- Today is March 31st (leaves rustling) and it's officially the birthday of the Northwest Passage trip.

(Adam laughing) She just officially took birth.

We've decided, between Adam and myself, that we're doing it.

So yeah, this is what it looks like to start a big expedition, just a little idea, and then need to start working at the details.

Next thing you know, you're in the middle of the Arctic.

- [Adam] The Northwest Passage is a nautical route over the top of Canada.

It's still a vast wilderness, the broad strokes may be charted, but we could easily land on a beach that has never been touched by human feet before.

I mean, who wouldn't want to go check that out?

(laughs) - [Matty] It's definitely a holy, magical place that there's something about, it's the vastness, and the power up there, and just raw, just nothing.

It's one of those few places in the world that you're truly wild.

- Going to the most dangerous ocean on the planet, and setting off in like, homemade boats, and attempting to do something that other people had trained 20 years for, it was very much a test of like, "How far can we take this," just do it attitude, and when does it become crazy?

You know?

(foreboding high-pitched ringing) I was saying last night, like, me and Matty meeting was like pouring gasoline on a bonfire.

You're doing the stuff that we're doing, you don't come across a lot of people that are on the same wavelength.

- Right around this time too, like we were here on a shearing route, right here two years ago, and yeah, just (...) like we always do, which is a porch chin wag, and chin wagged ourselves right into a- - To the craziest thing we'd ever done.

- The craziest thing we've ever done.

Yeah.

For me, the idea of Northwest Passage has been, you know, a childhood dream.

Tell stories about explorers crossing the Passage, getting frozen in and all of the history up there.

- Reading all of these tales of Amundsen, and all of these great explorers who were seeking the Passage, and seeking the North Pole.

Amundsen's boat, the Gjoa, or Yoa, that was their safe harbor for two winters that got iced in Gjoa Haven, when they, obviously, were trying to navigate and find the Passage, that was where they were, that was their safe harbor for his voyage.

- It was always one of those boyhood dreams to someday try the Northwest Passage myself.

And then one day, we were sitting here, like three years ago, just having a (...) on the front porch, and I was telling him the same little boy dream of canoeing the Northwest Passage.

It was like lightning struck, and Adam just looked at me with this big, greasy grin, and his face, which is on fire, his eyes are so wide, he's like, "Man, let's do it."

And just shook it, put his hand out just like that, and we just shook on it right there, and it was like, boom, here we go.

- It wasn't until after we decided we were going to do it that we realized that what we wanted to do had never been done before.

So, it was only a couple of weeks into planning the experience where I said, "Well, Matty, you know, no one's ever actually rowed this thing in one season."

And we're like, oh wow, we could be the first ones to ever do this.

- It looks so small on this map, when you look at the entire Northwest Passage.

- But look at that even, you know, 2023, this is a pilot guide, this is what's used by commercial shipping all over the world, unreliable data, insufficient data, unreliable data.

It's still a place where you don't have a lot to go on.

(laughs) - [Matty] It's an iconic route people have been trying to do for a long, long time.

It's never been done by human-powered craft in one season.

From the west, in Tuktoyaktuk, all the way over the top of Canada in the Arctic ocean, 2,000 miles to Baffin Island.

- The boat is up on the water, and can float.

(car rumbling) You know, I can't see myself calling for rescue, short of that, or someone getting severely injured.

(motor boat roaring) So, Matty and I met up in Labrador for season nine of "Alone."

(clippers buzzing) Later on that year, I happened to need a new assistant for shearing alpacas.

- He called me up one day, he was like, "Hey, man, you want to come down to America and come shearing alpacas with me?"

I was like, "Yep, sign me up."

And I came down here, met him here, and went on our first shearing circuit together three years ago.

(clippers buzzing) (clippers buzzing) - Basically, I had my little shearing business to kind of fuel my adventures.

And every summer, after I would finish shearing for, you know, two or three months, I'd just take my big wad of cash, and I'd go backpacking in Africa, or, you know, I bought a sailboat, (waves splashing) and I sailed around the Caribbean for two seasons.

That kind of gave me the bug.

From then on, that was all I wanted to do, was go into wild places, foreign lands, and experience the world.

- Basically just going from trip to trip, dream to dream at this point.

The work is a side thought, work is just get enough money, sell what I got to sell, whatever I got to do to keep moving forward onto the next trip.

- Get a load of that morning sun.

Whoa!

- I don't really do anything but like, chase that dream.

Whatever crazy boyhood dream that I come up with.

Why not?

- Right, big moment today.

This is the moment that I order the plans for our rowboats to take us in the Northwest Passage.

And there it is, the die has been cast.

These are our plans.

- I've never built a boat before in my life.

Adam was supposed to be there to help me build that boat, something came up, and he called me, he was like, "Hey, bud, sorry, but you're going to build that boat yourself."

And I was like, "All right, well, let's get it done."

And I just went out there and did it.

(map crinkling) (hammer thudding) (saw whirring) - This is something that had never been attempted before, so we needed a boat that was fairly unique.

We were either going to have to pay someone a lot of money to build us a boat like that, (saw swishing) or we're going to have to build one ourselves.

Ultimately landed us on deciding to use the row cruiser.

(wood thudding) This bad boy is ready to get decked.

Normally, you'd need two people for this, one person to hold the board down while the other person scribes around the outside of the boat.

But, here by myself, we're going to get creative and figure out how to secure this sheet of plywood on top while we mark out where we're going to make our cuts.

(hammer thudding) (liquid dripping) Oh, no.

Oh.

No.

- The epoxy and the hardener was starting to activate before it got out of the cup.

I rushed in, and poured it on quick, then tried to get it on the boat, and then it gummed right up.

It gummed right up.

Oh.

So many hours of work just wasted, up in flames.

(plastic thwapping) What am I doing building a boat anyway, you know?

Like (...) - If we're going to do this, and we're going to do this next year, we need to 100% commit every ounce of our energy, and capacity, and finances, to make this happen.

This is not a casual, (saw whirring) just go up in whatever boat, and see what you can do, kind of thing.

It's 400 or 500 miles between villages, and there's nobody out there.

(brush swishing) - As you can see, the old A Team has been reunited.

Adam got here late last night, and we're doing some last minute touches on the boat, solar panel, bilge pumps.

(drill grinding) It's time to install the old solar panels.

This little thing here is half the power supply for this entire journey.

(plastic crinkling) You can pretty much call this ground zero for our training run.

Just going to start rowing for about the next three and a half weeks, four weeks.

Neither one of us are real rowers.

I can count on one hand amount of times I've rowed, and that wasn't very far.

(water splashing) So, today, going out in the ocean here off of Cortez Island, it's something.

(water splashing) - Well, we just rowed about 11 miles, we're going to make some dinner and organize our stuff, try sleeping in the boat for the first night.

Pretty exciting.

- [Matty] Pretty tight little coffin you got.

- Putting the oars in the water today, and, you know, having Matty, like, rowing 100 yards beside me, just like totally in sync, felt great.

This is what we've been working towards for the last like seven or eight months, you know?

- It doesn't take very long before it all just kind of goes blurry, and your tunnel vision.

