It is 5:00 a.m. and I’m wide awake. No matter how hard I try, I keep tossing in my bunk, my thoughts racing. Here I am at the foot of the Torngat mountain range, in one of Canada’s most pristine and remote national parks, and I am aching to go farther. I was told by an important individual in my life that the mountains refresh your very soul. This is what the Torngats do for the Inuit people of Nunatsiavut – it is their spiritual home, their place to connect with their past, their place to connect with god. It is a feeling like no other, or so I’m told.
I lace on my hiking boots, and head outside, hoping to see the clouds clear.
We are travelling through Northern Labrador as part of the Action Canada program, and we’ve enjoyed several days of cultural trips, history lessons, and leadership sessions to help us better understand the land, and its people. I know how fortunate I am even to be at base camp. To get into Torngat National Park is a multiday hike through some of the world’s oldest mountains, and Canada’s most stunning fjords.
And it is now 6 a.m. on our last day. If I’m to make it into the park, I need to convince the base camp helicopter pilot to fly a small group of Fellows, and our bear guide, into one of the most remote places on earth. There is a small window of time, and the clouds are heavy. Six of us wait in the mess hall awaiting the pilot’s verdict. After what feels like forever he appears, looking doubtful. We can give it a try, he says, but there is fog in the valley all around base camp. A try is all we’ve got.
We get in the helicopter and fly north-east for fifteen minutes with nothing but fog all around us, our hearts are sinking. Then it happens. As if the sprits of the Nunatsiavut people have opened the way ahead of us. The fog disappears, and blue sky and the Torngats lie before us. Our pilot points below; a polar bear is walking on a rocky island 100 feet below. None of us can contain ourselves, including our bear guide Jobee, born and raised in Nunatsiavut. We land, after flying through the most breathtaking fjord, and Jobee leads us away from the helicopter, hiking atop a plateau that his ancestors walked a 1000 years before Words or pictures cannot capture what you experience with the Torngats. I can only say it is something bordering on a spiritual awaking, something the Inuit have treasured for thousands of years. However short, it has truly refreshed and awoken my soul. As we fly out of the park, we see another polar bear below us and I know I will be back.
-Christopher Skappak, ’15
– Chris (r) & Jobee