In his latest gripping narrative, Canadian adventurer and bestselling author Adam Shoalts embarks on a journey to uncover the fate of a long-lost northern explorer who vanished without a trace more than a century ago<\/p>\n
Lost, and found, maybe, beyond the back roads. I had to keep reading.<\/p>\n
Adam Shoalts, known as Canada\u2019s contemporary Indiana Jones,\u00a0has a new book coming out on October 7.<\/p>\n
Near the very beginning\u2026\u201d From my place in the canoe\u2019s stern, I scanned the mist-shrouded hills for any hint of something out of the ordinary. Somewhere in all this vastness, this immensity of trackless forest and windswept tundra, the haunt of grey wolves, moose, and grizzlies, the remarkable and mysterious Hubert Darrell vanished in 1910. A restless prospector and expert guide, trapper, and explorer, Darrell was said to have built his humble cabin on the isolated river we were now paddling\u2014it was our mission to find it. That fall of 1910, t fall of 1910, he was to rendezvous with a couple of fellow prospectors at an agreed-upon point, but Darrell failed to show up and apparently was never seen again. Since he was a lone man in a location utterly remote from civilization, no rescue party was ever dispatched to find him. A planned search was called off due to the difficulties. His disappearance was never explained, nor the site of his lonely cabin ever found\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
He had me hooked, yet again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Vanished Beyond The Map \u2013 The Mystery Of Lost Explorer Hubert Darrell, another trek for Adam to solve a cold case.<\/p>\n
I secured a Penguin Random House Canada advance copy and set up an interview.\u00a0I have done this a few times, before his marriage and now with children.\u00a0He has also been on the Back Roads Bill podcast\u00a0<\/a>and spoken twice at the Canadian Ecology Centre\u2019s\u00a0 (CEC) Earth Day book talks, along with leading hikes within Samuel de Champlain Provincial Park, the home of the CEC.\u00a0Adam feels quite comfortable here and would say so.\u00a0 (Maybe not so much now,\u00a0but\u00a0I know he is here to help.)\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n And there\u2019s a Village Media news scoop near the end of this story.\u00a0<\/p>\n Adam uses Darrell\u2019s surname throughout the book; I use Adam as I know him well enough.\u00a0Canadian Geographic included him on their list of the 90 most influential explorers in Canadian history.<\/p>\n Who is Darrell?<\/p>\n Adam explains the context for his sixth book.\u00a0We really don\u2019t know who Darrell is going in.<\/p>\n \u201cIn November 1910, explorer Hubert Darrell vanished in the uncharted wilds of the Northwest Territories. A prospector who had been swept up in the Klondike Gold Rush, Darrell later made his name as an expert guide, trapper, and restless wanderer who ventured where few others dared.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Adam can relate – one of his adventures to mark Canadian Confederation\u2019s 150th in 2017, he embarked on an epic journey alone across Canada\u2019s Arctic, hiking and canoeing nearly 4000 kilometres.\u00a0This is the backdrop for his national bestselling and award-winning book Beyond the Trees.<\/p>\n \u201cAt a time when travel by dogsled in the North was the norm, Darrell became legendary for traversing thousands of kilometres alone and on foot; ranging over mountains and across windswept tundra from Alaska to Hudson Bay,\u201d Adam said.\u00a0<\/p>\n During his epic journeys, he helped rescue sailors trapped in sea ice, led Mounties on their patrols, and even guided some of the era\u2019s most famous explorers. Roald Amundsen, the first person to reach the South Pole, held Darrell in awe, remarking once that with men like him, he could go to the moon.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n What did Darrell do that is so important to realize?\u00a0Adam summarizes some of the exploits explained in this mystery. \u201cWhile to the world Darrell remained largely unknown, to those who chanced to cross his wandering path, he seems to have left an outsized impression. Hardened whaling captains marvelled at this strange wanderer who would appear suddenly out of the arctic mists at their ships, Antarctic explorers like Amundsen could only express their awe for his nonchalant approach and iron stamina, Yinto and the Dene hunters uniquely invited him to join their crucial hunts, Mounties entrusted their lives to him, Inuit trappers such as Olay had wanted Darrell as a trapping partner, fur traders extolled him for his honesty and reliability, and even back on the farm the quiet young man of few words was universally regarded for his work ethic and honesty.\u201d\u00a0 You will have to read the book.\u00a0<\/p>\n I look at Darrell somewhat like the journeyman hockey player Guyle Fielder, who no one knows. His 2,037 total points in all pro leagues trails only Wayne Gretzky, Howe and Jaromir Jagr for the fourth spot all-time.\u00a0You\u2019ll have to look him up<\/a>. Darrell did not want to be a star; he craved the wilderness.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Within the interview and within his upcoming second appearance on the Back Roads Bill podcast https:\/\/www.northbayecho.ca\/podcast\/backroads-bill\/<\/a>\u00a0 he said, \u201cNewspapers as far afield as Los Angeles and New York covered his disappearance, but despite clues reported by missionaries, Inuit trappers, and Mounted Police inquiries, little but rumour managed to find its way out of the north. While his disappearance sparked headlines, his fate remained a mystery to even his friends, his brother, and his fianc\u00e9e. Darrell’s legacy would live on in the north, but eventually vanish from the pages of history.