Beyond the Trees: A Journey Alone Across Canada's ArcticNational bestseller A thrilling odyssey through an unforgiving landscape, from "Canada's greatest living explorer." In the spring of 2017, Adam Shoalts, bestselling author and adventurer, set off on an unprecedented solo journey across North America's greatest wilderness. A place where, in our increasingly interconnected, digital world, it's still possible to wander for months without crossing a single road, or even see another human being. Between his starting point in Eagle Plains, Yukon Territory, to his destination in Baker Lake, Nunavut, lies a maze of obstacles: shifting ice floes, swollen rivers, fog-bound lakes, and gale-force storms. And Shoalts must time his departure by the breakup of the spring ice, then sprint across nearly 4,000 kilometers of rugged, wild terrain to arrive before winter closes in. He travels alone up raging rivers that only the most expert white-water canoeists dare travel even downstream. He must portage across fields of jagged rocks that stretch to the horizon, and navigate labyrinths of swamps, tormented by clouds of mosquitoes every step of the way. And the race against the calendar means that he cannot afford the luxuries of rest, or of making mistakes. Shoalts must trek tirelessly, well into the endless Arctic summer nights, at times not even pausing to eat. But his reward is the adventure of a lifetime. Heart-stopping, wonder-filled, and attentive to the majesty of the natural world, Beyond the Trees captures the ache for adventure that afflicts us all. |
Contents
LAND OF THE MIDNIGHT | |
THROUGH THE MOUNTAINS | |
UP THE MACKENZIE | |
EASTWARD BOUND | |
INTO THE SWAMP | |
ACROSS AN INLAND | |
CROSSING THE DIVIDE | |
THROUGH THE DISMAL LAKES | |
THE SERPENTS COIL | |
GIFTS FROM ABOVE | |
LAKES BEYOND COUNT | |
ON ROCKY SHORES | |
OF WIND AND WAVES | |
IN THE LAND OF THE MUSKOX | |
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Common terms and phrases
ahead Arctic Arctic Circle arctic terns backpack Baker Lake banks barrel beach Bear Lake bear spray Bear’s black spruce blackflies boulders bugs cabin calm camp Canada canoe canoe’s canoeists canyon caribou Chuck cliffs climb cold Coppermine Coppermine River couldn’t creek crossing Dempster didn’t Dismal Lakes distance downriver drifted dwarf birch Eagle Plains edge farther felt floes gear going grizzly gusts hard Hare Indian hauling head hiking hills hoped hundred kilometres hundred metres inside my tent island it’d journey lake’s land loads looked Mackenzie Mackenzie River maps melt morning motorboat mountains muskox navigate nearly night open water pack paddling passed poling portage pushed rapids reached resupply Richardson Mountains ridge river roaring rocks rocky rope route seemed shore shoreline side sleep slope snow spot stretch there’s things thought took tundra upriver waders wading wasn’t waves weather who’d wild willows windswept