Intro: Baffin and Bylot Islands

Storyline: Hiking in Nunavut August 1-12, 1998

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This is an edited version of my journal of an adventure vacation I had in Canada’s Eastern Arctic just over twenty years ago.
So the next several posts in this storyline are from my pretty long account of that trip. I’ve left it almost intact from my original journal as I think it may be of interest to some of our readers.

But first, a little background.

It was just a few months after I had ended the 24-year relationship with my first wife. I was processing the changes in my life and had no idea where I was going, neither professionally nor personally. Looking back, I’d say I was a bit of a mess. When my sister and her family invited me to join them on their second (or was it third?) trip to Baffin Island in Canada’s Eastern Arctic I was intrigued, interested and more than a little fearful. I’d lived a pretty sedentary life for several years and knew that if I were to survive a trip such as this, I’d have to get into shape. I had about six months to prepare, and since I’m writing this in late 2018 I can safely claim that I did enough…just.

Here’s a little Canadian geography as it relates to where I went: at 9.99 million km² Canada is the second-largest country by area in the world. There are ten provinces and three territories (two, at the time of the trip: the territory of Nunavut was created from the Eastern Arctic portion of the North West Territories (NWT) in 1999). In this post I use Nunavut to refer to the territory I visited, although it was then still part of the NWT. Nunavut comprises just over 2 million km² and a population today of about 38,000. It’s definitely a place where one can get away from the crowds. Some of Nunavut occupies part of Canada’s mainland and most of the Country’s Arctic Archipelago is within the Territory. This includes Baffin Island which comprises about 25% of the Territory’s area. Its capital is Iqaluit (pop. ~7,000) which is located on the shore of Frobisher Bay near the southeast tip of the island. I was heading close to the north end of the island to the area near the hamlet of Pond Inlet (pop. ~1,600) for a week, and to its neighbor to the north, Bylot Island (~11,000 km², population zero) for the remaining time.

To get to Pond Inlet I would travel a total of almost 4,000 km: a 450 km drive to Ottawa from my home in Toronto; 2,100 km by air from there to Iqaluit; and 1,250 km from Iqaluit to Pond Inlet with a couple of intermediate stops, again by air. Bylot Island is 25km north of Pond Inlet across the open waters of Eclipse Sound. This is all within the eastern part of Canada. It’s a big country.

The plan was for me to travel north with my nephews Michael & Tim. We’d hike around the area for a week before my sister, brother-in-law and niece would then arrive, and we’d go together by boat to Bylot Island for the second week. For much of the trip we would be alone and cut off from help: there was no cell phone service up there and we couldn’t afford the price or weight of the satellite phones that existed back then. So along with our clothing we also carried our tents, cookware, cooking fuel and food for the two weeks. I’m glad that I was going with these more experienced adventurers.

I hope you enjoy the rest of the story….