausage and cheese, lunch was a bread like fruitcake, and dinner was steak, rice, frozen vegetables heated up, nuts and dried fruits, plus a multi-vitamin. She enjoyed the solitude.
‘I feel it is safer alone than being with someone, because I stay more focused on what we are doing and I take fewer chances,? she said. ‘Mostly I stay very focused on where we are and what the weather is like. If you pay attention to the weather you don’t get surprised by storms because you can see them coming? always.?
Besides the polar bear, Flowers did see one other expedition of men that she recalled were from either Switzerland or France that were trying to ride bikes to the magnetic North Pole but gave up. Flowers said she learned from her experience that she could travel a long distance with only three dogs and still enjoy herself.
She is 63 now, but still goes on adventures. Last year, she and her dog Ellie, short for Eleanor Roosevelt, hiked the Appalachian Trail 2,174 miles from Maine to Georgia.