Something to add to your bucket list, but I think I will take a
helicoptor. And just in case you ever wondered why the boreal forest
lack roads, I tnink this tells the story. Add in beavers who dam
anything possible and working your way through rice paddies looks
like a piece of cake.
Also notice the scant game. This is seriously hungry country as
well and is it own testimonial to the low human population numbers.
You really better like eating beaver. Yet there are ways to make it
work.
Yet imagine a family of beavers setting out to construct a dam that
is almost three thousand feet long. Then they have to maintain it
also. The observed agressiveness strongly suggest that they normally
have their own way as well. It is all pretty extreme.
Fri, 19 Sep, 2014
https://ca.news.yahoo.com/worlds-largest-beaver-dam-explored-182051196.html
The world’s largest beaver dam, buried in the thick wildness of
northern Alberta and once thought to be inaccessible, has been
reached by an amateur explorer from the United States.
“The scope of it, you can just
feel the immensity of it,” said Rob Mark, who travelled from New
Jersey to become the first person to set foot on the structure.
The massive 850-metre long dam was
first spotted on satellite photos in 2007. It was found in Wood
Buffalo National Park, about 190 kilometres northeast of Fort
McMurray.
“There was a reoccurring theme
that it was incredibly remote and thought to be inaccessible. Those
two things sparked my interest and I started doing research,” he
said.
Mark used a combination of Google
Maps and topographical maps to mark out a route that he thought would
take him to the dam. Then, after reading up on local wildlife and the
terrain, he set off.
A boat took Mark from Fort Chipewyan
to the edge of Lac Clair. From there, he hiked a route that few, if
any, humans have ever travelled.
“It was ten miles to the dam.
It was the longest, hardest ten miles I have ever travelled,” said
Mark, who has hiked to remote areas in Peru and the Amazon
rainforest.
“It is incredibly difficult
country to get through. The foliage is so thick, you can’t see very
far … then it turns into muskeg, which is incredibly
difficult to walk on. And then it goes out to complete bog swamp.
“The mosquitoes are absolutely
horrific.”
Despite the untouched wilderness,
Mark says he didn’t encounter any wildlife until he reached the dam
and was confronted with a single, angry resident.
“I saw one beaver... he wasn't
happy I was there either, he was slapping his tail on the water and
wanted me out of there.”
Despite the difficult journey, Mark
says the feeling when he finally stepped foot on the dam was well
worth it.
“It felt like I just scored the
winning goal in Game 7. I felt incredibly proud that I actually found
it and made it there.
"And that I was able to document this and map it in such a
way that future scientists, biologists and explorers can study this
truly natural wonder.”
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