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♪♪
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My name's Adam Shoalts.
I'm a writer and an explorer.
5
00:01:15,201 --> 00:01:18,538
And my dream is to try to cross
nearly 4000 kilometers
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00:01:18,621 --> 00:01:21,291
of Canada's Arctic
wilderness alone.
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00:01:21,874 --> 00:01:24,669
As far as anyone knows this has
never been attempted before,
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00:01:25,712 --> 00:01:28,131
probably because no one was
stupid enough to try it.
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00:01:35,638 --> 00:01:37,890
It's a very Canadian
approach I have, you know,
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00:01:37,974 --> 00:01:42,604
just coming out here skating
around by myself
as a way to train.
11
00:01:43,521 --> 00:01:47,358
My first playground was
the forests that surrounded
my family home.
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00:01:47,442 --> 00:01:49,611
I mean that's where I grew up,
I grew up in the woods.
13
00:01:49,694 --> 00:01:53,781
All around us where we lived,
we were in a really small town,
was forest.
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00:01:53,865 --> 00:01:57,160
So with my dog
and my brother, we would always
be out in those woods
15
00:01:57,243 --> 00:02:02,957
building shelters and making
fire without matches
and catching frogs.
16
00:02:03,041 --> 00:02:06,878
And my father, he would
encourage us and he taught us
all the different trees
17
00:02:06,961 --> 00:02:10,673
and how to build birch bark
canoes and cedar strip canoes.
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00:02:10,757 --> 00:02:13,843
And that's where I really fell
in love with the natural world
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00:02:13,926 --> 00:02:16,262
and just came to really
appreciate it.
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00:02:16,346 --> 00:02:19,265
I mean I think it's so important
that we preserve it.
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00:02:19,349 --> 00:02:22,602
And that's always been a big
part of who I am and...
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00:02:22,685 --> 00:02:25,688
And why I do these
expeditions and these journeys
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00:02:25,772 --> 00:02:28,816
because I feel like that's the
most important thing there is,
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00:02:28,900 --> 00:02:30,860
is this natural world
and we try to preserve it.
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00:02:32,028 --> 00:02:33,613
When I zoom in
on the satellite imagery,
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00:02:33,696 --> 00:02:38,409
I measure all the exact
distances so I will know
exactly like, well,
27
00:02:38,493 --> 00:02:43,790
okay, I've got, you know,
27 kilometers to go this stage
where I want to get to
28
00:02:43,873 --> 00:02:47,251
or, you know,
13-kilometer portage here.
29
00:02:47,335 --> 00:02:51,756
But to get
an actual topographic map,
30
00:02:51,839 --> 00:02:55,968
I'm using a Garmin BaseCamp
over here on this laptop
31
00:02:56,052 --> 00:03:00,473
and I'm copying
my route manually
from the satellite imagery
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00:03:01,015 --> 00:03:05,144
on to the topographic maps here
and then I can download...
33
00:03:05,269 --> 00:03:09,774
Download the
topographic maps onto this
little device here, the GPS,
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00:03:09,857 --> 00:03:11,859
and carry with...
This with me in the field.
35
00:03:16,823 --> 00:03:19,283
The winner is Adam Shoalts!
36
00:04:08,750 --> 00:04:09,750
Nice.
37
00:04:10,460 --> 00:04:13,796
- Can you recall the price?
- Yeah, it was 1,800.
38
00:04:14,589 --> 00:04:15,589
This is good.
39
00:04:19,677 --> 00:04:21,512
And I want something
super tough,
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00:04:21,596 --> 00:04:26,350
durable that can withstand all
the punishment that the Arctic
can dish out to itself.
41
00:05:21,239 --> 00:05:26,118
The polar bears mostly stay on
the seacoast and they only come
in land a little bit. So...
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00:05:26,202 --> 00:05:27,286
What about grizzly bear?
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00:05:27,370 --> 00:05:29,770
There's lots of grizzlies, but
I figure I can take a grizzly.
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00:05:30,498 --> 00:05:32,834
You could take one? With what?
45
00:05:32,917 --> 00:05:34,293
My bayonet.
46
00:05:35,545 --> 00:05:36,745
You think I should take a gun?
47
00:05:37,463 --> 00:05:38,923
Something more than a bayonet.
48
00:05:39,924 --> 00:05:41,819
- I got a bear spray...
- Or... or... yeah, bear spray.
49
00:05:41,843 --> 00:05:44,554
Yeah, you're gonna make yourself
flavourful while
he comes at you.
50
00:05:44,637 --> 00:05:46,573
It's just that I have to travel
as light as possible
51
00:05:46,597 --> 00:05:49,183
and the gun
is cumbersome and it has to be
kept protected,
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00:05:49,267 --> 00:05:50,744
it has to be
inside a waterproof case.
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00:05:50,768 --> 00:05:51,811
I showed you a small gun.
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00:05:51,894 --> 00:05:54,313
I'd be bringing a gun with me,
personally.
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00:05:54,397 --> 00:05:56,315
I know it's a lot of
work and everything but,
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00:05:56,399 --> 00:05:58,901
I don't know,
he's a... he's crazy not to.
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00:05:58,985 --> 00:06:02,196
I mean like polar bears,
everything, like, it can happen,
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00:06:02,280 --> 00:06:04,323
especially if they're hungry
this time of year.
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00:06:04,407 --> 00:06:07,410
So, he's definitely got like
a lot to undertake.
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00:06:07,493 --> 00:06:12,748
I have full confidence in his
ability to be able to carry
their sel.
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00:06:13,583 --> 00:06:18,838
But there are things out there
that see humans as a meal.
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00:06:18,921 --> 00:06:21,090
Especially in the part
of Canada he's going,
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00:06:21,173 --> 00:06:25,344
there's things that could stalk
him for... for multiple days and
him not even know it.
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00:06:25,428 --> 00:06:27,972
The expedition that he's gonna
do now is gonna be very tough.
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00:06:28,055 --> 00:06:33,936
There's a lot of unknowns and
it's a long distance and he has
got a lot of gear to carry,
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00:06:34,020 --> 00:06:34,854
it's very tough.
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00:06:34,937 --> 00:06:38,524
I would say there's only a small
percentage of people that
probably could do it,
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00:06:39,317 --> 00:06:42,528
especially doing it alone,
that makes it even harder.
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00:06:42,612 --> 00:06:46,616
When you talk about an
expedition that's gonna span
several months,
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00:06:46,699 --> 00:06:52,663
several thousand kilometers,
how could you not look at it by
asking the question,
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00:06:52,747 --> 00:06:55,708
"Is it possible?
Will he be able to do it?"
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00:06:55,791 --> 00:07:00,296
So, I know he has his
determination working for him.
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00:07:00,838 --> 00:07:04,383
I think he has that advantage
over top of anyone else.
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00:07:04,467 --> 00:07:07,970
I'm nowhere near as nervous
as my mom, I can tell you that.
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00:07:08,054 --> 00:07:09,639
I'll sleep fine at night.
76
00:07:09,722 --> 00:07:11,891
I have quite
a confidence about it.
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00:07:11,974 --> 00:07:17,939
I won't be as near nervous as my
dad who will be slightly less
nervous than my mom,
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00:07:18,022 --> 00:07:22,735
but I'll be nervous thinking
about it and hope for the best
because, realistically,
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00:07:22,818 --> 00:07:27,239
it's like tackling the near
impossible.
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00:07:27,323 --> 00:07:30,618
But, yeah, like his dream is my
mom's worst nightmare.
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00:07:30,701 --> 00:07:33,704
Super-lightweight,
but I'm doing a bent-shaft
12-degree one,
82
00:07:33,788 --> 00:07:37,708
so it's a little more efficient
for flat water and this will be
for white-water rapids.
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00:07:37,792 --> 00:07:41,754
I don't know if this is gonna be
enough Gorilla Tape. I'm gonna
go to buy a second.
84
00:07:41,837 --> 00:07:43,089
Which canoe are you taking?
85
00:07:43,172 --> 00:07:47,885
Fifteen-foot solo,
built for me by Nova Craft,
weighs 53 pounds.
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00:07:47,969 --> 00:07:51,597
Middle is tough stuff,
super hard.
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00:07:51,681 --> 00:07:53,784
You can hit it
with a sledgehammer
and it won't break...
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00:07:53,808 --> 00:07:55,434
If you don't make
it back, can I have it?
89
00:07:55,518 --> 00:07:56,518
Yep.
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00:08:34,390 --> 00:08:39,228
I don't think he's gonna have
the anxiety that most people
would probably have out there.
91
00:08:39,311 --> 00:08:42,815
I think he's done enough of
these and he's gotten out of his
comfort zone.
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00:08:42,898 --> 00:08:45,609
It's just gonna be
a very long trip.
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00:08:45,693 --> 00:08:47,486
So that'll be new for him.
94
00:08:47,570 --> 00:08:51,490
But I think he's
going to be able to break it up
95
00:08:51,615 --> 00:08:53,784
into mentally shorter trips...
96
00:08:53,868 --> 00:08:55,953
A month here, a month there.
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00:08:56,037 --> 00:08:59,206
So I don't think he's looking at
it as one big long trip.
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00:08:59,290 --> 00:09:01,834
I think he's breaking
it down into his mind
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00:09:01,917 --> 00:09:05,755
as a series of smaller trips and
smaller accomplishments.
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00:09:05,838 --> 00:09:09,800
I think that's how you get past
the... the five-month issue
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00:09:09,884 --> 00:09:12,595
being out there by yourself.
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00:09:12,678 --> 00:09:14,805
When you see the design that no
one talks about.
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00:09:14,889 --> 00:09:18,392
The... it's like
kind of more on the back of your
head, more on the side.
104
00:09:18,476 --> 00:09:21,520
So I like them better than last
year. It's just all sanded.
105
00:09:21,604 --> 00:09:25,149
It's like unbelievable. You can
have a beach picnic
there, right?
106
00:09:25,232 --> 00:09:27,193
They called it Sandy Creek for
obvious reasons.
107
00:09:27,276 --> 00:09:29,755
But it turns out that that's not
why they call this Sandy Creek.
108
00:09:29,779 --> 00:09:33,991
I was... my... my eye was burning,
so I just... the only water...
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00:09:34,075 --> 00:09:35,595
- Here is Dawson City.
- Okay.
110
00:09:35,659 --> 00:09:40,456
Coming down the Klondike Highway
and then if we were going east
on the Klondike
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00:09:40,539 --> 00:09:45,669
and we were going up the
Dempster through Tombstone
Territorial Park through here.
112
00:11:08,335 --> 00:11:11,630
What I've kind of done is I've
taken all these historical
accounts
113
00:11:11,714 --> 00:11:15,509
and stitched them together into
one big epic journey.
114
00:11:15,593 --> 00:11:19,305
And no one knows if
it's really possible to do it
all in a single season.
115
00:11:20,014 --> 00:11:23,767
You could do it maybe if you
spread it out over
several years.
116
00:11:23,851 --> 00:11:27,897
But it's gonna be a race against
time to see if I can squeeze it
all into one year.
117
00:11:27,980 --> 00:11:30,441
I mean my
first wilderness trip by myself,
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00:11:30,524 --> 00:11:33,444
I was only 13 years old and I
was terrified all night long.
119
00:11:33,527 --> 00:11:39,283
But, you know, 18 years later of
wilderness adventure,
120
00:11:39,366 --> 00:11:44,038
you... you get into the rhythm of
things and you start to feel
much more comfortable.
121
00:11:44,121 --> 00:11:45,831
So now when I look
at on that wilderness,
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00:11:45,915 --> 00:11:48,334
I don't see an alien foreign
environment,
123
00:11:48,417 --> 00:11:49,960
I see something
that looks like home.
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00:11:50,044 --> 00:11:51,921
So, you know, I'm in my element.
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00:11:52,004 --> 00:11:54,840
There's nowhere I'd rather be in
the world than right here.
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00:12:10,981 --> 00:12:12,066
SOS.
127
00:12:13,567 --> 00:12:14,652
Thank you.
128
00:12:19,823 --> 00:12:22,117
This is the send-off, I suppose.
129
00:12:23,577 --> 00:12:25,120
Long time coming.
130
00:12:25,204 --> 00:12:30,417
Yeah. It's... this expedition has
been three years in the making,
at least three years.
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00:12:30,918 --> 00:12:33,230
So it's been a long time coming
to get up to the Arctic Circle
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00:12:33,254 --> 00:12:37,424
and now
I'm finally here and all these
years of planning and preparing
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00:12:37,508 --> 00:12:41,345
and dreaming and visualizing has
culminated in this moment.
134
00:12:41,428 --> 00:12:43,847
So, we'll see
how it goes from here.
135
00:12:43,931 --> 00:12:44,848
Godspeed.
136
00:12:44,932 --> 00:12:46,600
Thank you for all
your support, Chuck.
137
00:12:46,684 --> 00:12:47,726
Yeah.
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00:12:47,851 --> 00:12:52,606
It's been a blast having you
here as part of the expedition
support. So, that was awesome.
139
00:12:52,690 --> 00:12:53,607
So honoured to help.
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00:12:53,691 --> 00:12:56,652
Oh, well,
I'm honoured to have you and
everyone else here.
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00:12:56,735 --> 00:12:58,237
So, very good.
142
00:12:58,320 --> 00:13:00,948
What a contrast from
the days when it was just me.
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00:13:02,074 --> 00:13:05,119
I mean I guess I'm gonna get to
that pretty soon. Okay.
144
00:14:13,687 --> 00:14:17,733
So I mean look at the size of
that. I mean it's massive.
145
00:14:18,567 --> 00:14:20,652
Going off in that direction.
146
00:14:23,572 --> 00:14:27,159
So, bear crap and bears
on the road here.
147
00:14:27,785 --> 00:14:30,079
And the road can give you
a false sense of security.
148
00:14:30,162 --> 00:14:33,707
I mean you think it's a little
outpost to civilization,
but it's not really.
149
00:14:33,791 --> 00:14:36,460
I mean, the grizzly is... they
just walk right on them.
150
00:14:37,294 --> 00:14:39,004
They do their
business on the road.
151
00:14:40,506 --> 00:14:42,549
And probably coming down from
those mountains there.
152
00:14:45,552 --> 00:14:47,364
And it kind of
makes me want to keep, you know,
153
00:14:47,388 --> 00:14:50,140
one eye over my shoulder
as I do this hike.
154
00:14:52,559 --> 00:14:56,480
I feel like I could almost be in
one of those post-apocalyptic
movies
155
00:14:56,563 --> 00:14:59,274
and everything is just
desolate and barren
156
00:14:59,358 --> 00:15:04,988
and I'm like one of the last
people left alive on Earth
looking out on this landscape.
157
00:15:38,480 --> 00:15:40,649
Here is my canoe fully loaded
158
00:15:41,525 --> 00:15:46,405
and ready to set off on my
journey across the Arctic.
159
00:15:46,488 --> 00:15:50,200
This canoe and I are about to
become very good friends and
very close companion.
160
00:15:54,455 --> 00:15:56,123
If I'm to cross the Arctic,
161
00:15:56,874 --> 00:16:01,253
I have no choice but to travel
up river on many of these
waterways
162
00:16:01,336 --> 00:16:04,339
because they're flowing north
out to the Arctic Ocean
163
00:16:04,423 --> 00:16:07,176
and I have to go east if
I'm to cross the Arctic.
164
00:16:07,259 --> 00:16:08,844
It's a matter of necessity.
165
00:16:13,974 --> 00:16:15,809
The vast Mackenzie River.
166
00:16:17,019 --> 00:16:20,189
Over two kilometers wide,
sometimes three kilometers wide.
167
00:16:21,190 --> 00:16:25,235
Way down there is my canoe.
Who wants to be my pole?
168
00:16:33,243 --> 00:16:37,080
My main strategy for getting
upriver was kind of hauling
along the bottom a bit
169
00:16:37,164 --> 00:16:41,502
like they
do on those boats in Venice,
gondola I think they call them.
170
00:16:41,585 --> 00:16:44,379
So that's my... that's my style,
it's very romantic,
171
00:16:44,463 --> 00:16:47,799
I like to think, as I pull my
way up the Mackenzie River.
172
00:16:47,883 --> 00:16:51,094
I may be doing this journey
alone but in reality I could
never do it
173
00:16:51,178 --> 00:16:55,724
without the support
of people like Chuck, Mark,
my family, the crew.
174
00:16:55,807 --> 00:16:59,144
I mean they've all been terrific
and it's just... I mean it's...
175
00:16:59,228 --> 00:17:02,272
It's really an
overwhelming feeling having done
expeditions for years
176
00:17:02,356 --> 00:17:05,901
on a shoestring budget all by
myself not having anyone to
support me.
177
00:17:05,984 --> 00:17:07,819
I mean saying thanks
doesn't seem adequate.
178
00:17:07,903 --> 00:17:11,406
But it's just a really
nice feeling knowing that there
are people out there
179
00:17:11,490 --> 00:17:14,409
who are rooting for me,
who are cheering for me,
supporting me.
180
00:17:14,493 --> 00:17:17,871
And without that... without their
support I really couldn't do it.
That's the truth.
181
00:17:18,956 --> 00:17:21,875
Yeah, I got my stuff up here,
satellite phone, first-aid kit,
182
00:17:21,959 --> 00:17:23,961
bear spray, air horn.
183
00:17:24,044 --> 00:17:28,257
These are my little
accoutrements of weapons,
air bangers over there.
184
00:17:28,340 --> 00:17:30,801
My pillow,
I just take my clothes and I...
185
00:17:30,884 --> 00:17:32,719
You know, socks,
dirty socks and things
186
00:17:32,803 --> 00:17:36,682
and I stick them inside my
sleeping bag case
187
00:17:36,765 --> 00:17:39,142
and that's my pillow and I... you
know, I love that pillow.
188
00:17:39,226 --> 00:17:40,310
So friggin' comfy.
189
00:17:40,394 --> 00:17:43,772
Look at the remains of
that massive blister down there
190
00:17:44,565 --> 00:17:46,608
from hiking along
the Dempster Highway.
191
00:17:47,818 --> 00:17:53,740
I think my dreams of becoming a
foot model have pretty much been
decisively ended now.
192
00:17:54,491 --> 00:17:57,536
It's pretty cold but there's...
there's no really no other
option right now.
193
00:17:57,619 --> 00:17:59,413
I've got to
wade across this mud flat.
194
00:17:59,496 --> 00:18:01,290
So I just took my boots
and my socks off.
195
00:18:01,373 --> 00:18:04,918
I've rolled up my pants.
It's kind of like quicksand.
196
00:18:05,002 --> 00:18:10,090
It's pretty cold but didn't seem
to be any other option.
So here we go.
197
00:18:30,777 --> 00:18:34,031
There's the grizzly track.
There's another one up here.
198
00:18:34,698 --> 00:18:37,326
Imagine if I am just pulling
along and the bank gives way
199
00:18:37,409 --> 00:18:40,412
and... and just smacks into my
canoe and sends me
into the river,
200
00:18:40,495 --> 00:18:44,791
probably from the melting of the
permafrost and the ice breakup.
201
00:18:51,632 --> 00:18:54,009
It's really quite strange though
coming along this section
202
00:18:54,092 --> 00:18:57,971
I got a bit of a chill like you
get in the grocery store when
you go on the frozen food aisle.
203
00:18:58,055 --> 00:19:02,100
That's
kind of what it feels like with
all these mounds of ice here.
204
00:19:02,225 --> 00:19:07,314
You know a bit of a chill coming
off it as they go along all this
dirty ice that's melting.
205
00:19:16,198 --> 00:19:21,662
There's nothing quite like the
smell of wet socks drying
in your tent.
206
00:19:33,131 --> 00:19:38,387
It's 2:30 AM and I was asleep
and something woke me up
outside the tent.
207
00:19:38,470 --> 00:19:42,557
There was a noise and
it sounded like a big animal
crashing through the woods.
208
00:19:42,641 --> 00:19:43,475
So I started yelling.
209
00:19:43,558 --> 00:19:45,953
That's what you
normally do if there's a bear
outside the tent,
210
00:19:45,977 --> 00:19:46,977
like "Hey, hey, hey."
211
00:19:47,020 --> 00:19:48,480
So I scared it off.
212
00:19:48,563 --> 00:19:50,315
And I could hear
something crashing.
213
00:19:50,399 --> 00:19:53,151
So I unzipped the tent
and looked out,
214
00:19:53,235 --> 00:19:57,322
grabbed my little air horn and I
went to squeeze it.
215
00:19:59,282 --> 00:20:01,827
It just made the hissing noise.
So the thing doesn't work.
216
00:20:04,246 --> 00:20:07,541
So I thought it was a bear but
then I looked again
and it wasn't a bear,
217
00:20:07,624 --> 00:20:10,001
it was a giant male muskoxen.
218
00:20:10,085 --> 00:20:14,297
A muskoxen just outside my tent
in the bushes over there.
219
00:20:56,631 --> 00:21:00,427
This is my '80s rock star hair
look right now.
220
00:21:00,510 --> 00:21:03,597
My toe looks kind of messed up
and it bled a little today.
221
00:21:04,222 --> 00:21:09,436
And I'm about to leave behind
the familiar that is the
Mackenzie River over there,
222
00:21:10,395 --> 00:21:11,897
and head into the unknown.
223
00:21:12,522 --> 00:21:17,569
This new waterway leads
east into the forest.
224
00:21:27,954 --> 00:21:30,499
One thing I don't pack on
expeditions are towels.
225
00:21:31,541 --> 00:21:35,003
So I'm just gonna have to air
dry and shake like a dog.
226
00:21:36,797 --> 00:21:38,006
It's moving a little bit.
227
00:21:39,132 --> 00:21:40,759
Dude, check out what it is.
228
00:21:41,468 --> 00:21:44,971
I have to head that way anyways,
but I'm gonna stay a bit far
bank for safety.
229
00:21:49,267 --> 00:21:50,727
It's best not to disturb them.
230
00:21:54,564 --> 00:21:58,276
I'd only been asleep for about
an hour and twenty minutes and I
heard a noise outside.
231
00:21:58,360 --> 00:21:59,194
I woke up.
