Outside Adventure Grant

Just submitted our application for Outside Magazine's $10,000 Adventure Grant! Charlie wrote an amazing 500 word essay that I am including below. Enjoy and wish us luck!

The age-old adage that the only thing more fleeting than summers is youth – is true. If however, like Pablo Picasso, you believe that youth has no age then you are probably an outdoor enthusiast like us, continually rediscovering the wondrous aesthetic of the natural world that surrounds as you set forth on your summer odyssey to a place devoid of urban abstraction. A childhood curiosity and sense of adventure carry many of us each summer beyond the wispy pine bluffs and wandering white rivers to a land far, far away. We travel back in time, both on the inside and out. We rekindle the wonderful and creative imagination that was left slumbering from our age of innocence in a summer long ago, and revisit a world unmanned. This summer, a group of intrepid adventurers embark on a journey down Canada’s mighty George River to Ungava Bay to do just that.

The George River is iconic to those who venture there. It was not long ago the George and indeed all of Labrador and Northern Quebec were unknown to cartographers. It wasn’t until 1903 that a gung-ho Leonidas Hubbard, a sports writer from New York City with a hummingbird’s heart for the outdoors but little practical experience set forth to travel from North West River to Ungava Bay. His route was misguided and he died tragically of starvation, alone in the wilderness. Motivated by love and anguish for her brave lost husband, Mina Hubbard completed the journey in 1905.

On July 12, six friends who have grown up camping and guiding canoe trips in Canada’s frontier wildernesses—Algonquin, Temagami, and the Hudson Bay lowlands—set forth to explore and photograph the same lonesome land as it was and has largely remained, since the Hubbards first embarked on their perilous journey. We plan to travel down the river for 25 days, navigating braided rapids and thunderous waterfalls. The George is home to the largest caribou herd in the world, accompanied by white wolves and black bear, even beluga and seals on Ungava Bay. Our trip is in good company indeed; not only have all the members guided large river trips to Hudson’s Bay before, but one member, Ryan Arthurs, has recently graduated from Massachusetts College of Art and Design with his Masters in photography. Ryan’s steady hand will masterfully capture the priceless moments as we travel back in time to a land we once knew, and he will publish those photos in a book funded via Kickstarter. We are hoping to use this grant to cover the costs of our travel, food and gear.

May we never forget just what we learned as children when days were so long and nights set our visions wild; there is no hill too far, no puddle too deep, no tree too high for us to find, splash, and climb. For us, our floating hearts will always head up north, and down stream.

UPDATED: Unfortunately we were not selected as finalists. Bit disappointing but life goes on. I will submit photos to Outside Magazine after the trip and hopefully they will see the error of their decision, lol. Kidding. Hoping to maybe get a story out of it still... more to come this fall.