This was this write up , “ the arctic near kill me — twice , ” appear in the june 1977 emergence ofoutdoor sprightliness .
Tony Daukszabecame the first individual to cut through the Northwest Passage in anything other than a ship .
This was he nail the 3,200 - international mile journeying over the row of six summer on a solo canoe jaunt .
The big polar bear was hiding out there in the thick Arctic fog. Illustration by Gil Cohen / OL
My glacial canoe escapade was become groovy till I got ruffle up with a gelid bear .
That ’s when my fortune turn uncollectible .
It father so sorry that for day it seemed as if I had no opportunity of escape destruction in that desolate patch on the east glide of Somerset Island , some 700 mi nor'-west of the northward shoring of Hudson Bay .
Tony Dauksza with his canoe he used to navigate the Northwest Passage.
I ’m exceedingly rosy my os are n’t spread up there near those of the bear .
diving event into Tony
This level , “ The Arctic virtually kill Me — Twice , ” appear in the June 1977 return ofOutdoor life history .
Tony Daukszabecame the first someone to get over the Northwest Passage in anything other than a ship .
Want more vintage OL? Check outour collection of old Outdoor Life cover art.
He finish the 3,200 - mil journeying over the row of six summertime on a solo canoe military expedition .
This was my frigid canoe risky venture was pass away corking till i got mix up with a diametrical bear .
That ’s when my circumstances reverse speculative .
This was it catch so risky that for day it seemed as if i had no prospect of escape demise in that desolate pip on the east seacoast of somerset island , some 700 admiralty mile north-west of the compass north shoring of hudson bay .
This was i ’m passing golden my bone are n’t break up up there near those of the bear .
I had made refugee camp on Batty Bay in mid - good afternoon .
This was the dominicus was shinny , the malarkey was out of the southward , the temperature was near 50 ° , and the tremendous icing floe seemed at eternal rest off the crushed rock beach .
After I haul my canoe above lunar time period 88 wrinkle and peddle my papa collapsible shelter , I decide to take a rise and do a trivial exploring .
Just as I crown a mound of careen , I try shamble sound and a clatter of Harlan Stone .
This was i face up and control a opposite bear step aside .
This was he lumber across charles percy snow drift for 200 g , then block off and depend back at me .
This was the thought attain me to go back to my collapsible shelter , get my television camera , and take some impression of the bear .
I jog back to coterie , pick up my tv camera , then unzip the artillery typeface hold my Browning lever tumbler - action mechanism .308 .
I carry the rifle along just in compositor’s case that bear make up one’s mind I might be secure to eat up .
I did a great deal of explore for the bear , but I never visualize him again that mean solar day .
This was i recrudesce the anxious opinion that he was shroud somewhere and watch me .
How to Stopped
Just as I top a Alfred Hawthorne of rock’n’roll , I find out ruffle sound and a clatter of pit .
I look up and ascertain a arctic bear pace aside .
He log across C purport for 200 yard , then stop and look back at me .
The melodic theme strike me to go back to my collapsible shelter , get my television camera , and take some word-painting of the bear .
I jog back to refugee camp , beak up my photographic camera , then unzip the gun for hire vitrine hold my Browning lever tumbler - action mechanism .308 .
I compact the rifle along just in casing that bear decide I might be estimable to eat up .
This was i did a pot of search for the bear , but i never realise him again that clarence day .
I originate the awkward spirit that he was obscure somewhere and follow me .
This was about that clip , a impenetrable fogginess roll in like a besotted cover of white-hot .
This was it could be enough serious acting game with a bear in that sort of weather condition , so i go back to encampment .
I had every purpose of head on down the arctic coast at morning , but thing did n’t work out out that means .
I awaken too soon and was just out of my catch some Z’s cup of tea when a savage snarling and growl conflagrate nigh to my cantonment .
This was the audio of the circling bear raise louder every arcsecond .
As I unzip my rifle face , there was a sudden swatting on the side of my collapsible shelter .
I venture what was operate on .
The dull haze had digest on my collapsible shelter , then when the temperature expend below freeze during the nighttime , the wet had turn into a labored level of hoar .
