Calem Watson is just over a week into an attempt to canoe 13,000km from the Arctic to the Tropics. The Canadian adventurer set out from Chantrey Inlet on the Arctic Ocean in Nunavut on June 22.
The 25-year-old anticipates that the journey will take at least 12 months. A day-one post shows Watson dragging his canoe across the sea ice atop a wooden sled. He admitted struggling with the uneven ice and meltwater: “I kinda got my ass kicked today,” he said. “Pulling my canoe and sleigh over the sea ice was way more difficult than I anticipated.”
In a further update after his first week, Watson reported finding leads of open water along the coast of the inlet before trending inland and heading upriver for 140km, where he faced “intense mosquitoes.” The paddler says he is a few days behind schedule.
Through Canada and America
Watson’s route across northern Canada will take him through the Barren Lands, a vast tundra region stretching across Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. Here, he will paddle, portage, and wade upstream via the Back, Meadowbank, Thelon, Kunwak, Knowleye, and Kazan Rivers.
He anticipates facing “strong currents, numerous portages, ice-filled lakes, grizzly bears, and hordes of mosquitoes,” according to his website.
Watson cooks on a previous trip. Photo: Calem Watson
Once through the Barrens, the young canoeist will paddle to his home province of Saskatchewan. Here, he aims to harvest a bull moose for food over the coming months.
Watson will then follow traditional fur trade routes south into Manitoba. He will be racing against winter as he crosses the large lakes of Cedar, Winnipegosis, and Manitoba before hitting the Assiniboine and Red Rivers.
The Thelon River, one of the Barren Land Rivers, and part of Watson’s route. Photo: Nahanni River Adventures
Into the United States
The Red River will take Watson over the border into the U.S. By this time, he will have accumulated around 3,500km of paddling. A portage will take him to the Mississippi River, but he will have to speed south to avoid the freeze-up that occurs in the northern section of that river in winter.
On a previous expedition. Photo: Calem Watson
Watson will then continue downriver through Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. When the Mississippi enters the Gulf of Mexico, Watson will cut through a protected passage trending west into Mexico. By then, Watson will have covered around 8,000km.
Mexico to Columbia
Once in Mexico, Watson will trade inland water for the open ocean, as he intends to paddle around the Gulf of Mexico and the Yucatan Peninsula to the Caribbean Sea and Central America.
Eventually, he will reach the east coast of Belize, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, and Panama on the way to his planned finish in South America on the coast of Colombia, the tenth and final country of the expedition.
Photo: Calem Watson
Watson hasn’t released details of how and where he will resupply, whether he will take prolonged rests, nor on what proportion of the journey he will camp or stay in nearby accommodation.
Past canoe journeys
Watson has experience in long canoe journeys. In 2023, he completed a 3,000km crossing of the Northwest Territories in 122 days, from the southern border of the NWT to Tuktoyaktuk on the Arctic Ocean. Before this, he completed a 1,000km canoe trip across the Barren Lands in 37 days. If successful, this latest venture would be the longest-ever solo canoe journey, according to Watson.
