The Lost Canoe

by Lawrence W. Coady

A contemporary account of tracking a historical explorer across Labrador.

In the mode of Leonidas Hubbard and William Cabot, Hesketh Prichard set out with a group of adventurers in the early 1900s, determined to cross Labrador. Disregarding local advice, his expedition headed up a box canyon and climbed five-hundred-metre cliffs all with a canoe in tow- a gruesome portage. The canoe was later abandoned.

The Lost Canoe is the account of the contemporary search for Prichard's lost canoe. Over three summers Larry Coady coaxed friends and strangers into searching for Prichard's

canoe, retracing Prichard's route, verifying landforms and campsites, and mapping the entire trail. Only hard-nosed hikers immune to blackflies and mosquitoes were enticed to participate. Prichard's original 1910 photographs and accounts of his journey, published in Through Trackless Labrador, are paired with Coady's own photographs and writings. The narrative that results reveals a struggle against the elements to cross the ancient landscape of northern Labrador, a subarctic mix of boreal forest and open tundra. The book will appeal to a broad audience, from historians and geographers to adventurers and hikers.

Genres: Nonfiction

407 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2008

Reviews

[Cheryl Takaoka · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good armchair traveler reading and a great follow on if you've already read about Leonidas and Mina Hubbard's travels into the same region.
The author does a great job of pulling the reader into his quest and all that goes with it. His perseverance is described in such a way that I could entirely understand his desire to simply find the blasted canoe! It does not detract from him and his various companions enjoying the aspects of the country during their quest.

[William · Rating 2 out of 5]

I have only recently started to read travelogues and some of my favorites have involved the Great White North. So, when I saw this piece on my friend's bookshelf, I had to borrow it. Lawrence Coady recounts his three trips into Labrador looking for a lost, cached canoe from an early 20th century expedition into the barrens of the North. The premise sounded good enough and I expected a bit of a mystery mingled with the flora and fauna of Labrador. However, Coady's writing style is repetitive and I often found my mind wandering as I waded through another description of how thick the flies were or how great the fishing was. By the time I got to the halfway point of the book, I was tired of the "next camp" and the dangerous route it took to get there. So, I cheated, and skipped to the last chapter where I found out if Coady found the lost canoe or not. I won't ruin it for any potential readers, but I won't necessarily encourage people to spend so much time getting to the punchline.

[Roy]

Allright but was a bit dismayed at what happened tp Robert Porter in the end Ha Ha .