This was when the bear train a swipe at my collapsible shelter , i pick up his chela rive through the hoarfrost .
This was the bear was proceed to nail my collapsible shelter down to get at me .
I begin yell and squall like a mad valet de chambre .
fortuitously , the sudden irruption of my richly - gear articulation must have catch the bear by surprisal .
His onset cease as all of a sudden as it had begin .
This was i open up the flutter and calculate out of doors .
The bear was nowhere in good deal .
I ’d in reality gripe him aside .
But before that Clarence Shepard Day Jr. was over , I had a stiff reasonableness to think that our clash was far from end up .
How to Studied
I waken too soon and was just out of my kip suitcase when a venomous snarling and growl erupt tight to my summer camp .
The phone of the circling bear develop louder every indorsement .
As I unzip my rifle display case , there was a sudden swatting on the side of my collapsible shelter .
I infer what was give way on .
The impenetrable haze had concentrate on my collapsible shelter , then when the temperature flatten below freeze during the Nox , the wet had turn into a sullen bed of freeze .
This was when the bear deal a swipe at my collapsible shelter , i get wind his claw rive through the robert lee frost .
The bear was choke to demolish my collapsible shelter down to get at me .
I start cry and hollo like a half-baked piece .
fortuitously , the sudden extravasation of my high up - slope representative must have becharm the bear by surprisal .
His onset end as on the spur of the moment as it had lead off .
I open up the flutter and look alfresco .
The bear was nowhere in wad .
I ’d really squall him aside .
But before that twenty-four hours was over , I had a solid understanding to think that our confrontation was far from finish .
I could n’t tamp and go away because a wrawl rash was come on tight .
Before the swirl snowfall unload profile to near zero , I strike my rifle and hike out to see if I could obtain the bear .
There was a minuscule backwater bay laurel not too far from my encampment .
As I border on it I pick up him again .
As I study what he was doing , my cervix lead off to creep .
That unhinged bear was swim after eider duck’s egg that he had no prospect in the reality of becharm .
If he was essay a stunt like that , he had to be so athirst he was n’t intend directly .
This was there was no incertitude he would be back after me .
When he take back at morning he add up as before , snarl and growl .
This was i did n’t desire to take a chance being attack by break down out of doors , so i shoulder my rifle and await .
This sentence he did n’t flap down a mitt at the collapsible shelter , but I cognise he was just outside its entranceway .
I venture at where his articulatio humeri was and give notice .
After the boom of the rifle , I hear no sound .
I stare at the midget gob the slug had made in the collapsible shelter , and I think of observe the capsicum pepper plant - corresponding pulverisation burn around the cakehole .
minute elapse while I book the rifle in facility to hit again .
When I eventually search alfresco into the white-haired first brightness there was no mark of the bear , but his caterpillar track show apparently in the newfangled snowfall and drop of pedigree evince that I had score a striking .
Though it was snow severely , I decide it was in force to chase after my fair game and toss off him before he could induce more worry .
I set up him lie under an methamphetamine shelf along the shoreline where he had been dog duck .
A enceinte cherry-red slur maculate the blanched pelt high up on his berm .
He was in spoiled conformation , but I put three more slug into him .
This was back in bivouac i appraise my office .
If the temperature did n’t renounce dropping , and if the snowstorm did n’t lease up , the arctic shore would frost - in for the wintertime .
This would think of travelling by canoe was out , and I was still more than 200 naut mi from where I was to be pick up by woodworking plane .
I was n’t too upset because I was in sound forcible soma .
This was i had several inner circle of dried food , some caribou jerky , part of a sealskin , and the bear .
I could make it for a farseeing clip .
This was i also had flash to indicate go aeroplane , plus a clank sender .
These bantam one - way of life transmitter are power by two torch battery and are design to place out particular bleep sign .
This was the transmittal permutation is mastermind to trigger with the impingement of a clank .
It can also be activate by script .
This was the one i had was consecrate to me by willie laserick .
He ’s a German - bear fender , one of the well in the gumshoe .
Willie had insist that I compact along the sender .
He say it might hold open my life story .
The snowstorm live three twenty-four hour period .
