Search Results: Returned 5 Results, Displaying Titles 1 - 5
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2015., Adult, Penguin Canada Call No: Bio S559a Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: "When Adam Shoalts ventured into the largest unexplored wilderness on the planet, he hoped to set foot where no one had ever gone before. Shoalts was no stranger to the wilderness. He had hacked his way through jungles and swamp, had stared down polar bears and climbed mountains. But one spot on the map called out to him: the Hudson Bay Lowlands, a trackless expanse of muskeg and lonely rivers, caribou and wolf -- an Amazon of the north, parts of which to this day remain unexplored. Cutting through this forbidding landscape is a river no explorer, trapper, or canoeist had left any record of paddling. It was this river that Shoalts was obsessively determined to explore. It took him several attempts, and years of research. But finally, alone, he found the headwaters of the mysterious river. He believed he had discovered what he had set out to find. But the adventure had just begun. Unexpected dangers awaited him downstream. A classic adventure story of single-minded obsession, physical hardship, and the restless sense of wonder that every explorer has in common. But what does exploration mean in an age when satellite imagery of even the remotest corner of the planet is available to anyone? What Shoalts discovered as he paddled downriver was a series of unmapped waterfalls that could easily have killed him. Just as astonishing was the media reaction when he got back to civilization. He was crowned "Canada<U+2019>s Indiana Jones" and appeared on morning television. Adam Shoalts' expeditions, focusing on the vast Hudson Bay Lowlands, have generated new geographic knowledge and garnered international headlines"--Provided by publisher.
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2019., Adult, Allen Lane Call No: 917.19047 S559b Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: "A thrilling odyssey through an unforgiving landscape, and the rich history it reveals. What does it mean to explore and confront the unknown? Beyond the Trees recounts Adam Shoalts's epic, solo crossing of Canada's mainland Arctic in a single season--the first in recorded history. It's also a multilayered story that weaves the narrative of Shoalts's journey into accounts of other adventurers, explorers, First Nations, fur traders, dreamers, eccentrics, and bush pilots to create an unforgettable tale of adventure and exploration. Interspersed with his stories of navigating mazes of shifting ice floes, facing down snarling bears and galloping musk-ox, and portaging along knife-edge cliffs above furious rapids, are the fascinating legends, historic persons, and incredible anecdotes that make up the lore of the North. They include the saga of the Mad Trapper, a man whose feats of endurance and ingenuity were almost as legendary as his violent end; the story of the controversial Vilhjalmur Stefansson, a redoubtable dreamer but also one who was blamed for the deaths of his companions; the tale of the "Lost Patrol" of Mounties who perished in a blinding blizzard; the formidable Tyrell brothers who together charted much of Canada's North; the eerie ruins of Fort Confidence that was built nearly two centuries ago on Great Bear Lake; and the decaying remnants of gold prospector David Douglas's cabin overlooking the Dease River. The North is indeed a perilous place. Also told in the book is the tragedy of John Hornby and his two companions who starved to death on the banks of the Thelon River; their bones are still resting just above the riverbank in shallow graves. Beyond the Trees also discusses folklore about wendigoes, strange lights, and the mystery of Angikuni Lake, where in 1930 an entire Inuit camp supposedly vanished without a trace. These mysteries and wonders are Shoalts's only companions as he sets out on his own path through the adventure of a lifetime."--.
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-- Canada in ten maps :2018., Adult, Penguin, an imprint of Penguin Canada Call No: 911.71 S559h Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: Winner of the 2018 Louise de Kiriline Lawrence Award for Nonfiction Longlisted for the 2018 RBC Taylor Prize Shortlisted for the 2018 Edna Staebler Award for Creative Non-Fiction The sweeping, epic story of the mysterious land that came to be called "Canada" like it's never been told before. Every map tells a story. And every map has a purpose--it invites us to go somewhere we've never been. It's an account of what we know, but also a trace of what we long for. Ten Maps conjures the world as it appeared to those who were called upon to map it. What would the new world look like to wandering Vikings, who thought they had drifted into a land of mythical creatures, or Samuel de Champlain, who had no idea of the vastness of the landmass just beyond the treeline? Adam Shoalts, one of Canada's foremost explorers, tells the stories behind these centuries old maps, and how they came to shape what became "Canada." It's a story that will surprise readers, and reveal the Canada we never knew was hidden. It brings to life the characters and the bloody disputes that forged our history, by showing us what the world looked like before it entered the history books. Combining storytelling, cartography, geography, archaeology and of course history, this book shows us Canada in a way we've never seen it before.
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-- Falcon flies :2023., Adult, Allen Lane Call No: NEW 917.1904 S559w Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: From Canada's most accomplished adventurer and storyteller comes another gripping journey into the vastness of Canada's landscape and history, following the route of the migrating peregrine falcon. In March of 2020, Adam Shoalts set out from his front porch--the first steps of an adventure that will change our sense of the way our everyday lives are connected to the vastness of our small planet. Shoalts portaged his canoe down his driveway to Lake Erie. From there he followed the migrating peregrine falcon all the way to the arctic. His quest meant paddling along the shores of the Great Lakes, then travelling up the Saguenay River, through the forests and into the tundra, and then the Torngat mountains. In his signature style, Shoalts roams as much across time as he does across space, winding his way through a stunning landscape and the sites of battles, shipwrecks, and forgotten trading posts that define our country's history. But more importantly, he shows, mile-by-mile, how even our own driveways are connected to the network of ecosystems that support life around the globe. A work of gripping adventure writing and polished storytelling, and a tale with an unavoidably urgent ecological warning, Where the Falcon Flies is a masterwork of one of Canada's most successful and audacious authors.
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-- Night wind :2021., Adult, Allen Lane Call No: 917.18 S559w Availability:1 of 1 At Your Library Summary Note: Spine-tingling adventure that is stranger than fiction, from Canada's most beloved modern-day explorer. Traverspine is not a place you will find on most maps. A century ago, it stood near the foothills of the remote Mealy Mountains in central Labrador. Today it is an abandoned ghost town, almost all trace of it swallowed up by dark spruce woods that cloak millions of acres. In the 1910s, this isolated little settlement was the scene of an extraordinary haunting by large creatures none could identify. Strange tracks were found in the woods. Unearthly cries were heard in the night. Sled dogs went missing. Children reported being stalked by a terrifying grinning animal. Families slept with cabin doors barred and axes and guns at their bedsides. Tales of things that "go bump in the night" are part of the folklore of the wilderness, told and retold around countless campfires down through the ages. Most seldom seem very tangible. Sasquatch, windigos, and other legends are easily dismissed by skeptics. But what happened at Traverspine a hundred years ago was different. The eye-witness accounts were detailed, and those who reported them included no less than three medical doctors and a wildlife biologist. Something terrifying really did emerge from the wilderness to haunt the little settlement of Traverspine. Adam Shoalts, decorated modern day explorer and an expert on wilderness folklore, picks up the trail from a century ago and sets off into the Labrador wild to investigate the tale. It is a spine-tingling adventure stranger than fiction, straight from a land steeped in legends and lore, where Vikings wandered a thousand years ago and wolves and bears still roam free. In delving into the dark corners of Canada's wild, The Whisper on the Night Wind combines folklore, history, and adventure into a fascinating saga of exploration.
