Write a book they said. It’ll be fun they said. Currently on 5th (!) rounds of edits of a book based on the #1000milesolo
Third draft is done; 105,000 words and 250 pages. I swear that writing this thing has been 10 times harder than the actual trip itself #1000milesolo
And some episodes on The Strenuous Life Podcast that were recorded deep in the bush back in 2019. I listened to a few of them the other day and they were still pretty interesting… #1000milesolo
Sometimes fnding a flat place to put your tent is a true test of your applied geometry skills… #nueltinlake #1000milesolo
Crossing large bays on huge lakes is always a sketchy proposition. Here’s the thought process I engaged in before doing a 5 km crossing in a Sea-1 canoe on gigantic Reindeer Lake on my #1000milesolo. Having bail-out points along the way is a big increase in the safety margin, but never forget that way more canoe trippers die on big lakes than ever drown in whitewater or get eaten by bears!
Genius idea suggested by a fire department coworker: print maps out on Tuffcoat waterproof paper instead of trying to waterproof regular paper. The second option led to an absolute disaster on the #1000milesolo a couple years ago, and I’m hoping that these waterproof maps prevent that from happening again!!! #sealriver2021
Two years ago today. Can’t wait to get back up there #1000milesolo
Stonehenge sized boulders in the rapids above Nahilini Lake on the Upper Thlewiaza. No portaging was required so all was well. Reaching Nueltin Lake the next day was the fulfillment of a 20 year long dream. That lake, lying half in the forest and half in the tundra, is a magical place. #thlewiaza #1000milesolo #northernmanitoba #nueltinlake
Going through pictures and videos from the #1000milesolo and came across this one. This was when I was ascending the Cochrane River in Northern Manitoba towards the Nunavut border and had been on my own for 21 days already. A wildfire was upwind of me, and I ended up paddling upstream continuously for the next 13 1/2 hours to get to a safe area that the forest fire wouldn’t reach. The landscape was apocalyptic that day with the sun barely able to poke through the dense, heavy smoke. At every point I had to have 2 or 3 backup plans in case my location was overrun by the flames...
Resoconto della preparazione per la qualifica: barca: quasi pronta - preparazione fisica: direi pronta 💪🏻🥩 #1000milesolo #minitransat #minitransat2021 @classemini @classeminiita
Throwback to descending the Upper Thlewiaza, somewhere between Kasmere and Nueltin Lakes. After days of battling brutal headwinds it was nice to get an assist from a gentle tailwind for an afternoon. #1000milesolo #thlewiaza #thlewiazariver
Fun times heading upstream on the Cochrane River heading for Nunavut. I remember this portage as if it was yesterday. Banks too steep to wade upriver with the boat, dense brush on the shore making it almost impossible to carry the boat, and bugs biting every inch of exposed flesh. Finally I just said screw it and dragged the loaded boat several hundred yards through the forest, doing my best to ignore the blackfly-induced wounds on my body and the rock and log-induced wounds on the hull of the boat. Took about two hours to progress 1 km... #1000milesolo #canoeing #expedition #cochraneriver
Throwback to making miles on Reindeer Lake one warm and sunny day. It’s such a gigantic lake that the curvature of the earth prevents you from seeing the far shore so a capsize could easily be deadly. However on this day the wind was both gentle and blowing towards shore so I cautiously used a Falcon 1.4 meter to add an extra kilometer per hour to the paddling. 12 hours later I had rounded several difficult points, progressed through 3 different 1:50,000 topo maps, and crossed from Saskatchewan into Manitoba. It was a great day. #1000milesolo. #falconsails
Good thing I’ve got some help reviewing the maps as I’m writing the #1000milesolo canoe trip book (working title Extreme Lonership)....
Thinking about clawing my way northward stroke by stroke and listening to the loons sing - so much better than doomscrolling on twitter! #1000milesolo #reindeerlake
1 year ago today while traversing mighty Reindeer Lake on the way to the arctic. It’s a dangerous body of water but so damn beautiful. I am truly sad that I will never live long enough to explore all of Canada’s lakes and rivers. #1000milesolo
Something else I forgot to mention about last weekends 🛶 adventure. @stephan_kesting missed you by just a couple days last summer according to the registry in Saskatchewan's oldest building during the early stages of your #1000milesolo #expedition. I wonder how often two black belts visit a place like this via canoe and nearly run smack into each other? . . . 📷@expedition_bjj . . . #expedition #ExpeditionBJJ #bjj #reginabjj #yqrsmallbusinesses #yqr #regina #2020 #saskatchewan #singlelegxguard #xguard #bjjregina #bjjlifestyle #jiujitsu #jiujitsulifestyle #summer #adventure #canoetrip #canoe #paddling
Looking back over the map fragments I used to navigate massive Reindeer Lake last summer on my way to the arctic. Although waterproofed on both sides every single one of my maps got totally soaked on day 1 of the 42 day trip. Peeling apart and drying out the sodden rolls of paper was like being the lucky archaeologists entrusted to unravel the Dead Sea Scrolls. Inevitably the weakened maps ripped apart and for much of the trip I was navigating from little piece of paper to little piece of paper. This made the already daunting task of navigating some of the most complex lakes in the world much more tricky :/ #1000milesolo
Throwback to a campsite on the Churchill River in Saskatchewan on my way to Nunavut last summer #1000milesolo #goodtimes
I’m working on editing a movie about the #1000milesolo last summer and found this clip from the last day of the trip. That was an interesting day because it involved continuous swifts and whitewater in a giant delta and looking out for polar bear as I approached Hudson Bay. #canoeing #nunavut #1000milesolo #endurance
This is what a portage heading upstream on the Reindeer River towards Nunavut on the #1000milesolo last summer looked like. Especially this early in the trip there were just so many trips required across each and every portage that they just took forever!
Throwback to navigating between the thousand of islands on Reindeer Lake last summer during the #1000milesolo. Those were some very long days of paddling and dodging thunderstorms one an absolutely gigantic lake; I distinctly remember feeling pain everywhere trying to fall asleep in my tent at night.
