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Ben Stookesberry Message from 7/29/14 Hello from the mighty George River. We are only 100 miles short of the end of this 450 mile long George River canoe rout and the gateway to the Torngat in the remote village of Kangiqsualujjuac, Quebec; Canda. So far we have completed the nearly 350 miles of this canoe rout in record time spending just 11 days paddling from the end of a remote train line, straight north into the roadless wilds of one of the great wildernesses of North America. Of course our trio of myself, Brazilian Pedro Oliva, and Erik Boomer is an extremely strong team of veteran paddlers; but we are also told that we are the first to attempt this rout in Kayaks as opposed to the traditional Canoes. 
Certainly we owe much of our success to these long boats (namely the Jackson Kayak Karma UL) that move extremely fast through both calm and white-waters, and also allow us to make this three week journey self support without any resupply of provisions. In addition to the duration and the distance, the rout was surprisingly complicated in the upper reaches where we paddled and portaged through a system of lakes to reach a head stream of the George. Because of this the Delorme In Reach Explorer was our GPS and communications system of choice. It has also allowed us to share our expedition real time with 30 minute tracking and updates from the field. And we are keeping this along with our cameras powered up with a lightweight Goal Zero solar recharging system. The final element of the epic adventure worth noting is the weather. When we started the rout the temps were near 90 degrees F and have now dropped to near freezing with sustained gale force winds. 
From clouds of insatiable mosquitos and flies, to sheets of sub-arctic rain, the combination of our technical gear from Kokatat, and our Eddie Bauer insulation, sleeping bags, tents, rain gear has allowed us to keep paddling all day and resting well at night in an incredible variety of conditions. Paddling 8 – 10 hours of day is a lot of work, but in this place it is a labor of love. There are few other rivers on the planet where you can paddle for three weeks straight without seeing any signs of civilization.The George certainly stands in stark contrast to the already damned rivers flowing to the south where their waters are being harnessed for Hydro-electricity largely for the Eastern US. The bears, Carribou, falcons, river otters, beavers, and seagulls are all part of this vast wildernss that still remains only 1000 miles north of New York City. But this was just the way we chose to get to where we are actually going. As you know our destination is the Torngat and our goal is to be the first to kayak the Nachvak River; but in this case as in so many others, the journey there is proving to be what this trip is all about. photos: Erik Boomer Cheers