Packrafting to Nunavut in a Weekend

Keith, Matthew, and Eric Gilbertson

On the island in Nunavut

October 19-21, 2013

2526 miles, 42 hours driving

3pm Friday–leave Boston
1:30pm Saturday–arrive at Chisasibi after almost non-stop driving
4:30pm Saturday–packraft ½ mile to Island officially owned by Nunavut, camp on island
9:30am Sunday–packraft back to mainland, drive back to Boston taking 400-km gravel North Roaddetour
9am Monday–arrive in Boston

The island we paddled to

It turns out Nunavut, the most remote and least-populated province in Canada, is actually accessible from Boston in a weekend of driving and packrafting! Nunavut officially owns all islands in James Bay and Hudson Bay, and after some satellite-image searching Matthew and I discovered an island only ½mile off the coast near the town of Chisasibi. Chisasibi is connected to southern Quebec by the JamesBay Road, and a mere 21-hour drive from Boston. James Bay Road is famous as the second-longeststretch of road without services in North America (~600km long with onlyone gas station in the middleat km 381), and Chisasibi is at the very end of it.

Our Dad flew into town for the weekend and we left Boston Friday afternoon, rotating drivers and arriving in Chisasibi Saturday afternoon. Despite temperatures in the mid 30s F and light rain, we set off into the Arctic Ocean in packrafts and made it to Nunavut Saturday evening. We camped on the island and paddled back to Quebec Sunday morning. On the drive back we took the North Road, another famous road up there. It’s 400km of gravel, probably the longest gravel road outside of Alaska and Yukon. Somehow we managed to get back to Boston at 9am Monday, in time for Matthew to just catch his morning class.

Link to video Dad made of the trip: