Quick Summary
Caleb McDaniels and Henry Penfold have completed their 145-day, 2,027-mile (3,262 km) loop around Baffin Island, finishing with a 40-day, 728-mile final leg from Igloolik back to Iqaluit. They packrafted the first 400 miles (often sailing with trekking-pole masts and tent-panel sails), encountering polar bears, a sleeping bull walrus, tidal rapids, and a curious seal on Nettilling Lake, then walked and paddled the last 300 miles. Encroaching winter brought bitter cold, iced-over boats and gear, and slow postholing through snow and frozen marsh, giving the summer journey a natural end and a euphoric arrival in Iqaluit.
Words and Photos by Caleb McDaniels @calebjmcdaniels and Henry Penfold @hpenfold
One hundred and forty-five days after leaving Iqaluit, we are back where we started! With a final 40-day, 728-mile section from Igloolik to Iqaluit, we’ve completed our loop around Baffin. In total, we covered 2027 mi/3262 km over 145 days from late May to mid-October.
This last section was a delightful end to an extraordinary summer. We left Igloolik with seven weeks of food weighing in at just over 180 pounds, including 33 pounds of oats, 27.5 pounds of granola, and 11 pounds of chocolate. With no way to carry that much weight in our packs, we loaded up our packrafts and paddled the first 400 miles. Then, for the final 300 miles, we heaved on our packs to walk overland.
The paddling portion went faster than expected. Much of the time, we sailed using our trekking poles as masts and panels cut from an old tent as sails. Speeding along at over 5 mph, we did some incredible downwinding, spray flying from our bows.
We saw several polar bears as we paddled south, most of them mothers with cubs. One morning, Caleb stumbled across a bear sleeping peacefully behind a rise just a few hundred feet from our tent. Only a few yards away, it lifted its massive white head and glared at him for a moment before returning to its nap in the sun. After a careful retreat and a dash to ready the shotgun, we quickly packed and got on the water. The encounter seemed far more exciting for us than the bear.
We also encountered several walruses, including an impressive bull sleeping in the water. Floating face-down, he occasionally snorted as he lolled between the troughs of waves. Given the size of his tusks, we were glad he didn’t wake as the wind carried us past him. Another highlight of Foxe Basin was paddling several tidal rapids. We’ve never seen anything like these wave trains and ledge holes. Instead of forming in constrictions and narrow channels, we often encountered them around reefs and shallow ledges miles offshore. Our new drysuits were also a major quality-of-life improvement—so pleasant to stay dry!
When we started walking after 18 days, our packs were manageable, if slightly crushing. Three weeks of food plus extra cold-weather gear made our heaviest loads of the trip. Thankfully, two large lakes along our route allowed us to cover about half of the last 300 miles by packraft. Nettilling Lake, the world’s largest lake on an island, is home to a resident seal population. We met one of these fine fellows, who was immensely curious and not at all afraid. He swam around our boats for half an hour, moving back and forth between us to carefully inspect every facet. At one point, he brushed Caleb’s hand with his nose!
Our final days of lake paddling were bitterly cold, and ice accumulated on our boats and clothing. At times Henry had 3-inch icicles hanging from his rigging and half an inch of ice covering his pogies. It was easier to stay warm while walking, but our mornings were drawn out with a new routine of chipping away ice and thawing our shoes over the stove. The final 100 miles of walking was more of a postholing session—we slowly picked our way across snow-covered boulder fields and partly frozen marshlands. We constantly broke through thin ice over the tundra marshes, wearing our drysuits to keep our legs and feet dry.
It’s strange that this long journey is over, but the coming of winter helped bring this summertime adventure to a natural end. As we post-holed through the snow toward Iqaluit, it felt like we were reaching our gear's limits. Our arrival and the ensuing grocery-store rampage were euphoric.
And so, after five months of wonder and joy on Baffin, we head home! We're so grateful for this time in the north.
All the best,
Henry and Caleb
We're proud to have supported Caleb and Henry on this incredible trip and honored that they trust our gear to help make it a reality. Read Part 1 HERE, Part 2 HERE, Part 3 HERE, Part 4 HERE, Part 5 HERE, Part 6 HERE, and more about Caleb's style of adventure and research HERE.
