Inside Justin Barbour’s 4,000KM Journey Across The Hardest Route You’ve Never Heard Of

In late September 2018, Justin Barbour was barely 200 kilometers into a canoe expedition across subarctic Labrador and Quebec when winter arrived far earlier than expected. Barbour, a professional adventurer who goes by the handle Newfoundland Explorer on his popular YouTube and social media channels, recalls breaking ice with his paddle and spending “numb days, ill-equipped in the canoe with frost-nipped toes.”

But instead of feeling the sting of defeat when he eventually used his satellite communicator to summon helicopter rescue, Barbour was already planning a more audacious adventure. “I badly wanted to continue with a sled and snowshoes, but I did not have enough winter travel experience,” says Barbour. “Looking over the vast snowy landscape on the chopper ride out, I said to myself, ‘I’ll be back, and when freeze-up strikes, I’ll be ready.’”

Inside Justin Barbour’s 4,000KM journey across the hardest route you’ve never heard of

Barbour went home to St. John’s, Newfoundland, and studied winter travel by snowshoe, toboggan and canvas tent heated by a woodstove—“the way of the old Labrador trapper,” as he describes it. “The goal was to spend the year traveling in nature like the Indigenous people and earliest settlers, who inspired me and who lived much closer to the land than we do today.”

Five years later, Barbour started Expedition Northeast on the shores of northern Hudson Bay in Puvirnituq, Nunavik. His destination: Cape Pine, the easternmost point in Newfoundland, nearly 4,000 kilometers away. Traveling alone and sometimes with his dog, Saku, Barbour’s four-season journey would include canoeing, hiking, snowshoe and toboggan travel and mountain biking.

“Essentially, I would cross a huge portion of Northeastern Canada,” he says. “I wanted to feel the seasonal changes in my soul, to experience every minute of it, and to complete the route by human power.”

Barbour was strategic in starting by canoe, knowing it would be most efficient to paddle across the water-dominated landscape of the Ungava Peninsula. “I wanted to eat up some big kilometers early in the expedition,” he says. “I also wanted to enjoy the fantastic Arctic watershed monster fishing.”

This initial paddling portion of the journey proved to be a highlight. Being out year-round meant “there were times when I had to push hard and other times I would lay off the gas,” he says. Barbour spent about a month in communities along the way, “cleaning up, swapping gear, backing up video footage to hard drives, dealing with logistical delays, learning about villages and local outdoor people, and spending time with my wife, Heather, who came to visit.”

As winter approached, Barbour camped for six weeks on the outskirts of Schefferville, Quebec, waiting for ice to form on the waterways. When he finally set out on snowshoes on New Year’s Day, 2024, Barbour faced brutal conditions and short daylight hours, making for slow progress.

He hauled a 250-pound toboggan through snowdrifts, storms and -50°C temperatures, and faced the time-consuming tasks of making camp and gathering firewood after each day’s travel. Over 86 days on the winter trail, Barbour covered just over 700 kilometers, before mountain biking 1,150 kilometers on the Labrador Highway to the Atlantic coast in the spring.

After riding the ferry to Newfoundland, Barbour bushwhacked south on the island’s Great Northern Peninsula. He finally completed his journey at Cape Pine on day 372. The feeling of being home “was almost out of body-like,” Barbour recalls. “It was difficult to comprehend I had come that far and been out so long. It was bittersweet, fulfilling and rewarding.”

A year later, Barbour is editing expedition video for a late 2025 or early 2026 release and reflecting on the bigger lessons of Expedition Northeast. “There’s no feeling more powerful than realizing a dream.”

Justin Barbour And Saku The Dog Cross Newfoundland

This article was published in Issue 74 of Paddling Magazine. Subscribe to Paddling Magazine’s print and digital editions, or browse the archives.

Justin Barbour crossed Canada’s wild east during a yearlong expedition. | Feature photo: Courtesy Justin Barbour