232
00:21:59,277 --> 00:22:01,112
And, thankfully,
I'm a light sleeper
233
00:22:01,196 --> 00:22:04,658
'cause I heard something in the
bushes and I heard the noise,
234
00:22:04,741 --> 00:22:07,577
and, instinctively,
when I hear a noise outside
my tent I start yelling.
235
00:22:07,661 --> 00:22:09,996
So if it is a bear, hopefully,
I scared it away.
236
00:22:10,080 --> 00:22:12,999
And I quickly
unzipped the screen door,
poked my head out
237
00:22:13,083 --> 00:22:16,461
and I saw
something move in the bushes and
sure enough it was a black bear.
238
00:22:17,504 --> 00:22:18,898
I don't know
if you can see it there.
239
00:22:18,922 --> 00:22:21,299
I propped my canoe up
alongside of the tent
240
00:22:21,424 --> 00:22:23,677
to create like one side of a
barrier and, thankfully,
241
00:22:23,760 --> 00:22:26,531
I did 'cause the black bear was
just on the other side
in the bushes there.
242
00:22:26,555 --> 00:22:30,308
I started yelling
at it in my most menacing and
intimidating manner
243
00:22:30,433 --> 00:22:35,021
and smacking
the paddle on the canoe making
as much noise as possible,
244
00:22:35,105 --> 00:22:39,484
and, eventually, he walked off,
he didn't run.
245
00:22:39,568 --> 00:22:44,489
He walked along
the edge of the bushes there
down the shoreline.
246
00:22:45,198 --> 00:22:49,452
And I've
continued to make noise. But I
don't know how far he went.
247
00:23:04,759 --> 00:23:07,196
The more I've gone up this river
and the more I've explored it,
248
00:23:07,220 --> 00:23:11,975
the more I feel the... I started
to wonder about that old 1972
government report on the river.
249
00:23:12,058 --> 00:23:15,812
It described the landscape that
the river flows through as,
quote,
250
00:23:15,896 --> 00:23:18,106
"Subdued and gently rolling."
251
00:23:18,189 --> 00:23:23,945
And I don't know about you but I
wouldn't describe that as
subdued or gently rolling hills.
252
00:23:24,029 --> 00:23:26,948
I mean that's a pretty
spectacular peak right there.
253
00:23:27,032 --> 00:23:30,619
There's this vertical cliff that
rises beside the river.
254
00:23:30,702 --> 00:23:32,078
That's pretty awesome.
255
00:23:38,835 --> 00:23:40,253
Mosquitoes are getting bad.
256
00:23:40,337 --> 00:23:43,381
It's never a nice feeling when
you wake up and you see just,
you know,
257
00:23:43,506 --> 00:23:48,803
hundreds of mosquitoes just
waiting for you the second
you'll unzip the screen door
258
00:23:49,554 --> 00:23:50,639
to come attack you.
259
00:23:50,722 --> 00:23:52,265
Looking pretty nasty.
260
00:23:52,349 --> 00:23:55,018
The nail is gonna fall off.
261
00:23:56,978 --> 00:23:58,271
But that's okay.
262
00:23:59,397 --> 00:24:02,817
And my... my fingers have become
incredibly sore, I think,
263
00:24:02,901 --> 00:24:05,654
from gripping the pole so hard.
264
00:24:05,737 --> 00:24:09,616
It really... it's really sore
when I go like this with them.
265
00:24:28,510 --> 00:24:31,012
Yes, my toenail has fallen off
266
00:24:31,721 --> 00:24:35,684
and I used an alcohol wipe on
that and cleaned it up a bit.
267
00:24:36,643 --> 00:24:39,062
This morning is officially the
first day of summer
268
00:24:39,145 --> 00:24:44,317
but it actually feels colder
today than it's been the last
several weeks.
269
00:24:44,401 --> 00:24:50,115
And I had a pretty good
night sleep on this beach here
except, you know,
270
00:24:50,198 --> 00:24:53,868
you never really sleep that
soundly because there's always
noises in the wilderness.
271
00:24:53,952 --> 00:24:58,206
Like right now off to my left
somewhere I can hear a baby
beaver crying
272
00:24:58,289 --> 00:25:02,961
and there's geese
that honk and birds that chirp
273
00:25:03,586 --> 00:25:04,713
throughout the night.
274
00:25:04,796 --> 00:25:08,383
And sometimes, like a few nights
ago, there's a bear
that will wake you up...
275
00:25:08,466 --> 00:25:13,888
A bear woke me up at least...
when it's walking through the
brush or, you know,
276
00:25:13,972 --> 00:25:19,102
you hear a muskoxen rumble or
all kinds of things like that
will wake you up.
277
00:25:19,185 --> 00:25:23,857
But I guess, eventually,
you just kind of get used to it.
278
00:25:23,940 --> 00:25:26,776
That wolf yesterday,
that white one on the bank,
279
00:25:28,695 --> 00:25:31,281
actually that was the most
curious wolf I've ever seen.
280
00:25:31,364 --> 00:25:35,618
He actually looked at me for
quite a long time and, you know,
he walked along the bank.
281
00:25:35,702 --> 00:25:37,746
It was almost like seeing a
domesticated dog.
282
00:25:37,829 --> 00:25:42,083
The... the look in his eyes,
the way that he stared at me
and our eyes met;
283
00:25:42,167 --> 00:25:45,712
we looked at each other and I
filmed him and I was just...
284
00:25:45,795 --> 00:25:48,840
It was almost like having a
friend in the wilderness
seeing that wolf.
285
00:25:48,923 --> 00:25:51,092
It was just such a nice moment.
286
00:25:58,308 --> 00:26:01,352
This area has been burnt out
before from a forest fire
287
00:26:02,312 --> 00:26:04,564
but there is really high cliffs
over there.
288
00:26:05,690 --> 00:26:08,193
And the river,
the Hare Indian River here
289
00:26:08,276 --> 00:26:11,488
is getting quite small and
hemmed in by willow bushes
290
00:26:11,571 --> 00:26:14,991
on either side
as I near the headwaters.
291
00:26:22,582 --> 00:26:27,337
There is just not a lot of
vitamin C in granola bars and
dehydrated foods
292
00:26:27,420 --> 00:26:31,049
but there is something I can do
pretty easily to remedy that
293
00:26:31,132 --> 00:26:34,761
and make sure I don't get scurvy
from lack of vitamin C,
294
00:26:34,844 --> 00:26:39,682
which is to take... let me show
you here... take some
of the spruce...
295
00:26:41,184 --> 00:26:46,481
Take some of the spruce needles
which is loaded with vitamin C
and throw that in my pot,
296
00:26:46,564 --> 00:26:48,983
boil some water
and make spruce tea.
297
00:26:49,067 --> 00:26:53,988
They say that, you know,
spruce tea has more vitamin C in
it than orange juice.
298
00:26:54,072 --> 00:26:56,825
So that's pretty good. And
I don't have to worry about
getting scurvy.
299
00:28:13,943 --> 00:28:16,154
It's a real disheartening sight
behind me here.
300
00:28:16,779 --> 00:28:20,617
The river that
I'm following pretty much just
disappears into that morass.
301
00:28:21,242 --> 00:28:25,830
And there's no question I'm not
gonna be able to drag the canoe
through there.
302
00:28:25,914 --> 00:28:27,457
I'm gonna have to
portage everything,
303
00:28:27,540 --> 00:28:32,170
which is not gonna be easy
considering it's just like a
foul morass of swamp and muskeg.
304
00:28:33,463 --> 00:28:35,298
But I think I'm almost
at the next lake,
305
00:28:35,381 --> 00:28:40,345
so I just got to tell myself
that and try to find the mental
stamina to push on.
306
00:28:50,980 --> 00:28:54,817
Well, I followed the river for
as long as I possibly could,
the Hare Indian River.
307
00:28:54,901 --> 00:29:00,198
My gear is behind me here,
but there's pretty much nothing
left of it, just this ditch.
308
00:29:17,674 --> 00:29:21,844
The current is clearly flowing
that way and that puts a smile
on my face
309
00:29:21,928 --> 00:29:25,640
for very important reason
because that means, you know,
310
00:29:25,723 --> 00:29:29,352
all the water I have encountered
so far has been flowing
the other direction
311
00:29:29,435 --> 00:29:32,855
it's been flowing west,
but this is flowing east.
312
00:29:32,939 --> 00:29:34,190
And because it's flowing east,
313
00:29:34,274 --> 00:29:39,988
that means I have crossed the
divide between the Mackenzie
River watershed
314
00:29:40,071 --> 00:29:42,365
and Great Bear Lake over here.
315
00:30:12,353 --> 00:30:15,773
I'm the only person on the whole
lake all to my lonesome.
316
00:30:17,233 --> 00:30:20,069
And some caves way up there on
the mountain slopes.
317
00:30:21,571 --> 00:30:23,281
And when I see
a cave on a mountain,
318
00:30:23,364 --> 00:30:27,035
my imagination always goes to
strange places and I imagine
319
00:30:27,118 --> 00:30:29,454
what manner of creature
might live up there.
320
00:30:54,604 --> 00:31:00,109
It is 4:24 PM on June 25th and I
have just reached
321
00:31:00,193 --> 00:31:01,736
Great Bear Lake.
322
00:31:01,819 --> 00:31:04,364
This is a big achievement
for me.
323
00:31:05,615 --> 00:31:07,575
It's a new chapter in
the expedition.
324
00:31:07,658 --> 00:31:10,453
It's like I've
reached a new level,
a new phase of the journey.
325
00:31:11,329 --> 00:31:15,375
I've got the accumulating
scrapes and bruises.
326
00:31:16,125 --> 00:31:17,293
Nice bruise.
327
00:31:17,377 --> 00:31:23,049
My lovely fiancée has
made these super helpful labels
for me because,
328
00:31:23,132 --> 00:31:26,427
believe it or not,
despite the fact that I am
filming this entire documentary,
329
00:31:26,511 --> 00:31:28,679
I'm not very good with
technology.
330
00:31:28,763 --> 00:31:34,394
So she labeled everything like
"unplug as soon
as charging is done."
331
00:31:35,061 --> 00:31:39,482
"Plug this end into the
solar panel." "Charge battery
pack." It's very helpful.
332
00:31:39,565 --> 00:31:40,566
She labeled everything.
333
00:31:41,401 --> 00:31:46,614
I just came
around the corner here and this
is what made my heart sank.
334
00:31:47,532 --> 00:31:50,618
There's just nothing but ice as
far as the eye can see.
335
00:31:51,244 --> 00:31:56,582
And it's a lot of ice and it's
gonna slow my progress right
down to a crawl.
336
00:31:57,166 --> 00:31:58,668
There's just so
much ice out there.
337
00:32:00,002 --> 00:32:03,756
Melting ice floes out there
that's blocked up my passage
338
00:32:03,840 --> 00:32:06,008
along the coast
of Great Bear Lake.
339
00:32:06,634 --> 00:32:08,136
So, there's nothing
I can do about it.
340
00:32:08,219 --> 00:32:12,640
I started at 3:30 AM and I'm
operating on only three hours
of sleep.
341
00:32:12,723 --> 00:32:15,977
I paddled 41 kilometers
today on three hours of sleep.
