It started with a casual conversation. But when photographer Jerry Kobalenko spontaneously invited writer J. B. MacKinnon to join him on a 400-kilometre snowshoe trek across southern Labrador, MacKinnon had no idea what was in store for him in “the Arctic next door” (although Kobalenko later summarized it as “eat, sleep, suffer”).

The pair teamed up on a feature story entitled ‘Journey to the Devil’s Hole,’ published in the November 2016 issue of Canadian Geographic Travel (on newsstands November 21). The Devil’s Hole is a canyon full of waterfalls and rapids that would eventually prove too dangerous and time-consuming for the two sled-hauling men to cross, forcing them to choose a different route to Saint-Augustin. Roll over the dots on the interactive map below to read quotes from MacKinnon’s story and gain insight into their adventure.