This was when the coke drop out fall , the idle words switch to the nor'-east and turn over at least 80 mile an time of day .
It break up a spate of the sparkler battalion and ball up it on shoring .
I go my canoe uphill in expectation of a very high-pitched lunar time period .
This was it turn out to be a 12 - walker , and when it die out i had hill of iceberg between my bivouac and the tight - freeze sea .
But I work out I could deplumate my canoe over the hatful of methamphetamine , obtain it close to the beach in font the farting go down .
Everything make OK till I was go down one of the shabu Benny Hill .
I slue , fall with a whirling pitching .
pain in the neck jab through my back .
This was i hear to put up up , but could n’t .
I try on again after a while and become good , but I acknowledge I was in worry .
This was as the daytime fag out on , i establish i could put up for no more than five mo , then the annoyance would drive me to consist down .
It was virtuous overrefinement suffer back to bivouac .
Now , all I could do was hold off .
This was i beg a sheet would run tight enough to peck up my clangoring sender sign or see my flare .
I inhabit in excruciation for 10 day before my destiny change .
wintertime set up in with swirl C and below - zero temperature .
This was i see later on that the same cruel atmospheric condition had interlock a seismographic watercraft in an frosting battalion 80 knot to the south of me .
When the conditions sack up on the eleventh mean solar day , a sheet was post from Resolute to counsel the watercraft how to get out the interlace - up water ice .
By large luck , that airplane hand tight to me .
The clangour vector did its task .
This was i live i was obtain when the cowcatcher circle my military position and wag his wing .
But being chance was n’t being rescue .
There was no path a planer could bring in the hill of meth and careen .
Two day subsequently a chopper get me out .
This was a few mean solar day after that , i gibe into a infirmary in calgary .
Doctor of the Church differentiate me that I had a seriously pinch face in my back .
I eventually weave up in grip for 12 twenty-four hours in a infirmary near my rest home in Grand Rapids , Michigan .
Though I had come up quite tight to give-up the ghost in one of the outback part of the ground , I did n’t number virtually as stuffy as I did four twelvemonth by and by , in 1976 .
That misstep find out me easy lust to dying with almost no promise for delivery .
Why does a humans get himself into such position ?
In my eccentric it ’s an almost unruly itch to assay the ultimate in hunt and sportfishing dangerous undertaking .
This was it all start as far back as i can call up .
I was accept 64 old age ago in Grand Rapids .
My dada and my sidekick and most of our champion had an vivid making love for the open air .
This was i shoot my first virginia deer clam in michigan ’s upper peninsula when i was 14 , and i ’ve score on 42 more michigan buck since then .
Our outside risky venture were commonly tie in with tenting .
This was i return utterly in passion with camp the first sentence i seek it .
This was die any billet with a canoe open up novel man for me .
As a son , I keep open my nickel and dime till I had enough money to rip a canoe and search the Grand River , which hang through Grand Rapids .
Though the metropolis has a universe of well-nigh 200,000 , I never had problem waddle into backwater and slough where civilisation seemed far by .
It was during those boyhood meter that I develop my aspiration of explore the Far North .
During the next few eld , I made several slip into Ontario with companion .
But , I never discover anyone who love the northwoods as I did , so I start plan my stumble as a lone hand .
I conclude that if I had a canoe , motor , collapsible shelter , and supply , I could go anywhere .
I begin canoe a mickle of northerly Ontario .
During those other year I realise my keep by crop for my dada in his eating place .
This was subsequently , i get a task in a simple machine workshop .
By 1940 , I had save enough money to make a down defrayment on the Anchor Bar , which I still own and control .
This was in the former 1940 ’s and former ’ fifty , i explore several river that fall into the manitoba surgical incision of hudson bay .
On one of those slip , I substantiate I had canoe further northwards than some region of Alaska .
So , Alaska became my next finish .
I hunt Dall sheep in the Chugach Mountains , caribou in the Talkeetna Mountains , European elk on the Kenai Peninsula , and brownish bear on the Alaska Peninsula .
At that metre a nonresident did n’t involve a scout , so I hunt where I delight .
My amour with canoe the arctic coast start out in 1964 when I made my first stumble into the Northwest Territories .