342
00:32:16,060 --> 00:32:18,521
So I've made my camp
on this beach.
343
00:32:18,604 --> 00:32:20,731
Try to get
as comfortable as I can.
344
00:32:20,815 --> 00:32:22,650
I'm gonna have a fire
in a second.
345
00:32:23,401 --> 00:32:25,862
And just hope
that when I wake up,
346
00:32:26,821 --> 00:32:29,782
this ice will be out of here
and I can continue.
347
00:32:30,491 --> 00:32:32,160
3:12 AM,
348
00:32:32,785 --> 00:32:36,789
and I am about to set off
through the ice here
on Great Bear Lake.
349
00:33:29,800 --> 00:33:33,262
It's entirely possible I'm the
only person on this entire vast
body of water
350
00:33:33,346 --> 00:33:36,349
paddling right now,
especially since it's still icy.
351
00:33:37,099 --> 00:33:40,728
Out there I can't make it any
further along Great Bear Lake,
352
00:33:40,811 --> 00:33:43,439
it's just my route
is blocked by ice.
353
00:33:43,523 --> 00:33:45,191
All right team, listen up.
354
00:33:46,108 --> 00:33:51,906
Mr. Canoe, Mr. Blue Barrel,
Paddles, everyone,
I need your attention.
355
00:33:52,740 --> 00:33:53,574
Backpack.
356
00:33:53,658 --> 00:33:57,286
Now we are going to be patient
and we are gonna wait
357
00:33:57,370 --> 00:34:02,208
until the ice melts out there
and then we can continue.
358
00:34:03,334 --> 00:34:06,128
So today is a
lesson in patience.
359
00:34:06,212 --> 00:34:09,674
I know like me you're eager and
you want to push on,
360
00:34:09,757 --> 00:34:11,467
but it's
just too much of a risk.
361
00:34:11,551 --> 00:34:16,305
If we get stranded in that
ice again and then
the wind picks up,
362
00:34:16,389 --> 00:34:20,434
it could take us way out into
the heart of the lake and that
would be extremely bad.
363
00:34:20,518 --> 00:34:23,354
So, team, I'm proud of the work
we've done together,
364
00:34:23,437 --> 00:34:27,567
but right now we've got to try
to be patient and just wait for
that ice to melt.
365
00:34:27,650 --> 00:34:30,027
It seems like I'm not the first
person to become stranded
366
00:34:30,152 --> 00:34:33,406
on this island here in the
center of the island.
367
00:34:33,489 --> 00:34:36,784
Looks like long time ago
368
00:34:36,867 --> 00:34:39,870
someone once had a campfire here
369
00:34:39,954 --> 00:34:43,666
because these four rocks look
like they've been placed here
370
00:34:44,458 --> 00:34:48,504
and in the center of the rocks
there's some very old bones,
371
00:34:48,588 --> 00:34:52,883
some animal bones or somebody
cooked something.
372
00:34:55,011 --> 00:34:58,139
So somebody else maybe was
stranded on this island, too.
373
00:35:11,402 --> 00:35:13,904
You know if I follow it maybe
I'll find a pot of gold.
374
00:35:15,031 --> 00:35:19,285
Actually I would be more happy
just to find open water
and no ice.
375
00:35:19,869 --> 00:35:21,996
I'll take that over the pot
of gold.
376
00:35:22,079 --> 00:35:24,081
The longer I sit
waiting for ice to melt,
377
00:35:24,165 --> 00:35:27,418
the less likely it becomes that
I'll get all the way
across the Arctic
378
00:35:27,501 --> 00:35:31,922
and then I have to, you know,
re-evaluate my goals, what I'm
gonna do on this journey.
379
00:36:17,718 --> 00:36:21,472
Still some pretty
big ice floes out here,
but most of the ice has melted.
380
00:36:21,555 --> 00:36:23,307
Iceberg dead ahead.
381
00:36:23,391 --> 00:36:24,684
Hard to starboard.
382
00:36:30,439 --> 00:36:33,651
Now I'm just trapped
on a fog-bound coast here
383
00:36:33,734 --> 00:36:36,028
and this one looks less inviting
than the other one.
384
00:36:36,112 --> 00:36:39,281
I can see some swampy alder
bushes back in there.
385
00:36:40,616 --> 00:36:42,618
There's a summer out here
in the woods.
386
00:36:42,702 --> 00:36:45,496
I know that there's ruins
of Fort Confidence.
387
00:36:45,579 --> 00:36:48,874
Fort Confidence was built almost
200 years ago
388
00:36:48,958 --> 00:36:51,919
as a fur trade
fort on Great Bear Lake
389
00:36:52,002 --> 00:36:53,796
and there's not much
left of it today.
390
00:36:53,879 --> 00:36:56,257
There's probably just
some stone foundations.
391
00:36:56,340 --> 00:36:59,677
But I'm
gonna go off into those thick
spruce trees over there
392
00:36:59,760 --> 00:37:01,429
and see if I can find anything.
393
00:37:01,512 --> 00:37:03,472
And I see something up there.
394
00:37:03,556 --> 00:37:09,437
Looks like an old stone chimney
just poking out of the... the
undergrowth of the forest.
395
00:37:10,104 --> 00:37:14,191
And the fort itself would have
been built out of spruce logs
396
00:37:14,275 --> 00:37:17,570
cut right here, no doubt.
397
00:37:17,653 --> 00:37:19,488
They just kind of
hacked through here.
398
00:37:22,825 --> 00:37:24,034
It's a little bit eerie.
399
00:37:24,910 --> 00:37:27,663
Kind of just seeing ruins in the
middle of nowhere
400
00:37:28,706 --> 00:37:31,959
reminds you of the ghosts
of the past as it were.
401
00:37:33,002 --> 00:37:37,548
That, you know,
hundreds of years ago there were
explorers here before me.
402
00:37:38,507 --> 00:37:40,593
Oh, wow, that's really neat.
Look at that.
403
00:37:41,635 --> 00:37:43,804
You can see the masonry
work in there.
404
00:37:43,888 --> 00:37:47,767
So this is a chimney. We got
some rocks down below.
405
00:37:49,059 --> 00:37:50,978
Wow, that's actually quite neat.
406
00:37:51,520 --> 00:37:53,314
A bit of wood
sticking out of it, too.
407
00:37:53,981 --> 00:37:57,735
Everything else must have
rotted away and been swallowed
up by the forest
408
00:37:58,444 --> 00:37:59,945
over the last 200 years.
409
00:38:00,029 --> 00:38:02,531
These are granite rocks pulled
out of the lake shore there.
410
00:38:03,282 --> 00:38:05,159
Oh, yeah, I can see straight up
the chimney.
411
00:38:05,242 --> 00:38:07,411
I mean it's a little bit eerie
the ghosts of the past,
412
00:38:07,495 --> 00:38:11,707
but it's also very fascinating
from a historical perspective
413
00:38:11,791 --> 00:38:15,795
to think that hundreds of years
ago this forest here would have
been cleared out
414
00:38:15,878 --> 00:38:20,508
and they would have had a fort
with cannons and muskets and
high wooden walls.
415
00:38:20,591 --> 00:38:25,596
The river I'm trying to find is
named after the guy who was in
charge of this fort, Dease.
416
00:38:26,889 --> 00:38:28,474
So I'm looking for the
Dease River.
417
00:38:29,308 --> 00:38:31,227
Well, let's get back
down to the canoe.
418
00:38:31,310 --> 00:38:33,729
I don't like to leave my canoe
for too long.
419
00:38:33,813 --> 00:38:37,441
I get... we get kind of
separation anxiety
when we're apart.
420
00:38:37,525 --> 00:38:42,071
So I tied it up
down there on the water and I
better get back to it.
421
00:38:42,154 --> 00:38:45,616
He was really curious but then I
accidentally made a noise
with my paddle.
422
00:38:45,699 --> 00:38:47,743
He ran off, he got scared.
423
00:39:15,688 --> 00:39:20,276
Poor sock just trying to get dry
in the sun and the bugs are just
swarming up.
424
00:39:22,820 --> 00:39:25,072
Somewhere out here in the forest
425
00:39:25,781 --> 00:39:29,660
should be the remains
of Douglas' cabin
from over a century ago.
426
00:39:32,913 --> 00:39:34,582
And I think I see it up here.
427
00:39:35,583 --> 00:39:37,293
Yeah, I can see it now.
428
00:39:38,919 --> 00:39:44,425
So just the
parts of the walls are left but
the roof has collapsed.
429
00:39:45,718 --> 00:39:48,637
In over a hundred years the
elements have done that to it.
430
00:39:49,471 --> 00:39:51,390
There's the inside of the cabin.
431
00:39:51,932 --> 00:39:55,769
And you can see over there in
the corner this was this...
432
00:39:56,312 --> 00:39:58,397
This would have been its
fireplace over here.
433
00:39:59,148 --> 00:40:02,318
I mean the preservation is
pretty good in this cold
environment, right.
434
00:40:02,401 --> 00:40:06,655
It's a pretty dry
environment despite the snow,
so things don't rot that well.
435
00:40:06,739 --> 00:40:09,241
But in a hundred years the roof
has collapsed.
436
00:40:09,325 --> 00:40:11,118
But there it is down in there.
437
00:40:11,994 --> 00:40:13,354
So that would
have been his hearth,
438
00:40:13,412 --> 00:40:16,749
very important for the long cold
Canadian winter.
439
00:40:17,416 --> 00:40:19,084
And that's all
that remains of it.
440
00:40:20,044 --> 00:40:22,046
You can see
the construction along the side.
441
00:40:23,005 --> 00:40:26,258
And just very slowly the forest
is gonna swallow it up
442
00:40:27,009 --> 00:40:31,931
and it'll vanish into the
wilderness and there won't be
anything left of it.
443
00:40:32,973 --> 00:40:37,603
But now I got to get back to
the canoe and continue my own
journey upriver.
444
00:40:57,039 --> 00:40:58,749
Last night when I was
setting up my tent,
445
00:40:58,832 --> 00:41:03,921
I discovered there was a hole in
it, a little small hole in the
screen here.
446
00:41:04,004 --> 00:41:05,506
And I was inside my
tent at the time
447
00:41:05,589 --> 00:41:07,841
and I had nothing to patch it
with other than a bandage.
448
00:41:07,925 --> 00:41:09,343
But now I've got my duct tape.
449
00:41:09,426 --> 00:41:14,515
So I'm gonna make a little more
proper repair to the mesh there
450
00:41:14,598 --> 00:41:18,894
so the bugs cannot find a way in
and bite me in the middle
of the night.
451
00:41:19,561 --> 00:41:23,148
There's just unbelievable number
of those horse flies
452
00:41:23,232 --> 00:41:25,609
on this beach
and all over the river.
453
00:41:25,693 --> 00:41:30,155
You can see some...
there's just a bunch of them
accumulating inside my tent
454
00:41:30,239 --> 00:41:34,827
around... under the tent
fly... there's one right
there... and they're big suckers.
455
00:41:34,910 --> 00:41:38,956
And when they bite you, it feels
almost more like a bee sting.
456
00:41:39,915 --> 00:41:42,376
And if you want to see
what it looks like,
457
00:41:43,335 --> 00:41:48,298
it's like a welt where one got
me right there
on the shin today.
