On polar tides: paddling and surviving the coast of Northern Labrador

321 Pages·2016·4.687 MB·English

by  Foster, Nigel

O N P O L A R T I D E S

O N P O L A R T I D E S
PADDLING AND SURVIVING THE
COAST OF NORTHERN LABRADOR
Nigel Foster
FFAALLCCOONNGGUUIIDDEESS®®
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Copyright © 2016 by Nigel Foster
Maps: Melissa Baker © Rowman & Littlefield
All photos courtesy of Nigel Foster
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from the publisher, except by a reviewer who may quote passages in a review.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Information available
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Foster, Nigel, 1952- author.
Title: On polar tides : paddling and surviving the coast of Northern
Labrador/ Nigel Foster.
Description: Guilford, Conn. : Falcon Guides, 2016. | Description based on print version record
and CIP data provided by publisher; resource not viewed.
Identifiers: LCCN 2016026738 (print) | LCCN 2016013965 (ebook) | ISBN
9781493025695 (ebook) | ISBN 9781493025688 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN
9781493025695 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Foster, Nigel, 1952– Travel—Newfoundland and Labrador. | Sea kayaking—
Newfoundland and Labrador. | Newfoundland and Labrador—Description and travel. |
Coasts—Newfoundland and Labrador. | Kayakers—Biography.
Classification: LCC GV776.15.N48 (print) | LCC GV776.15.N48 F67 2016 (ebook)
| DDC 797.122/409718—dc23
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National
Standard for Information Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI/
NISO Z39.48-1992.
Through the generations:
To my parents, Elizabeth and Peter Foster,
and my daughter Kate, and Alex Farmer

Contents
Acknowledgments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . viii
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .ix
Chapter 1: Going East . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Chapter 2: Kuujjuaq . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Chapter 3: Ungava Bay. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
Chapter 4: Polar Bears . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Chapter 5: Hubbard Expedition, 1903. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
Chapter 6: Moravian Missionaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Chapter 7: Inuit Camp. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Chapter 8: East and North along Ungava Bay . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Chapter 9: Killiniq and Polar Air Routes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Chapter 10: Crossing Hudson Strait. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Chapter 11: McLelan Strait . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .127
Chapter 12: Labrador Fog and German Weather Stations. . . . . 137
Chapter 13: Wind . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .149
Chapter 14: Ramah. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
Chapter 15: Leaving the Torngats . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .177
Chapter 16: Saglek . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .187
Chapter 17: Hebron . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .199
Chapter 18: Kaumajet Mountains—The Shining Mountains . . .217
Chapter 19: Okak . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .225
Chapter 20: Cabins. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 233
Chapter 21: Kiglapait Mountains and Village Bay. . . . . . . . . 239
Chapter 22: Port Manvers Run. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 247
Chapter 23: Nain. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 257
Chapter 24: Northern Ranger. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 269
Chapter 25: The Road of Progress . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .275
Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .283
Index . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .287
Acknowledgments
I would like to thank those who offered inspiration, support,
and hospitality while I planned and completed the kayaking trips, then
researched and wrote this book. I will mention here or in the following
chapters a few of the many who helped, but thank you all.
Heartfelt thanks to my parents, Peter and Elizabeth, for instilling in
me a sense of adventure tempered by a process of risk assessment.
Thank you, Sharon, for all your help: in preparing for the trip from
Iqaluit to Labrador and for picking up the pieces afterward, and to Ross
and Marcie Traverse in Newfoundland.
Thanks also to the British Canoe Union for travel and freight
expenses, Graham and Bob Goldsmith for the Vyneck kayak, Alistair
Wilson of Lendal for paddles, Tony of Alpine Sports Brighton for rain
gear. Thank you, Peter Beril and Naudla (and Jim and Brent), for taking
care of me in Iqaluit, and to the officers of the tanker Eastern Shell for
picking up and caring for a hitchhiker.
Relating to the Ungava and Labrador journey: my special thanks to
Kristin Nelson: the dynamo behind the trip and the perfect person to
travel with. Thanks to Kristin’s parents Richard and Alice for renting us
an emergency satellite phone, to Jen Kleck for the loan of laser flares, to
Mountain Surf for spray skirts and waterproofs, to Seaward Kayaks and
to Norway Nordic.
“Nakoumek” (thanks) to Ida for your help and support; Larry Watt
and Sarah Airo in Kuujjuaq for the loan of firearms; David and Suzie
from George River, who with family and friends welcomed us into the
shelter of their tent beside a tidal rapid; Eli and his staff at Inukshuk
Lodge; Louis Le May and his team at Saglek; the reconstruction group
at Hebron; Jim and Helena from Nain; and Tom Goodwin at Atsanik
Lodge.
For the writing this book, thanks to the late Wayne Moye for your
endless encouragement and to Joel Rogers and Ed Reading for advice and
editing. Finally, again to Kristin Nelson, thanks for your patience, untir-
ing help, and support throughout.
Introduction
Times change and so do means of travel. My grandparents knew
only horses and steam engines before cars ever came to navigate the
streets. In 1952, my birth year, they saw the first jetliner—the De Havil-
land Comet—come into use in and in 1969 applauded when the first man
reached the moon.
In this book I introduce two journeys made using a most humble means
of transport and an ancient one: the kayak. Each journey was an attempt to
explore the northernmost and then uninhabited coast of Labrador.
My first, a solo attempt, was in 1981. In technological perspective
that was before dry suits for kayakers, before digital cameras, three years
before the first portable phone was sold for almost four thousand dollars,
and eight years before the first consumer GPS was released. It was the
same year the first commercially successful portable microcomputer was
released. It weighed 23.5 pounds, boasted sixty-four kilobytes of memory
and a five-inch monochrome screen. It would be another ten years before
the first web browser appeared and with it the ability to search for infor-
mation online, although not yet supporting embedded graphics. Research
for my 1981 trip meant scouring the pages of relevant books I could find
at the local public library and mailing letters.
My second, successful, attempt, with Kristin Nelson, was in 2004.
That was still before Google Earth arrived to offer a preview of the coast
from the air, and before smartphones and waterproof digital cameras. But
by then we could research information online and send e-mails using a
laptop, both of which were a huge help. A laptop would be unnecessary
and inappropriate on our trip, but technology had advanced so far we
could rent and carry a portable satellite phone, a means of communication
I might have found use for in 1981 had they been around.
For all the technological advances, the land and the journey remain
timeless and much the same. Stone tools attest to a past before Inuit, and
with each coming year I hear of new changes and developments toward a
different future for Labrador. Our journey in 2004 marked a moment in
time along an already long path of change and new possibility.