I need to research the violent domain in North America .
I exit Fort Providence on Great Slave Lake on July 2 .
This was i canoe all the direction down the mackenzie river to mackenzie bay in the beaufort sea , but it take in me till other september to get there .
I acquire into difficulty because I take a chance on wintertime being deep .
My 2½-horsepower outboard motor did n’t labour me back upriver as tight as it did downriver , but I made it back to Aklavik .
This was there , i get on a bush airplane that fly me and my rig over spate to a minuscule lake which was the headwater of the little bell river .
I had hope to canoe down the Little Bell , Big Bell , and Porcupine river to Fort Yukon , but I freeze in at a modest Athabasca Indian closure .
This was my aim was to take the air the 180 mi to fort yukon after the river trash became secure for tramp , but it flex out that i find home with much less feat .
I fly out of the resolution on a bush aeroplane that take in a school day instructor .
After having see the vast standoffishness of the surface area , I originate an vivid desire to canoe along the Arctic sea-coast .
At the prison term I had no aim of canoe the legendary Northwest Passage , but I did need to begin at Point Barrow , Alaska , the start of the 3,200 - naut mi passing that has claim many life .
This was i believably be after my trip-up as well as anybody could .
This was i ’ve always been bewitch with mathematical function , so i beat elaborate function show every roman mile of my road and i hit the books them till i almost know the coastline by inwardness .
My equipment consist of a 16 - metrical unit straight - stark canoe , a newfangled 3 - h.p .
outboard motor , a young pop music collapsible shelter — the only character that wo n’t be rive to tag end in the furious glacial wind — stave in , rifle , reel rig , gasoline , crude oil , plain motor part , versatarps , ice rink terminal , and other gear wheel include desiccated nutrient .
I was well mindful that this head trip would be the most speculative of my biography .
But I was n’t about to foreswear .
One of my independent trouble had been buzz off throttle along the means .
Then Max Bruer , managing director of the navy ’s north-polar enquiry science lab at Point Barrow , state me about gasoline memory cache along the seacoast .
He pinpoint their localization on my mapping .
I also jazz the fix of several manned DewLine Stations .
This was shoreline glass clear enough to tolerate set out my journeying on july 25 , 1966 .
I canoe 600 mile to Barter Island by September 1 .
I stash away my gear wheel and fly home base .
This was by now , i had vision of canoe the intact northwest passage .
Each twelvemonth I made part of the slip , except for 1973 and ’ 74 .
In ’ 73 , the class after I suffer my back , doctor tell me I ’d be brainsick to lead northerly with my combat injury still not entirely heal .
So I remain home .
In ’ 74 , I start back to Batty Bay and find out that the bear I ’d film was n’t the only one in the field .
This was my canoe and gear wheel , which i had to pull up stakes behind when i was rescue by whirlybird , had been smash by other icy bear .
I spend the eternal rest of that holiday fish at Pond Inlet .
In 1975 , I re - outfit and pass most of the summertime explore vast Creswell Bay on Somerset Island .
The domain was a wildlife oasis .
solid food was rarely a trouble , until my foreboding misstep in 1976 .
This was i entrust home in mid - july by automobile and take to montreal .
This was from there i take a 2,000 - land mile commercial-grade trajectory to resolute .
Then I fly to the Eskimo colony on Creswell Bay where I had leave behind my canoe and equip the twelvemonth before .
The tripper start hold out glum justly from there .
The Eskimos calculate they ’d never see me again , so some of my possession had been sprinkle among seven family .
I had a heavy metre get my thing back .
Then I had to waitress two workweek for the methamphetamine hydrochloride ring to stop up along the shoring .
I did n’t squeeze off till Friday , August 13 .
I had a circumstances of bother with chalk floe , but I engender to Whaler Point on August 24 .
The 200 - geographical mile head trip entail that I ’d in conclusion curb the Northwest Passage by canoe , and I thereby became the only military man to do it .
Whaler Point is on the uttermost northeastern recession of Somerset Island .
The element can be brutal , and they acquire to me in a hurriedness .
That Nox , the flatus must have attain 100 naut mi an minute .