458
00:41:48,924 --> 00:41:50,843
Another one bit me down there.
459
00:41:51,510 --> 00:41:55,556
Millions of mosquitoes and black
flies just swarms of them
460
00:41:56,265 --> 00:42:00,853
all over the place down there on
my gear and just...
461
00:42:01,687 --> 00:42:05,441
They're so bad
that I'm just not even gonna
brush my teeth this morning
462
00:42:05,524 --> 00:42:10,070
because I can't take this bug
net off to brush my teeth with
like millions of mosquitoes
463
00:42:10,154 --> 00:42:11,739
buzzing all over the place.
464
00:42:11,822 --> 00:42:12,990
So I'm just gonna go.
465
00:42:37,014 --> 00:42:39,975
The skies are dark and I can see
that a storm is coming,
466
00:42:40,059 --> 00:42:42,686
so I want to batter down the
hatches and secure all the gear.
467
00:42:42,770 --> 00:42:46,815
I had a quick fire,
made some herbal tea and some
dinner really fast
468
00:42:46,899 --> 00:42:50,778
and I just threw my backpack
under there on my paddle and I'm
gonna jump in the tent.
469
00:42:50,861 --> 00:42:54,740
You don't want to be caught out
in the open in the storm.
470
00:42:54,823 --> 00:43:00,829
This tent's been pretty strong
so far but this is the first
real big test of it.
471
00:43:12,674 --> 00:43:16,595
It's intensifying,
definitely intensifying.
472
00:43:18,639 --> 00:43:21,683
You know there's something about
a storm alone in the wilderness.
473
00:43:23,143 --> 00:43:24,454
It can get
on your nerves a little.
474
00:43:24,478 --> 00:43:26,873
I've been through a heck
of a lot of storms in the
wilderness,
475
00:43:26,897 --> 00:43:28,941
like probably over 50 of them.
476
00:43:29,024 --> 00:43:34,696
And you just have to wait it out
and try to... excuse me...
477
00:43:34,780 --> 00:43:37,032
My tent is really flying around
all over the place.
478
00:43:38,242 --> 00:43:40,035
Water coming off down there.
479
00:43:50,295 --> 00:43:52,005
Oh.
480
00:44:07,729 --> 00:44:13,318
I got this map to follow and I
think this is the creek here
that I'm on.
481
00:44:14,444 --> 00:44:18,198
Then you go across the tundra
here and through them
the marshes
482
00:44:18,282 --> 00:44:22,494
and then I'll see the lonely
mountain and I'm gonna head for
that lonely mountain
483
00:44:22,578 --> 00:44:24,872
and I have to cross some fields
of ice, but, eventually,
484
00:44:24,955 --> 00:44:27,291
they'll take me over into the
Dismal Lakes.
485
00:44:27,916 --> 00:44:30,627
I'm gonna hope to try to do this
in just three loads.
486
00:44:30,752 --> 00:44:33,630
So if it's a 10-kilometer
portage one way,
487
00:44:33,755 --> 00:44:38,302
I would take my big heavy pack
first, that's 20 kilometers...
488
00:44:38,385 --> 00:44:40,554
10 kilometers there,
10 kilometers back.
489
00:44:40,637 --> 00:44:44,808
Then I would go to this barrel
which I've loaded fully right up
to the brim.
490
00:44:44,892 --> 00:44:46,810
It's gotta weigh close to
50 pounds.
491
00:44:46,894 --> 00:44:49,521
That would be another
10 kilometers there,
10 kilometers back.
492
00:44:49,605 --> 00:44:52,524
So that
would be 20... 40 kilometers.
493
00:44:52,608 --> 00:44:55,402
I'm gonna try to follow this
sand ridge to begin with.
494
00:44:55,485 --> 00:44:57,738
I saw
some wolf tracks over here.
495
00:44:57,821 --> 00:45:01,867
So it looks like the wolves use
it as a highway and I'm gonna do
that as well.
496
00:45:01,950 --> 00:45:05,120
Here's... here's
some faint wolf tracks.
497
00:45:05,204 --> 00:45:07,998
There's one down there and they
went that way.
498
00:45:08,081 --> 00:45:09,666
So I'm gonna go that
way as well.
499
00:45:23,055 --> 00:45:27,809
About 10 kilometers from me and
that's it, the lonely mountain.
500
00:45:27,893 --> 00:45:29,561
And that's
where I want to get to.
501
00:45:29,645 --> 00:45:33,273
And you can see the trail,
the drag marks where I dragged
the canoe
502
00:45:33,357 --> 00:45:39,279
all the way over there
and across through those trees
several kilometers away.
503
00:45:40,364 --> 00:45:43,242
And sand and gravel seems a
little bit hard on the canoe,
504
00:45:43,325 --> 00:45:45,165
but I don't really have a choice
at this point.
505
00:45:45,244 --> 00:45:48,705
I feel really privileged to be
here right now amidst
such beauty.
506
00:45:49,498 --> 00:45:52,668
Maybe not so privileged when
there's hordes of black flies
507
00:45:52,751 --> 00:45:54,586
and mosquitoes eating me alive.
508
00:45:54,670 --> 00:46:00,300
But this view is just
magnificent and I'm really
soaking it in right now
509
00:46:01,301 --> 00:46:03,720
and looking forward to another
freeze-dried meal.
510
00:46:05,889 --> 00:46:10,477
This canoe has been through the
ice, it's been over the rocks,
511
00:46:10,560 --> 00:46:12,479
upriver, downriver, hauling,
512
00:46:12,562 --> 00:46:15,649
paddling, it's taken a lot of
abuse but, you know,
513
00:46:15,732 --> 00:46:20,904
fuss far there's no leaks and
it's still... still standing up
to the rigors of this journey.
514
00:46:20,988 --> 00:46:26,702
So I just hope that so far so
good and that it stays that way.
515
00:46:42,467 --> 00:46:47,097
And there they are. At long last
my first glimpse
of the Dismal Lakes
516
00:46:47,973 --> 00:46:50,600
and they don't look that
dismal to me from up here.
517
00:46:50,684 --> 00:46:55,647
They look
actually quite refreshing
after this nightmarish portage
518
00:46:55,731 --> 00:46:59,568
with horrible bugs and marshes
and high hills.
519
00:46:59,651 --> 00:47:02,112
So the Dismal Lakes look pretty
good from up here.
520
00:47:02,863 --> 00:47:04,531
That's what I thought
of that book.
521
00:47:06,241 --> 00:47:08,744
No sense in carrying any
extra weight than I need to.
522
00:47:08,827 --> 00:47:11,371
Packing another book doesn't
make any sense.
523
00:47:11,455 --> 00:47:12,622
So there you go.
524
00:47:12,706 --> 00:47:16,293
But for sentimental reasons I
did actually... I saved
the cover.
525
00:47:16,376 --> 00:47:18,086
I saved the cover,
I'm gonna keep that.
526
00:47:18,754 --> 00:47:23,133
My neck was massacred by black
flies the other day
on that portage.
527
00:47:23,216 --> 00:47:26,511
I'll show you some of
the bites if you can see them
down in there.
528
00:47:26,595 --> 00:47:29,681
And the black flies just love to
go for the neck.
529
00:47:31,099 --> 00:47:36,188
And, yeah,
they've just bit me all over the
place in there portaging.
530
00:47:37,397 --> 00:47:39,816
It's pretty cold night.
I don't mind that.
531
00:47:39,900 --> 00:47:44,112
I actually kind of
like getting cozy inside my
sleeping bag here
532
00:47:44,196 --> 00:47:48,700
and huddling
down with all my extra sweaters
and blankets and things.
533
00:47:48,784 --> 00:47:53,455
You can see the tent buckling
under the pressure.
534
00:47:55,832 --> 00:47:57,876
You can hear the wind howling.
535
00:48:12,224 --> 00:48:17,354
I created this rock wall on this
side to cut down on the wind
rushing underneath the tent fly.
536
00:48:17,437 --> 00:48:20,524
If nothing else,
it was creating a lot of noise
and keeping me up at night.
537
00:48:22,692 --> 00:48:24,903
It's not really anything
else I could do.
538
00:48:26,363 --> 00:48:29,908
Everything is pretty exposed out
here by the Dismal Lakes.
539
00:48:33,829 --> 00:48:36,748
So that's where
I'm headed... out there.
540
00:49:50,030 --> 00:49:51,573
The longer the expedition
goes on,
541
00:49:51,656 --> 00:49:56,828
the more my gear starts to
suffer the effects
of wear and tear
542
00:49:56,912 --> 00:50:00,916
and had a couple of holes
in it up here and the fabric was
coming out.
543
00:50:00,999 --> 00:50:02,435
They look like they
have been burned,
544
00:50:02,459 --> 00:50:05,170
singed by the fire but I don't
know how because
it's in my hood.
545
00:50:05,253 --> 00:50:08,965
There's the other hole in
my tent down there that I
patched with actual duct tape.
546
00:50:09,090 --> 00:50:14,221
Wristband broke off of it,
so now I'm just using it as an
old-fashioned pocket watch
547
00:50:14,304 --> 00:50:15,764
that I keep in my pocket.
548
00:50:15,847 --> 00:50:18,141
This busted off of it,
so I'm gonna try to repair that.
549
00:50:18,225 --> 00:50:21,394
Otherwise I don't have a bear
banger, which wouldn't be good.
550
00:50:22,020 --> 00:50:26,775
You know after a month and a
half or more, two months almost,
being out here,
551
00:50:26,858 --> 00:50:30,362
my tent begins to feel like
home, like this is my home
552
00:50:30,445 --> 00:50:35,200
and I'm really... when I'm warm
and dry in here and it's cold
and wet outside
553
00:50:35,283 --> 00:50:37,827
it just feels like the
greatest luxury in the world.
554
00:50:37,911 --> 00:50:39,538
Feels like
a five-star hotel to me.
555
00:50:43,792 --> 00:50:46,670
My path up the Coppermine is
blocked by a massive canyon.
556
00:50:46,753 --> 00:50:48,588
It represents a huge obstacle.
557
00:50:48,672 --> 00:50:53,927
I'm gonna have to do a really
long portage up over these tall
cliffs to get around it.
558
00:50:54,010 --> 00:50:55,971
So I've got all my gear here.
559
00:50:56,054 --> 00:50:57,180
I've just prepped it.
560
00:50:57,264 --> 00:51:00,225
And I tied my hiking boots onto
the outside
561
00:51:00,308 --> 00:51:03,746
because for the first one I've
got to wear these wading shoes
which are bigger and heavy.
562
00:51:03,770 --> 00:51:07,250
So I'm just gonna wear them,
leave them over there and then
switch into the hiking boots.
563
00:51:07,732 --> 00:51:11,152
I've got three loads to do...
The barrel, the backpack.
564
00:51:11,236 --> 00:51:13,822
This barrel I've emptied,
so it's now empty.
565
00:51:13,905 --> 00:51:19,619
And then, finally, the canoe and
it's gonna be hard because this
is one heck of a canyon.
566
00:51:30,505 --> 00:51:33,675
I come across a rather
unexpected sight which is this
monument.
567
00:51:33,758 --> 00:51:37,220
In the last place on
Earth you'd probably expect to
see a monument.
