Alone Against the North by Adam Shoalts Page A

difficult. Wes and I have done worse.”
    â€œThere is no way we can carry the canoe through this. Just portaging around the gorge was hard enough. Doing this would be impossible .”
    â€œEveryone feels like that at the start of any big expedition. It’s natural. It takes a while to get used to the routine. Once youget broken in, you’ll find it much easier,” I said, trying to hide my exasperation.
    â€œAdam, there’s no way I’ll ever find this easy. It’s too far. This is far worse than I imagined.” Brent paused. “I want to go home.”
    â€œBrent, you listened to my stories, saw my pictures, you knew what it was like. And we’re committed now, we can’t quit. We have no choice but to continue.”
    â€œI never imagined it would be this bad. I have to quit. I’m dead serious. I want to go home. This is awful. I’m sorry, but there’s no way I can stay here.” It didn’t help that just then the blackflies were thick as storm clouds around us.
    â€œYou can’t quit. It’ll get better, I promise. We can go back to camp and rest, and start again tomorrow. You’ll feel better then.”
    â€œNo, I won’t. Even at camp there’s no comfort. Everything about this is terrible.”
    â€œBrent, no matter what, I won’t quit. If you won’t go on, I’ll just leave you here,” I said firmly.
    â€œAdam!”
    â€œI’m serious, Brent. Your only choice is to follow me.”
    â€œWhere’s the satellite phone? I want to call a pilot to come back and pick me up.”
    â€œThat’ll cost you a fortune; the pilot will charge you an arm and a leg for that.”
    â€œI don’t care. I have to get out of here.”
    â€œBrent, pull yourself together. We’ve barely done anything and you already want to quit,” I said angrily. “Don’t you have any pride? Everyone will think less of you if you quit.”
    â€œI don’t care. They have no idea what it’s actually like. They would all quit too if they were here—any normal person who valued their life would.”
    â€œYou’re just freaking out because of how raw this feels to you. It happens to lots of people when they’re exposed to hardship for the first time. Even Wes wanted to quit on our first expedition. It takes time to get used to things, especially since you’ve never done anything like this before.”
    â€œI can’t do this.”
    I was now furious at Brent’s poor effort and his obstinate refusal to push on. We returned through the forest to our camp on the lakeshore, where we continued arguing. Brent insisted that I take him back to the cabins on Hawley Lake and leave him there until we could find a pilot to fly him back to civilization. To do so would mean the end of the expedition and the abandonment of my dreams and what I had strived for years to achieve. Tension between us was at the breaking point when out of the corner of my left eye I noticed something lumbering up the lakeshore.
    â€œLook over there,” I said in a hushed whisper of excitement. A large caribou was trotting along the lake in our direction. It had a huge rack of antlers and was the finest specimen I had ever seen. It looked like it could have been the model for a royal coat of arms. The caribou paid no heed to us and nonchalantly wandered right past our camp, no more than ten metres from where we sat.
    â€œIt has no fear of us,” said Brent, staring transfixed at the magnificent animal.
    Our unexpected visitor seemed to have raised his spirits a little, and it cheered our mood. If I handled the situation adroitly, I figured I could convince Brent to carry on. With that aim in mind, I kept up the conversation on caribou and other wildlife, as Brent loved animals, while building a heartening fire to keep the bugs away and cook supper.
    That night, as we ate Kraft Dinner, I did my best to inspire