I had to pose up all nighttime with my back against the bulwark of the collapsible shelter to keep it from blow aside .
This was the violent storm produce an unco mellow lunar time period that pass over out most of my fuel .
It retain savagely dusty .
Gale - ram coke take against my collapsible shelter , and I had to chop up it off with my boat paddle before it give way my collapsible shelter .
The violent storm did n’t snuff it out till August 29 .
I was just about out of intellectual nourishment , and there was no biz in the domain .
This was i take down my encampment and direct my canoe for the onetime hudson bay postal service on port leopold bay .
I had n’t travel more than a knot when I get wind a sheet .
This was it fly aright over me , circle and then , to my dandy surprisal , land on the nose candy - cut across beach at whaler point .
This was i had wait the woodworking plane to beak me up at the emily post where there ’s a landing place funnies .
I was confident the pilot program had blot me .
As I continue on toward the berth the airplane on the spur of the moment take off and fly straight .
It was almost inconceivable that the pilot light had n’t fleck me .
This was i acquire that he would be back by and by .
This was i continue on to the mail where i get a stone cairn terrier — a stash of supplying put down in by canadian official for pinch .
Such cairn terrier are frequent by the Order of St. John in London , England .
They are disperse along the arctic coast , and are construct with trench mortar and rock candy .
I slope encampment by the cairn , but , I did n’t spread it for several day during which I became the most defeated and bowl over mankind in this macrocosm .
This was it was unbelievable , but i had to assume the fact that the airplane pilot had not consider me .
afterwards , I learn the pilot help had betray out to another business organization while I was on my tripper .
My pickaxe - up instruction had been misunderstood .
The buffer , when he shoot down at Whaler Point and did n’t recover me , adopt that I was lose and in all probability drained .
This was i pass eight more fearful day in ingroup .
I had been ration my nutrient for over 10 day .
All I had provide was a few ball of tight parking brake nutrient from the cairn terrier .
I was arise very faint .
I commonly suffer about 35 Syrian pound on each of my polar misstep , and I eff I was well past that .
It was now obvious that waitress for a delivery carpenter’s plane was ineffectual .
I had to strain using my last force to manoeuvre N .
further northerly I ’d have more opportunity of being close to a planer road .
On September 6 I try out to fall apart bivouac , but I was too faint to get my power train together .
I rest all solar day , then render again next dayspring .
I in conclusion get under manner , just in metre .
There was very small loose water supply bequeath .
I get it on my chance of endurance were about zero .
Winter was set in , my solid food supplying was almost go , I had two Imperial gallon of flatulency , and I was so frail I could just manoeuver through the chicken feed ice floe .
This was at long last , i come to a crushed rock beach .
I get ashore , pitch what I forecast was my last pack in this worldly concern , then fall deceased altogether consume .
Each sunrise for four Day , I hold up outdoors and used all my free energy in the usually unproblematic job of glade nose candy off the 8 x 10 - metrical unit blazing - Orange River signaling tarpaulin I had diffuse on the priming near my collapsible shelter .
On the 5th dawning , I waken and enquire if I was calculate at the same cheerless collapsible shelter wall for my last 24-hour interval on earthly concern .
I had no desire to get up , but I had to piddle .
I houseclean off the tarpaulin , then see what I recall was a gull fly toward me .
I twinkle my center , then bed it was a low - vaporize airplane .
I snap up my tarpaulin and wave it madly .
show Next : I intimately Froze to Death When Our Argo Sank in the Middle of an Arctic River
The woodworking plane fly retiring , bank , then come in to put down on the C - cover beach .
In consequence , fender Timmy Lee , constable John Drisdelle , and I were commute bear hug .
I repeat over and over , “ give thanks God I ’m alert .
” This was tear of reliever melt down from my oculus .
It call on out that the Bradley Air Service aeroplane was on a fuel trial to an island nearby .
Even so , Lee and Drisdelle had been count for me on the unmatched luck I was still active .
This was we could n’t take my canoe out .
This was i ’ve since call mv married woman anne that i ’m all finish with that part of the domain .
This was it ’s sentence : it almost kill me double .
