Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Kuujjua River/Beaufort Sea Expedition Completed

This is an update to the blog post I made in mid-July of 2008 when friends of ours, Jim and Ted Baird set off on an incredible journey on the remote Victoria Island paddling the Kuujjua river. Although its been quite awhile since they've come back, I'm happy to report they are back safe and sound with memories and experiences to last a lifetime. We finally got an opportunity to have dinner with them and hear the incredible and mind-boggling circumstances and adventures they found themselves in. Needless to say, we sat stunned and breathless at times, just trying to assimilate the information! Even the photos they shared were incredible, but do little justice in a 8x10 format.


Ted and Jim Baird on Victoria Island


Luckily, their adventures and photos will not be kept from inquiring minds. For those of you who would like to hear a mesmerizing story of an extreme adventure and gawk at beautiful photographs on a large screen, they will be presenting at the annual Wilderness Canoe Symposium in Toronto this year. Information regarding the event on Feb 13 & 14, can be found on this website: http://www.wcsymposium.com Trust me, I will be there!!!


"Looking across the mouth of the Minto Inlet on the
Beaufort Sea, Victoria Island"


As you can already see, Jim has graciously provided some photos from his expedition for us to view and salivate. If you want to see more, you can go to his website www.canoebeyond.com and look up Kuujjua under Expedition. Or even easier, here's the direct link to more of the photos from his trip: http://www.canoebeyond.com/kuujjua/kuujjua.html


Jim scouting a section of the Kuujjua River


Congrats gentlemen to the completion of an amazing adventure and your safe arrival! Looking forward to the presentation!!!


Victoria Island, NWT, Canada

All photos in this post are courtesy of Jim & Ted Baird

4 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi David,
Thank you for your support! We hope to canoe with you in the very near future and know that we are thinking of you....I thoroughly enjoyed reading your blog...and other good news is that we can now drive to the cottage over the ice so an invite is on the way once Jim is back from NYC. You are such an awesome person and I am happy that we will see you that Symposium!!
All the best- Nicole :)

Ben said...

A good report and stunning pictures. I look forward to hearing more of Jim and Ted's story at the symposium.

Watergrl said...

David, I remember contacting you a couple years ago about the Kuujjua--was trying to organize a trip there myself, but it didn't work out for us that year. We have a trip going to Banks Island, Thomsen River in June 2011. If you or anyone else you know is interested, let me know. Around June 18 for 16 days....

The Passionate Paddler said...

Hi Watergrl. Are you sure it wasn't Jim Baird that you spoke to? Maybe it was me, but I can't remember. Anyhow, your trip does sound interesting. Our usual group has some ideas in mind for next year, but things change so its always good to have options. Please email me with details of your trip - passionatepaddler@gmail.com. I certainly would consider it.
Cheers!