When I was in the Arctic this summer I didn’t find Santa but I did find some of his reindeer. Watching hundreds and hundreds of these animals come galloping across the tundra, ford the river, and then trot off into the tundra on the other side was one of the highlights of the #1000milesolo for sure. #caribou #tundra #arctic #nunavut #thlewiazariver
Throwback to descending the Thlewiaza River this summer on the #1000milesolo. This technique is known as “lining” and allows you to sneak your boat down rapids too heavy or too shallow to paddle. Any steeper than this and I would have had to portage, which is never easy given that there aren’t any trails through the willow bushes, boulders, and muskeg beside this very rarely travelled river. An added bonus of lining is that it allows you to not be in your pretty boat (a Sea-One by @westerncanoekayak) when it grinds over boulders and ledges - if you don’t hear the damage being done then it doesn’t count, right? #canoeing #nunavut #solotravel
Just released this in free audiobook form as Episode 242 of The Strenuous Life Podcast. Grab it wherever fine podcasts are downloaded. #roadmapforbjj #bjj #strenuouslifepodcast
Throwback to late July as I was playing dodge-the-thunderstorm on Nueltin Lake, the most complicated and island-packed lake I’ve ever been on. Overall I got lucky with the weather on this lake and managed to cover 150 km in 4 days, bringing me to the Lower Thlewiaza River, the Barren Lands, and caribou country. There’s so much history here; I would love to go back and explore this lake at a slightly more leisurely pace someday instead of going at full hell bent for leather mode. #nueltinlake #canoeing #nunavut #1000milesolo
Highlights from this summer's #1000milesolo canoe trip from Missinipe, Saskatchewan to Arviat, Nunavut. I traveled down the Churchill River, up the Reindeer River, traversed Reindeer Lake, went up the Cochrane River, across Nueltin Lake and then down the Thlewiaza River to Hudson Bay. I took 50 days of food and was lucky enough to get the trip done in 42 days. If you want to see the pics and read the trip blog you can do that here: https://www.grapplearts.com/solo. It was an amazing trip and a good way to celebrate dodging death 5 years ago when my kidneys shut down and my brother @christophkesting saved my life by giving me a kidney. To say that I 'enjoyed' it would only be partially correct because although there were enjoyable bits there were also many days of suffering. So the words 'rewarding' or 'satisfying' might be more accurate. Music by @EvaSchubert from her album 'Hot Damn Romance'.
Throwback to the easiest portage on the #1000milesolo this summer. It was only two or three days out from @churchillcanoe in Missinipe where some fishing lodge had built a ramp bypassing a rapid. I knew the portages around the unrunnable rapids were soon to get much harder so I enjoyed this last little brush with civilization, especially with the about 250 lbs worth of food and gear required for the next 50 days. Trip highlight video coming soon by the way! #tbt #throwbackthursday
Throwback to wading and willow-crashing my way up the Cochrane River this summer on the #1000milesolo. That particular stretch of upriver work was 7 days of fun... #hardwork #coldwater
A lot of people seem to have questions about the #1000milesolo I completed a couple of weeks ago. I’m only now beginning to feel human again which makes it a great time to answer any questions you might have. I’ll be going live on Instagram tonight, 10 PM Eastern or 7 PM Pacific, and I’m willing to get as technical or personal as you want. If you can’t make it tonight then post your questions below and I’ll see if I can get to them as well.
Should I take this blog article about the #1000milesolo trip, clean it up, add more material and release it as a book? You can check out the article at the link in my bio. Suggestions and possible book titles would be very much appreciated by me!!
I guess getting sick was inevitable. I pushed myself so hard in the final weeks of the #1000milesolo and got so little sleep that on the way home all the airport and airplane germs had an easy host to infect. In some ways this summer cold might be a good way to enforce a rest and recovery period, as well as getting to know this scrappy orange tabby kitten that’s now in the house. #summercold #kitten #restandrecovery
As I look for the meaning of this journey the most recurrent theme is that of hope. 9 years ago I thought I was financially ruined ruined for life. 5 years ago I was on the brink of death from kidney failure. Today I’m homeward bound after completing a huge challenge and having checking off great big item from my life list. Life is going to kick you in the balls. There will be times you think that you’re finished and out of options. But if you just keep going, kicking, screaming, fighting, scheming, planning and executing then you’ll probably get through it and get back to a place that’s better than before. And really what are your other options? Give up and die? No!! Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Thanks to everyone - friends, kids and family - who helped with this trip and thanks especially to @christophkesting for his incredibly generous loan of a kidney that kept me alive and allowed me to traverse this land of little sticks. #homewardbound #nevergiveup #hope #landoflittlesticks #1000milesolo #stephankesting
Getting dropped off at one of Arviat’s two hotels, the Padlei Inns North. I’m very lucky that they had one room available for one night because, not knowing when I would be there, I didn’t have a reservation. So there was room at the Inn, just barely. So tired. 150 km in 2 days, 50 of which were against a screaming headwind. Then 3 hours of freezing my ass off in an open boat far out at sea. Went to the Northern Store in Arviat to buy razors and clothes that don’t stink. Took a one hour shower. Shaved. Ate dinner at the hotel. Repacked all my gear. Collapsed. #arviat #1000milesolo #stephankesting
For years Joe Saavikataaq Sr, a wildlife conservation officer, was THE man who would pick up the 2-3 crazy groups of paddlers who would show up on the coast near Arviat each year. And then in 2017 he was elected premier of Nunavut so I figured that he would no longer be doing any more of that. I spent more than a month trying to find someone else in Arviat to pick me up and had a lot of problems. My backup plan which I was almost ready to implement was to burn my boat at the river mouth and then pay for a $6000 helicopter extraction to Churchill. But then I found that Joe’s son, Joe Saavikataaq Jr, was willing to do it. So imagine my surprise when in the boat I got two Joes for the price of one, both junior and senior! So yes, that’s the premier of Nunavut in red at the helm of the boat in the first picture! He was home from the capital for a few days and decided to come along for the ride. And that’s Joe Saavikataaq Jr in the green, now also working as a conservation officer and picking up his first ever paddler on the Bay. Text him at (204) 599-7182 if you ever need a pickup close to Arviat! Both Joes came across as very very professional, knowledgeable and hospitable. Meeting them was actually one of the highlights of the trip. The ride to Arviat was 3 hours long. The wind and the waves made it a very cold and bouncy experience. The northern genetics of the two Joes were on full display as they barely needed gloves for the entire freezing ride. “But it’s summertime” they laughed. As we rode along I was so very, very grateful that I didn’t have to paddle this section. The waves from the east were getting bigger and choppier, having had 800 miles of fetch to build up. It would have been a terrible, scary, 3 to 5 day slog. #hudsonbay #joesaavikataaqjr #joesaavikataaqjr #arviat #1000milesolo
