From Reindeer Lake to Eskimo Point

Monika Rohlmann is an environmental consultant in Victoria, B.C.

Kazaks, a retired physics professor, has written an account of his
participation in a Canadian wilderness canoe trip. The 1,288-kilometre
(800-mile) journey in 1981 was planned by trip leader George Luste, a
veteran of arctic canoe trips.

Beginning at Reindeer Lake on the Manitoba–Saskatchewan border and
continuing to Nueltin Lake, the first half of the trip retraced P.G.
Downes’s voyage as described in Sleeping Island. The route then
entered the barren lands and followed the Thlewiaza River, the Kognak
River, South Henik Lake, and the Maguse River north and east to Hudson
Bay. The journey ended in Arviat (formerly known as Eskimo Point) in
Nunavut. In a day-by-day account, Kazaks discusses trip logistics,
terrain, and weather conditions. His three companions are regularly
mentioned and a few black-and-white pictures show the group at various
points of interest.

The writing is good and the trip account follows a logical and
organized progression. As a wilderness canoe enthusiast myself, I wish
Kazaks had taken a few more risks in his writing. Although he hints at
the friction between his companions, he always stops short of revealing
very much about the individuals or their conflicts. His book is filled
with details about the weather and the grunt and burden of paddling and
portaging, leaving little to make the reader’s heart sing. Perhaps it
is the male perspective that does not see the profusion of summer
flowers on the tundra, the chorus of birds twittering and nesting in
their northern breeding grounds, the bounty of berries, or the story of
glaciation laid bare on the outcrops.

Without detailed maps showing rapids and points of interest, this book
provides a cursory overview, of interest perhaps only to those who are
contemplating a similar trip.