Sometimes/oftentimes the quality of a trip is directly related to the people you meet along the way or the people who join you on your adventure - and so it was on my recent trip to Canada - I knew that the train ride would add an element of interest to the trip but I had no idea just how much it would contribute in terms of human interest - here's just a few of the people I met along the way...
Pier-Luc & Anton - When I arrived at the train station there was a young man waiting for the southbound train the next day - his name was Pier-Luc and with 5 other people (Expedition AKOR) he had just completed an epic 800 mile, 65 day trip, beginning at Schefferville, Quebec, going across Labrador to the Georges River, down to Ugava Bay, out into the bay up the Koroc River, over the height of land in the Torngat Mts, down the Palmer Rver to the Labrador coast and then 250 miles down the Labrador coast to Nain. Because of the late spring and the length of the trip, they had to head out early - as a result, for the first 100 miles of the trip, the group had to haul their canoes and gear over frozen lakes and rivers and then when they finally found liquid water, it was wicked cold, high and full of ice...when they got into polar bear country, on top of all the other stresses, they had to maintain a 24/7 bear watch - they saw over a dozen polar bears and had to chase 2 out of their camps - when he got done with his story, my little plan seemed so puny that I considered just going home...a great kid - just as humble and unassuming as a person could be - my new hero! When I told him I had no bear protection he gave me his "bear banger" and a bag of charges - they documented the trip with still, video and drone cameras - I highly recommend checking out their FaceBook and following their production:
https://www.facebook.com/expeditionakor/A bit later a scruffy exchange student, Anton, from Ghent, Belgium showed up - he was touring Newfoundland by thumb and was also there to catch the south bound train the next day - he was another thoroughly impressive young man - intelligent, polite. gracious, spoke 3 languages flawlessly and was functional in 3 more, etc, etc - we discussed everything from world politics to travel to architecture and history - visiting with these 2 amazing youngsters renewed my faith in the younger generation and made me regret that my train was only 2 hours late!
The Conductor & Yan - When I asked the French-Canadian girl who sold me my ticket how I would get the train to stop where I wanted it to, she simply replied "You just tell the guy..." - OK - the conductor did not comprehend geographic coordinates, landmarks or place names - the only thing he understood were mile marks on the railway, something I had no way of making sense of - the language barrier didn't help either - when I was finally able to convey where I wanted to get off he indicated that there was a camp right there - furthermore, he said that the camp owner, Yan, just happened to be on the train - moments later they both came to me and insisted that I spend the nite at the camp because it was getting dark, the waves were up on the lake and it might be a tricky crossing. I was again thoroughly impressed that these strangers would be willing to do so much for a clueless Yankee...then again I've noticed on several occasions that the people in that part of the world are incredibly hospitable and look out for their fellow travelers - as it turned out I spent my last 2 nites in the woods, at the end of my trip, at Yan's camp too.
The Other Expedition - Near the end of my trip when the train stopped to pick me up, I loaded my kayak into the baggage car and proceeded to board the train thru the baggage car - as I walked thru I noticed 2 pimped out Old Town canoes that were obviously coming home from an expedition - I decided to find the owners and do some visiting - I walked up thru the passenger cars until I found another scruffy looking kid at a fly tying vise, surrounded by materials - I asked if he was one of the owners and he declared that he was and that he and his 3 friends were returning from a remote river in Labrador - as it turned out it was an area I was very familiar with and we proceeded to share stories and compare notes for the next 2.5 hours - they too were a sponsored expedition that is aiming to get their production into at least one of the major film festivals, quite possibly the Fly Fishing Film Tour - aside from a lot of beautiful still photography they also got a lot of impressive underwater and drone footage - we had a great time on the train together and I'd be willing to bet that I'll be seeing at least some of them again - their web presence is a bit tedious to navigate (for an old man anyway) but I highly recommend checking out these 2 sites to see what these kids are up to - chances are good that many of you are already familiar with them...
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ti ... s-big-landhttp://tightloopsfly.com/home-3Here's to the folks we enjoy the outdoors with - Tight Lines & Happy Trails!