Some of you may recognize DFD’s @stephan_kesting from his @firefitchampionships days... a long time ago!! Always one continuing to challenging himself, he has just completed his 1000 MILE SOLO trip!! Go check out his page to see how it all went....what a trip! Great job Stephan!! Enjoy a comfy bed, a proper bathroom, some normal food and a good nights sleep...not having to keep one eye open!! 🙌 #1000milesolo #teamwestshore #firefit #fitforduty #reflexnation #dfd #deltabc #firefighters #teamwork #workhard #cityofdelta #community #firesafety #proudtoserve #iaff #beastmode #wod #worlds #scott #functionalfitness #reflexnation #proud #honour #ptsd #itsoktotalk #firefit2019
THE END OF THE 1000 MILE SOLO!! Here it is folks... the moment I docked at the pickup boat. Man, was I both exhausted and ecstatic at the same time. And very grateful to the two men who had sat in the boat for an extra 90 minutes while I ran late, delayed by wind and tide. #journeysend #1000milesolo #stephankesting #thlewiaza #hudsonbay
Today ended up being quite a bit more brutal than I had hoped. The winds I had been working so hard to avoid arrived early and the 50 km that should have been relatively easy for me at this point were one continuous battle. Yes I had current behind me but I also had winds... Basically if I stopped paddling in a minor rapid the wind and the current would equal out and I would drift erratically from left to right. I pushed downriver as hard as I possibly could, knowing that this was now a make or break situation. There were minor rapids and swifts the whole way to the Bay, including in the very large delta and the confluence with the Tha-Anne river coming in from the north. If the cold northeaster hadn’t been throwing rain in my face the whole time it would have been incredibly beautiful scenery combined with a fascinating challenge of navigating in the complex Thlewiaza/Tha-Anne delta. Just as I thought I was getting close to the pickup point I got a satellite text update and found out that the water was too shallow close to shore and the Inuit picking me up had anchored offshore. So now I had an extra 4 km to paddle to get to the boat. It’s quite the trust experiment with your compass and GPS to paddle directly out to sea with only a few exposed boulders of the tidal flats around you, paddling to a destination you can’t see in the fog. Finally, finally one of those boulders slowly resolved itself to become a 20 foot aluminum boat with 2 men inside. They had also hoisted a large orange flag to be more visible. Now things were getting exciting! #hudsonbay #endofthejourney #1000milesolo #thlewiaza
One more day! That’s my fully loaded boat at dawn with 50 km of river to push down before noon. Unfortunately the clouds are moving in and the wind is already beginning to pick up. And it’s a headwind of course (what did think it was going to be?). I’m just above the last serious rapids of the river (I was able to hear them all night). They go on for a long time and have 3 major ledges. The first ledge is formed by a bedrock spine that sticks out from river left so I went in the middle of the now very large river and worked my way to the left after I passed the ledge. Then there’s a big ledge that sticks out from the right side of the river that I was already far away from. Then there’s one more major ledge on the left that was avoidable by paddling back out towards the middle of the river while dodging haystacks, rocks and curling waves. And then on and on, down the river, into the delta and towards the bay. Navigation is tricky here because of the huge number of islands, very low landscape and lack of trees. How far away is that island over there in the rain? Tough to tell without any spruce to judge the height by. At one point I was relatively convinced that a black moving shape on a hillside was a skinny grizzly bear looking at me only to realize that I had my eyes calibrated all wrong: it was much closer than I had thought and was actually a bald eagle, sitting there in his endless hunt for geese flightless in the summertime. Normally the front deck of my boat is where I might have my sail, lining rope, maps and compass. Today the sail has been spread out over my lap to help keep me a bit warmer and the shotgun in its case has been added to the configuration. And I’m looking all squinty-eyes and suspicious at every white rock because I have polar bear on the brain. #1000milesolo #solotravels #longjourneys #nunavut #thlewiaza #bearanoia
Possibly my last campsite on the Thlewiaza... After a super, crazy long day I basically pounded down a few date-almond balls, set up the tent and bear perimeter, and collapsed. Oh, I did one other thing too... I used my Garmin InReach to set up a pickup for noon with Joe Savitaaq Jr from Arviat at the river mouth. People might want to know why I don’t paddle the last 60 km from the river to the town of Arviat. The answer to that is easy: it’s incredibly dangerous. Humongous tides, giant waves, impossible to see shore when you’re in water deep enough to paddle in, storms with no shelter and no sleep either because of the very serious threat of hungry polar bears. Just last year an Arviat local was mauled to death by a polar bear in front of his kids just outside of town. Basically no Inuit sleeps in a tent along the coast and I’m taking that as a message that I shouldn’t either. Anyway, the hopeful plan is for a pickup tomorrow at noon, boat ride to Arviat, then a shower, hotel bed and a flight!! #lastnightoftheadventure #thlewiaza #nunavut #1000milesolo
The big push! Bad, bad weather is coming that will strand me on the shore of Hudson Bay with the polar bears for a couple of days unless I get there tomorrow. Fortunately I had an amazing day to do it on, with blue skies, gentle tailwinds, abundant seals and caribou. Not a bad way to wrap up your last full day on the Thlewiaza! There is something amazing about looking around and seeing yet another caribou bounding along yet another ridge. “There can I see caribou everywhere I look?” Well the answer here is basically yes! Got up at 5 am and was on the water by 630. Paddled right through to 830 pm and was only on shore for 2 short breaks. The paddling plus wind plus current carried my 95 km downriver which, I think, might be a new record for me. It bodes well for being able to make the pickup tomorrow. Once again, a big part of success is simply putting in the time, in this case, hours in the seat of my boat. Most of the white water today indicated on the map was really just swifts, current and maybe easy class one rapids. The last set I ran though was pretty fun. It was a one and a half kilometers long wave train mixed in with boulder and bedrock ledges, none of them river wide, so it just required some simple maneuvering. #thlewiaza #thlewiazariver #stephankesting #endurance #1000milesolo
