On Thin Ice—continued from page 40
Fourteen hundred miles later, we were losing sun angle and shivering cold every day. I was exhausted, totally spent, but I had pushed so hard for so long, through so many barriers, that I felt invincible. I felt I could continue forever, do another lap around the island if we had to. The day before we finished, on a 15-mile crossing, I started out paddling strongly. As we neared land, a fog rolled in. You were ahead, so I tried to paddle harder to catch up because I didn’t want to lose you. But my arms wouldn’t work. It wasn’t fatigue; it was something way beyond that. I shouted to you, “Hey, Boomer, you gotta slow down. I’m bumping up against some wall I’ve never witnessed before. It’s eerie, it’s scary; I feel like I’m nearing breakdown.”
FINAL THOUGHTS
We finished the journey in late summer, paddling over a placid sea into Grise Fiord, our starting point three-and-a-half months before. With the nose of my kayak just touching the beach, I sat for a minute, reflecting on the passage. I had paddled strongly into town, angry with myself for being wimpy the day before. I thought my trials were over—all I needed to do was catch the flight home and eat the garden vegetables that my wife, Nina, had been growing all summer. Expeditions had become part of my soul, and now I was ready for the long, treacherous and demanding journey into geezerhood. Then, 39 hours later, my body sunk suddenly and inexplicably into metabolic breakdown. My kidneys stopped working, my blood pressure went through the roof and my blood chemistry was all wrong. I was dying. We called Global Rescue to send an air ambulance.
Boomer was beside me during the emergency flight south. I looked into his eyes; he had experienced a long distance expedition for the first time and I could see that he was excited about the op- portunities and adventures awaiting him. I realized that I was content, at last, to pass the baton, man the satellite phone and be the expedition dispatch for young men and women who continue to push the frontiers. —Jon Turk Turk and Boomer can be reached at:
www.jonturk.net and www.eboomerphoto. com. They wish to thank expedition sponsors Eddie Bauer/First Ascent, Polartec, Confluence Watersports and Kokatat.
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