Just, wake up, breakfast, coffee, pack the boat, row, unpack, cup of tea, supper, sleep, and do it all over again.

(water swishing) (gas hissing) (sentimental music) I'm kind of surprised we're not more sore than we are.

I thought by like, day three, day four, we'd be pretty (...) up.

We're hanging in there, we're doing it.

- I hurt my shoulder yesterday, I haven't told Matty this yet, but it feels like the same spot when I tore my labrum on my right shoulder.

It's getting worse, and getting worse as we go.

(gas hissing) (foreboding music) In my mind, we needed to be on the west coast for a minimum of two months training.

- The simple fact is, we couldn't do more, we had to work, we had to go shearing alpacas, it was simple as that.

If we didn't, the trip never would've happened.

(clippers whirring) - Every explorer that I've ever read about has always struggled to scrape up the cash for their expedition.

I guess we're no exception to that.

(Matty laughing) - Yeah.

We're carrying that torch.

- Yeah.

Build the boats yourself, make the food yourself, everything, from the ground up, we've really pulled this whole thing out of thin air, but we could definitely be more prepared.

Trying to plan an expedition from the ground up in less than a year is a crazy, crazy endeavor.

Everything I've done in my life I've been ill-prepared for, so.

(laughs) It's just another one on the list.

(sentimental music) - That's it, baby.

Getting out of here.

Boats are out.

(car rumbling) It's a pretty big moment.

(car rumbling) (car rumbling) (music) (ambient music) - Yeah, baby.

(toothbrush swishing) - Night night.

This is what kilometer 642 on the Alaska Highway looks like, and it is beautiful, (water rushing) as expected.

(ambient music) That way.

(puddles splashing) (car rumbling) (ambient music) (seat thudding) Full blowout.

(car door thudding) - We were told that Dempster was going to be rough on tires, and they weren't wrong, that's our first blowout this entire journey.

These tires have done like 20,000 miles of driving in the last six months, and 200 clicks on the Dempster, and we're stranded.

Fortunately we picked up a full-sized spare before we set off, and this shouldn't slow us down too much.

(ambient music) We're about 250 kilometers up this remote track, and the spare that I picked up doesn't fit.

The lugs don't match.

(ambient music) I royally (...) up.

This has just been like a series of screw ups on my part over the last few days.

Just making silly mistakes, and I've got to get my head right, I've got to get my head in the game here.

Where we're going, you can't make silly mistakes, you can't do (...) like this.

You just can't keep screwing up like this.

The team's going to be stranded here on the side of the highway while one of us hitchhikes 250 kilometers back to the nearest town.

(car rumbling) Can't go anywhere until that happens.

- Still no luck on getting a ride yet.

It's going to be a tall order, pick up one guy with a backpack, and a full-sized truck tire and rim.

All in all, probably around eight hours driving to get there and back.

It's going to be all done on thumb hitchhiking.

(motorist and team chattering) - Oh, my God, look at that.

- Okay, boys.

Awesome man.

(car door thudding) (car rumbling) (ambient music) (engine revving) (ambient music) - [Person] What size rim?

- [Matty] 15.

- [Person] 15 rim?

- That's what I'm measuring, it's 5.59.

I hope I'm measuring that right.

No, that's five and a quarter.

(ambient music) (bird squawking) (rubber squeaking) (wheel dribbling) (bird squawking) (nature sounds) - Well, it's been 27 hours since the vehicle first picked me up.

The boys are that way, about another 200 and something kilometers.

Ended up making it to Dawson City, went to the dump, got a free rim from the dump, and then two used tires in town, boom, we're back.

(bird squawking) (car rumbling) (cars rumbling) (cars rumbling) (birds singing) People just driving past, that was a full-sized pickup truck just driving right past, leave a guy standing here in the rain with no cover.

- Pretty ready to get off the side of the road.

Yeah, it's been beautiful, but definitely feeling anxious about how much time we're losing.

I'm feeling it even harder, because it's my fault.

- Well, we got another truck, let's make it.

(metal clanking) - [Motorist] Sorry for my English, I am from France, so my English is not perfect.

- That's okay, man.

I'm Matty.

- [Motorist] Matty?

- Yeah.

Cool man.

I got two friends up there.

(car door thudding) (engine rumbling) Yeah.

(...) man.

Dude, thank you, man.

It's (...) big.

Huge.

- Yes.

- Great work, man.

(laughs) Pulled it off.

- [Matty] That one's from the dump.

Onward to Tuk.

(car rumbling) (ambient music) (ambient music) (rain pattering) (wind roaring) (car rumbling) Just about to pull into Tuktoyaktuk, and man am I excited to get there.

(ambient music) (palms thwacking) - Should spread out.

(ambient music) (clippers buzzing) - This is it.

We are getting ready to send off for a three and a half to four month expedition.

Like, 11 o'clock at night right now, full sun up in the sky, and we just can't wait until tomorrow morning to begin.

So, we're just going to start.

Matty Clarke, (clicks tongue) signing off.

Sea bath now, folks.

(hands clapping) (boat rocking) (ambient music) (oars knocking) (water splashing) Beach number one, and as you can see we are socked in with fog.

Decided to pull in early, and come in, get some sleep, let the fog pass.

But it is coming, you can feel it.

All tucked in my little sleeping cab for the night.

As you can see, it's still full daylight, even though it's two o'clock in the morning right now.

In the Arctic, it's always daylight in the summer, so you need to wear a eye mask.

(blanket rustling) Oh.

Oh, you don't know how comfortable this is, it's so comfortable.

(zipper zipping) - That was a tough first day, mentally.

And just kind of the whole enormity of what we're setting out to do just hit me like a ton of bricks, and I had to work really hard to not have like a full-blown panic attack.

(chuckles) I feel like we're in over our heads here.

(water splishing) - Long day.

I think we did something like 12, 13 miles.

And I just noticed a crack in my (...) hatch cover.

- We are in bed.

(chuckles) Definitely felt like I was finding my rhythm today, even though it was maybe a slow and steady rhythm.

I just had to persevere.

This is our life, this is our reality.

(laughs) - Take a quick seven hour nap, and wake up and do it all over again.

(Matty yawning) Anywho, time for you to (...) off so I can go to sleep.

(alarm chirping) (Matty yawning) (...) Just waking up.

(...) I'm tired.

This is a bad angle for my turkey neck.

(ambient music) (tone howling) Getting our first sight of some mosquitoes.

(water swishing) - I had one of the locals in Tuk tell me there's two seasons in the Arctic, windy and buggy.

We're getting both of 'em today.

- Came out here for my morning pee, and see that we had a visitor last night.

- Fresh caribou tracks.

- We still haven't spotted a caribou yet, but we're hoping to.

We've talked to the locals, and according to them, there's herds up here, you know, 10,000 strong.

We'll start knocking some more miles off.

(oars knocking) The hardest part of our day was getting in some real shallow water, and dragging boats in a few inches of water is no fun at all.

As you can see, we're in the tent tonight, and I'm not alone.

This way, you can call it two-for-one journal.

First 20-mile day.

Doesn't sound like a lot, but when you're doing 20 miles on a set of oars, choppy conditions, and dragging around Lord knows how many hundreds of pounds of gear with you, it's (...) work.