Day 39: I woke up early hoping to make up for lost time but didnʼt even need to get out of the tent to know that that was not going to happen. I could hear the waves crashing on my little bitch and the wind smashing through the trees. I went back to sleep. By noon things were starting to change. The spruce were still swaying, but swaying less wildly. There werenʼt quite as many whitecaps on the water. I took a chance, broke camp, packed the boat, and headed out. Strong headwinds no matter which way the river twisted meant that I would paddle like I was sprinting for 20 to 30 minutes, then drive my boat up onto a boulder near shore and sit, slumped over, waiting to recover. Between 1 pm and 8Y45 I made 36 km. Itʼs not a lot, given that I was going downriver with the current, but itʼs 36 km I wonʼt have to do tomorrow. Most respectable wildlife was hiding today, staying out of the wind in the rain, but I did see a few caribou and a few more seal. Makes me wonder where the other marine mammal is, the big white one with giant teeth that eats seal... I left finding a campsite a little bit too long. By the time 845 rolled around it was getting dark and I absolutely needed to find something quick. The best I could do in the limited time available was a muddy, bushy waterfowl gathering area just to the side of the river. Definitely the least nice campsite Iʼve had to use this trip. Oh well, at least it was horizontal. #toughday #thlewiaza #thlewiazariver #headwinds #caribou #1000milesolo
PERCEPTION: I come from the land of the ice and snow From the midnight sun, where the hot springs flow The hammer of the gods Iʼll drive my ship to new lands To fight the horde, and sing and cry Valhalla, I am coming! REALITY: With map, compass, GPS, bailer, sail, high tech boat and paddles I am pushing as hard as I can for Hudson Bay while also trying my very best to stay out of Valhalla for the moment! #perceptionvsreality #ledzeppelin #thlewiaza #windbound #stephankesting #1000milesolo
Day 38: Well, I tried. I really really did. Up at 6 AM to break camp, on the water by 8 AM, heading back to make camp again by 8:15. I had convinced myself that the whitecaps just beyond my sheltered they were simply where the wind met the current. Alas, that was not the case. The wind is just as strong as ever and was whipping the water into a froth despite only having 500 m fetch to do it in. Given that it is coming from the Northeast and my whole day is traveling to the northeast across much larger fetches than that travel is basically impossible until the wind dies down. There are two main land based windspeed indicators around here: larch and spruce trees. Larches are tall, spindly things, so if theyʼre swaying I might be able to travel. But if the spruce are swaying in camp Iʼm staying. #windbound #thlewiaza #thlewiazariver #stephankesting #1000milesolo
Today I started paddling at 8 oʼclock in the morning, and by 5 PM I was absolutely, completely done. Like punch drunk done. I managed to cover 47 km today, but the last 15 km took more than five hours. Those five hours were at knock down, drag out, full contact street fight with the wind. The river generally heads north east in the section and that is exactly where the freezing cold headwind was coming from. It was raining so hard at times that I had to paddle bent over forwards, looking at my knees, because otherwise the rain would blast my face and then run down the inside of my jacket. Not. Fun. Times. The cool thing is that I did see a seal in the lake. Like a seal from the ocean come up river 170 km. He popped up to take a look at the great big red fish that was making its way across the lake. Just when I was contemplating camping in a soggy mess of bushes I spotted a beach about a kilometer away. Iʼm not a big fan of camping on sand - it gets everywhere - so I was happy to find a small elevated bench of crowberries semi-protected by spruce bushes. I think I will sleep well tonight, especially since I donʼt think there are very many caribou here. I really not had a lot of good luck with the weather since getting into the head seal hole lake 4 days ago. Iʼve seen the sun for one day, the rest has been wind, rain, or rain and wind together. It is making keeping my camera, my GPS, and my satellite dish charged very difficult. Unless I get some good weather soon I may not be posting on Instagram much more this trip. Iʼm now 170 km by river and 122 km directly by air from the destination on Hudson Bay. Itʼs frustrating to know that itʼs so close. With halfway decent weather and the current that is actually on this river I could do that in three days. With these conditions though it might be a week or more. So close and yet so far! #headwinds #thlewiaza #nunavut #roughweather #1000milesolo
No joke @danawhite @joerogan @johnmccarthymma @centurymartialarts take note: something like this (but tighter and with 4oz padding on the knuckles) should replace current #MMA gloves if you want to prevent accidental cuts from inadvertent eye pokes. Reposted from @stephan_kesting (@get_regrann) - I cut out the palm of my neoprene river gloves and it has made them much better. Yes, they are a little colder now, but I can feel the paddle against my skin, I can get my fingers in and out quickly for a little finicky tasks, I donʼt have to fight the gloves to keep my hands closed, and they still keep the worst of the wind off my fingers. Other than the gloves I was also wearing thick wool socks, calf high neoprene boots, underwear, nylon tech pants, heavy duty goretex rain pants, merino wool T shirt, medium weight fleece, heavy duty goretex raincoat, life jacket (it counts to keep you warm), and my canoeing hat crammed under my hood to form a brim. And it was still cold! I should have had on my fleece leggings because I was using the folded kayak sail to try and keep my legs warm in the bitter, bitter headwinds. The other thing that keeps you warm in situations like this is working your ass off and continuously putting more food down the hatch. I ate a ton of food during the day, and then still had one and a half dinners when I made camp. #coldweatherpaddling #arcticcanoeing #thlewiaza #thlewiazariver #1000milesolo
