Alone Against the North by Adam Shoalts Read Free Book Online Page B

Nile. And then there was Sir Ernest Shackleton, widely considered a gifted leader and polar explorer par excellence, who never succeeded on any of his expeditions in reaching his objective. I took solace in these facts over my failure to explore the Again River two summers in a row. While I had not reached the Again,I had a consolation prize in that I had still explored a nameless river (a tributary of the Kattawagami, a map of which I created) and together with Wes blazed kilometres of new trails into unexplored territory. More importantly, my resolve to explore the Again remained undiminished.
    It would be necessary to wait until the Hudson Bay Lowlands’ long winter ended and the ice melted before another attempt could be made to canoe the Again River. I felt certain that the summer of 2010 would be when I’d finally explore it—in fact, restless as always, I was growing impatient to free myself of the mental hold the Again was exercising over me and move on to other challenges. While the desire to reach the Again remained, haunting me like some sort of spectre, I hurled myself into other undertakings. I ventured to Lake Superior to search for ancient pictographs on that majestic body of water’s rocky shores and to explore its many mysterious caves. I wandered off into remote parts of the Rockies, crossing paths with black bears and elk. On the wide open grasslands of the prairies, I slept under the stars and collected mule deer antlers. And in Manitoba, I paddled azure lakes while fishing for pickerel. In fact, I roamed all around Canada’s wilderness from the rocky inlets of the Atlantic to the temperate rainforests of the Pacific. My life devolved into a restless search for one adventure after another—a desire “to escape from the commonplace of existence,” as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle put it.
    When the summer arrived, I was impatient to attempt the Again once more. However, a wrench was thrown in my plans when Wes informed me that two weeks was all the time that he could afford for exploration. Financially, Wes found himself in difficult straits (I was no better off), and the practical man thathe was, he was attempting to save money in order to buy a house with his girlfriend. For Wes to take an unpaid leave from his construction job to go exploring wasn’t economical. Until that time, I had mainly financed our expeditions the same way most explorers had paid for their work since the Victorian era—through writing and public lectures. While these speaking engagements and articles allowed me to eke out a living as an explorer and had made me something of a local celebrity in our small town, it wasn’t going to buy any house.
    But things got even more complicated when in July, Wes gloomily informed me that a week was now all he could offer me.
    â€œBut a week isn’t enough time to explore the Again River,” I scoffed.
    â€œThat’s all I can afford to take off,” Wes explained.
    â€œYes, but just think, if we make this sacrifice now and succeed, it will pay off in the long run.”
    â€œWe need sponsors,” replied Wes, unimpressed.
    â€œWe’ll get sponsors by doing expeditions and making a name for ourselves.”
    â€œWe need them now, though.”
    â€œWe have only a few weeks, it’s not enough time to get any.”
    â€œThen find a way to explore it in a week.”
    Disheartening as this revelation was, I wasn’t going to abandon my quest to explore the Again that easily. As much as I disliked the thought and dreaded the increased financial cost to myself, I entertained the possibility of chartering a helicopter or floatplane to fly us as close to the river as possible, which might, under the best of circumstances, permit us to complete the expedition in eight or nine days.
    However, this approach wasn’t without considerable drawbacks: inevitably it would entail exploring less territory, which would diminish our