And now I'm just realizing that we never dropped an anchor on the boats.

I'm very concerned the boats may float away, which would be catastrophic.

I will not be the guy that loses his boat in the (...) Arctic And you see I'm getting the sweet Arctic tan.

Top half of my face is white.

(laughs) (waves crashing) It ain't much for a brush, boy, I tell ya.

(Matty and Adam laughing) - Yeah, it's wasted.

- You can't get it out?

(laughs) (ambient music) So, you can see this weather system starting to form out there, which means it'll be coming to us here pretty quick.

And right now, we're kind of just fully exposed, need to get in near some land.

So, that's what we're going to do now.

(ambient music) (rollers clattering) (boat scraping) (Adam laughing) (wind whooshing) (ambient music) (tent flapping) - [Matty] What's for supper?

(water splashing) Spaghetti Friday, or spaghetti Saturday.

- Yum.

(wind whooshing) - [Matty] Oh, sorry.

You seeing this?

(water sloshing) - [Adam] What a piece of (...) (ambient music) - So, our water pump just cracked, which is a serious, serious issue, since, in a place like this, finding clean drinking water, it's doable, it just takes a bit more time, which time is not something we have a lot of.

The water we're drinking from right now is that.

As you can see, there's bird tracks everywhere.

Just a matter of time drinking that stuff before you get sick, which again will just take more time away from the trip, possibly stop the trip altogether.

- Don't trust your life to an untested piece of gear.

Lessons you learn out here are all going to be hard lessons, 'cause there's no easy way out.

We've got some purification tablets, we always have the option to boil water, but we don't have enough fuel with us to boil water for ourselves as well as cook our meals.

Just something to fix, that's all this trip is going to be, is just problem solving, hard work and problem solving.

(oars knocking) (oars knocking) - [Matty] Ready for drones up?

(ambient music) - Well, here we are, my friends, out amongst the ice, we are surrounded by sea ice, so we're just poking our way through, navigating through.

But it's here proper.

(laughs) (ambient music) - [Matty] It seems like, in the past two days, we went from just in the north, to now we're in the Arctic.

We're just surrounded by ice.

There's herds of caribou, we're seeing seals, some polar bear tracks.

I mean, it's really starting to turn into the arctic proper, what you'd expect.

Really hard to put into words how special that is, how good that feels.

- I had one of the coolest animal wildlife encounters I've ever had, something I'll never forget, being surrounded and ever so close.

I almost felt like I was in danger of getting trampled.

Couldn█t take the smile off my face after it was done.

(ambient music) - Oh, I'm finally in bed for a night.

A long day.

More like the water pump is done.

I can't believe that we didn't bring a second one, we both have a second one.

Second time we used it, completely failed.

That's a real concern, 'cause we need water, we need four liters each per day.

And the real concerning news, even probably more than that, is Adam.

(ambient music) - I had to call it early today, I some pain in my right knee, in my right calf, and I didn't feel confident that I can make the six miles across the bay.

- Today, he was rowing so slow.

So slow.

We had six more miles to go, and within half a mile, he stops, like, "Man, I can't do it."

Said, "I just hurt my knee again."

- And, you know, day five to have that kind of pain, is discouraging.

I've put everything into this, and so has Matty.

- We got 2,000 miles to row, like three and a half months.

Do the math, need a minimum 20 miles every day.

And part of me is worried right now that something's going to happen to his knee worse, or he's just going to come to realization that he can't do it, and he's going to pull out, which really scares me.

I don't want him to leave, I don't want to do this alone.

I really do believe that he can do it, I know that his body is a lot stronger than he's giving himself credit for.

- I don't want to take this away from Matty, I have to try as hard as I possibly can, even if it means pushing through the pain, putting myself in danger.

I can't let him down.

(ambient music) (wind roaring) - It is our first weather day, and she is blowing.

We're also very exposed on this little spit that we stopped on last night.

Proper nearest point of land, six miles away, and now we're kind of just stuck here.

- We took yesterday to rest, and very happy we did, and we're here, we're in it, 100%.

Today's going to be a good day.

It's going to be a good day.

- Ready to get out of here.

(wind whooshing) (ambient music) (oar squeaking) (wind whooshing) (ambient music) July 5th, Evening journal.

- Snap!

- [Matty] Jesus Christ, (Adam laughing) you scared me.

Tell me why.

- Today was good, we rowed over 20 miles, and really foggy today, rowing inside of a ping pong ball, as Matty would say.

We were just navigating by compass, and, you know, it's interesting, you're out here, and especially in the fog, you just feel totally, completely isolated.

- We're getting better, we're getting faster, but also on the setup and breakdown of camp, making supper.

Just getting faster and more, more, what's the word?

- [Adam] Streamlined?

- Streamlined.

Thank you, Adam.

(laughs) (Adam laughing) It feels like a different world up here.

I think to all the people down in the city, down south, all shoulder to shoulder, and bumper to bumper, and to me, it just sounds like madness, when there's all this space up here, just waiting for you.

But I'm sure some of those yuppies would look at us and think we're absolutely cracked right now, laying in a tent on the tundra in the midnight sun, waiting for a polar bear to stumble across his tent.

- The Arctic has been really playing with our minds.

- It feels like we're in some kind of simulation up here.

- Something goes on here with the cold air coming off of the sea ice, and the heat coming off of the land, that creates all these crazy mirage effects, and it's really disorienting.

Sometimes you'll see like ships in the distance that aren't ships, and the mountains will suddenly invert.

The whole place just has a very like, otherworldly feel to it.

There's no nighttime, there's no trees, the landscape feels super empty, and then suddenly like, you see a caribou, or there's a team on the beach.

It's different from anything else I've experienced before.

(ambient music) (Adam hocking spit) (Adam spitting) Oh, just swallowed a fricking mosquito.

(coughs) We have to get water this morning, so we're going to be testing out the water maker.

Keep this one short, because I'm getting destroyed.

- This pump doesn't work today.

Only options we got is to start trying to find even cleaner water, we can drink straight out of the earth, or start boiling it, or just roll the dice and gamble.

- It's been a few days since our last water stop, and we had our water filter crack on us.

We have sealed it with epoxy, and hopefully it works, it's our only filter, and if this doesn't work we're going to be in a bit of trouble.

(ambient music) The epoxy repair did not really work.

We're getting some water through.

(pump creaking) This pump is not going to last the next three months.

No way.

Today was a hard day.

(chuckles softly) Both of us are just totally worn out.

It's a hard thing, it's the reason no one's ever done it before, despite many attempts.

For now, just enjoy the sandy beaches, and the mosquitoes.

Constant companions out here.

- Well, it's day nine, and I just made possibly the biggest mistake I've made on this entire trip.

I drank the dirty water, we decided that we would take two 10 liter bags each of purified water, and we'd take one 10 liter bag each of dirty raw, water from that old duck pond.

The duck pond water is supposed to be boiled for coffee, oats, supper, but boiled and made clean, and in my hustle and bustle to get going, I totally forgot, and I just chugged down a full one liter bottle of, I mean, dirty water.

Bird poop floating around in it, little tiny mites and stuff, swimming everywhere.