I cut out the palm of my neoprene river gloves and it has made them much better. Yes, they are a little colder now, but I can feel the paddle against my skin, I can get my fingers in and out quickly for a little finicky tasks, I donʼt have to fight the gloves to keep my hands closed, and they still keep the worst of the wind off my fingers. Other than the gloves I was also wearing thick wool socks, calf high neoprene boots, underwear, nylon tech pants, heavy duty goretex rain pants, merino wool T shirt, medium weight fleece, heavy duty goretex raincoat, life jacket (it counts to keep you warm), and my canoeing hat crammed under my hood to form a brim. And it was still cold! I should have had on my fleece leggings because I was using the folded kayak sail to try and keep my legs warm in the bitter, bitter headwinds. The other thing that keeps you warm in situations like this is working your ass off and continuously putting more food down the hatch. I ate a ton of food during the day, and then still had one and a half dinners when I made camp. #coldweatherpaddling #arcticcanoeing #thlewiaza #thlewiazariver #1000milesolo
Dear Edohon, Iʼm sure youʼre a very pretty lake with your high hills and seals that have swum in all the way from the ocean. Unfortunately didnʼt get to see your best side today, what with the thick mist, persistent rain and cold north wind and all. Maybe weʼll get to know each other better some other time when youʼre in a better mood. Sandbars and rapids going into lake make it an interesting and low consequence navigation exercise. Once youʼre in the lake you will soon come across an abandoned mining camp. Visible from afar because of its bright white and orange tents this might be a good place to try and scavenge tools and materials if youʼre ever in need and in the area. Just for your knowledge, most of the ‘treesʼ in the first picture are shorter than you are. It is the land of little sticks after all... #edohonlake #thlewiaza #landoflittlesticks #greatweatherforducks #1000milesolo
Well, now we know the bear alarm works... It took a long time to get camp set up last night so it wasnʼt till 1130 pm that I finally closed my eyes. I was dozing when I thought I heard hooves - clippity clop, clippity clop. No, Iʼm sure those are hooves. A galloping horse? No, canʼt be, has to be a caribou... Which is when the crazy caribou running down the beach at full speed right ran within 10 feet of my tent, hit the bear alarm tripwire, set off the siren, and then took off even faster down the beach to God knows where. Soon the only sound was the bear alarm going off and the thrum of mosquitoes outside, waiting for me to go out into the night and try to reset the whole thing from scratch. Unfortunately the stampeding animal managed to tear the very strong nylon string that is used as a tripwire, so I had to repair it by headlamp in the middle of the night. The Pack Alarm is one of those things Iʼve wanted for years. Decades ago I made a prototype but this thing is much, much better. Peace of mind in bear country (and free thrills in caribou country) for less than $100? Yes please, Iʼll take two of them. My sincere thanks to hunter, firefighter and BJJ practitioner Reid Martin for turning me on to these things! #packalarm #bearalarm #bearanoia #thewiazariver #1000milesolo
Pretty nice view with which to end the perfect day, no? I covered 70 km on the river today, or 50 as the bird flies. That came from 12 hours of paddling being helped by both the current and tailwinds. I think the rain is back tomorrow but I donʼt care. This is my dream and Iʼm living it. Whatʼs yours? #thlewiaza #thlewiazariver #canoecamping #1000milesolo #stephankesting
Hudson Bay thataway!! The day just got better and better. The sky turned blue and for some reason there were zero bugs out. Having started the day at 630 am and paddling since 8 am I took an early dinner break at 4 to take advantage of a beautiful location on an esker. While food soaked I went for a walk, ate blueberries, found an old abandoned bear den under some bushes near the top of the esker, and was able to scout the river for miles ahead. The sun, the warmth, the colors, the endless rapids, the caribou... This is one of those days that I want to burn into my brain to remember until the day I die! #perfectday #thlewiaza #upnorth #stephankesting #1000milesolo #canoeing
The best day of the trip so far!! When I woke up it wasnʼt raining and the wind look like it could be a tailwind. These were good things. Then I started seeing caribou. At first I saw a group of 4 swimming north across the river, and then I saw 10, and then I saw 20. By the end of the day I mustʼve seen more than 150. All of them were heading north, and all of them were crossing the river in the shallows and then off again, running, running running. They were pretty skittish and didnʼt let me get close so a telephoto lens would have been great. As a sidenote, I think that Portage Rapids is mislabeled on the 1\50,000 maps. I had heard a lot about these rapids: Oberholzer and McGee had done a half mile portage to avoid them, Farley Mowatt claims to have nearly drowned in them, and other groups have portaged parts and ran parts. So when I came up to where they are marked on the map I was apprehensive. But without even leaving my boat I could see a route through them: a center to left shot into a big easy eddy. No problem at all. But Iʼm not as much as a canoe god as I think. About 10 km later came a really serious rapid that fits all the descriptions. It splits around an island and has a series of huge ledges. I went down the left side of the right channel and lined the worst parts including some 3-4 foot sheer drops barely lubricated by water. I swear that one of the appeals of lining is that you canʼt hear the damage being done to the bottom of your boat! #caribou #whitewater #thlewiaza #nunavut #1000milesolo
August 4th, day 35. Today was maddening. Long story short I was up at 6:30 in the morning, on the water by eight, and forced off the water just after noon. There were lots and lots of swifts and easy rapids which would have made for stellar progress if the wind had cooperated (in the 4.5 hours I did manage to bang of 25 km). One of the bigger rapids today was a set of ledges. At one point I ended up on river left where the ledges were gigantic and had to do a front ferry almost across the whole rapid to get to the runnable part. Having a rudder on your boat in situations like that really helps! On another minor rapid I took a good amount of water in when a curling wave hit me in the side. This would have been no big deal at all if the spray deck were completely fastened up, but as Iʼve talked about before I do not like the entanglement potential of the suspender arrangement. Oh well, thatʼs what the bailer is for. The storm hit at noon and soon I was making no progress and with the horizontal rain it wouldnʼt have been safe to be mucking about in whitewater even if I had been able to make progress on the flats. But the way things were I wouldʼve made it careful plan to make it through the rocks in the waves and then the wind wouldʼve laughed and made a hash of my plans. Plus if I continued any longer I wouldʼve been flirting with hypothermia. I pitch the tent on a small beach where I was partially protected from the wind by a small scrap and clump of krummholz. Then I tried to nap which Iʼm not good at at the best of times. There really is a limit to how much a man can sleep. #1000milesolo #stephankesting #canoeing #kayakingadventures #campingtrip
