Into the Canadian wilderness – 1,500 km by canoe

In the summer of 2025 Håvard Hasund and four others paddled 1,500 kilometres through the wilderness of northern Canada – from Yellowknife to Baker Lake, in 47 days, without seeing another person on the way.

This is the whole trip: how it came about, what could have gone wrong, and what actually happened.

The trip in numbers

Measure	Figure
Distance	about 1,500 km
Duration	47 days
Party	5 people in 2 canoes
Latitude	62–64 degrees north
Planning time	a year and a half
Water temperature	around 4 degrees

Why Canada

No single person came up with the trip. The group had been talking about Canada for years, and the inspiration came from two directions: Helge Ingstad and his book Pelsjegerliv, written after three years in this very area, and Lars Monsen, from whom they had also taken concrete tips.

The reason it had to be Canada is simple: continuous wilderness on a scale that does not exist in Norway. Håvard reckons Russia is the only comparable country, and going there is difficult now.

He adds an observation: there are strikingly many Norwegians in that particular area. Had Ingstad not written his book, few of them would have been there.

Planning starts with a date

You have to set a date, and then build from that date.

How it happened: at Christmas 2023 the group sat over a beer and the decision was made – summer 2025, whatever happens. That left a year and a half to save money, plan the route and gather kit.
Why then: this was something they wanted to do before children and family made it harder.
How: everything lived in a single spreadsheet, with separate tabs for budget, menu and equipment. Planning happened in fits and starts across the whole period, not in intense sessions. Much of the kit they already had – you take essentially what you would take on a two-week trip in the Norwegian mountains.

The route

Yellowknife to Baker Lake

1. Great Slave LakeThe start. Described as paddling among islands and skerries – but so large that it runs a real swell.
2. Pike's PortageThe carry. Also the meeting point where the last three were flown in by float plane.
3. Artillery LakeFurther inland.
4. Hanbury RiverThis is where the rapids start.
5. Thelon RiverThe last river, down towards the finish.
6. Baker LakeCivilisation, after 47 days.

Two groups in one party

This is the most important structural detail of the trip, and it comes back more than once.

They did not travel together. Håvard and one other flew to Yellowknife and paddled alone for two weeks before the other three were flown in. That made two separate groups, each with its own budget, travel planning, equipment and calorie budget.

The group wanted to be five at most. Five does not divide into pairs, and they did not want a third canoe – so it became two in one and three in the other. Whether three in one canoe would even work in rapids and heavy waves was something they were unsure about for a long time. They tested it in Oslo beforehand. It worked; it was just cramped.

The biggest risk

Håvard is a paramedic, and got the question many people wonder about: how do you think about risk when help is hours away? The answer is sober – you cannot know that it will be fine.

The dangerous thing is not the animals. It is capsizing into four-degree water.

The arithmetic: in a capsize, hypothermia is the real threat, and Håvard's estimate is that you have around ten minutes.
Where it came closest: in several places they crossed 3–4 kilometres of open water to avoid paddling in and out of long bays. They assessed the wind and waited when it blew too hard, but paddling around was never an option. One crossing they had postponed until evening because of wind – and ended up crossing in the middle of the night when it suddenly picked up.

The safety kit

What they carried, and what it was for

Item	Role
Bear spray on every person	the most important thing you carry
One rifle and two shotguns	handguns are not permitted in Canada
Garmin inReach	satellite, emergency button, and texts between the groups
Dedicated expedition insurance	ordinary travel insurance does not cover this
Dressings and a splint	bleeding and fractures
Painkillers and antibiotics	prescription, issued in advance

On the emergency beacon he is equally sober:

It takes many hours before it gets there, so you have to know what to do until then.

Against bears the measures were practical. Bear spray on everyone, and a scent barrier around camp – they always walked a wide circle around the site and urinated, so the bears would not come too close.

Food to the gram

Two days in Yellowknife went on logistics: food, lures and ammunition. They spent a whole evening with a scale and a calorie budget, packing breakfast and nut rations to the gram for about 40 days.

Breakfast was porridge with powdered milk, sugar and rapeseed oil, every single day. The recipe comes from the polar explorer Børge Ousland, and the verdict is clear: excellent.

The first two weeks were another story. The pair who paddled first bought ordinary supermarket food – bacon, steak and cheese – in a rush right before departure. On day four the steak tasted odd, and the rest was thrown out. They had started eating fish anyway.

The fishing

This is what Håvard gets most animated about in the whole episode.

Freshwater fishing, two places

Norway

What you hope for

• A fish over a kilo makes it a good day
• Ordinary freshwater tackle is fine

Northern Canada

What happens

• A fish under a kilo counts as a poor effort
• Håvard landed one of eight kilos, and lost a bigger one
• One of the others landed fourteen kilos, almost rounder than it was long
• You need a rod rated for salmon – ordinary tackle snaps

The pace

What a day on the water comes to

Conditions	Result
Hard headwind	2.5 km/h
Normal	5–6 km/h
Good day, after 8–9 days of conditioning	40–45 km
Hardest single day	85 km of flat water, 16–17 hours

The portage, solved two ways

The first job once the party came together was to move all the equipment five kilometres and 200 metres of ascent. The two groups solved it differently, without having agreed on anything.

