Unknown Limits

How surely, in some future day, when the memory of it shall have lost its vividness, shall we half believe we have seen it in a wonderful dream, but never with waking eyes!— Mark Twain

Rain and fog were still there that Saturday morning not long ago; they had arrived two weeks prior, and the upcoming ten-day forecast looked no better. We had planned and prepared to hike the 120 kilometres from Iqaluit to Kimmirut just as Nunavut’s capital, which had declared a state of emergency after a very dry year, recorded more precipitation in fourteen short days than it had all summer. My new binoculars, ordered from Mountain Equipment Company, arrived by plane in the fog. I watched a polar bear safety video in the fog. I made a very dry egg sandwich to be eaten in the fog. Now the six of us slid...