CANADA And ITS WILDS - Before Heading over to Iceland, Lets Stop Over in the Canadian Wooded Wilds! It's just a Stone's Throw from Alaska.

Canada is the Second Largest Country in the World! Had History been just a Little Different, It could have Become even Larger! As concerns Alaska, Greenland, and the Hudson Bay.

Had Alaska Not become a Part of the American Union, It could have Ended up being a part of Canada!, to which it is a Natural Geographic Adjunct.

( Heck!, Had the Czarist Rushans Not Cut their Losses, -We could have been Facing the Soviet Rushans during the Cold War from the Canadian Yukon! -Not *From* Alaska as we actually Did! Imagine All of Alaska as just an Extension of the Vast Soviet Siberian Gulag, and Forward Military Deployment Area. Mt. McKinley would Instead have Received some sort of a PHRASECENSOREDPOSTERSHOULDKNOWBETTER. Glorificational Name! Seward's Folly became our Smart Move! )

But Had we Not, It could now be Russian or Canadian.

Greenland too, Could have become Canadian, if the Winds of History id have just been a Little Different. Just Look at a Map, and See How Close the Two are!, for a Good Stretch of Greenland's Northwest. Why!,-They're just Across a Narrow Channel from One Another! But Far Off Denmark got there First.

And if the Vast Hudson Bay just happened to Instead be Land, Canada, Already the Second Largest Country in the World, at 3 Million, 849,674 Square Miles!, Could be even Larger!

Alaska in it's West, Greenland to the East, and Hudson Bay toward it's Center.

Even without these Additions though, Canada's Still by a Large Margin, -the Second Largest Country in the World.

( No Hudson Bay?!,-The Vast Ice Sheets which once Bore Down on Canada, -Would Never Have that! I Like it there Better than Not anyway. Cold Canadian Winter Blasts would be even Worse, in it's Abscence. Though I suppose the Bay getting Iced Over, -Does a Lot to Negate such Effect anyway. Even so, I Like this Giant Bay being there!, as oppossed to Not.)

From Skagway and the Klondike Area near the Alaskan Border, to the Easternmost Tip of Newfoundland! From it's Southernmost Point along Lake Erie, (Not All that Far Above me!), to the Top Tip of Ellesmere Island, -a Good Half Way Across the Arctic Ocean to the Pole! My Own Country is Honored up here!, in Mountains known as the "United States Range". This All is the Scope, Scale, Depth, and Breadth!, of Canada!

Lakes Galore!, Crystal Clean Freshwater Rivers, Forests, Fish, Game and Wildlife, Glaciers, Great National Parks like Banff and Jasper, Scoured Rocks of the Canadian Shield, Bush Pilots and Flying, Bears Black,Polar, and Grizzly, Outdoorsmen, Mounties, Wheat Fields on it's Own Great Plains, Rocky East Coasts and Forested Western Ones, Great Rivers in the McKenzie and St.Lawrence, the Northern Side of the Great Lakes, It's Own Native Indian Peoples, Eskimos, Bitter and Long Lasting Cold!, Maple Syrup and Sap, It's Maple Leaf Flag, Hockey, Molson and Labatt's, (Though I Do happen to be a Teetotaller.), French Quebec, and Majestic, Forested, Rocky Mountains of it's Own, -There in the Great Canadian West! These and So Much More!, are Canada and It's Great Outdoors!

Canada is an Outdoors Country Thru and Thru! France is Cultured, Greece is the Basis of so Much Western Cililization, No One Outdoes an Aussie when it Comes to Being Australian, Southeast Asia's got it's Buddhism, Italy's got it's Pasta and Wines, My America is the Heart, Hub, and Hope of Freedom in the World! And Canada has Gots it's Great Canadian Outdoors!!! If Canada is Not of the Great Outdoors!, -Then Pele Doesn't Play Soccer!

Canada Holds a Topmost Place in my Mind and Heart, Outdoorwise and Otherwise! If One's Got the Cold Taken Care of!, -It Isn't Too Bad of a Place at All!

Now it Does get as Cold as a Son of a Gun!, Up There! Ranking Right Behind places like Siberia and Greenland! I Know this from more than just Books and Such. I Get the Bottom Dips from it Many a Time!, in Many a Winter!

Canada's Record Low Temperature, (Again from my Earlier Mentioned 1977 Source.), was - 81 Degrees F, at Snag, Yukon, Feb. 03, 1947.( Greenland's Record came in at only some 5 Degrees Colder.)

Canada's also got the Very Short to Nonexistant Mid-Winter Daylight Periods, -Months at a Time! And Very Short, but at least Well Sunlit, Growing Seasons as well. It Shares All These Sorts of Characteristics and Drawbacks, as has been already mentioned, regarding Other Far North Locales.

You are Right in the Thick of the Whole Compass Mess too!, when you Start getting to Close to the North Magnetic Pole. It is Right There, in Northern Canada, Amidst it's many Queen Elizabeth Islands. Its on This, the Canadian Side of the Arctic, Not the earlier Siberian One.

Otherwise, from a Survival Standpoint, Canada is Much as the Other COLD Northern Wild Places already mentioned. Minus the Volcanos (Excepting but a Few near the U.S. Border), Minus the Treelessness of some of Those Locales, (Though Canada's certainly Got some of These as well!), Minus at least for the Most Part, -Coast and Island Survival.