One carry, two methods

The three

The whole distance in one go

• Carried everything to the end and put it down
• Walked all the way back for the next load

The two

Short stages, repeated

• Carried for 10–15 minutes at a time
• Walked back for the next load
• Carried it past where they had left the last one

When they lost each other

Shortly after joining up came the episode that led to the only real conversation within the group.

The three carried faster than the two and set off before the others were ready. Soon they were a kilometre ahead – at which point they are impossible to catch. Heading up a river they chose a route that looked wrong on the map. Håvard and his partner shouted, were not heard, paddled up the river and could not find them. After contact on inReach it turned out they were just on the other side of the headland.

The route the three chose turned out, incidentally, to be the better one – a narrow channel that ran all the way to the next lake, saving them a carry.

We have to wait for each other.

Why this is not a courtesy rule: two canoes are the safety margin. If one capsizes, the other is the only rescue. A kilometre's lead is enough for that rescue not to exist – and in four-degree water the margin is ten minutes. The conclusion was raised directly within the group, and is the most important safety lesson in the episode.

The shotgun that disappeared

On the fourth day after joining up, one of the three shot at a hare from the canoe. During a hurried reload the shotgun slid over the gunwale and vanished into the water. They marked the position on GPS immediately.

Håvard free-dives, and measured the depth with a water-filled bottle and five metres of rope. It stopped at around four metres, which seemed manageable. He stripped off, paddled out and dived. His dive watch read seven metres, and it was clearly a good deal deeper than that.

The shotgun is still in a nameless lake in northern Canada. Håvard has the coordinates.

The rapids

Asked what the single best thing about the trip was, the answer is rapids.

He describes the first one: the big canoe portaged past, since three people in a longer canoe is far less stable. Håvard and his partner paddled down, pulled into an eddy – where you turn the canoe against the current and sit completely still – and studied the river below. The plan was to get across to the left and avoid some large waves. They tried, almost made it, and realised it would not work. So they simply had to drive straight out into them.

It went completely fine. But bloody hell, it was fun.

Day 40

After around 35–36 days the two groups separated again. Håvard and his partner had had their fill and wanted to get home; the other three wanted to use the time they had. They parted amicably – and it is after this that the trip’s densest wildlife encounters come.

From splitting up to the evening of day 40

1. Straight afterwards: a wolfFifteen metres away on the riverbank. It came straight at them, spotted them, spun round and bolted – wolves are hunted in the area, and are terrified of people.
2. Half a minute later: two mooseAnd ten minutes after that, a large bull moose.
3. Day 40: a sow with two cubs300–400 metres away. The wind was against them, so the bears did not get their scent.
4. A little further down: caribouA whole herd at full gallop.
5. Five minutes later: a grizzly sow with three cubsThirty metres away. She spotted them, came down to the bank and stood up on two legs while they filmed from the water.
6. And an "odd rock"They had seen so many rocks that turned out to be bears – and the reverse – that they paddled on. When they turned round, the rock was standing on two legs.

Baker Lake

After 47 days in the wilderness they went straight to the shopping centre. There was a Pizza Hut and a Tim Hortons – three counters, but the same people serving all three. The Pizza Hut was closed, so it was a burger.

It was cold. It was also magnificent.

Then they bought white bread, mayonnaise, ham, cheese, crisps, Snickers and a great deal of sweet pastry, and lay in the hotel room for nearly three days watching Netflix on a phone.

Håvard brought two pairs of boxer shorts on the trip. One pair was worn for 53 days.

Main topics

• Where the idea came from, and why it had to be Canada
• The planning – the date first, everything else after
• The route, from Yellowknife to Baker Lake
• Why they travelled as two groups
• The biggest risk, and why it is not bears
• The safety kit, and the insurance that does not cover it
• Food, weight and the calorie budget
• The fishing, which is nothing like Norway
• The pace – headwind, good days and the hardest leg
• The five-kilometre portage, solved two ways
• When they lost each other, and what they learned
• The watershed, and the rapids
• Day 40, with a wolf, moose and four bears
• Baker Lake, and the cold burger

Questions this episode answers

• What was the Canada expedition actually about?
• How do you plan a 1,500 km canoe trip?
• What is the biggest risk on a trip like this?
• What first aid and safety equipment should you bring?
• Does ordinary travel insurance cover an expedition?
• How do you handle an encounter with a bear?
• How do you plan food for nearly fifty days?
• What would he do differently next time?

Key points

• Set a date first, and build the plan backwards from it. The decision was made at Christmas 2023 for the summer of 2025.
• Capsizing into four-degree water is the real risk – not bears. His estimate is about ten minutes.
• Bear spray matters more than firearms, and plenty of people are out there without any firearm at all.
• Ordinary Norwegian travel insurance excludes expeditions in the northern Canadian wilderness, alongside Greenland.
• An emergency beacon does not save you. Help takes hours, and you have to manage until it arrives.
• Two canoes are the safety margin. If one capsizes, the other is the only rescue – which is why the group has to wait for each other.
• Breakfast was porridge with powdered milk, sugar and rapeseed oil, every single day for 47 days.
• A lake trout under a kilo counts as a poor effort. He landed one of eight kilos himself.
• On the worst days they made 2.5 km/h. The hardest day was 85 kilometres in sixteen to seventeen hours.