The final 500 plus or minus miles: David H. Scott’s might be the Last Great Paddle.

At 78 years old,  79 October 4, David H. Scott is not slowing down—he’s gearing up. This summer, the Vietnam veteran, artist, author, and long-distance paddler is back on the water to finish what he started: a 1,000-mile solo canoe journey down the Mackenzie River in Canada. With only the 500 miles remaining, David is returning to the water.

Why the Mackenzie?

The Mackenzie River, Canada’s longest, is no gentle stream. Stretching more than 1,000 miles from Great Slave Lake to the Beaufort Sea, it carves through boreal forest, tundra, and some of the most remote territory in North America. For David, it’s more than a river—it’s a metaphor. “The Mackenzie is wild, but honest,” he says. “It doesn’t care about your past. It just flows. That’s what I needed.”

David began the first leg of this journey in 2022 but had to pause due to health complications. He paddled as far as Ft. Simpson.  He returned in 2024 to paddle a canoe this time instead of a tandem kayak and got to Tuleda and stopped because of all the forest fires and smoke.  Now, equipped with a Starlink dish for communications, a GPS tracker for safety, and a camera to share his reflections, he’s returned to finish the final 500 miles of this Arctic odyssey. His progress is tracked live at 1indsob.com, where supporters can follow his location in real-time and view video dispatches from the field on the active/real time In reach map.

Read More about the Adventure

No question I am different breed of human being.  As I get older, I find myself getting more and more opinionated about certain things in life.  I have never been one to preach, give advice or condemn others for the way they leave.  However, I do think that that are certain things in life that are a given.  For instance.  If you are fat, chances are you won’t be hiking the Pacific Crest Trail this summer.  If you smoke for sure you won’t be doing any hiking.   If you are a drinker, like I used to be, you probably don’t do much of anything, but drink and deal with all the ramifications of doing so.

I don’t think much of the TV.  I don’t own one and never well.  What a waste of time.  I don’t read the newspapers or periodicals anymore.  Another huge waste of time.  I stay off of and don’t use my cell phone any more than I have to, in fact have got to turning it off for days.  I spend no more time on the computer, the internet, except to conduct what personal business I have to accomplish.

There is little patience in my life for those who don’t do anything, but smoke, drink, do drugs, watch TV, spend time wondering who is going to win the Super Bowl or the World Series.  I meet very few people on my long distance kayak trips because very few people can break away from the phone, the comupter, the gaming, the TV, the Videos, you name it.  Everyone is hell bent on getting to where ever they are going as fast as they can.

Everyone is hell bent on trying to “game the system” to achieve what few goals they have.

I have gotten to the point:  Get off your ass.  Turn the phone off.  Give the TV away.  Start exercising and get out there and do something productive with your life instead of letting the days, the weeks, the months and the years go by while in reality you really aren’t achieving anything worthwhile.

Read “101 Ways to Tell the World to Kiss Your Ass” that you can order off of this website by going to the Book tab.

Dave Scott