The things we carried

September 12, 2014

Will Gadd and I just completed what we believe to be the longest connected track log that has ever been flown. About 650 kilometers across the Canadian Rockies to the US border. One rule: all forward progress was made in the air. Most of the line had never been flown. All up it took us 35 days to complete, with two long bouts of bad weather that shut us down completely for more than a week at a time. A great deal of media will be out shortly documenting the journey, that is not what this essay is all about. I'm still too frazzled, thrilled, shocked, and exhausted to put into words what the expedition meant. I haven't even begun to look back and process the risks, the rewards, and ultimately what comes down to a lesson in humility.