When Colin OʼBrady @colinobrady did his solo trek across Antarctica he had his “Colin Bars”. Well, on my solo trek across the Barren Lands Iʼve got my “Stephan Balls.” Made mostly of almond butter, date paste and oats I eat 3 to 6 of them a day and after 34 days Iʼm not completely sick of them yet. The key to staying warm is having the right clothing but also simply putting enough calories down the hatch, and these balls serve that purpose admirably. The recipe is on my site: if you google “date almond balls grapplearts” you should find them. #stephanballs #campingfood #canoeingfood #1000milesolo
Saturday August 3rd. The wind finally started to drop a tiny bit around 4 pm so I packed up everything inside the tent and crammed down a hurried dinner. At 5 pm the wind was finally low enough to allow travel so I dropped the tent, packed the boat, and set off. I still had to fight my way across the lake mind you, but at least slow forward progress was possible again. Near the outlet of Seal Hole Lake thereʼs an orange cabin that looks good from afar but when you get closer you can see that itʼs best days are behind it. The beach would be a nice place to camp though. The rapids at the outflow are relatively easy - they start as a series of swifts that then grow and grow until you end up with some pretty huge standing waves right on the middle of the river. Fortunately there are big eddies on either side of the river that you can pop into to slow down and find the smaller waves from. The next 10 km or so has lots and lots of swifts and smaller rapids which makes for fast progress. The maps must have been made at a time of very high water though because many channels indicated on them are completely dry. The wind continued to diminish until it became a completely still evening. This was confirmed by the mosquitomometer: they were soon out in droves and able to find me even in the middle of the wider, lake like sections of the river. Made camp at 9:15 having covered 18 km in just under 4 hours. #thlewiaza #thlewiazariver #1000milesolo #stephankesting
There are grizzly bear here but more to the point is that Iʼm heading towards Hudson Bay, land of the polar bear with its entirely carnivorous diet. Plus itʼs not unheard of for polar bears to trek inland quite a long distance in search of food, especially now that itʼs harder for them to hunt seal on the winter ice because there is less winter ice. So bears are on my mind and full precautions are in effect. Being windbound allowed me to get in some target, reloading and dud shell handling practice. I did it both standing and seated, the latter makes sense given that the most likely place to encounter a bear is when in your tent with no ability to stand. The timing for this practice was fortunate as right afterwards the mother of all rainstorms moved in and absolutely blasted my camp. Feeling very, very glad that Iʼm in such a good tent that stays upright in the wind and keeps the water on the wet side. #shotgunpractice #polarbeardefense #tundra #stephankesting #1000milesolo
In the last few days Iʼve really noticed how many of the arctic berries are on the cusp of being ripe. Iʼve found cloudberries, blueberries, crowberries and bear berries. That is an upside of the crazy bug situation. For each mosquito or blackfly there is also a berry to be eaten out there. Itʼs hard to believe that the barren lands grizzly can subsist on these tiny berries nestled in so close to the ground. Which is, I guess, why he supplements his diet with the occasional errant canoeist. #wildberries #arcticharvest #nunavut #bearfood #1000milesolo
Day 34 and completely windbound. The wind is roaring in from the south which makes travel to the south, the direction I have to go on the lake, difficult. Impossible really. And just to make things better I think I can hear some distant thunder moving in. Scratch that - it just turned to reasonably local thunder and lightening complete with rain. Might as well get all the bad weather over with at once! On the plus side it does leave a lot of time to catch up on sleep and a little bit of time to explore the countryside. Iʼve found lots of fresh signs of caribou, which is exciting because maybe theyʼll show up in person soon. Whether that happens all depends on their migration route overlapping with my own travels. Caribou are such magnificent beasts and are the animal that allowed the local Dene and Inuit to survive. Theyʼre like the plains buffalo of the arctic; a migratory herd animal with entire human cultures built around them. And in the last 18 hours Iʼve seen only 3 mosquitos, which is about a 10,000 fold reduction from what I would normally expect. I guess the little bastards are clinging to their willow branches for dear life and arenʼt taking to the air at all with such a wind. #sealholelake #windbound #camplife #nunavut #1000milesolo #stephankesting
How do you cook in 40 km an hour winds? Well first you use the windscreen for your stove. And then you use rocks and backpacks to build the wind screen for your windscreen. And then, if you have one, use an extra windscreen around your part to help retain the heat. Do all that and youʼll be eating homemade Rotundifolia Bolognesca con Fughetti Seccado et Prima de Tutti Verde con queso de Villagio Parmesina (pasta, ground beef, mushrooms, tomato sauce and Parmesan) in no time. #wildernesscooking #1000milesolo #expeditionfood #stephankesting #canoeing
How do you pitch a tunnel tent in 40 km/hr winds when the ground is too rocky for tent pegs? 1. Gather rocks,lots of rocks. Preferably jagged and oblong rocks, not round ones. 2. Tied own you main corners to a nice oblong rock 3. Pin that rock down using a ton of other, bigger rocks 4. Do this for all 4 corners, 5. Only now insert your tent poles 5. Repeat steps 2 and 3 for every single guy line and add way more weight than you think youʼll need. The wind could always shift or get much stronger. @hilleberg_the_tentmaker #windstorm #extremetenting #hillebergtents #stephankesting #1000milesolo
This is Seal Hole Lake, the first significant lake after Nueltin. It is a beautiful lake with some very dramatic landscape features, but why am I tracking my boat with ropes instead of paddling it? Well, it was way easier to get to a potential campsite by walking and dragging my boat in the water than it was to paddle it against the wind. After amazing wind conditions on Nueltin things then came to a screeching halt. Crazy powerful 40 to 50 km/hr headwinds came up over the course of an hour. I had been going since 8 AM and was brought to a halt at 4:30 PM. My visions of making this a 50 or 60 km day died in the wind. I did make a solid 40 though which is still respectable. I camped early and had lots of time to document the day. I intend to get up at first light to try and beat the wind. Anyhow, Iʼm still ecstatic about being here and really looking forward to seeing the rest of this river and this countryside. #windbound #sealholelake #thlewiaza #nunavut #stephankesting #1000milesolo
