![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() We packaged and shipped off a mountain of camping gear and food and fly rods. We probed books and magazines and the Internet for meager details about its little-known rivers. We pored over charts of the nearly trackless Canadian province. Or not.įor the last few months we have thought only of Labrador. And it’s all because of a wild-eyed rumor that has drawn us to the far side of the middle of nowhere: that the mother of all brook trout waters may lie somewhere below this hellish, rocky portage. It doesn’t feel like fishing, but that’s exactly what we’re doing. Sucking in blackflies, scratched and bleeding, we drag ourselves to our feet so we can drag the boat a few yards more. I’m too whipped to reply, but it’s as clear as the welts on my face that we have no choice but to pull the boats and push on. He’s a few steps ahead, tied into a similar noose and similarly wrung out from portaging our canoe through the boreal woods. ![]() “Aren’t we supposed to be looking for trout?” wheezes my buddy Scott Wood. Once again, I’m face down in the Labrador taiga, run over by my own boat. I take three steps on firm ground and then stumble into a gaping pit camouflaged with bearberry and alpine azalea. The canoe screeches through black spruce trees and lichen-covered boulders. For the hundredth time in the last two hours, I lunge against a makeshift harness, jury-rigged from climbing rope and knotted around my chest. Today’s entry, “Quest for the Mother Lode,” was first published in the April 2004 issue. To celebrate, all week we’ll be sharing some of our favorite classic tales from Nickens. You can purchase the book online, or wherever books are sold. Edward Nickens has a new book out! The Last Wild Road: Adventures and Essays from a Sporting Life is a collection of his best and most beloved adventures, essays, and columns from Field & Stream. Editor’s Note – We have some exciting news: F&S editor-at-large T. ![]()
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