Ober's journey, week 12

Oberholtzer Foundation

Week No.12

Aug. 31 -Sept. 6, 1912

“I was very uncomfortable all night… my knees ached badly and I was cold, the mist came in the side a little… Finally, toward dawn when the wind had veered decidedly to the west, Billy (Magee) turned the canoe with me in it; and after that I had a fairly peaceful sleep.” 

After the cold and rainy nights of last week, readers can hardly imagine how these two canoemen can keep paddling, yet what choices do they have? This week at least, Ernest Oberholtzer begins to use the word, “river.” So at last they realize they are traveling on a river (finally, the Thlewiaza) or through “lakelets” and they’re headed eastward. 

By reading a little between the lines, readers can tell that both men are making an effort to cheer the other up a little. Ober keeps a fire going; Magee tells a story about fire. In the midst of a gale, both men shave, Ober puts on a sweater, and Magee bakes two bannocks. 

Again readers encounter absolute understatements in Ober’s journal. Clearly these men are now strong beyond strong, and have grown entirely accustomed to their mode of travel. “We ran a number of very swift chutes, where we had to be careful to keep out of the heavy water in the middle.” or “For an hour did nothing but run rapids…” or “River here looks as if it had been dumped full of rocks.” They are spying seals quite often now, and continue to see bands of caribou. 

Frost in the morning, ice on the water pail, and Ober is starting to show certain worry. By Sept. 5, he wrote, “…we had no notion how far we were from Churchill.” The next day, Ober writes the most negative statement he’s allowed off his pencil as yet. “The prospects for reaching home or even Churchill before winter look very dark, but I am resolved to make a desperate try.” 

Readers don’t hear of Magee’s resolutions, good or bad, at this point. He just keeps working, and they are in the habits of early to bed and very early awake. Rains and winds do not cease. 

What inner spark of motivation survives at the core of these men? What dreams of home or homeland do they carry with each stroke of the paddle? Though readers may know the end of this story, most certainly they did not have a whisper of that knowledge and had to draw upon a very deep source of certainty or confidence. 

To follow Ober’s journey, purchase “Bound for the Barrens” available at www.lulu.com.