If I was to get sick, it's probably going to be a couple days down, and a lot of fluids are going to come out of my body from both ends, which is going to make me weak, it's going to lose some weight, and it just going to be one more hurdle to get over.

Cross your fingers that doesn't happen, but we'll see.

We just had a record day, 22 point something something miles.

We found this beautiful, beautiful spot, grassy rolling hills, sandy beach.

Tonight sometime, we got a weather system rolling in, all day tomorrow, it's supposed to blow hard, really hard, much too hard for us to be on the water.

Personally, I'm very much looking forward to a storm day, sit down and lick my wounds, and do some reading and some napping.

Oh, it's going to be so good.

(water splashing) - That behind me is Cape Dalhousie, and the tip of the Tuktoyaktuk Peninsula.

Our first major milestone, we're doing it.

(laughs) - Pretty big deal, buddy.

We're leaving on a mid tide, so we got to drag the boats all the way out to the water's edge, and we do that by using these logs, rollers.

Lay a bunch of rollers down, put a boat on it, (boat scraping) and you roll across top of the logs.

Makes it much easier than dragging through the sand.

(boat squeaking) - We've had a short night's rest, we only got five or six hours sleep last night, and I slept like (...), so, I'm feeling a little rough.

Mosquitoes have been terrible out here, we've both been having to wear our bug suits, and so I'm going to be glad to be getting off and getting on with our day.

(wind blowing softly) (ambient music) - We are going on a water run.

We're stuck on this island, Nelson Island.

Adam finished doing repairs (sandpaper swishing) to our water filter yesterday with some epoxy and fiberglass, and we're going to go and test our new filter, and cross our fingers that this works.

These little trails we're walking on right now, these are not made by people, this is pure caribou track.

We've seen hundreds, and we're going to follow their tracks, because they should lead us right to the fresh water since they're a mammal just like us, and they need fresh water.

- This is our first test with the second repair on the water pump.

This time, we've cased the entire plastic housing with fiberglass and epoxy.

If this doesn't work, then this thing is just truly screwed.

(water splashing) (birds calling) Last time we used this, it was absolutely (...) out of the side, now we just have a tiny bit of water just around this seam here escaping.

I don't think it's pumping at optimal efficiency, but it's working, we've got water.

(ambient music) We've sat here for about 30 hours now.

(waves crashing) We've got some real weather coming in over here.

At a certain point, we just got to bite the bullet, and try and row against the wind, so that's what we're going to do today.

Couldn't get to sleep last night until like, two o'clock in the morning.

- Neither of us can sleep.

It's too hot in my sleeping bag.

Got to be up in two and a half hours to start rowing.

- Once we hit this next peninsula, it's supposed to be very, very dense with bears, grizzly bears, polar bears.

The entire peninsula is just littered with bears apparently, so.

A grizzly bear, polar bear shows up in our camp, and things will go south pretty quick.

Well, it's going to be a great day.

We'll see.

(oars knocking) Just finished a big seven hours in the boat, nonstop.

And for probably the past five hours, I felt like I've been holding on to two burning hot coals in my hands.

That's the good hand, this is the bad hand.

If I keep going at this rate, we're going to have some infections in my hand in no time.

Really need to make some kind of changes and figure out how to stop this from happening.

'Cause it's so painful, every single time I pull on the oars, it's like there's fire in my hands.

Or maybe I just got soft skin like a baby, I don't know.

But this has got to stop, because we're going to be in serious trouble here pretty soon.

Starting to really think and fantasize about food.

A big old pizza, box of fries, whew.

God, it'd be good.

(Adam chuckling) - My God, we did 26 miles, but it felt like 36.

We're on the other side of Cape Bathurst, and just north of The Smoking Hills, basically, the shale deposits deep, deep inside the earth caught fire several hundred years ago, and these hills have been smoking nonstop for hundreds of years, unlike any other place on the planet.

It's also very inhospitable.

The smoke off the hills is poisonous, so if you inhale it, you can get very sick.

Our next good campsite is about 46 miles from here.

I don't know if I have that in me, to be honest with you, in one day.

(chuckles) We'll see what happens.

- We're on a really short, narrow beach tonight.

There's nowhere really to make a good camp in the tent.

Look, there's a fox.

That was the little arctic fox, they are the worst thing ever in the woods.

Those things are the ghost, they're the ninjas of the wild, they'll come up here, chew through the side of our food bags, chew through the side of our clothes bags, take whatever they want, and we would never hear 'em, ever hear 'em.

Pretty cute though.

And also, we've seen some wolf tracks, massive wolf tracks, biggest wolf tracks I've ever seen in my life.

They're actually Timberwolves, which is the largest species of wolf there is.

Massive animals.

Huge.

I mean huge, I'm guessing over 200 pound dog.

Massive.

Really, our biggest offense out here is the other person.

So if, worst case scenario, I wake up, there's a polar bear on top of my boat trying to get me, hopefully, Adam wakes up and hears my screams, and gets up and deals with it.

(oars knocking) Belugas on the beach!

(waves crashing) Soon as we came around the tip of this peninsula, we've started seeing beluga whales by the dozens, if not hundreds.

They've started coming in closer and closer.

(waves crashing) I mean so close you could throw a rock at it if you wanted to.

How many people out there can say they've watched a march of beluga whales, gigantic pods of beluga whales, just a few hundred feet off the spot where they're camping.

So, we've been going pretty hard, things are all starting to feel a little bit more rugged and extreme.

Right now, I'm just really excited to eat dinner.

It's 10:22 at night, all we've had today is just our breakfast and lunch snacks.

- It doesn't (...) matter, but either way, it's (...) - Okay.

- Either way.

Just needed better communication.

So, I really (...) up and choked, I'm sure you're choked right now, even hearing me say that, because you don't understand it, and it doesn't (...) matter.

- I don't understand how you're bringing this at me like this right now.

I feel like you're projecting on me a little bit, honestly.

Like I think you were already in a bad mood before we even pulled up here.

- I was.

- You're having a (...) day.

You know, I get it, you're having a really (...) day.

- I was.

- And I'm not saying that I didn't, you know, maybe I didn't communicate, or I didn't understand what you were trying to do.

- Yes, I was in a bad mood from the start.

And I was like, (...) it, I don't got the (...) energy.

Yes, most of it comes back to I was in a (...) mood, and I still am.

- I still love you.

(chuckles) - I love you too.

(laughs) - I didn't even know you were upset about that.

(beach sounds) - [Matty] So there's a line of bear tracks going right through the middle of camp.

As you can see, they're pretty frigging big tracks.

What do you think, Adam, grizzly or polar bear?

- I think that, either way, big enough to eat us.

For sure.

- Probably wouldn't even have heard Adam screaming.

He could have been over there getting dragged out of his boat, and I would've just been sleeping like a log.

(Adam laughing) Woke up this morning wondering where he was.

- [Adam] This is proper bear country now, we are not the top of the food chain here.

- Pancake, anyone?

Oof.

(Adam laughing) (Adam and Matty laughing) (ambient music) Completely exhausted tonight.

Look at that.

We had a new personal record today, 35 miles, under 10 hours.

I really see now why no one has ever done this before, (waves crashing) it makes perfect sense to me.

Good night.

I love you.

