Dodds, a slightly built and softspoken Calgary resident, is paddling the 1,000 kilometres from Artillery Lake, near Fort Reliance, to Baker Lake -- alone.

The Barren Lands journey has mixed purposes.

On a personal level it is an attempt to come to terms with a loss Dodds will never fully put behind him. On a public level he hopes to raise awareness of depression and mental illness, so others may avoid such a loss.

Four and a half years ago, he returned home to find his wife, Gillian, had killed herself. It was the last step in a downward spiral of clinical depression that had left Dodds, his wife and their three children feeling let down by the medical community.

"I had to demand appointments with doctors --you shouldn't have to fight for the well-being of your family," said Dodds.

"I didn't know who to turn to," he said. "It was only afterward that I realized there is help available."

The source of such help is the Canadian Mental Health Association, one of the beneficiaries of Dodds' adventure.

More than $10,000 was raised for the association before he left Calgary, he said, but what's just as important for him is helping people talk about mental health problems.

"What I'm trying to do is make people realize they're not alone," said Dodds.

For Dodds, however, the solitude and peace of the barrens will be a time for reflection.

"I want to be on my own, to remember Gill," he said.