Caleb McDaniels, 25, and Henry Penfold, 22, are over halfway through their five‑month, 2,300km journey around the coastline of Baffin Island in the Canadian Arctic. The Americans are combining skiing, hiking, and packrafting to almost circle the world’s fifth-largest island.
Their most recent segment took them village-hopping from Pond Inlet to Arctic Bay to Igloolik, an excellent 480km in 16 days. They paddled at the beginning and end, but mostly hiked in excellent weather — “endless sunshine, glassy water, and (mostly) firm tundra.”
Arctic Bay, one stop along the long trail. Photo: Jerry Kobalenko
Roughly halfway through their previous section, the 550km journey from Clyde River to Pond Inlet, the pair had their first “real excitement of the summer.” After some river paddling, Penfold lost a paddle. Despite searching, it didn’t turn up. “So we gathered driftwood and made Henry a pretty solid replacement,” they wrote. Because this area is well above treeline, ancient Inuit also used driftwood, which floats over the Arctic Ocean from Siberia, for their kayak paddles.
The full route. Map: Sanfords.org
The area around Clyde River included many fiords lined with glaciers and some of the highest cliffs in the world. “In one fiord, we passed dozens of narwhals as we paddled,” they wrote. “When we sat still in our packrafts, they didn’t seem to notice us, and several times, they came within a few feet before diving below.”
Narwhals. Photo: Caleb McDaniels
The home stretch
The pair began — and will end — in Iqaluit, the capital of Nunavut. Though not a complete circumnavigation, it’s a mammoth trip. The final leg is by far the longest, stretching around 1,130km, with no villages after Igloolik to resupply. The pair will spend several weeks paddling south along the western coast, then transition to hiking and skiing as the sea ice begins to reform in autumn.
