I will be posting more information on this theory soon- I have been conferring with experts in Sweden and Iceland who tell me this theory is gaining credence in the community! I was ready to dismiss it too, but I'm getting more and more interested. There is indeed appearances of red-bearded people in the pacific northwest legends, and there are rumours of norse-type cairns on the Island and further north on the coast. I'm looking into it, and perhaps going to see these sites and talk to the bands. First I need to do some serious translating!

a teasing snippet from The Last Viking THE SAGAS AND THEIR CONTENTS
This consideration unfortunately influences our understanding of the material provided in the Icelandic Sagas, especially Eirik the Red's Saga and the Greenlander's Saga, though even here there are differences between extant versions; see for example, the treatment by Gwyn Jones: Eirik the Red's Saga: The Norse Atlantic Saga: Being the Norse Voyages of Discovery and Settlement to Iceland, Greenland and America (the version of choice used here) and the shorter Modern History Sourcebook variant: The Discovery of North America by Leif Ericsson, c. 1000 from The Saga of Eric the Red, 1387. Moreover, given that the Sagas were written centuries after the "fact," even if those who recounted them were impartial Norse scholars, the transition from oral tradition to the written word could still have suffered in translation or have been subjected to later alterations. