Introduction
I don’t remember how we decided that Devon Island would be an interesting place for a summer hike…but having been to Canada’s most northern park (Ellesmere Island), I had a good inkling what it might entail. All the essential elements seemed to be there: remoteness, above the treeline, true wilderness, animals, freedom to wander as we pleased, lack of people. Devon’s main claim to fame of course, is the highly publicized and well funded American NASA space research summer camp near the Haughton Crater. We intended to hike in the Truelove Lowlands area, located on the north east coast, well away from any hyperactive scientific group.
Summers are short in the arctic and travel is expensive. Wanting to make the fullest use of time and location, we decided to piggy back the balance of the summer season exploring Bylot Island and Pond Inlet which lay to the south of Devon Island. (for that story, go here: In Search of the Narwal: Pond Inlet Sea Kayaking). Work schedules dictated the earliest possible arrival date on Devon would be July 15th . Read on for the summer of 2004...