Otherwise, -It's Quite Much the Same! With a Northern Continental Twist, as Siberia has.

Cold Survival, Forest Survival, and Mountain Survival!, are the Core of it's Cirricula! Other Types mentioned elsewhere under EWP-Survival Aspects-COLD, Figure In as well, But These are the Three Centermost!

Grasslands Survival and "Sodbusting", would be a Prime One of These! So much of South and West Central Canada is the Northern Extension of the North American Great Plains. British Colombia's Conifer Forested Mountains are Not a Part of the Scene here!

A "Rocky Sort of 'Grassland' ", -Exists in so Much of the Quebec and Ungava Canadian East!, as well! Here however, You Not only Don't have Trees, You Don't have Grass either! Groundwise, It's more Akin to a Desert Plateau, -though the Rain and Snowfall may be Plenty More than what would Qualify as a Desert. You'd largely have to Find and Assemble Rocks, for your Shelter here!

Elsewhere Across much of Canada, Your Prospects often are Much Better! The Atlantic Provinces have Much Fish, and often Good or Decent Growing Soil. Ontario's Great for Forest Resources, Streams, and Lakes! The Grassland Plains have Rich Soil! Nearly Everywhere between the Hudson and the Rockies!, is Lake, Fish, and Stream and River Filled! And Often, though Not Always, Forest Filled as well! That Canadian West and Rockies, is also Very Forest, Fish, and Game Filled! The Northwest Territories Ground gets Progressivly Barer, the More North and Northeast you Go, but the Vast Part of It, is still Chock Full of Fishing Lakes! Baffin, Ellesmere, and the Other Queen Elizabeth Islands, are of Ungava / Canadian Shield type Rockiness. Here this is Often probably even Worse. These Islands however, Make For a Sizeable Part of Canada's Total Territory! And They Take a Great Swing up toward the Pole! Far More than even the Northern Siberia Taimyr, or it's large Arctic Islands, Do! Survival here in the High Canadian Arctic, would Involve a Lot of Fishing, Sealing, and Etc. And of course, -Cold Protection! Now on the Other, Western Side of the Canadian Rockies, This shud be a Good, Promising, Survival Location. It's Richly Forested, and Has All the Marine West Coast Advantages as Southern Alaska. You also could Avail yourself of the Coastal and Sea Riches there! But Between the Sea and Mountains, you Often might Not Have All that much Elbow Room to Maneauver Around in! Many Coastal Mountains may Plunge right into the Sea!

But Taking it from the Western and Central Canada Core!, -Survival again would involve the Cold, Plentiful Fresh Water, Plentiful Fish and Game, Plenty of Forest Resources for Fire and Shelter!

This for the Most Part, is one of the Most Sparsely Populated Parts of the Entire World! That has it's Advantages and Disadvantages. But in my Book at least, It's Far More of an Advantage!

You'd just Have to Hunker Down in a Survival Conducive Area, Keep the Heck Warm at All Times! And I Mean Assuredly Do So! Backups of Backups of Backups! Lots of Firewood and Shelter Materials! And Lots of Ready Access to Such! You'd certainly Want to Have an at least Reasonably Rich and Reliable Food Sources, on Hand. And Water too, though that one Shudn't be a Problem. With the Exception of being in a Rain Shadow. It would be Good to be Near a River or Stream. For Transportation Purposes, Not Only Fish, Food, Bathing, Washing, and Water. Across so Much of Canada, This shud be No Problem either!

If you Don't Want to Survive and Stay, -Then Work your Way South / to Settlements. Settlements usually are Synonomous with the South! As well as at least being Not as Cold. Down here towards the U.S. Border, -You have Canada's Trans Continental Railroad. You can Use it to your Advantage, the Same Way you could Use the Trans Siberian Railroad mentioned earlier. Also like Siberia, What Canadian Cities and "Civilization" as there are, are Concentrated in the Far South, Towards the U.S. Border. Make For Here! Also as in Siberia, Don't Follow the McKenzie Downstream! It Too only Leads to the Northern Arctic! Though it may be a Way of Reaching a Settlement. At least Canada Only has One such Major, Arctic River, whereas Siberia has Several. You might Want to Follow the Yukon River Northwest, though. It Flows Not to the Arctic, but thru Alaska to the Bering. It would be a Way of Getting to the Major City of Fairbanks, though that Locale is on a Major Southern Tributary of the Yukon. You can either Roundabout Sail to it, or make an Overland Portage.

Cold, Forest, and Mountain Survival are once again At The Core!, of Canadian Survival.

The Lakes and Waterways, Forests, Fire and Firewood, Shelter and Shelter Materials, and Fish and Game!, would be some of your Coremost Watchwords!

And "Cold Protection" would be a Greatest of These!

Other Important Areas such as Signaling, would Come Into Important Play, too.

Such is Cold Canadian Survival! ( Canada has a Briefish Spring, Fall, and Summer too!, Use Those to Maximum Advantage! Includeing Getting Further South During such! )

Such is Canada! And Such is Canada's Survival Aspects! She's Great in so Many Ways All Around! She is Truly one of the World's Greatest and Wildest of Places! The Truly So Great Canadian Outdoors! But She Gets as Cold as a Son of a Gun!, as Well! Be READY For That!!!

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