(Matty smooching) (ambient music) Having lots of crazy dreams lately.

All my dreams are pretty much wrapped around the passage.

Comes up in every dream, so my mind is fully consumed with this trip.

I'm getting messages from friends and family.

I don't know what it is, I'm having a hard time even wanting to respond.

No one really understands how hard this is, and how tough this is.

There's a reason why this has never been done before.

This is a hard, hard (...) thing to do.

(ambient music) (waves crashing) Can definitely tell this morning that we had a massive day yesterday.

Bones are achy, the body's pretty tired, everything hurts really.

But we just got to dig deep and put it out of our mind, and just get our ass back on the water, and that's going to be a tough one.

(waves crashing) - Good, good, good.

(oars knocking) We didn't have a very productive day today as far as rowing goes.

(bird calling) Yet another day where we didn't hit our mark, and that's frustrating, but, you know, that's how it goes.

- My hands are healing, as you can see.

New technique, no gloves.

(ambient music) Had a really big crossing yesterday, our biggest crossing yet, 32 miles.

My body wants to stop and take a rest, recharge, and let the muscles heal.

It's a suffer fest, but there's just no time.

We need to keep moving.

Simple as that.

You just got to be able to block out that pain, block out that suffering, block out that desire to stop and rest like you should.

It's a pilgrimage of pain is what it is.

- Pretty sore, (sighs) definitely feeling it in my shoulder.

My seat's also a big concern, barely usable right now, (chuckles) and we still have about 120 miles before we can get to Paulatuk.

Just got to do my best every day.

- [Matty] Just do your best.

(foreboding tone) - I haven't been keeping up with my journals very much the last couple of days.

By the time we made it here it, it was pretty plain to me that my shoulder is injured properly.

I have an old injury in my right shoulder.

it hasn't given me any trouble since the injury, until three days ago when we made that big 32-mile crossing.

It's definitely my labrum.

So that means I probably have, like 100 miles to go to Paulatuk, and I think it's going to be a challenge just to make it there.

(foreboding tone) (waves crashing) My shoulder's throbbing right now.

It was fine until we got up here on the beach, and then just trying to yank on these boats, sharp and shooting pain right up beside my shoulder.

- Pretty concerned about my partner here, Adam.

I can tell he is hurting physically, and I can tell this morning he's really, really struggling mentally, probably the lowest I've ever seen him.

I can see it in his face, I can see it in his eyes, that this is really breaking him.

It's very, very hard to watch.

And yeah, I'm worried about him.

(Adam sighing) - I'm really struggling this morning.

Like I can't get myself in gear.

I'm just drowning, drowning in feelings right now.

I just feel like so weighted down with disappointment and grief.

Can barely get myself moving.

Don't want to have to talk to everybody, tell everybody over and over again, "Yeah, no, hurt my shoulder, couldn't go on, Matty had to go on without me.

Just left him up here."

(Adam choking up) (Adam sniffling) I don't want to have to call my parents and tell 'em.

So many people just believed in us.

There, you've had your little cry, you got to buck up, put your big boy pants on, just get out there, and do what you need to do.

This is not a place to let yourself fall apart.

I can't, I got to... (sighs) (Adam breathing deeply) (ambient music) (phone dialing) - [Mom] Hello.

- Hey, mom.

- [Mom] Hey, Adam.

- Hey, how are you doing?

- [Mom] Good.

How are you?

- My shoulder that had the labrum tear a few years ago.

- [Mom] Yeah.

- I've re-torn it.

(bird calling) - [Mom] Oh (...) - [Mom] Oh (...) - It's decided that it's not wise for me to keep going.

- [Mom] What a disappointment, after all the work you've done, and all the money you put in.

I'm so sorry.

- It's okay.

I feel like I'm letting everybody down.

- [Mom] You are not letting everybody down, that's something you have no control over.

It's your body letting you down, it's not you.

- Yeah.

- [Mom] I know you've probably tried to work, we know you've probably worked through it more than you should have done already, right?

(Adam laughing softly) - Yeah.

- [Mom] You can't row another 600 miles with a shoulder that's out.

- 1,600 miles.

- [Mom] 1,600.

You can't do that, Adam.

Unfortunately, you've got no choice.

It's just a hell of a blow for you.

- Anyway, that's the news here.

We're on a little island right now, called Racing Island.

Yesterday my sliding seat finally gave out, one of the wheels literally fell off yesterday, so now my seat doesn't move.

You have to have that sliding movement in order to make a full stroke.

(oars knocking) So I've been reduced to making short, quick, little half strokes with the oars, using nothing but my arms and my shoulders and back.

My legs basically are useless now, that's where I was drawing most of my power from, especially because my shoulder is screwed up.

Got a broken boat, got a broken shoulder, and we're in the middle of nowhere still.

(water splashing) - I can't even think of it without getting upset.

The weather's going to get worse, it's going to get darker, it's more dangerous.

Now I got nobody to lean on.

The thought of doing this alone now seems almost impossible.

He's carried the burden of the navigation, he's carried the burden of actually knowing where the hell we're going.

He's the one that's done the research on the road.

He's the one that's done the research on the weather systems, and the ice, and the communities along the way, and all the ins and outs, there's so much information.

My entire knowledge of this route pretty much consists of a very vague red line going across the top of Canada.

And that's pretty much it.

I didn't do any research on the route, I have no idea.

There is zero room for mistakes now.

There's nobody to watch me, there's no one to catch me if I fall.

(ambient music) (oars knocking) (water splashing) It's a sad and emotional day for both of us, but in very different ways.

He describes it as, we're both in different boats, but in the same storm.

He has his own battles to fight, and I have mine.

- So, we made our final crossing yesterday.

If there was any doubt that I was making the right decision, it was removed yesterday.

But today, it's just about me and him, and enjoying the last bit of time that we have together.

We're in Paulatuk right now, and this is our last day together.

I've been letting this sucker grow out for the last month, I shaved it the day before we left, and today, I'm going back down to bare, baby skin.

After this, I'm heading into town for the first time, go try and make some friends.

Got to look my best, can't be going in there looking like a scruffy hobo, even though it's what I am literally.

(razor buzzing) No going back now.

- If anyone at home is wondering where we are right now on the map, (clippers buzzing) right about here somewhere.

(clippers buzzing) He's going to be stuck here, I literally got to take the tent from him.

All he's going to have is the boat, so he's basically got a boat on shore to live out of.

Straight hobo, has no idea what he's doing, has no idea how to get out of here, how to deal with his boat, but he's putting all that aside for the expedition and for the team.

Got to love him.

(ambient music) (Matty laughing) You are the most adaptable person now, that is your superpower, and once I'm actually gone, and it sets in, like I know you'll just turn the page.

It's my new reality, let's make the best of it.

Just like me.

- Love you, brother.

(water splashing) - Love you, brother.

(water splashing) (emotional music) See you in Baffin Island.

(oars rocking) (water splashing) (emotional music) And that's it.

He's gone.

I don't care about being the first person to row the Northwest Passage, and truth be told, I never really did.

It's a nice thing to aim for, but really, I just wanted to be up here with my best friend.

I'm scared for him, honestly.

