Staff at a remote lodge in polar bear country on Manitoba's Hudson Bay coastline were surprised and impressed early last week when a man with a backpack and a dog walked up to the front door for the first time ever.

Searchers canvassing treacherous muskeg and swift-moving rivers have recovered a backpack and rifle belonging to a missing Norwegian trekker who was on a cross-continental journey of the Canadian wilderness.

The search for a Norwegian man who vanished while trekking the Hudson Bay coast is entering its seventh day, with RCMP now working under the assumption he was swept away in the Hayes River just kilometres from his destination.