A royal send off from gods and lake monsters of Nueltin Lake as I received fine useable tailwind for most of the morning (they did have to to include gray skies and the continual threat of squalls to do it but thatʼs a trade off I will take any day). Trying to drink in as much of the landscape as I can. Itʼs so dramatic and stark. For anyone who is never been up here I can really only compare it to the Alpine. Imagine the blasted alpine heath on a mountain just carrying on and on for miles. It has taken 4 days to make it from the bottom to the top of the Nueltin Lake. This ends stage 6 of the trip and leads us to the final stage, number 7, the descent of the Thlewiaza to the Bay. If youʼre going to paddle Nueltin Lake then campsites arenʼt going to be a problem. From the south end of the lake to the narrows you have unlimited sand beaches, each prettier than the last. And from the narrows north you have tundra, so you can camp wherever you want so long as you can find a place that is reasonably level and not bedeviled by giant boulders everywhere. Oh, and a bit of protection from the wind by the topography or a clump of krummholz is nice too! The weather has been amazing and the wind conditions couldnʼt have been better on this giant lake. I was really only able to sail on one of the four days - today - but that was way better than nothing. I figure I was making about 6 km an hour for most of the morning, three of which came from paddle and three of which came from sail. I have to say that this 1.4 m Falcon Sail is amazing. Itʼs a rocket fuel that I can add once in a while to make the miles go much quicker. It is so quick to put up and down that you can really take advantage of even a short change in the wind. That being said itʼs also one of the most dangerous things I own. If you are sailing a canoe you need to be paying attention 110% of the time. Think of it like running white water; you need to be ready for things to go wrong at any moment. Much appreciated Nueltin, youʼre beautiful, so long and thanks for all the pics! #nueltinlake #nunavut #stephankesting #1000milesolo #falconsails
Possibly last campsite on Nueltin Lake? Unless Iʼve just jinxed it tomorrow I should be on the Thlewiaza, heading downriver with the current again! It was a place to pitch a tent though, close to the water so I donʼt have to carry the stuff too far, and a little bit of shelter from some low spruce bushes. The mosquitoes are fairly bad tonight. As you fall asleep you can hear the hum all around you, 1 million bugs wanting to get into the tent and suck you dry. In the past I have relied entirely on bugnets and clothing to prevent getting eaten alive, but in my old age I have resorted to the strategic use of DEET occasionally. I really only use it a couple times a day, typically applying it right before eating. #nueltinlake #hillebergtent #barrenlands #1000milesolo #sthephankesting
Lots of big water crossings today. Three, four, five, and even 6 km ones. I canʼt say Iʼm a big fan. First of all, itʼs somewhat boring because all the interesting stuff is on the shore. And secondly, in the middle of the water you are just so exposed, especially if there is a great big thunderhead chasing you. As I said before though, the weather so far has been stellar. There are many stories about people getting windbound on this lake for days and days, so having to time your crossings to not get stuck in a thunderstorm seems like a small price to pay. Still managed to put in about 40 km today despite the slower pace; I just had to stay on the water longer to do it. Unless something goes sideways with the weather tomorrow I should be able to finish up stage six of the trip and start stage seven, the descent to the Bay! #canoeing #stephankesting #thunderstorm #1000milesolo #kayakingadventures
7:18 am and on the water. Conditions on Nueltin have been pretty much idyllic other than the occasional thunderstorm. No massive waves, never-ending headwinds or storms yet, all of which are a certainty on these giant northern lakes if you just wait long enough. So how many hours should you spend paddling when conditions are good? All of them. Itʼs beginning to take its toll though. Iʼm beginning to do stuff like paddle with my eyes closed while counting to ten, then opening them briefly to make sure Iʼm still going in the right direction, and then closing them again. Also today I started feeling a burning pain in my left shoulder blade that was frighteningly reminiscent of the pain I felt when I pinched a nerve preparing for the ADCC trials a decade ago. I hope that this doesnʼt go any further. Finally my pace on Nueltin has slowed down these last 3 days, breaks are getting more frequent, and the reasons for breaks are getting more ridiculous. “Maybe I just should re-re- recheck that map... Maybe I should reapply sunscreen, for the third time this hour... Etc.” Overall though my physical body has actually held up pretty well on this trip, given that I started it with an injured shoulder, elbow and hip (which is why most of my preparation for this trip was cardio, not actual upper body training). Shockingly all of those injuries have gotten better, much better. Seems like all you need to do for physiotherapy is to do 20 to 30,000 paddle strokes a day, every day, without a break. Seems applicable to the population at large ;) Ultimately Iʼm putting in the time. You can have all the high tech boats, bent shaft carbon fiber paddles, and fancy folding sails you want, but ultimately itʼs having your ass in the seat that gets you down the lake. Itʼs just like study time for getting your degree, or mat time for mastering BJJ. Time in activity matters. #paddlingonnueltinbeforejoc ko #iwillownthathashtag #nueltinlake #wildernesscanoeing #1000milesolo
Question: I heard by sat text that lots of people have been saying I should write a book. If - and thatʼs a BIG if - I do it then whatʼs a title that would get you to buy it assuming you didnʼt already know who I am? I promise I will read all the comments when I get back to civilization. Also this was my campsite for the night. Very pretty but hard to find a level place in amongst all the boulders. Not ideal, but thatʼs where the wind decided I was going to be staying last night. #stephankestingbook #stephankesting #1000milesolo #nueltinlake #kayakingadventures
Hereʼs how I stay in partial touch out here, well beyond the range of Wi-Fi, cell coverage and even Skip the Dishes! The short answer is that itʼs all satellite based. I use a Garmin Inreach Explorer+ as a GPS but it also has basic weather and texting function. So I use that for short mission critical texts to my support crew. I also gave a rented Irridium sat phone that usually gets a connection of some sort. Itʼs for short critical conversations and I think itʼll be very useful for organizing my pickup on the shore of Hudson Bay when I get there. And then I have what is called a BGAN unit. This is how I upload text and compressed photos to Google Drive for a friend then to turn into Instagram posts. It is very slow (dial up speeds), unreliable (Iʼm right at the northern limit of where itʼs supposed to work), and data is very expensive ($3,000 for the first gigabyte). Needless to say Iʼm not streaming YouTube while Iʼm up here. Keeping all this and my two cameras charged with one solar panel and a cranky powerbank is proving to be quite the challenge... #reportsfromthefield #instagram #1000milesolo #stephankesting #canoeingtrip