568
00:51:37,304 --> 00:51:40,140
It says David and Carol Jones
who loved the north
569
00:51:40,223 --> 00:51:44,561
and its people were
drowned in these rapids on
August 14th 1972.
570
00:51:44,644 --> 00:51:46,730
They respected
honesty and truth.
571
00:51:48,440 --> 00:51:53,403
You know seeing that it's a very
solemn reminder of the hazards
572
00:51:53,486 --> 00:51:55,739
involved in a wilderness
journey like this
573
00:51:56,239 --> 00:51:59,534
and it's very touching.
574
00:52:00,327 --> 00:52:06,291
I feel for them and their family
and want to take a moment
575
00:52:06,374 --> 00:52:10,420
to pay my respects to
fellow wilderness travelers.
576
00:52:16,343 --> 00:52:21,806
Makes me want to be extra
cautious because it's a
reminder of, you know,
577
00:52:21,890 --> 00:52:27,187
what can go wrong with the
slightest mistake out here.
578
00:52:28,063 --> 00:52:30,774
But that's what I'm portaging
around this big canyon.
579
00:52:32,525 --> 00:52:34,903
It was a pretty demoralizing
day, I have to say.
580
00:52:34,986 --> 00:52:39,240
It was just really brutally hard
labour all day long.
581
00:52:39,324 --> 00:52:40,617
The bugs were awful.
582
00:52:40,700 --> 00:52:43,745
And I knew coming into the
expedition that this phase
583
00:52:43,828 --> 00:52:48,625
would be one of the most
physically rigorous
of the whole journey...
584
00:52:48,708 --> 00:52:50,001
The Coppermine River,
585
00:52:50,085 --> 00:52:54,547
which is just a big powerful
river with strong white-water
rapids, waterfalls,
586
00:52:54,631 --> 00:52:58,635
and canyons on it,
and that's why no one travels
upriver on it.
587
00:52:58,718 --> 00:53:00,845
But that's exactly what I'm
trying to do here.
588
00:53:00,929 --> 00:53:05,100
And, you know, I put in a very
long 11 hours of travel
589
00:53:05,183 --> 00:53:08,561
but I only made it about
12 or 13 kilometers upriver.
590
00:53:09,187 --> 00:53:11,606
So that kind of took the wind
out of my sails.
591
00:53:11,690 --> 00:53:14,442
And I mean you can
see the river right there.
592
00:53:15,318 --> 00:53:17,570
Didn't have the great... best
camping place either
593
00:53:17,654 --> 00:53:20,615
but you can see how strong the
current is in the river.
594
00:53:20,699 --> 00:53:24,786
And... and I mean that's not even
like a strong part, that's just
like the ordinary part.
595
00:53:25,662 --> 00:53:31,251
Hearne depicts this area
and this is, you know,
247 years ago,
596
00:53:31,334 --> 00:53:36,631
as very windswept barren rocky
tundra with not a lot
of tree cover,
597
00:53:36,715 --> 00:53:39,426
maybe just some scattered spruce
here and there.
598
00:53:39,509 --> 00:53:41,302
I mean there is
some trees but not many.
599
00:53:41,386 --> 00:53:44,389
And that's also the impression I
got from the 1820 accounts
600
00:53:44,472 --> 00:53:50,228
written by John Franklin
and John Richardson,
two later British explorers.
601
00:53:51,438 --> 00:53:55,900
And, yet, here we have, you
know, pretty large extensive
spruce forests.
602
00:53:55,984 --> 00:53:58,194
And that makes you
wonder about things.
603
00:53:58,319 --> 00:54:01,114
Is this the result of global
warming? Could be.
604
00:54:01,197 --> 00:54:05,285
We know that the climate has
been warming since about the
mid-19th century.
605
00:54:05,368 --> 00:54:07,954
Don't quote me on that,
but I think that's about right.
606
00:54:08,037 --> 00:54:11,207
Right, the Little Ice Age came
to an end and then the climate
has been warming.
607
00:54:11,332 --> 00:54:15,545
So, it's possible that over the
past almost a quarter of a
millennium,
608
00:54:15,628 --> 00:54:18,840
it's a long time since Samuel
Hearne was here in human terms.
609
00:54:19,632 --> 00:54:23,344
The forest has really grown up
and there's trees where there
was never trees before
610
00:54:23,428 --> 00:54:26,222
because the climate is warming.
611
00:54:26,306 --> 00:54:30,477
So it's been 55 days since I
left the Arctic Circle,
612
00:54:31,436 --> 00:54:33,354
longer
since I started camping though.
613
00:54:34,022 --> 00:54:35,899
It's cold but refreshing.
614
00:55:11,184 --> 00:55:15,480
Every night I have a little
ritual that I do inside my tent.
615
00:55:16,147 --> 00:55:19,776
It's called kill all the black
flies that come inside the tent
with me.
616
00:55:20,860 --> 00:55:23,238
And if you can hear
that gentle pitter-patter,
617
00:55:24,155 --> 00:55:26,825
it's not the sound of rain
against my tent fly.
618
00:55:26,908 --> 00:55:30,537
It's sound of hundreds of black
flies against it
619
00:55:30,620 --> 00:55:34,958
as they get trapped under the
fly and they try to escape.
620
00:55:35,959 --> 00:55:38,211
But some of them
get inside here with me.
621
00:55:38,294 --> 00:55:43,842
No matter how quick, no matter
how nimble I am, when I dive
through the tent door,
622
00:55:43,925 --> 00:55:45,885
some of them come inside.
623
00:55:47,011 --> 00:55:49,305
My toe is still pretty swollen
and busted up.
624
00:55:49,389 --> 00:55:54,769
Fact is it just... your feet take
a beating when you're on them
13, 14 hours a day
625
00:55:54,853 --> 00:55:59,941
wading through rapids and rivers
and boulders and whatnot.
626
00:56:00,024 --> 00:56:01,651
So they're my favourite bird.
627
00:56:02,360 --> 00:56:05,196
Although what I don't like about
them is when I'm paddling
by the shore
628
00:56:05,280 --> 00:56:08,950
and they have a nest nearby,
it turns into the Alfred
Hitchcock movie The Birds
629
00:56:09,033 --> 00:56:10,326
and they swarm at me.
630
00:56:10,410 --> 00:56:13,454
And if you
look carefully, you'll see that
they have very sharp beaks.
631
00:56:13,538 --> 00:56:17,584
It's July 22nd, I'm waiting for
the sound of the Bush plane.
632
00:56:17,667 --> 00:56:19,168
So I'm looking forward
633
00:56:19,252 --> 00:56:24,591
to some new food rations
and fresh batteries.
634
00:56:25,216 --> 00:56:27,510
And I'm just waiting here so.
635
00:56:28,219 --> 00:56:29,219
It's him.
636
00:56:34,350 --> 00:56:35,935
He's gonna touchdown.
637
00:56:37,520 --> 00:56:38,520
Nice.
638
00:56:40,189 --> 00:56:41,649
Food is on the way.
639
00:57:30,573 --> 00:57:34,160
It's raining for the fourth
straight day
640
00:57:35,119 --> 00:57:36,788
and it's about 11
o'clock at night,
641
00:57:36,871 --> 00:57:38,039
I'm inside my tent.
642
00:57:38,873 --> 00:57:43,920
And I'm still nice and dry and
warm and snug in here.
643
00:57:44,837 --> 00:57:48,341
And it's gonna take more than
rain and bugs
644
00:57:49,717 --> 00:57:51,010
to deter me.
645
00:58:25,503 --> 00:58:30,133
That's what I'm dealing with
here, the white-water of the
Coppermine River.
646
00:58:30,216 --> 00:58:34,303
There's no way to drag up
through that or pull,
so I had to portage around it.
647
00:59:21,642 --> 00:59:26,731
And here is my wader and it's
just those two little
punctures there
648
00:59:26,814 --> 00:59:28,775
that are causing me
all my grief.
649
00:59:28,858 --> 00:59:32,737
So I'm gonna take some of
this from the tree with my Swiss
Army knife.
650
00:59:33,613 --> 00:59:38,326
And then when that has melted
I'll lather it on to the wader.
651
00:59:38,409 --> 00:59:43,331
And you can see I've
applied some of the spruce resin
to the hole in the wader
652
00:59:43,414 --> 00:59:46,834
with the stick here and,
hopefully, this does the job.
653
00:59:48,836 --> 00:59:53,049
It's July 31st and the bugs are
just atrocious this morning.
654
00:59:53,132 --> 00:59:56,219
They were bad last night but I
mean there's just massive clouds
of them here.
655
00:59:57,095 --> 01:00:01,557
The fantastic news is that my
patch on my waders
656
01:00:01,682 --> 01:00:05,895
using the resin from the spruce
tree has held up like a dream.
657
01:00:05,978 --> 01:00:09,899
So, in the end, it was nature's
solution that did the job
658
01:00:09,982 --> 01:00:12,485
that modern materials couldn't.
659
01:00:12,568 --> 01:00:14,987
Duct tape, Gorilla Tape didn't
work on its own,
660
01:00:15,071 --> 01:00:18,866
but when I heated that resin up
and put it on, it worked
like a charm.
661
01:00:18,950 --> 01:00:20,409
And now I've got dry feet.
662
01:01:00,074 --> 01:01:03,161
Oh my goodness,
there's a jackpot over here.
663
01:01:03,244 --> 01:01:05,872
In Newfoundland they call these
bake apples.
664
01:01:08,541 --> 01:01:09,542
Mm...
665
01:01:11,961 --> 01:01:13,045
This is so good.
666
01:01:13,129 --> 01:01:18,551
I still can't entirely dispel a
bit of anxiety that I feel.
667
01:01:18,634 --> 01:01:22,138
It's still an open question
whether or not I'll even make it
to Baker Lake.
668
01:01:22,221 --> 01:01:25,224
It's just such a
long way and winter is coming.
669
01:01:25,308 --> 01:01:28,060
I mean winter could come in
August, I don't know.
670
01:01:29,312 --> 01:01:30,521
It's impossible to say.
671
01:01:30,605 --> 01:01:35,776
So I am just super conscious at
all times that time
is running out.
672
01:01:51,709 --> 01:01:55,004
Not too far away to the
southwest is a tree line
673
01:01:55,087 --> 01:01:59,383
and that marks the start of vast
forest that cloak northern
Canada.
674
01:01:59,467 --> 01:02:01,344
And somewhere down there
to the southwest
675
01:02:01,427 --> 01:02:04,764
there must be
some pretty bad forest fires
raging right now.
676
01:02:06,641 --> 01:02:08,726
Still little
hazy from those forest fires.
677
01:02:09,560 --> 01:02:14,690
I only really have at this point
five weeks of decent
weather left
678
01:02:14,774 --> 01:02:19,654
and it's gonna probably
take more than that for me to
get to Baker Lake.
679
01:02:20,905 --> 01:02:24,408
Right now the
task for the moment is to kill
680
01:02:24,492 --> 01:02:28,996
all these friggin' black flies
inside the tent with me because
there is a lot of them.
681
01:02:29,664 --> 01:02:31,874
I repeat, that is not a rock.