<\/p>\n \u201cSomehow, the explorer lauded in his day by the likes of Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen, British aristocrat and adventurer David Hanbury and poet Robert W. Service, was all but forgotten.<\/p>\n Adam says, \u201cContemporaries regarded Darrell as the hardiest, most competent explorer of his day. Despite clues reported by Inuit trappers and Mounted Police inquiries, his fate was a mystery. While his disappearance sparked headlines around the world, Darrell\u2019s name would soon also vanish from the history books, ironically, just as surely as he had in the wild.\u201d<\/p>\n The book\u00a0through questions<\/p>\n I asked Adam about his relationship with Darrell.<\/p>\n \u201cOf course, I have shared many of the same risks Darrell routinely faced in engaging in solo wilderness travel, particularly in the far North…but there is one major difference: my long solo journeys are done in spring\/summer\/fall, not winter. Winter in the Arctic is inherently far more dangerous…continuous darkness for weeks, extreme cold, frostbite, weak ice, just much harder across the board.<\/p>\n \u201cI attempted to retrace as many of Darrell’s routes as I personally could, but I never for a moment entertained the idea of retracing his final route when he vanished in the same manner, he did it…alone, on foot, in the dead of an arctic winter with no sunrise. I, of course, did it by canoe in August\/September, and with my friend Chuck, so much less risky.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Adam\u2019s 2017 Route Alone Across Canada\u2019s Arctic<\/a>: a nearly 4,000 km, four-month journey compares with what Darrell did on a couple of extended expeditions.<\/p>\n In this book, he talks about Darrell\u2019s exploits.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cTo travel alone in a land where temperatures could fall to fifty below and inflict frostbite within minutes, where there were months of unbroken darkness, deadly avalanches in the mountains, sudden landslides along the rivers, immense distances between inhabited places, blinding blizzards, scarce food resources, vast storm-prone lakes, and icy rapids wasn\u2019t for the faint of heart. To survive in such a place required tenacity in spades, and life was often hard and usually short.\u201d\u00a0 Darrell completed a roundabout 7000 km odyssey with David Hanbury (who later tried to discredit Darrell but really turned him into a northern legend), and a solo 1800 km mail delivery journey on foot in 1906.\u00a0<\/p>\n Another famous polar explorer, Canadian Vilhjalmur Stefansson (I did an essay on him in Grade Six), through Adam says of this exploit:<\/p>\n \u201cStefansson was astonished by what Darrell had quietly accomplished. As he put it, ‘To travel alone and without dogs is an unheard-of thing even among Eskimos.’\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Throughout the book, Adam returns to this sentiment.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is indeed something almost intoxicating about the awe-inspiring immensity of the arctic plains, where nature still seems utterly untamed.\u00a0There are few landscapes on Earth where a person feels as alone as on the seemingly limitless arctic tundra. To wander in these vast places is to enter a kind of magical world where one can travel for months and months without coming across another soul or even a trace of humanity.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n If you have never been or will never be there, Adam brings us there in his writing.\u00a0<\/p>\n What is Adam telling us about within this new enigma?<\/p>\n He sums up on the final page. About Darrell. \u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cHistory can be notoriously capricious: some explorers, such as Franklin or Peary, end up famous, while others, like Darrell, remain utterly unknown.\u00a0But if in a small way this book also helps to pull Darrell out of the shadows and give him his proper place in history, then I shall have achieved more than I could have hoped.\u201d<\/p>\n I like that he has divided this story into two parts: the overview of Darrell and then the solving of the mystery through arduous travel, putting together the pieces of this wilderness puzzle, land we are not so familiar with as southern latitude readers.\u00a0<\/p>\n It is part detective story, part biography, and part first-person adventure narrative, as are his previous books \u2013 he\u2019s been there.\u00a0<\/p>\n Yes, Adam pieces together what most probably happened to Darrell through logic, experience and research.\u00a0A cliffhanger even within non-fiction.\u00a0<\/p>\n This book is not poetry, but it has an iambic pentameter to it. There is a natural flow, mimicking a heartbeat and the rhythms of speech, with the ongoing drama question, \u201cWhat happened?\u201d\u00a0 It moves right along throughout.\u00a0<\/p>\n And the lasting message Adam brings to us in all his previous five books.\u00a0\u201c\u2026If Darrell were here today, I\u2019m certain he\u2019d tell us we are making a mistake. I think he\u2019d say that in the end, the precious thing he sought wasn\u2019t gold, but the wild itself. That is the real irreplaceable treasure, one that is becoming rarer than ever. And yet we have more need of it than ever.