Simply cannot say enough good things about Northern Scavenger. Noah Booth produces beautiful high-quality videos about his back country adventures. This latest video of a trip along the Nepisiguit is by far the best I’ve ever seen.
The Nepisiguit River and historic trail are a mystery to most people. Noah mentions the Mi’kmaq as caretakers of the trail today but it’s historic Nepisiguit Wolastoqiyik (Maliseet) territory. They were the true river masters of this region, the canoeing prodigies of their time. They travelled the Nepisiguit regularly. A skilled Wolastoqiyik scout could canoe from Québec city to Saint John within a matter of days, hunting and portaging for miles along the way. A rapid escape down the Nepisiguit frequently saved the lives of whole families during centuries of violent Mohawk raids.
Note: I don’t know how Noah and his friend managed to avoid eating wild fiddleheads all these years but, they indeed ate the right ones. As someone who grew up picking and selling fiddleheads, their trepidation makes me laugh. It’s best to parboil fiddleheads first and to finish them off pan fried with butter and lemon juice. If you fully boil them, shred them and whip in eggs and flour, you can also make fiddlehead waffles or pancakes. I make a fiddlehead soufflé with a tangy lemon Hollandaise sauce for people I truly like. As you can imagine, I make it very rarely. (Fiddleheads are one of the key ingredients in the legendary Bellefontaine ambrosia of immortality; other key ingredients include: blue lobster paste, nettle milk and weirder things like a pinch of Albertite dust.)
