Great Explorers: P. G. Downes

[Glenn MacGrady]

". . . the classroom could not contain his restless body and curious mind. He decided to turn his love of languages and hobbies into an actual life’s work. He yearned to explore more of Canada’s northern regions, especially the Barren Grounds, an arctic region west of Hudson Bay. It features an abundance of lakes, many long, technical rivers, a quadrillion rocks, and tundra as far as the eye can see.

"Downes compiled his observations into four diaries, which included notes, illustrations, sketches, and maps. He wrote about anything he saw, from his mental state to vivid details of grueling portages. He even pressed dead mosquitoes into his journal."

Great Explorers: P. G. Downes » Explorersweb

The Second World War had begun, but former schoolteacher P.G. Downes had no idea. He was too busy exploring Canada’s North by canoe.

explorersweb.com

 

[Mason]

Gotta read "Sleeping Island" by Downes. Good stuff.

 

[wjmc]

Funny - opened that site, and it has two photos of different people, both identified as P.G Downes. Neither is Downes - the people pictured are Lopizun and Zahbadese, his two Chipewyan companions on the "Sleeping Island" trip.

I agree Sleeping Island is a great read, and his journals are even better. I wouldn't recommend that site as a source of information.

-wjmc

 

[Alan Gage]

One of my heroes and someone who had a lot of influence on me when I was still taking canoe trips (and hope to again one day).

Sleeping Island is a must read as are his journals of that (and other trips) entitled Distant Summers Vol 1 and Vol 2. His journals contain many fascinating photos.

As wjmc pointed out the pictures in the link are not Downes.

There

 

[Glenn MacGrady]

Funny - opened that site, and it has two photos of different people, both identified as P.G Downes. Neither is Downes - the people pictured are Lopizun and Zahbadese, his two Chipewyan companions on the "Sleeping Island" trip.

Yes, the OP article from Explorersweb identifies those two pictures differently from a seeming expert on Facebook, HERE. All three pictures in the Explorersweb article show men in flat caps, including the following supposed picture of Downes in a canoe, which wjmc doesn't challenge.



Here is another article about Downes:

Paradigms Lost: A Rumination on the Pursuit of Wildness | IJW

Recently, two reissued books from the early 1900s caught my attention. The books are That Summer on the Nahanni 1928: The Journals of Fenley Hunter and Sleeping Island: A Journey to the Edge of the Barrens, by P. G. Downes.

ijw.org

Here are two pictures of Downes from that article. He doesn't look much like the flat capped men.

 

[tomo]

One of my heroes as well. I love in Sleeping Island when he declares, standing on some vista with lakes spread out befor him, "Well, I suppose I shall never be so happy again." Sums up deep, immersive canoe tripping. I'll have to track down his journals.

 

[Alan Gage]

I'll have to track down his journals.

Here is a link to volume 1:

Distant Summers. P. G. Downes' Journals of Travels in Northern Canada, 1936 1947. Vol. 1: 1936 1938 by P. G. DOWNES, R. H. Cockburn on Patrick McGahern Books - www.mcgahernbooks.ca

Ottawa. McGahern Stewart Publishing. 2012. Soft cover. 8vo, 23cm, xix, ii ,368p., with nearly 100 illustrations and 8 maps, list of illustrations and maps, foreword, introduction, journals for 1936, 1937 & 1938, sequel, sources, colour illustrated stiff wraps, new. |~ Distant Summers Vol. I...

www.mcgahernbooks.ca

Volume 2 has been very difficult to find online for years but someone said Mcgahern books was at a canoe conference and had stacks of both volumes so perhaps if you contact them directly they do have volume 2 available as well.

Alan

 

[Alan Gage]

Here is one website that seems to have volume 2:

Distant Summers Vol. II 1939-1947 - Distant Summers Vol. II 1939-1947 - Shop Online at WorldOfMaps.com

Distant Summers Vol. II 1939-1947

www.worldofmaps.com

 

[Alan Gage]

If I remember right volume 2 contains the journal from his Sleeping Island trip.

What most impressed me was how closely the book, Sleeping Island, was to the actual journal he kept during the trip. There wasn't any embellishing or make believe in an attempt to make a more interesting book. The only real difference was that the journal contained a lot more information.

Alan