<\/p>\n If we can find the will to preserve vast natural spaces\u2014and I mean truly preserve them, not just tiny parcels that become managed parks full of asphalt parking lots, well-trodden trails, wifi hotspots, and other infrastructure\u2014we will not only save a part of our shared human heritage, but make it possible to go on experiencing the spell of the wild. In an ever more urban, digital landscape, that, to my mind, is something well worth saving.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n What I think<\/p>\n When I ask others about a favourite\u00a0Shoalts\u2019 book, \u2018A History of Canada in 10 Maps\u2019 is often cited.\u00a0<\/p>\n He says, \u201c10 Maps is not your grade school history; this is the violent, sweeping, spectacular history of Canada as told through 10 historic maps. From the Vikings to the battlefields of 1812, the explorers and First Nations, this book is Game of Thrones meets Canadian history, all rolled into one epic saga. The book is a must-read for anyone who thinks Canadian history is dull!\u201d<\/p>\n When I am asked the same question. Alone Against the North always comes to mind. Why?\u00a0I have been to this area of the province in an attempt to get to the Bill Barilko plane crash.\u00a0The terrain is nasty and always a test of wits and endurance.\u00a0Plus, it was the beginning of his career as a contemporary Canadian boy adventurer.\u00a0It was in this area, north of the Detour Mine, northeast of Cochrane.\u00a0The Again River cuts through the hard-core Canadian Shield of northern Ontario and runs north, into Quebec and back again, to meet the Harricanaw River before emptying into James Bay.\u00a0Quite the place to embrace the saying: cutting your teeth.<\/p>\n I like this citation from Col. Chris Hadfield, astronaut, International Space Station commander, about Alone Against the North.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cAdam Shoalts, 21st century explorer, calmly describes the things he has endured that would drive most people to despair, or even madness\u2026Rare insight into the heart and mind of an explorer, and the insatiable hunger for the unknown that both inspires and drives one to the edge.\u201d \u2014-<\/p>\n What do I think of this new book?<\/p>\n I like mysteries and was held on edge right to the very end when the mystery is solved, almost.\u00a0I am not an English Professor or book reviewer, but I think his writing has continued to mature, with experience(s) along the way.\u00a0He has the descriptive ability of a fiction writer.\u00a0I see Adam in Darrell and the affection, if not the addiction, for the natural landscapes of the far north.<\/p>\n What\u2019s next for him is beyond the book launch on October 7.<\/p>\n \u201cRight now my future book projects are still quite a ways down the road, as this one still hasn’t even been officially published yet and I am actually very behind on a lot of the other work that goes into releasing a book: I was intending to edit all my expedition footage from the Darrell expeditions, and create a sort of documentary to accompany the book, or at least a video promo for the book….but I’ve made little headway on that. I hope to tackle it in the next few weeks.\u201d<\/p>\n He\u2019s married to Alexandria and has three young boys (Thomas, Adrian, and Owen).<\/p>\n \u201cMy next book is actually going to be something completely different, which I don’t think I’ve mentioned publicly to anyone yet, so Backroads Bill will have the scoop on it!\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe big reveal is I am actually going to be releasing a children’s book as my next book. Now that I’m a parent with young kids, it seems like a natural fit, and I was approached by a publisher who wanted me to do it…so that’s the next project. But it won’t be released until spring 2027. The idea is to write a book that will hopefully help get kids into the outdoors.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n That\u2019s special to be honoured with new news!\u00a0Stay tuned.\u00a0<\/p>\n For ordering, you may go here<\/a>\u00a0and here is his Facebook page<\/a>. Here are\u00a0his speaking engagements<\/a> throughout Ontario, October through December.<\/p>\n I am often alone in Nature, there\u2019s always risk, but not to the extent that Adam or Darrell has experienced (well, maybe my Greenland trip, above the Arctic Circle, when I walked off the glacier to the coast on a navigation-only trek.)<\/p>\n On page 64, I read something of Adam\u2019s prose that has always been and stays with me.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cClearly, Darrell came away from the expedition more under the magic spell of the wilderness than ever.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n I think this magic has influenced me forever \u2013 and continues to lure me to the back roads for many natural reasons.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In his latest gripping narrative, Canadian adventurer and bestselling author Adam Shoalts embarks on a journey to uncover…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":173206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[88694,353,49,48,75],"class_list":["post-173205","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-books","tag-bill-steerback-roads-bill-steerback-roads-billbill-steer-columnback-roads-bill-steer-column","tag-books","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=173205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/173205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/173206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=173205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=173205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=173205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}