Barrow, Alaska Day 3

Days Walking - Negative 1

Tomorrow is the day we start walking. We'll start an hour before dawn, about 9:30am. If we're going to make 10 miles a day, we're going to have to keep a focused pace without too many stops.

It seems unreal that after planning this trip for almost a year, we start walking tomorrow, and won't stop for five years. Or more. A day will come where I'll have been walking for as long as recent memory can recall. It will be my life. The team will be my family, love them or hate them. And then one strange day, we'll come to the end of the road, where the world ends, or begins, depending on where you started. And what then? On that next morning when I wake up and there's no where else to walk to, what?

Pick a continent, any continent. Now, look at it, no don't show it to me - and stick it back into the deck, anywhere you like. Now shuffle.

Anyway, it's time to meet the team...

~ Anneli G______
Team Engineer, Builder of Bridges
22 years old, of Asbestos, Maine.
Dark hair, dark skin, dark eyes, brilliantly bright mind. She's going to be a civil engineer one day. Yes, I gave her a hard time about the name of her hometown, poor girl. What's next, a guy from Cancer, Wisconsin? I don't know about you, but if my town shared a name with a toxic substance, I'd lobby to change the name. If the town can't afford new signage, change the name to "Lasbestos". Tack on an 'L' how hard can it be? Anneli is a determined, focused type of girl who takes no shit and no prisoners. On the day when my blistered feet can carry me no more, and I fall to the ground in a pile of twisted limbs, she will step over my corpse and keep walking. "Leave me! Save yourself!" I'll cry. "Yep." She'll say. Anneli would like Doug to email her. Doug, if you're reading this, drop the girl a line.

~ Litany Webb
Team Chronicler, Bard and Poet
20 years old, of Los Angeles, California.
I guess LA has some pretty toxic associations of its own - "Hey Anneli, sorry for talking trash about your hometown, girlfriend!" and wait for it - - she calls back her standard reply: "F*ck Off, Lit!". Yeah. We have lots of time to become friends. She will love me in the end. Anyway I have a profile and it talks about me and if you can't glean my personality from blog context well I don't know what more I can tell you.

~ Church B______
Team Nurse, Tender of Hospice
19 years old, of Tacoma, Washington.
Church is wearing the newest ensemble from the spring F*cking Cold Collection, showing a grand total of perhaps four inches of creamy skin. Very possibly the most beautiful girl I've ever met. Personality, smarts, looks, whoo nelly. If I was ever tempted to change sides, it would be for Church. She has impossibly clear skin, and the palest blonde hair I have ever seen. Of course, my sweet unsuspecting house of worship doesn't believe in technology, so she'll never read this. Wink! She has this energy in the air around her, and I like to be in that air. She is cool peeps and I want to get to know her better. She's been a volunteer at her uncle's veterinarian clinic and she prefers dogs to cats.

I need to go down to supper so I will finish this later.

Back in a jiffy! - - -

...All right, I admit that 4 hours does not qualify as a jiffy, I apologize.

~ Jake B____
Team Survival Expert, Fixer
23 years old, of El Paso, Texas.
He's short and a little pudgy, but a good guy and very sharp. Capable and confident. He's had a lot of survival training in different climates and has even been an professional survival instructor. He can build a makeshift shelter, start a fire with virtually nothing, and tell you (in exaustive detail) which roots and grubs won't kill you. He'll look better after his hair grows back in, I don't know what he was thinking. Once he walks off a few pounds, I might just be tempted to jump him.

~ Kwame R_______
Team Linguist, Charmer and Player
21 years old, of Pleasant Prairie, Montana.
Kwame is a goodest of fellahs, and even bought me a bottle of wine once. He is one cool calm collected dude, he walked in on Eric and me once a few months ago at what could have been the most embarrassing moment ever, but Kwame he's a smooth operator and deflected the blush, popped a quip, and all was well. He grew up in a genuine cathouse, and knows a thing or two about women. He will be an interesting companion on this trip. He speaks five languages fluently and two more passably. (English, Spanish, French, Portugese, Chinese, German, Gaelic). Foreign languages are hot! Kwame is lanky, shaved bald, and has long slender fingers born to play the piano.

~ Adrian G______
Team Fitness Trainer, Master of Pain, Masseuse
25 years old, of Chicago, Illinois.
Adrain is tight-lipped about his life, feelings, and thoughts, unless the topic is How To Train. Over the past two months, he's dragged our asses out of bed in the pre-dawn gloom, and made us march directly up hills that should properly be described as mountains. When it's more than 45 degrees, you should have ropes, not shoes. He designed our obstacle course, and insisted that we all beat it in 2 minutes or less. Anyone who thinks girls can't climb ropes has not met Adrian. He's the stocky variety of strong that seems like bulk until - you watch him lift an entire tree - with your own eyes. I did.

~ Gabriel N______
Team Equipment Specialist, Biomechanics Engineer
28 years old, of New York, New York.
Gabriel is a poet trapped in the body of a mathematician. His fractals could woo the britches off a spinster encased in solid helium. He approaches the world in an off-kilter angle. The man is trying to apply string theory to build a better hiking boot. That's like trying to build a better mousetrap using a love letter and beeswax. One day he'll invent a backpack that packs itself and keeps your breath minty fresh. Long hair, shaggy beard, sloppy clothes in layers on an unseen frame. Just what are you hiding in there, my man? One day I'll inspect you for tats, head to toe.

~ Caeled B_______
Team Electronic Engineer, IT God
18 years old, of Cordoba, Argentina.
Being born in Cordoba should make any living human sexier than the average bear. However, being born there because your parents were there on Vacation from Iowa doesn't apply. Caeled is a sweetie, but he's your typical lumpen, sun fearing computer nerd. (Those are his words, not mine). It boggles me that we have enticed him this far from a WiFi Hotspot. He's an amazing technical resource, and has encyclopedic knowledge of First Edition D&D. Why he wanted me to mention that in his bio, I dunno.

That's the whole team, the wacky family.
If we all end up in Punta Arena alive, I will be amazed.

(At dinner tonight, Caeled was voted most likely to break a bone.)

Litany Webb, signing off

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