FFIM

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-land

http://tightloopsfly.com/home-3

Here's to the folks we enjoy the outdoors with - Tight Lines & Happy Trails!

Over the past couple of years I have had some guests at camp that brushed shoulders with celebrity. Carl Bernstien's brother in law ( Bernstien was Washington Post Watergate reporter) and a guy that guided for Kennebago Lake House when Kurt Russell (actor) worked as a bus boy there as a kid. Ok. A bit of a stretch, but the best I can do.

Long live the adventurous!!

Kat

Nice post Brian.

Somewhere on the not-so-far flung fishing universe are a few fellow fisherman talking similarly about the fellow from Maine they met along there travels, whom fears not traveling solo, black bears, or the lure of the Labrador wild. Hopefully you will all meet again someday on another adventure.

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"You never miss the water until the well runs dry" - traditional blues

That was the best post here in many years. And it wasn’t about fishing. Sort of. Thanks Brian.

Great post Brian!

Great story Brian, I always wonder how you'll top last years trip but you do. Newfi/Labrador people are the best. My wife and I went to Newfi for our honeymoon. On the ferry we met a truck driver from Newfi. The ocean was a little rough and we were doing better on the deck versus our cabin. He had a sleeping bag and was trying to sleep so we told him to use our room, which he did. As we left the ferry he said to stop by his house or he would be mad. So we called and he gave us a time to be there. When we arrived he had set up a wedding party for us with all his friends. We had a great time and have been swapping Christmas cards for years.

The story about the people from Newfi putting up all the stranded passengers when 9/11 happened is fantastic.

Great story Brian. They sound much more exciting than the peat moss salesman on the ferry. Just a question on the Akor expedition. How did they get back on the train from Nain Did they fly back to Schefferville?
And don’t discount your exploits, look at the budget differences. Pretty tough to get a super trip like yours for your bottom line.

Ron

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The charm of fishing is that it is the pursuit of something that is elusive but attainable, a perpetual series of occasions for hope.

Sir John Buchan

Bill, I've encountered some very friendly truckers up there too - also, one of the kids (Chris Sinclair) in the TightLoops crew was a guide at Minipi Lodge - he has also guided at Igloo Lake recently and had a picture of a guy on his cell phone with a giant brookie and he looked like you and his name was also Bill Ma - something or other, but it wasn't Mahoney...

Ron, I still tell the peat moss guy's jokes! As soon as those kids told me what their budget was, it took me about 3 seconds to calculate that mine was almost exactly 1/1000th of theirs! The AKOR crew, except for Pier-Luc, put all their gear in a container at Nain and took the ferry home with it - by the time I met Pier-Luc, they had made it back to Quebec City and had already been on television - I assume that Pier-Luc got off the ferry at Goose Bay and picked up the train so he could retrieve a vehicle in Sept-Ille?

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The best things in life...aren't things.

holy moly Brian, as usual, a wonderful story, as you read you feel like you're there. you are one of those people you meet on FFIM I'm proud to be your friend