I know he's the toughest, bravest man I've ever met in my life, I can't even imagine what he's going through.

He's got the biggest challenge of his life ahead of him.

- It was all I could do to keep it together until I got out of sight.

Really broke my heart.

(Matty sobbing) That's all.

I'm done.

I'm done.

It just seems a lot more real, being alone, knowing there's no one else to see you there.

Anyway.

(waves crashing) It looks like we've got some real serious weather coming in two days time, and it's going to stick around for almost 48 hours, so I need to try and make up for those down days I might possibly have today and tomorrow.

(oars scraping) (ambient music) It's almost like they didn't know that I was a human.

By far, the closest I've ever come to a wolf in the wild.

Very rare they come that close.

And they actually got so close, at one point I was afraid they were going to come right up to me.

It's really hard to put that into words, how special that is, to see something so wild and so perfect.

They're just living their best life, two of them just traveling around the countryside, just living.

Feels like a lifetime since I've seen Adam already.

Really miss that guy.

(coffee burbling) As you can see, the weather is changing fast.

A lot of cloudy days, a lot of rainy days, very unstable atmosphere as we move into late summer.

Today, we leave the mainland of Canada behind, and we begin our crossing over to Victoria Island.

It's about 37 miles from here.

The saving grace is there is a 12-mile long island 13 miles from here.

Slowly losing my mind out here.

This is a wild, wild place to be alone.

(oars knocking) Today, my boat took its first real damage, it was my daggerboard.

It's what goes in the water and acts like a keel to anchor me to the ocean.

See that split?

Hit a rock today, fully loaded, going pretty fast, the first rock I've hit this entire trip.

(sandpaper swishing) Without this dagger board working properly, it's going to really slow me down and hinder my ability to continue rowing in rough, harsh conditions.

Oh, sandpaper, sandpaper.

(sandpaper swishing) This is one of nice things about building a boat yourself, really, truly can fix literally anything on this boat at this point.

After rowing for 26 miles, completely exhausted, this is the last thing that I want to do right now, is to do a fiberglass and epoxy job tonight, I just want to eat and go to sleep.

(tent flapping) Just waking up to see that I survived the night.

A few times last night, I wasn't sure if this thing was going to make it, but it's making it.

(tent flapping) (wind roaring) It's not over yet, it's going to keep doing this all day.

Just batten the hatches, make sure everything is battened in tight, and just get ready to hold up for the next two days, 'cause it's going to get bad, it's going to get real bad.

There's no way in hell I can get in that water today.

No way.

It would be pretty much suicide.

- I'm having a really hard time here, one foot in and one foot out.

I'm just watching Matty get further and further away from me.

I have this acute feeling of just being left behind, just a daily struggle not to jump in the boat and chase him down.

No way I could catch up to him, but the feeling is there.

It's really hard, like... (chuckles) - Looks very nasty out there.

It's been three days, four mornings now.

I'm really making this 14-mile crossing seem like it's more than what it is, it's not that big of a deal.

It's like I'm at the point where I'm waiting for the perfect weather, which I don't know if it's going to come.

Even just a couple miles in, I won't be able to turn around and come back to this island, I'll be in the wind, and in the waves, and it'll take me forever to come back, so once I start, I'm going.

I just really, really don't want to get in a bad situation out there.

- My last morning on the beach here.

(chuckles) Things are starting to move.

I'm taking my boat into town this morning, and I've got a guy who's going to help me load it up.

It's going to go on a cargo plane that'll be leaving from the airport sometime this week.

No one can tell me when, and I don't want to leave town until my boat's on the plane.

I also don't have a flight yet.

And once the boat gets to the airport, I also don't have a place to stay.

(rain pattering) - I keep waiting for better weather, but the better weather is not coming.

It's just getting worse each day, it seems like.

Now, today, it's just pouring rain.

First time ever it's rained this much.

Of course, today.

Never should have stopped here, I should have just forced my way through that day.

(ambient music) - So I dropped my boat off at the airport, stripped down to one duffle bag and a backpack here, with my basic essential items.

Boat should be going on the plane tomorrow.

There's a charter flight leaving on Thursday, and I'm going to try and hop on board, maybe for free, which would be awesome.

(rain pattering) - I'm really, really getting concerned for the timeline.

To make matters worse, I'm running out of food.

Now I'm five days behind of the schedule, and I had it timed out, so it's pretty much going to be food bags pretty much empty by the time we get to Cambridge Bay.

Just because I'm picking up so much food there, I knew I would need the space and to save the weight, so I've been trying to eat the food down hard.

And now that I'm stopped for five days, that's coming to backfire.

If I could row every day nonstop, I could be there in probably 10 days.

Right now, I have nine meals left, so even at best, I'm going to run out of food.

(foreboding music) Well, the rain stopped, just long enough to get the tent and everything broke down, and we're going to do it.

But now's my time, if I don't go now, (birds chirping) the weather's supposed to get worse again tomorrow, so now or never.

I know that the boat can handle it, it's just me versus myself right now.

And as long as I stay calm, collected, and cool, I should be able to shoot right across this channel, get to the other side safely.

I don't want to overthink it, I just want to get on the water and start doing it.

(wind whooshing) So let's (censored) do it.

(oars knocking) (foreboding music) (foreboding music) And I got my ass kicked again.

We are right back where we started.

I'm feeling really low.

(waves crashing) (Matty sniffling) I'm starting to have doubts in myself.

I really wish Adam was here right now, he'd tell me it's all right, he'd tell me we can still do it.

- Today is probably going to be my last day in Paulatuk.

I managed to finagle a free flight out of here, there's a charter plane coming in today, and it's coming in full, and leaving almost empty.

It's not 100%, but nothing seems to be 100% here in Paulatuk.

(chuckles) - Today is day six here on this island, no, day seven, I think.

I've been keeping a real close eye on the weather forecast system that we've been using, and it looks like there may be a little hole in the weather, about three hours, three hours would be enough to get across.

Cross your fingers, today is the day, and we get out of here.

We'll see.

- Still haven't gotten my boat loaded up, I'm a little anxious about that.

I don't want to leave without it, but I've been here for long enough, so it feels like it's time to go, feels like it's time to start making progress (propeller whirring) in another direction.

Matty is 260 miles further on, and absolutely crushing it.

Yeah, I think he's going to do it, man.

I really do.

I think he's going to do it.

I don't know anybody better, give him the oars and let him go, don't want to hold him back this time.

(ambient music) (plane rumbling) (oars scraping) - Well, here we are, we are officially on Victoria Island.

We made the crossing, safe and sound.

The waves were big, (water splashing) the swell was big, probably just as hard mentally as it was physically.

Rowing, like, away from the island I was on, and like looking behind me, and seeing nothing but ocean, and like seeing how rough the conditions are, looking at the sky, just hoping that the wind's going to hold out, and you just keep going, you keep watching that island behind you get smaller and smaller, and you get further and further away from land.

It really takes a lot of mental, just mental energy to block out all that fear and all those bad thoughts.

Just keep going.

(ambient music) Oh, my God, (yawns) we rowed 40 miles today.

That's huge.

Went further than I thought I could go in one day.

(Matty yawning) 40 is the new goal.

One, we're running out of time for the ice, and two, running out of food real quick.

