BAIE JAMES EXPEDITION
COMPLETED February/March 2006
The 2006 Baie James Expedition took place in late February early March 2006. This trip was organized by Ted Matthews of the Land Rover Adventure Association of Toronto.
The overall mission of the trip was to visit several northern Cree communities, sample indigenous local culture and cuisine, participate in exciting outdoor activities and visit the huge Hydro Quebec generating facility at Le Grand Dam, which provides great wealth to northern Quebec communities. These native communities were all previously Hudson's Bay trading posts, some established as long ago as 1670, with the last trading post closing as recently as 1970.
PHOTOS
BAIE JAMES EXPEDITION
VIDEO
BAIE JAMES EXPEDITION
Participants included;
Steve Hoare, Land Rover Monthly's North American editor from the Philadelphia area, driving a well-equipped Series II Discovery, complete with a Safety Devices roof rack, an ARB winch bumper with a Warn 9000 winch, a Rovertym rear bumper; he was accompanied by Kim Groenendyk from Peterborough, Ontario.
Jim Leach from Enfield, Connecticut, a veteran of Vintage Rovers Across Africa and several North American safari expeditions, driving a beautifully restored and expedition equipped 300 TDI 110 hardtop, with a roof rack supported by a Safety Devices roll-cage, a second interior heater, which independently keeps the cab comfortable at 75 F, a hot and cold water shower and whole bunch of other stuff. He was accompanied by Michael Ladden from Connecticut, another veteran of "Drive the Globe" expeditions and himself an owner of a couple of early Series vehicles including a beautifully restored and expedition equipped 101.
John Cockell from Chelsea, Quebec, driving a 1998 Defender 110 300Tdi station wagon, a real tire-burner with up-rated fueling and high-ratio transfer gearbox that kept pace with the V8 Discos, even with a loaded Brownchurch roof rack.
Ted Matthews and Mary Kaye from Toronto, in Mary's Big Blue Discovery, the veteran of many off road forays, including this fourth northern winter trip, the most recent of which was a February 2005 trip to Tuktoyaktuk in Canada's Northwest Territories, on an island on the Beaufort Sea.
Peter Wood from Toronto, in his seasoned but largely stock Disco II, another veteran of past B2B trip to Colorado and Moab, long time Rover owner. Pete is currently fighting for the cause, defending trail access rights in Ontario through his activities on the Board of the OF4WD (www.of4wd.com).