682
01:02:53,604 --> 01:02:56,941
Those cries are coming from some
waterfowl out there on the lake.
683
01:02:57,024 --> 01:03:02,697
They make the strangest cries
like a child in distress just as
I am about to call it a night.
684
01:03:08,160 --> 01:03:10,079
Listen to the birds crying.
685
01:03:10,997 --> 01:03:13,749
And look at that it's something
like The Land Before Time,
686
01:03:13,833 --> 01:03:15,876
dinosaurs
roamed the Earth over there.
687
01:03:15,960 --> 01:03:19,964
I have to get my canoe across
all of that
688
01:03:20,798 --> 01:03:24,302
and all of my gear
for about a kilometer.
689
01:03:35,646 --> 01:03:39,108
Well, I just completed the
fourth portage of the day.
690
01:03:40,693 --> 01:03:42,570
I got the
canoe across all in one shot,
691
01:03:42,653 --> 01:03:43,904
carried it over my head
692
01:03:44,697 --> 01:03:47,116
because I didn't want to risk
any more abuse to it
693
01:03:47,199 --> 01:03:49,577
than necessary dragging it over
these rocks.
694
01:03:53,831 --> 01:03:58,044
Well,
in a land of desolate rock as
far as the eye could see,
695
01:03:58,711 --> 01:04:01,213
old as time, this is the oldest
rock on the planet,
696
01:04:01,297 --> 01:04:03,007
goes back billions of years,
697
01:04:04,091 --> 01:04:07,553
it's rather ironic
and good for me
698
01:04:08,429 --> 01:04:11,015
that I have this beautiful
little bed here for the night.
699
01:04:12,391 --> 01:04:14,935
I'm gonna call this home for
tonight and sleep
700
01:04:15,019 --> 01:04:20,900
in this nice
little patch of lichens and
Labrador tea and crowberries.
701
01:04:21,650 --> 01:04:23,944
For the first time in like
almost three months
702
01:04:24,612 --> 01:04:28,199
I can see the moon,
and it's a full moon
703
01:04:28,282 --> 01:04:31,494
and there's always something to
me anyways special
about a full moon.
704
01:04:31,577 --> 01:04:33,913
But it's starting to get dark.
705
01:04:35,956 --> 01:04:40,628
And the night is dark and
full of terror, as they say.
706
01:05:24,922 --> 01:05:28,968
You paddle for over 11 hours and
almost all of it
against the wind
707
01:05:29,051 --> 01:05:32,054
and you really just want to
make dinner and crawl
inside your tent,
708
01:05:32,847 --> 01:05:35,975
but you can't because
there's water down your stove.
709
01:05:39,270 --> 01:05:42,982
First animal that pops into
mind almost immediately
is polar bear.
710
01:05:49,780 --> 01:05:52,783
I don't know what it's all from,
it's just the wear and tear
711
01:05:52,867 --> 01:05:56,871
and the abuse that your body
goes through on an expedition
like this.
712
01:05:57,496 --> 01:06:03,210
Thunder clouds rolling in across
the tundra. And that's always
a little ominous.
713
01:06:10,009 --> 01:06:14,138
Look at this nice beach
all to myself. How lovely?
714
01:06:28,527 --> 01:06:32,072
This is where a grizzly bear has
dug up the burrows
715
01:06:32,156 --> 01:06:36,285
of some Arctic ground squirrels
because the grizzlies love to
eat the ground squirrels.
716
01:06:36,368 --> 01:06:38,454
So that's what this is here.
717
01:06:38,537 --> 01:06:41,790
Red sky at night,
sailor's delight.
718
01:06:42,374 --> 01:06:45,211
Red sky in morning,
sailors take warning.
719
01:06:45,294 --> 01:06:48,380
I'm gonna go now and paddle
as hard as I can
720
01:06:48,464 --> 01:06:51,509
for as long as I can for as
long as the lake stays calm.
721
01:08:11,505 --> 01:08:14,508
But it's another rainy morning
and I have to get up
722
01:08:14,592 --> 01:08:18,137
and hike all the way back to the
start of the canyon,
723
01:08:18,220 --> 01:08:20,139
grab my canoe
which I left there,
724
01:08:20,222 --> 01:08:23,809
portage it across the canyon or
at least up to this point,
725
01:08:23,892 --> 01:08:25,452
which is kind of like the
halfway point,
726
01:08:26,103 --> 01:08:29,690
and continue the portage
in four loads,
727
01:08:30,566 --> 01:08:33,027
taking all of my stuff all the
way across the canyon.
728
01:08:34,278 --> 01:08:35,362
I have to do it.
729
01:08:40,743 --> 01:08:43,912
Well,
good thing I got waders on
'cause that's pretty deep.
730
01:08:51,462 --> 01:08:53,088
Hasn't been break for a while,
731
01:08:53,172 --> 01:08:57,635
it's just this dismal Grey skies
hanging over the land.
732
01:08:58,927 --> 01:09:01,221
So it's made it hard
to really dry stuff out.
733
01:09:01,305 --> 01:09:04,350
I got some wet clothes that
I can't dry for lack of sun
734
01:09:04,433 --> 01:09:07,978
and I'm running kind of low on
my battery life too
735
01:09:08,062 --> 01:09:12,650
because I
haven't been able to recharge
anything with my solar panel
736
01:09:12,733 --> 01:09:15,569
because there hasn't
been enough sun.
737
01:09:17,446 --> 01:09:20,532
But I'm gonna get cozy as I
can inside the tent
738
01:09:20,616 --> 01:09:23,744
because the
nights are getting cold now that
it's later in the season.
739
01:09:23,827 --> 01:09:25,120
And...
740
01:09:27,748 --> 01:09:29,583
The nights
are also getting darker.
741
01:09:30,918 --> 01:09:34,004
It's getting dark early
and it's staying dark longer
742
01:09:34,088 --> 01:09:36,173
now that we're getting late in
the season.
743
01:09:37,716 --> 01:09:41,220
And I'm not really sure
at this point how much longer
it's gonna take me
744
01:09:41,303 --> 01:09:42,513
to get to Baker Lake.
745
01:09:43,138 --> 01:09:45,766
But that's when I am
pushing myself 12 hours a day
746
01:09:46,475 --> 01:09:49,812
to get to Baker Lake,
the little Inuit community.
747
01:09:49,895 --> 01:09:54,274
Right now my biggest
concern is the wind.
748
01:09:54,358 --> 01:09:56,151
Wind has been fierce all day,
749
01:09:56,276 --> 01:10:00,364
just really powerful wind gusts
that make canoeing downriver
750
01:10:00,447 --> 01:10:02,366
seem like
I'm still going upriver.
751
01:10:02,449 --> 01:10:05,160
At times the current has been...
Or the wind has been so strong
752
01:10:05,285 --> 01:10:10,457
that it actually has pushed me
back upriver despite
the strong current.
753
01:10:10,541 --> 01:10:15,504
Basically, I've tried to shift
everything out of the back end
of the canoe,
754
01:10:15,587 --> 01:10:17,256
the stern up to the front.
755
01:10:17,339 --> 01:10:21,135
So I've loaded up the front as
much as I can, the bow
of the canoe,
756
01:10:21,218 --> 01:10:25,139
with anything I've got,
you know, GoPros, water bottles,
my backpack,
757
01:10:25,222 --> 01:10:28,851
and I've shifted the barrels up
to the front as well
758
01:10:28,934 --> 01:10:31,854
to concentrate the weight up
759
01:10:31,937 --> 01:10:35,941
at the bow
of the canoe that's going
downriver into that headwind,
760
01:10:36,024 --> 01:10:37,192
that really strong wind.
761
01:10:37,317 --> 01:10:42,614
Doing it this way is allowing me
to make progress even against
that strong wind.
762
01:10:42,698 --> 01:10:46,201
Otherwise, the canoe lightly
loaded in the bow,
763
01:10:46,326 --> 01:10:49,913
wind is just spinning my canoe
and I'm, literally,
764
01:10:49,997 --> 01:10:53,500
just spinning 360 degrees
and not get anywhere.
765
01:10:53,584 --> 01:10:58,213
So shifting the weight up to the
front is making the canoe go
766
01:10:58,338 --> 01:11:00,257
downriver even into the wind.
767
01:11:08,015 --> 01:11:10,975
I pulled ashore here because I
could see that there was some
serious trouble
768
01:11:11,018 --> 01:11:12,311
waiting for me up ahead.
769
01:11:12,394 --> 01:11:14,104
We've got a rapid there.
770
01:11:14,188 --> 01:11:15,689
That's not the real problem.
771
01:11:15,773 --> 01:11:17,691
It's what's beyond the rapid.
772
01:11:18,317 --> 01:11:20,819
That's a vertical drop
and I can see the mist rising,
773
01:11:20,903 --> 01:11:24,364
there's a big waterfall there
and another canyon.
774
01:11:29,787 --> 01:11:31,580
That goes in the
right canyon there.
775
01:11:43,592 --> 01:11:46,428
I know that I'm not, obviously,
not the first person
to canoe this river
776
01:11:46,512 --> 01:11:48,889
because I'm following
some historic reports.
777
01:11:50,432 --> 01:11:54,478
But, obviously, someone at some
point came before me
778
01:11:54,561 --> 01:11:58,273
and wasn't fully prepared for
just how gruelling and long
779
01:11:58,398 --> 01:12:03,695
the portages around these huge
canyons actually are because
look at this,
780
01:12:04,863 --> 01:12:07,866
someone has abandoned all this
stuff right here.
781
01:12:09,284 --> 01:12:13,205
There's a barrel,
a bag of garbage,
782
01:12:13,288 --> 01:12:16,291
three backpacks,
some other bags,
783
01:12:16,416 --> 01:12:19,962
some empty Coleman camp fuel.
784
01:12:20,671 --> 01:12:23,465
And these bags have been here
for quite a while.
785
01:12:23,549 --> 01:12:28,262
You can see the water is
accumulated on top and they're
drenched and they're pretty old,
786
01:12:28,345 --> 01:12:31,765
ripped up and sand's
accumulated around them.
787
01:12:32,432 --> 01:12:34,309
You know I
believe, fundamentally,
788
01:12:34,393 --> 01:12:36,520
that coming to this wilderness
is a privilege.
789
01:12:36,603 --> 01:12:40,482
And no matter how difficult and
back-breaking it may be,
790
01:12:40,566 --> 01:12:44,278
you have a responsibility to
pack in anything you...
791
01:12:44,361 --> 01:12:46,738
Or pack out anything you bring
in with you, right.
792
01:12:46,822 --> 01:12:50,826
You can't just throw
stuff away. The litter out here
is real travesty.
793
01:12:50,909 --> 01:12:54,288
It's a very famous grove on the
Thelon River
794
01:12:54,371 --> 01:12:56,832
and it's in that spruce forest
795
01:12:57,499 --> 01:13:00,294
that in 1927 John Hornby
and his two companions
796
01:13:00,377 --> 01:13:02,462
starved to death in their cabin.
797
01:13:02,546 --> 01:13:06,008
They were depending on the
caribou migration,
they never found it.
798
01:13:08,093 --> 01:13:10,345
The geese have started
to fly south.
799
01:13:11,930 --> 01:13:13,181
Winter is coming.
