All Posts

It’s 1am, early Tuesday morning, when we glide onto the isthmus of Booth Point, a narrow spit at the southeast tip of King William Island, with a tiny islet at its end. Bones from the Franklin crew were found there. Todd Island is visible from here too. There were bones found there as well. Was this a jumping-off point for crew members heading to the mainland? Why were bodies found here specifically? We can only surmise. We pitch camp on the strip of sand. Locals tell us it’s

“To travel in the arctic is to wait”. A concept shared by Barry Lopez in his modern masterpiece of Arctic observation called Arctic Dreams. Historical expeditions through the waters of the Arctic were always defined by long episodes of interminable waiting: waiting for weather to warm, waiting for ice to move, waiting for conditions to improve. Our journey is no different. Nicky, Julie, Ken, and I arrived in Gjoa Haven just as a window of nice weather closed. Cold, rain, and

There's a moment in every expedition when it all becomes real. For us, that moment came in early July, when our kayaks left Vancouver and began their long journey north to Gjoa Haven. Getting anything way up north is an expedition in itself. The boats travelled by road (thanks Warren!) and by Buffalo Airways across thousands of kilometres to reach Gjoa Haven, the small hamlet on King William Island that will serve as our staging point. This week we got the news we'd been wait