Trekkers reach Baker Lake on west-east journey across Canada

Human-powered expedition reaching its final month as it heads to Qikiqtarjuaq

The Anorak, a 45-feet-long steel-hulled sailboat, is en route to cross the Hudson Bay and Hudson Strait to Pangnirtung on Baffin Island as part of the Expedition AKOR. (Photo by Laurent Poliquin)

By Nehaa Bimal

The 45-foot-long sailboat docked in Baker Lake was a rare sight for residents of the mainland community.

Photographs of the boat, called the Anorak, circulated on the community’s Facebook page and many residents watched it enter the harbour Aug. 9.

The Anorak had arrived in the Kivalliq community to pick up a pair of adventurers who are part of a larger group on a six-month expedition across the Canadian Arctic from the Alaskan border to Qikiqtarjuaq, on Baffin Island.

A total of 10 people are on the trip, which started April 21 and is scheduled to end in October. They traversed Canada from north to south in 2021.

Crew members, from left: Mathieu Béland, Nicolas Roulx, Laurence Garçeau, Dominic Roulx, Catherine Chagnon, and Guillaume Moreau. (Photo courtesy of Nicolas Roulx)

This year, the rotating crew, who call themselves AKOR, is attempting a land and water passage from Canada’s west to east solely by bicycle, canoe, sailboat and foot.

The Anorak left Baker Lake on Monday afternoon carrying Nicolas Roulx and Catherine Chagnon. They are now en route to Pangnirtung to start a roughly 1,400-kilometre hike through Auyuittuq National Park to the eastern coast of Baffin Island.

This map illustrates the second parallel expedition involving the sailboat travelling from Quebec City to Baker Lake and onward to Baffin Island. (Photo courtesy of Nicolas Roulx)

Nearly all AKOR crew members joined, either by land or sea, for at least part of every leg of the trip which will be about 6,500 kilometres in total.

Roulx and Chagnon are the only members completing the expedition in its entirety. The final hike, through Auyuttuq, is planned to be a 10-day trek that will take them through the 97-kilometre Akshayuk Pass.

“The goal was to start from the western part of Canada in the northern territories, which is why we cycled across Yukon from the Alaska border,” said Roulx, who is on his third expedition with AKOR.

“Then we plan to reach the easternmost community, which is Qikiqtarjuaq in Nunavut.

“If we reach there, the trip will be a success,” he said.

Speaking with Nunatsiaq News after his arrival in Baker Lake on Aug. 4, Roulx said he was “feeling awesome” after completing the hardest part of the journey: 41 days on the water, paddling by canoe on the Mackenzie River, Great Slave Lake, and the Thelon River.

After 41 days of paddling by canoe, the crew arrives in Baker Lake. (Photo courtesy of Nicolas Roulx)

At various times as many as four other canoeists joined Roulx and Chagnon on the water, dealing with icy shorelines and dangerous paddling conditions while navigating the rivers.

However, for Roulx the journey meant more than just testing one’s limits in the wilderness.

This year’s AKOR expedition will continue to contribute to scientific research conducted by crew member Guillaume Moreau, a professor in the Department of Wood and Forest Sciences at Université Laval in Quebec.

The crew will collect tree samples, which will help scientists better understand the effects of climate change on the growth of northern forest ecosystems.

“We also do these trips because it is a human experience, crossing lands that have been occupied by people for a millennium,” Roulx said of the archeological sites they passed while on the Thelon River.

This is the second time an AKOR expedition has passed through Baker Lake, which is the geographical centre of Canada.

“We were in Baker Lake at the same time three years ago when we crossed Canada from north to south. It is a symbolic place for us to be, as it is where the routes of both our expeditions intersect,” said Roulx, who spent two weeks in Baker Lake in 2021.

This time, the crew had time to reconnect with old friends in the community, like the local wildlife conservation officers. They also mingled with residents during Celebration of the Parks Day at the Inuujaarvik campground.

AKOR’s crew on water is taking Roulx and Chagnon by sailboat on a three-week journey through Hudson Bay and Hudson Strait to Pangnirtung. They anticipate quick stops in Coral Harbour or Salluit before being dropped off there.

“The wildlife, the dramatic beauty of the land we’re crossing and the presence of people who lived there over millennia, it is mindboggling,” said Roulx of the journey and the trek to Qikiqtarjuaq.

“We are eager to finish the trip with a hike through such landscape.”

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