800
01:13:24,401 --> 01:13:25,944
That's a wolf, you hear him?
801
01:13:26,653 --> 01:13:30,991
Her. She's calling her baby cub.
802
01:13:31,074 --> 01:13:35,329
Check on the little ones because
they saw this suspicious
creature going downriver.
803
01:13:38,290 --> 01:13:40,500
Wow, that's amazing.
804
01:13:42,210 --> 01:13:43,210
Did you hear that?
805
01:13:46,381 --> 01:13:48,800
So it's a whole
family of wolves there.
806
01:13:48,884 --> 01:13:54,848
The mom with four little pups
and the two adults there.
807
01:13:57,225 --> 01:13:58,435
It's just incredible.
808
01:13:59,102 --> 01:14:03,231
So I'm coming up to four months
since I actually last
saw my fiancée
809
01:14:03,315 --> 01:14:05,192
and since I was last home.
810
01:14:06,193 --> 01:14:08,654
And I don't know how long,
you know, take me
811
01:14:08,737 --> 01:14:11,657
to complete the end of this
journey and get to Baker Lake
812
01:14:12,240 --> 01:14:16,119
because the weather is
beyond my control and wind is
such a critical factor.
813
01:14:16,203 --> 01:14:20,958
Today with the wind in my
favour, I traveled probably a
hundred kilometers.
814
01:14:21,041 --> 01:14:25,253
But if it goes
against me, I'm lucky if I can
get 10 done in a day.
815
01:14:26,463 --> 01:14:31,009
The moose is
really enjoying the beach.
816
01:14:32,511 --> 01:14:35,764
Came up here on his
summer vacation from the forest
down south.
817
01:14:35,847 --> 01:14:38,809
Heard that they had some nice
beaches up here on the river.
818
01:15:33,989 --> 01:15:36,074
And my matches
just fell in the water.
819
01:15:45,250 --> 01:15:47,169
Looks like bad news.
820
01:15:48,837 --> 01:15:52,507
If I'm very lucky,
the wind might blow them
right past me.
821
01:15:52,632 --> 01:15:56,219
But my canoe is still
down there and I gotta go get it
and bring it up here.
822
01:15:57,888 --> 01:15:59,014
I've made camp here.
823
01:16:20,035 --> 01:16:22,537
And this canoe has just been an
absolute warrior.
824
01:16:22,662 --> 01:16:24,581
I'm amazed that how tough it is.
825
01:16:25,415 --> 01:16:27,751
You can see it's suffered
quite a lot of damage
826
01:16:28,585 --> 01:16:31,046
from the ice and the
rocks and everything else,
827
01:16:31,129 --> 01:16:35,675
but there's no leaks in it
whatsoever and it's holding
on its own.
828
01:16:35,759 --> 01:16:41,056
So, very sturdy canoe
and I am very lucky
829
01:16:41,139 --> 01:16:43,683
and fortunate
to have it with me.
830
01:16:57,906 --> 01:17:01,409
Kind of puts one in a meditative
and reflective mood, I suppose,
831
01:17:01,493 --> 01:17:06,665
when you're out here alone in
the wilderness and you're just
wandering across the land
832
01:17:06,748 --> 01:17:11,253
and you come across a human
skull just lying there
in the open.
833
01:17:12,087 --> 01:17:16,550
Out of respect,
I'm not gonna film it and show
the bones on camera,
834
01:17:16,633 --> 01:17:18,009
so I didn't film it.
835
01:17:18,093 --> 01:17:21,847
And I guess if I were
superstitious and afraid
of ghosts,
836
01:17:21,930 --> 01:17:25,183
I might be a little apprehensive
but, fortunately, I'm not,
837
01:17:25,267 --> 01:17:29,312
and I find it more interesting
than anything.
838
01:17:31,356 --> 01:17:33,984
So it's early morning
and I've just got my canoe
loaded behind me.
839
01:17:34,067 --> 01:17:36,611
The wind is still pretty strong
but I'm gonna paddle hard
840
01:17:36,695 --> 01:17:39,197
and I'm in the final phase of
the journey at this point.
841
01:17:39,281 --> 01:17:42,325
The end is almost in sight,
so I gotta get going here.
842
01:18:07,601 --> 01:18:09,978
Since day one of the expedition,
843
01:18:10,061 --> 01:18:15,275
stashed away in my barrel I've
been saving this tea...
844
01:18:15,817 --> 01:18:17,527
Tea teabags, cinnamon apple.
845
01:18:18,069 --> 01:18:23,283
And I had it
before I left on the expedition
when I was back home
846
01:18:23,366 --> 01:18:26,494
and I thought
it was really delicious
and I had a second one of these.
847
01:18:26,578 --> 01:18:30,665
So I decided to take it with me
on the expedition
and I only had this one.
848
01:18:30,790 --> 01:18:33,293
All my other herbal
tea was mauled apple.
849
01:18:33,376 --> 01:18:36,838
But this cinnamon apple one is
like of a much better quality.
850
01:18:36,922 --> 01:18:39,507
And I've
saved it this whole expedition.
851
01:18:40,800 --> 01:18:42,302
Let's get that off of there.
852
01:18:43,970 --> 01:18:47,641
So down
behind me there that's my
last campsite of the expedition,
853
01:18:47,724 --> 01:18:48,850
fingers crossed.
854
01:18:48,934 --> 01:18:51,561
If everything goes according to
plan, the weather holds out,
855
01:18:51,645 --> 01:18:56,191
I should be good to paddle the
rest of the way to Baker Lake,
856
01:18:56,274 --> 01:19:02,280
the little community,
and that will end my journey
alone across the Arctic.
857
01:19:03,031 --> 01:19:05,867
So, yeah,
858
01:19:06,743 --> 01:19:08,954
it's been over a
hundred days now solo.
859
01:19:09,037 --> 01:19:11,998
It's September 5th and
first thing tomorrow,
860
01:19:12,082 --> 01:19:14,709
September 6th,
I'm gonna paddle into town.
861
01:19:15,418 --> 01:19:18,380
It's not quite over yet,
anything could still happen.
862
01:19:18,922 --> 01:19:20,966
The dawn could bring
some crazy weather,
863
01:19:21,591 --> 01:19:23,593
a bear could come
and maul me in the night,
864
01:19:23,677 --> 01:19:27,722
muskoxen can plow
inside my tent,
go get struck by lightning.
865
01:19:27,847 --> 01:19:30,517
So, you know, I don't want to
celebrate just yet.
866
01:19:31,351 --> 01:19:33,228
But tomorrow
when I reach Baker Lake,
867
01:19:33,853 --> 01:19:37,190
then the journey will be over.
868
01:19:47,534 --> 01:19:49,744
This is the morning
of September 6,
869
01:19:49,828 --> 01:19:53,540
and I'm just packing up my canoe
for the final time.
870
01:19:53,623 --> 01:19:57,377
I'm about to
set off on the final leg of my
journey to reach Baker Lake.
871
01:19:57,460 --> 01:20:01,006
So this is day 102 since I left
the Arctic Circle
872
01:20:01,089 --> 01:20:02,966
and nearly
four months since I left home.
873
01:20:06,678 --> 01:20:08,263
You only live once,
874
01:20:08,346 --> 01:20:09,681
you're only young once
875
01:20:09,764 --> 01:20:11,766
and I've always been very
conscious of that fact
876
01:20:11,891 --> 01:20:14,185
when it comes to
planning my expeditions.
877
01:20:14,269 --> 01:20:16,313
I really want
to push myself hard now
878
01:20:16,396 --> 01:20:20,066
because I feel like I'm in my
prime and I have to do
these expeditions
879
01:20:20,150 --> 01:20:23,194
and I want to continue doing
them for as long
as I am able to.
880
01:20:31,494 --> 01:20:34,247
One day if I am able to look
back when I am old
881
01:20:34,331 --> 01:20:37,083
on all the adventures and
journeys that I've done,
882
01:20:37,167 --> 01:20:41,463
hopefully,
I'll have some satisfaction that
I saw the wilderness
883
01:20:41,546 --> 01:20:43,381
while it still exists.
884
01:20:50,180 --> 01:20:53,600
There's a tinge of regret and
sadness that it's coming
to an end
885
01:20:53,683 --> 01:20:56,978
because I really loved
the expedition and I really
loved the journey,
886
01:20:57,771 --> 01:21:00,523
and there's a part of me that
wishes I could keep going.
887
01:22:49,799 --> 01:22:51,843
Yeah, that's as
good as I was expecting.
888
01:23:03,229 --> 01:23:06,941
Well, you're supposed
to drop off a canoe.
889
01:23:07,025 --> 01:23:09,027
Apparently,
they emailed you about it.
890
01:23:09,110 --> 01:23:10,403
And her name is Sheryl.
891
01:23:10,487 --> 01:23:11,738
Does that sound about right?
892
01:23:11,821 --> 01:23:13,281
- Yeah.
- Yeah.
893
01:23:13,907 --> 01:23:16,010
So it's time to say goodbye to
my friend, my companion
894
01:23:16,034 --> 01:23:18,411
in the last three
and a half months.
895
01:23:19,829 --> 01:23:21,748
We're supposed to be reunited
in Winnipeg.
896
01:23:21,831 --> 01:23:23,958
And it feels kind of
sad to leave it here,
897
01:23:24,542 --> 01:23:27,921
but it's amazing canoe and it
withstood this journey
the whole way.
898
01:23:28,004 --> 01:23:29,506
So, it's pretty awesome.
899
01:23:55,156 --> 01:23:56,699
How many barrels did you bring?
900
01:23:58,326 --> 01:24:02,413
Well, there is, what, five.
901
01:24:02,497 --> 01:24:05,726
There's actually five here
'cause the yellow one is inside
this one. I think it's...
902
01:24:05,750 --> 01:24:06,751
Welcome home.
903
01:24:10,672 --> 01:24:12,840
Yeah, I'm not... I'm not
wearing the big one.
904
01:24:12,924 --> 01:24:16,427
I'll wear this one. I think that
one should come off though,
it might fall.
905
01:24:16,511 --> 01:24:17,679
I'll hang on to this.
906
01:24:17,762 --> 01:24:18,762
I can handle this.
907
01:24:44,247 --> 01:24:47,292
Well, Adam Shoalts is a writer,
explorer, and public speaker
908
01:24:47,375 --> 01:24:49,961
who has hiked to all corners
of this country.
909
01:24:50,044 --> 01:24:53,464
His new book is entitled
History of Canada in Ten Maps.
910
01:24:53,548 --> 01:24:57,468
It tells the story of
Canada from the Vikings to the
early 19th century,
911
01:24:57,552 --> 01:24:59,137
and Adam joins me now.
912
01:24:59,220 --> 01:25:01,139
And I guess first
off Adam, welcome back.
913
01:25:01,222 --> 01:25:02,599
You just recently returned.
914
01:25:02,682 --> 01:25:05,059
Oh, yeah, I was in the Arctic
for the last four months
915
01:25:05,184 --> 01:25:08,813
doing a journey across as my own
Canada 150 project.
916
01:25:08,896 --> 01:25:11,441
But it's great to be back
and here in the studio.
917
01:25:11,524 --> 01:25:16,529
♪♪
80534
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