Author Archives: In the Wake of the Vikings

After 5 days, 1600 miles, 8 hours on two different ferries, two hotels, two campgrounds, and a COVID-era Canadian Border Crossing (according to the CBC, looks like mandatory testing is coming back, folks!) Team Viking finally hit the water on the afternoon of Tuesday, 13 July. A big part of our project is researching forContinue reading “At Long Last, Team Viking Takes the Labrador Plunge”

At L’Anse Amour, on the coast of southern Labrador facing the Strait of Belle Isle, resides the oldest known burial mound yet discovered in North America. Although now a good 800 meters from the shoreline, when it was built it was right on the very edge of the shore, perhaps 8 meters back from theContinue reading “The Boy Who Keeps Watch”

A few years ago (when I start a sentence with those four words, my dear wife often retorts with something like, “John, hon, you were 27 then.”) Respectfully I am now 50+, though that is neither here nor there…. Anyhoo, “a few years ago” I was climbing in Joshua Tree with my friend and colleagueContinue reading “Zippers, Latches, and Hatches: Oh, MY!”

On Monday the 11th of July, Team Viking girded their loins for the final dash north up the western coast of Newfoundland to the Labrador Ferry departing from St. Barbe. Although that section of highway is no longer paved with gravel, it was still an adventure to travel at speed over pitted pavement awash withContinue reading “On the Viking Trail to the Strait of Belle Isle”

This post has a little less to do with Vikings than one might think at first blush, unless we want to consider the Vikings as “influencers.” That seems to be the “it” tagline these days: The term often is tossed around referring to those who can excite people because they have identified a niche market, takenContinue reading “You GO (to Vinland & Markland!) SylvanSport!”

Having raced across New Brunswick and Nova Scotia to reach their ferry port on the eve of their departure, after a lovely evening in Sydney, NS, the following morning our intrepid Team Viking members soon found that in ferry boarding, as in much of life, the mantra of the wizened old veterans is “hurry upContinue reading “Vinland HO!”

After being denied the possibility of entering into Canada in 2020 and 2021, and at the culmination of several months of fretting over the logistics involved in making our journey in 2022, the crossing itself was anticlimactic, taking perhaps all of 2 minutes. Our Border Guard—well-mannered, quietly jovial, and archetypically Canadian—seemed all alone in theContinue reading “Team Viking Raids Saint John, New Brunswick in the Dead of the Night”

Today is ten years to the day that I flew back from the Baltic region after spending the better part of six weeks sea kayaking from Stockholm, Sweden, to Helsinki, Finland, with a team of colleagues and students from Gettysburg College. This 350-mile journey was a tremendous success, thanks to the expertise, guidance, and friendshipContinue reading “The Heart and Soul of Team Viking”

This morning Team Viking began the long, arduous trip to Labrador, which is the very first step on the path of our adventure In the Wake of the Vikings. Beginning from iconic Pennsylvania Hall on the campus of Gettysburg College, shortly after 9:15 AM on July 7th, we headed out on the first leg ofContinue reading “Make a Run for the Border! Team Viking Heads North”

On July 7th, Team Viking is scheduled to set sail for adventure, careening up the Eastern Seaboard of the United States, hopefully crossing the Canadian border without mishap, and cruising across New Brunswick and Nova Scotia en route to our ferry departure from North Sydney, NS to Port aux Basques, Newfoundland, at noon on theContinue reading “Setting Sail In the Wake of the Vikings”