So, right now, we have six suppers left, two beef hash, four pea soup, oof.

I haven't been eating the pea soup, 'cause I don't like it.

Pea soup back to back for four days.

Oh, my god.

Almost out of coffee, one roll of toilet paper left.

My god.

(frost skritching) That is officially the first frost of the trip.

This other thing that's happened now too, is daylights are getting shorter and shorter.

Another six to eight weeks, we'll be done with this.

I'm in the home stretch now.

(spoon tapping) Definitely one advantage of it getting colder, (coffee splashing) coffee tastes even better.

This is really when I miss having Adam out here the most, just sitting around drinking our morning coffee together, having some laughs.

To really, really enjoy a place like this, you need to have someone to share it with.

(oars knocking) (water splashing) We're just outside of Cambridge Bay.

It's been exactly one month since I left Adam in Paulatuk, so that means it's been one month since I've seen another human being.

(oars knocking) We are here in town, this is Cambridge Bay.

Feels pretty weird to be back, in front of like, a house.

Just to walk inside and be indoors, so strange, feels so strange.

(engine revving) (Matty laughing enthusiastically) (vehicle rumbling) That's a lot of food.

(laughs) For sure, that's 60, 80 pounds maybe.

I don't even know.

It's a lot.

(plastic crinkling) It might be an issue getting all this in the boat, this is way more food than I expected.

It's all coming.

(oars knocking) I didn't sleep well.

I always felt so angsty the whole time.

(waves crashing) Really happy to be back in my boat, and just be at peace, everything is simple again.

30.5 miles.

Day one.

Looks like a grizzly to me, not a polar bear, thank God.

You can see how close these tracks are to the water, just above the high tide line, that means he just walked up here within the past hour.

From what the locals tell me, the grizzlies up here are actually pretty aggressive.

Tonight, I'll definitely be keeping bear spray, air horn, and the 12 gauge much closer than normal.

These are by far the freshest bear tracks we've seen this entire trip.

(foreboding high-pitched tone) Seeing that polar bear was something, What a feeling, watching that polar bear get closer and closer.

The apex predator up here, he has no worries with anything up here at all.

Did not give two (...) that I was there, really all of a sudden made me feel like a small prey animal.

Once the polar bear got a little bit too close, then I just fired a warning shot into the air, and as soon as he heard that, he was gone.

(ambient music) Well, it's September 1st, (wind whooshing) and we got our first snow storm, believe it or not.

Supposed to blow pretty hard, about 30 knots.

Going to be stuck right here for two days.

Luckily, I got lots of food now.

(bird calling) Really the only way to stay warm now is moving around doing work, or in my sleeping bag, curled up.

So, that's what I'm doing, just huddled up in my sleeping bag, listening to music, napping, eating, and just trying to stay sane.

(rain pattering) Had our first real taste of ice last night.

(wind whooshing) Stuff started to freeze up, batteries not charging very well, all that fun stuff.

But we're going to try and make some miles today and get off Victoria Island, move over to Jenny Lind Island.

You can hear that wind is blowing, luckily it's at my back, so hopefully it dies out a little bit later.

(oars knocking) (boat scraping) Worst thing that could happen to the boat, besides putting a hole in it and sinking, just happened.

I broke the dagger board again.

I'm really distraught right now, I don't really know what to do, I just came straight into shore, there's no way to continue in this wind.

It's a major, major blow.

(bird calling) I don't really know what to do.

(ambient music) - [Adam] How bad is it?

Can you fix it?

- Definitely worse than last time, but yeah, no, it's fixable.

(rain pattering) My only concern now is getting epoxy to cure in this weather.

I mean, it's been snow squalls all day.

- [Adam] Yeah, you're just going to have to run it not completely cured.

It's just going to be okay, you know?

- You think?

- Yeah.

It's not going to like, have water penetrate it.

(water burbling) (foreboding high-pitched ringing) (muffled voices) (Matty grunting) - Well, I just got off the phone with Adam.

That's the first time I feel like even he doesn't get it.

I feel so much pressure from all sides to try and get this done, and I'm starting to have doubts.

(rain pattering) (Matty sniffling) I don't know if I got it in me to fix this thing, to pick back up and keep going, I really don't.

I don't even know if I can fix it.

I'm really afraid this just cost me the trip.

(Matty sighing) I really don't want to let everybody down.

(Matty sniffling) I really wish I was home right now.

I just want to be home.

(ambient music) All the way through.

Well, there's only one thing left to do now, that is trying to fix this dagger board.

There's no point in sitting around feeling sorry for myself, may as well just get up and start fixing it.

What else am I going to do out here?

(wind whooshing) The real (...) part is, I only got one small piece of sandpaper left, so I'm going to have to go old school and just use a rock, and just scrape the paint off.

Found a real nice one too, it's almost in the shape of a wedge.

(rock scraping) That rock works pretty good.

They're better than you'd think.

And really, all sandpaper is, a bunch of small rocks.

Got to love a rock.

(wood clacking) (rock scraping) So what I'm going to have to do, put some thickened epoxy here right in the crack, and then lay a sheet of glass for the whole thing.

This is going to be a tricky one, 'cause it's snowing, and it's cold, I got to do it underneath the shelter of the tent.

It's going to be sketchy.

Should have heated this up first.

Oh, god.

(gas hissing) This is something I would never suggest anyone should ever do, bringing a fire inside your tent, the gas stove, is a major, major no-no.

One, the fumes are dangerous.

Two, you can just catch the whole thing on fire, and all this will go up real quick, and then you're trapped inside of a tent on fire.

I don't really have much of a choice right now, it's the only way I can get this thing to cure in one day.

And I'm going to run the stove until it comes to a boil, I'll turn the stove off, and then a hot pot of water will work as like a little bit of a heater and keep some heat in the tent.

But again, never ever do this unless you're in a dire situation like I am right now.

(oars knocking) (water splashing) Big day, big day.

We are officially on King William Island.

(wind whooshing) It is day 77.

Day 77 of the trip.

Pretty proud of that.

Haven't been filming much lately, it's been pretty cold.

Overnight, it's getting really cold, all the batteries are dying all the time, which, you know, sucks, but it is what it is.

The solar system might finally be dead.

It's been giving me some trouble for the past few days, and now it's really not doing anything.

Now nothing works.

(switch clicking) Oh, it's working.

I basically rewired the whole solar system.

The only part that I don't have here to replace is the solar panel itself, and I think that's what the failure is.

This, I need this to charge up my chart plotter and my Garmin.

The Garmin is the only true fail-safe I have to contact the outside world in case I need help, so this is a pretty big deal, and I don't really know what to do.

This is the last little bit of juice I have in any of the camera batteries right now for the GoPro.

It's 13%.

Everything is dying fast in the cold.

If I lose all power, I'm just out here in the middle of nowhere, in blackness.

Situation's pretty dire right now, and I'm not feeling very good about it, I'm a long ways from anything, and I don't really know what to do if it's not going to work.

This will be one of my last, if not the last video entry.

About five days ago, I made a decision that, trip is over.

Now I'm struggling trying to get back to a place called Gjoa Haven, a very, very small community, middle of nowhere, we don't know anybody there, we don't have any contacts there, but that's where I'm heading, it's the only safe haven in this entire area.