Today Nueltin was a mirror: not a breeze and not a wave. At least for most of the day. I made good time, doing some bigger crossings that normally I would have been much more nervous about. By ‘biggerʼ I mean 3 to 6 km without a bailout option. Thatʼs about as big as Iʼll risk in a canoe because the weather can change so quickly up here. In the afternoon a series of thunderstorms came in from the north. The wind was still light but I had to adjust my route, sneaking from island to island in case the lightning came close and I had to put to land. Then in the early evening, just when the wind is supposed to be dying down - BOOM - heavy winds from zero to thirty in less than 10 minutes. This is why I fear and respect larger crossings. After fighting the wind for 20 minutes I went to shore to have dinner and see if they would drop. When they were still blowing fiercely at 730 pm I decided that enough was enough and I would have to be happy with the 35 km I had already covered. #stephankesting #wildernesstravel #nueltinlake #1000milesolo #canoeing
“Tell me father, is it like the land of little sticks when the ice has left the lakes? Are the great musk oxen there on hills covered with flowers? There will I see caribou everywhere I look? Are the lakes blue with summer? Is every net full of great fat whitefish? Is there room for me in this land like our land, the Barrens? Can I camp anywhere and not find someone else has camp? Can I feel the wind and be like the wind? Father, if your heaven is not all of these, leave me alone in my land, the land of little sticks.” A Dogrib Indian to an Oblate Priest. On a July evening in 1992 I made the worst phone call of my life. I had just finished my first long solo trip: 3 weeks to go down the Missinaibi to Moosenee on James Bay and then back towards Lake Superior by way of going upstream on the Albany and Kenogami rivers. I was on an absolute high and wanted to continue all the way to Lake Superior. I pulled into the town of Longlac, ordered a pizza, then called home to reassure my parents that I was OK. On that call I learned that my next youngest brother, Peter Johann Kesting, had died in a totally preventable motorcycle accident the week before. He had been 21, the age at which young men live like theyʼre going to live forever. The next few years were rough. I watched my grandmother pass away at age 90, then my next youngest brother, Matthias Roland Kesting, also died in a totally preventable accident, also aged 21. This period coincides with the time I first became aware of Nueltin Lake, linking it forever to the lives and deaths of those two brothers. Something about this lake straddling the forest and tundra, Manitoba and Nunavut, and being the juncture of so many routes and rivers makes it an icon of transitions for me. Rest easy brothers, I think you would have liked it here. #nueltinlake #transitions #1000milesolo #landoflittlesticks
Alas poor Rudolph, I knew him well Horatio! Despite the challenges today I got north of 60 degrees latitude, into Nunavut, and a good portion through the treeline! The tree line isnʼt some magic line where the trees suddenly stop. Itʼs a broad area, spread out over maybe 50 km, where the trees start being more sparse, then only growing in sheltered areas, and then not at all. The tree line is also in different places in North America. For example, in Alaska, the treeline extends quite a distance north. As you come east however the treeline comes further and further south. In the Nueltin area itʼs at about 60 degrees latitude. In Ontario and Quebec itʼs even further south than that. I love seeing the different kinds of tundra appearing, mixed in with the remaining trees. Itʼs an amazing landscape, the land of little sticks. #treeline #caribou #nueltinlake #stephankesting #landoflittlesticks #1000milesolo
This morning I felt terrible. Overtrained, under rested, and moving like a zombie. I heard the rain falling on the tent, the waves lashing the shore, and the trees getting whipped by the wind. Whitecaps were being whipped up on the lake by a very strong southerly wind. Right, I said, a rest day, and burrowed my head under a pile of clothing to shut out the light. The fact I immediately fell back asleep is indicative of how hard Iʼve been pushing these last weeks. Heavy physiological and endocrinological load, thatʼs for sure. Normally when Iʼm up Iʼm up, but not today. And I stayed unconscious for another 2 1/2 hours sleeping from 630 to 9 am. The second time I woke up the winter dropped somewhat, the waves were smaller, and there was now an opportunity to travel. Right, letʼs just go a few kilometers today (just the tip, just for a second, just to see how it feels...). 9 hours of paddling and 40 to 45 km later I made camp in the Nueltin Lake Narrows area. A good day salvaged after all. Dodged thunderstorms all day. They were thundering to my left and flashing to my right but thankfully never overhead. That, plus the smell of smoke from a distant fire down south made it seem kind of apocalyptic at times. You donʼt want to be out on the lake during a thunderstorm. Youʼre the highest object for miles around. Paddling to shore and sitting huddled waiting for the worst of the storm to blow over sucks but is often the best option. #nueltinlake #thestrenuouslife #1000milesolo #stephankesting
Nueltin Lake is the most complicated lake Iʼve ever been on. I pity the person trying to find their way here who doesnʼt have really good 1U50,000 maps, a compass, and the skills to use them. Navigation is a complicated black art, absolutely necessary to be safe in the wilderness. Half of it is using every tool you have at your disposal to pick a route and know where you are going. Your compass, your map, your GPS. The other half is using every clue nature gives you to try to disprove your current hypothesis about where you are. Itʼs a process of continual self doubt and questioning because itʼs so easy to believe what you want to believe and go the wrong way. The clues include the size, shape, the direction of the waves. The shape of a distant hill. The presence of a patch of forest in a plain of tundra. The direction reeds are bending both above and below the water. The shape of a bay, the presence of an island. The absence of a beach. The roar of a rapid. A sandy patch on a slope. How different parts of the landscape are in shadow and in sunlight... All of these are facts that need to be continually thrown at your assumptions about where you are to make sure youʼre in the right place and on the right track. #navigation #mapandcompass #nueltinlake #1000milesolo #stephankesting