July 14-17 - Adventure Mountain
In 1850 the British ship, the Investigator, become lodged in ice for the winter in the Prince of Wales Strait. The captain and some crew from the ship hiked across the ice to Victoria Island, and climbed to the nearest peak looking for the Northwest passage.
In their diaries they report a spectacular view of the strait in very clear weather, and they concluded it almost surely reveals the Northwest Passage, but they decided they needed to verify the findings by sledge once the ice was thicker. They named the hill they climbed “Adventure Mountain”.
When I reached the peak of Adventure Mountain, on a similarly clear day, it was easy to understand their diaries. The Prince of Wales strait stretched far to the north, with the coast of Banks Island easily visible on one side, and Victoria on the other. But because the strait curves slightly, it just isn’t possible to see an open connection to Viscount Melville sound, and hence the Northwest passage
My six day journey, from my barrel drop to Adventure Mountain, was mostly an undulating path climbing large gradual hills, often topped with rocky boulder fields, followed by descents into lush valleys.
At one point a lone wolf ran up to me, and then followed me from afar, seemingly assessing the first human he had run across. Eventually I became concerned that I couldn’t have a wolf near me when I camped at night, so I gave a warning shot with my shotgun into the air.
The wolf jumped, spun around, and then looked into the sky to see whether there was something up above threatening him. He then continued following me for another 15 minutes, before deciding to finally head off in a different direction.