Everything now is dead.

I've got a little bit of battery left in my Garmin inReach, and that's all.

Now that the trip is over, I'm ready just to go.

(ambient music) Really, the only thing I can do today is look through pictures of my family.

These bring me a lot of joy, looking at these.

Talking to these cameras is my only real outlet.

When the camera's not on, I don't just sit here speaking out loud my thoughts and feelings, but when the camera's on, I can really look at the camera and speak to it kind of like a person, and kind of (sighs) let all my thoughts, let all my feelings out.

It helps, it really does help.

(ambient music) Cut.

Good news, I found another GoPro battery, which is pretty sweet.

It is night number 86.

Had a really, really good day today.

Today was different, today felt good.

It felt like it did before, just enjoyed it, enjoyed being here, enjoyed sleeping in the boat tonight.

Just enjoying everything.

And I realize now I'm not in a big rush to get back.

Yes, I need to get there before the Garmin dies completely, but I've still got some time to enjoy it, I still got a few more nights.

(water splashing) That's what I'm going to do, I'm going to slow down a little bit and just try and enjoy it.

86 nights.

What a feral dog I've turned into.

If you could smell the sleeping bag.

I'm ready to get there, so we're going to do it.

(oars knocking) Might be a little bit touch and go, but I'll probably be arriving just at dark, we're just going to do it.

This is the last run, we're going to finish strong.

This will be the biggest day rowing yet, it'll be almost 50 miles covered if we can make it to town tonight.

(oars scraping) (water splashing) (ambient music) We made it.

Can't believe I made it here before dark.

It's been the fastest miles I've ever rowed.

Unload this boat, go for a quick walk.

Originally, when pulling in here, I thought this place would be the size of Paulatuk or smaller.

It's big, street lights and everything.

Unreal.

(laughs) I might be here a while, once I find some friends.

(ambient music) (waves crashing) (ambient music) (vehicle rumbling) (vehicle rumbling) (ambient music) Well, that's where she's going to stay for the winter, right there, I guess.

She got a perfect view of the ocean out there, right on top of the research center.

Got to love it.

Well, this is Gjoa Haven.

So much history here, all those old explorers from back in the day, the shipwrecks aren't far from here.

Everyone in Gjoa Haven here has been so nice to me since I showed up.

It's been a bit of a transition though.

Sleeping indoors for the first time, hot water, being around a bunch of people.

I mean, it wasn't as great as you'd probably think it was, a bit of an emotional roller coaster, honestly.

But I feel so blessed to be able to come up here, spend my summer trying to cross the Arctic.

It's absolutely magic.

Best days of my life, by far.

(ambient music) Next steps now is getting south, see the friends and family, recharge and regroup.

(plane roaring) (plane rumbling) (radio chatter) (radio chatter) (plane rumbling) (clippers buzzing) So happy to be home, isn't he?

- How happy he was when we came back.

Oh look, a rat snake.

(birds chirping) - Oh, great.

- He's back.

(laughs) - [Terry] I was just asking about that.

Beautiful.

- I love a good rat snake.

(Adam laughing) (Terry and Adam laughing) - Matty's got to try and play cool.

(Terry and Adam laughing) Really, he just wants to leave the porch.

- [Terry] Right now.

- I'm done.

(Terry laughing) - [Adam] You want me to get him out of here?

- Oh no, it's fine.

Let him live his life, man.

(birds chirping) - [Adam] All right.

Everyone's got to live their life.

- He's a regular visitor around these parts.

- Let's just leave him.

- [Adam] No one's touching him.

- Let's just not talk about he's there.

(Adam and Terry laughing) - That first day, when we got on the water, I felt like I had forgotten how to row.

I couldn't plant the oars properly, and my oars kept skipping, and I kept like falling out of rhythm, I was just going so slow.

I was just like, "My God, what am I doing out here?"

You know?

(laughs) - "We're never going to do this."

- How am I doing here right now?

Like, this is insane, I can't even row this damn thing.

- And just that big wave and that island, when I was trying to get off that island, God, man, I get sick to my stomach just thinking about it, the way those waves were, and the conditions were, I never would've made it back to shore.

- You left, you got out, right?

- How'd you get back in with the waves?

Well, I stayed in place, just kept rowing, holding in place, I knew the tides were going to turn soon, and just had nothing I could do, I think it was like an hour and a half, two hours, before they actually turned.

Holding on I don't know how long.

It wasn't that long, felt like forever.

And never should have went out that day.

I don't like talking about it.

(ambient music) - You really do feel the most alive when like, you're that close to the void, you know?

And you're just out there like that, like, I can't even describe it.

You're so self-reliant.

You can easily perish five miles from town as you can 500 miles from town really, at the end of the day.

- There's a real, kind of raw edge to living in that kind of way, and it's kind of addictive.

It's a hard experience to recreate in just normal 9:00 to 5:00 everyday life, and it really gets under your skin.

- It was a whole experience just to wrap your mind around that.

It's just one little feather in my tail of feathers, just slowly makes me the bird I am.

- [Adam] I can't ever imagine a life where I hang up my spurs, and say, "All right, that's it.

Last trip."

There's always going to be some horizon for me to chase.

- And this is my life, the endless trip has always been my dream, and it's all about going just around the next bend, and just get a little bit further, a little bit more into it.

Just one more bite, one more turn in the river.

Just that challenge, and just that realness.

Everything just tastes so much better when you're hungry, when you're cold, and when you're scared.

Getting in that bed at night, (Matty yawning) the safe bed feels so much better.

Good night.

And that's all these trips are, just a different version of the same thing, to get back to that raw juiciness of life, strip away all this (...).

(ambient music) - [Adam] The risks were worth it just for the time that I had, and to do it all with one of my best friends in the world.

We could go back to the Arctic again, but we'll never be able to go back for the first time, just trying to do something that was so out of left field, and so crazy.

- I didn't want to do it alone, like that was the best part of this trip, was to finally have a guy like Adam.

I've been doing so many trips in the woods alone, I used to really believe I didn't need anyone, and I really believed that I could disappear permanently if that's what I chose.

I slept on 91 beautiful beaches in the entire trip, 91 picturesque, postcard locations, and the most of it, I sat there alone, drinking my coffee and eating my meals, looking out, enjoying myself, but no one to look beside and watch them smile.

Those sunsets are twice as sweet, the stories, everything is just so much better with someone to share with.

- The amount of experiences that we've had in that short amount of time, you could fill a lifetime of friendship with some of those experiences, you know?

When you've gone through a situation where you don't know if you're going to make it back or not, truly, that's a bonding experience that's like, incomparable, you know?

(water splashing) - Yeah, most emotional roller coaster, physical roller coaster, everything I've ever done, and I wouldn't change a thing.

Greatest time of my life.

There.

- The Arctic is one of the last real wildernesses left on the planet.

The wilderness isn't always going to be as wild as it is right now.

It's important to me to keep chasing those dreams now, because tomorrow is never promised.

I've still got some rowing to do.

(ambient music) (ambient music) Major funding for Passage was pr was provided by the Moving Image Trust Fund.

(upbeat music)