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Labrador Voyageur
11 day strenuous
white water camping trip. A challenging adventure in one of the last
great wildernesses. Labrador Voyageurs
meet in Goose Bay Labrador Canada and are offered on:
Aug 21-31, 2006
Trip Price: $1795.00
Requested Single Supplement: $150..00.
Sleeping Bag Kit $55.00
Canoe Rental: included in trip
price
Trip
Notes
Day by Day Itinerary
Canoe France

Questions
jim@battenkill.com
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Lure of Labrador
A spellbinding river
surrounded by vast tundra, majestic
mountains and rugged coastlines.
A challenging adventure
in one of
the last great wildernesses.
Vast,
wild, and unpopulated, Labrador is a rugged and remote wilderness --
consummate Canada
on a grandiose scale. From start to finish, canoeing in Labrador is
a challenging adventure. Labrador is naturally striking and culturally
intriguing. This is the land of stark, rugged scenery, from deep forests
to treeless tundra, majestic mountains to rugged coastline.
It is home to the Inuit peoples, whose cultures and history are especially
unique. Labrador is also home to black bears, eagles, osprey, terns
and puffins, as well Arctic fox and the largest caribou herd in the
world. In the sea, the whales continue their ageless migration while
the seals play among the icebergs on their journey south. Timeless Labrador.
We have come to experience the vastness by canoe on an extended wilderness
white water canoe trip.
Our
trip focuses on the north central part of the province, its most remote,
wild and scenic section. Paddling the Ugjoktok River -- the "River
of Bearded Seals" in Inuit is our mission.
We meet in Goose Bay/Happy Valley and spend our first evening at the
Blake House. We are immediately immersed in the history of Labrador
as the Blake House located in Northwest River is where the Hubbard expedition
started their journey. In fact George Blake of Blake House, is the grandson
of Blake who rescued the ill fated Hubbard expedition.
The next morning after breakfast we are off to meet our float plane
and begin our journey into the Ugjoktok river. We fly into Harp Lake
and set up our first evenings camp on an isolated sandbar beneath the
canyon walled lake. As we explore the lake in the afternoon the majesty
and size of Labrador begins to sink in. A fitting introduction to vast,
unspoiled Labrador. If time permits, the short hike to Leila Falls makes
real the landscape of our adventure.
The river's current is a mix of challenges and quiet sections giving
us time to take
in all that we can see. Mammoth sand and gravel banks line the river
corridor, giving the power of the ice age a new reality. As we travel
down the river we become a part of it nurturing and soothing the spirit
and body.
The river keeps us spellbound on our float east to the icebergs of the
Labrador Sea. Black Spruce, huge sand bars, and stark bluffs reinforce
the sensation that Mina Hubbard wrote about years earlier of being on
top of the world. It would seem that we are absolutely the first people
to set footprints on the sand. Campsites are unlike any others... either
vast sand bars, or protected interior sites carpeted with caribou moss.
Wood is plentiful so the evening fire lasts far into the night, after
the bugs have gone to rest.
Our first portage is an immense waterfall with a sneak route through
Owls Cove. Sunset Point is a remarkable campsite with nearly 360 degree
views of the canyon from Harp Lake. Rapids continue, with names like
Fire Rapid, Boulder Dash, Paddle Right or Die, Ray's Run for Home and
more. We will take the time for side hikes, and maybe wet a line or
two as well.
When
our river journey ends in Hopedale. We choose our return to Goose Bay/Happy
Valley by charter plane or coastal ferry, but first we want to share
some time with Inuit peoples. We will meet friendly and resourceful
people, learn of their life and art, and explore the coastal environment
that has sustained them for thousands of years. Labrador is the land
of the imagination, and imagination knows no boundaries, where the morning
sky is an invitation to adventure and the night sky is the backdrop
for the Northern Lights. Paddling in Labrador is an opportunity to awaken
your heart and soul.
The Lure of Labrador is a moderate to strenuous camping
trip in the wilderness, so that some experience
is necessary as well and being comfortable in the wilderness.
Contact
Us
BattenKill Canoe, Ltd.
800.421.5268 or 802.362.2800 fax--802.362.0159
©2002 BattenKill Canoe, Ltd.. All rights reserved
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