This video is a spot I produced for the Discovery Channel’s show Daily Planet.
In 2016 my dog Buck and I walked from Hudson Strait to Hudson Bay to cross the Ungava Peninsula passing Pingualuit Crater on the way.
The journey took us 36 days to complete. We experienced a lot of blizzards and temps as cold as -59 degrees Celsius.
To my knowledge, I’m the second person on record to cross the Ungava Peninsula on foot, (the first person being Robert Flaherty who did it in 1902). And the first on record for crossing the mountainous northern Ungava Peninsula between Hudson Strait and Hudson Bay.
Transcript:
Tuesday on Daily Planet we're causing a disaster so we learned how to make sure it never happens again join us for that and a whole lot more Tuesday now most adrenaline rushes last for what a couple seconds maybe a few minutes but this next one just goes on and on and on it is a month-long adrenaline fuelled struggle for survival I'm Jim Baird and right now is the beginning of my month-long 370 kilometer expedition to cross Nunavik on foot Jim plants across the northern java peninsula starting in kanga Kujawa navigating rivers lakes of Crater and mountains all the way to Hudson Bay others have done the trek by canoe snowmobile and dogsled but no one has ever walked it a lot of dangers out there but the weather is going to be my biggest concern of course I got my dog buck who's going to be helping me out along the way and he's going to be my only companion because this is a solo trip with over a hundred and thirty six kilos of gear in tow the two will face temperatures as low as minus 60 and wind speeds up to 100 kilometers an hour but as challenge increases as they head deeper into the mountains especially for his dog fuck I think it's just as snow and it looks like it's snowing more so hard talked anymore I took some way of its toboggan it's not much ever here than it was yesterday so I think maybe justos making it harder for him making it harder for me to and I haven't even gone 5k and it's already late in the afternoon to reach Hudson Bay Jim must maintain 15 kilometers a day in order for a 30 day food supply to last a difficult pace as he crosses rugged terrain and 600 meter mountains on route to Pingala crater it would appear that I have a ridiculous other Hill to go up here man but it's nothing compared to what's on the horizon there supposed to be a blizzard coming and look like it's blowing in right now I could push on but if it really starts blowing I've worked up some sweat and that's a good way to die in the end mother nature makes the call this crazy out here this is where your skills that you from practicing feather worker they don't build the wall against the 100 kilometer an hour wind without it you can't put up his tent without shelter he will freeze to death the great pink boat this double burner thing throws off more heat it's going to heat up my tent if I need to use it as a heat source or to drive clothes look at this this whole thing from here all the way up to here is all a massive snowdrift yeah gonna somehow have to dig myself out of here digging is only half the battle with relentless winds and very low visibility Jim have to wait out the storm it's a morning day 10 time to make some breakfast and get the hell out of here about 25 K to make it today so not looking forward to it to be honest with you but it'll be nice to see the crater in Galilee crater is in a Quebec Park and is at the one-third mark of Jim's journey the Creator created by a massive meteor 1.5 million years ago and is about 400 meters feet that's about the height of the CN Tower day 16 I'm on the Pavan leeteuk River yes sir it was nice and sunny and concealed the hardpack drift and today it's actually just dangerous I can't see where I'm going with my sunglasses on or off right now I'm walking in a total whiteout it's very very hard to navigate a catch you deprived and feeling kind of a little scared that I'm really flat it's getting cold so I'm a little nervous as good as me takes longer than I thought but hopefully I'm wrong about that it took me 13 or 14 days to reach Lac alamin from the time I got to the Pavan natok River as I was getting hammered by blizzard after blizzard so I'm running really low on calories Bach is running low on food with little food left Jim decides to chisel through seven feet of ice to fish but the fish aren't biting I'm just thinking what the hell do I do have to expend a lot of calories to make the hole a lot of time to make the hole and then toxic fish I don't think I'm going to be able to do 20k a day and finish this trip in seven days I just didn't bring enough food you I feel stupid very few options Jim decides to ration the remaining food for he and buck buck and I split four pieces of bacon and that's all we're going to eat I have about 75 or 80 kilometers left against the coat hi 5k left to go and I have two huge ridges to cross and it's dark in two hours and I have to make it today snows melting cos and just dragging over rocks I don't know if I'm going to make it before dark but I really got to try I got to get it all I got here to avoid traveling at night and in an effort to save time Jim Gamble's with a shorter but more dangerous route over boulders and locks go much but the difficult paths get buck stuck at the bottom of the ridge pushing Jim to help in and do the trek twice I just don't even care anymore just the fastest way is best unless he can get bucked quickly up the ridge Jim now faces the reality of travelling over a dangerous boulder field in the dark with hunger lapping his energy oh my god he did it come on buck can't believe he made it up that hill good good boy 0:06:52.810,0:07:00.060 and there it is folks Hudson Bay I did it I feel like relieved and also it's surreal wow what a trip here we are a good dog you all see dressy and gathered an insular give you how can you help but root for buck through that whole adventure in fact let's find more things to root for now little
