Newfoundland adventurer revisits 700-km trek in new web series
An adventurer who's travelled for months at a time on extreme treks through the wilderness in Newfoundland and Labrador is sharing footage from one of his journeys.
Justin Barbour is producing a six-part series about his 700-kilometre trip through the Newfoundland interior. He shared the first instalment on his Youtube page Jan. 18, and less than a week later it's already been viewed nearly 9,000 times.
"It was real nice to go through it and edit it," Barbour said.
"It was like kind of reliving the trip over again."
In the spring of 2017, Barbour set out from Robinsons with his dog, Saku, to walk through the Long Range Mountains all the way to Cape Broyle. The journey took 68 days.
Along the way, he shot footage of himself walking, pulling a sleigh with supplies, setting up camp and paddling across rivers and lakes.
Now, he's paring that video down to share the adventure with online viewers. His filming efforts added to the challenge of the already-demanding trek, he said.
"It does add another element to the expedition to take some shots along the way and try to tell the story."
Sticky situations
When he's not travelling, Barbour teaches in Grand Falls-Windsor. He said he's including both highs and lows from the journey in his series, in hopes viewers will learn from it.
"We got ourselves into a couple sticky situations, and that was part of the trip. The documentary shows a lot of ups, but it also shows some downs," he said.
"I put some of those down moments in there because I think I want it to be a learning experience for others, as well."
Barbour didn't want to reveal too many plot points about upcoming episodes, but said there some tense moments.
"There's lots of times where the hard work starts to drag you down," he said.
"It might be difficult times, but all the beauty pulls you through."
Last year, Barbour attempted to trek 1,700 kilometres across Labrador and Quebec, an expedition he called off after 83 days — and 1,000 kilometres — after battling early winter storms.
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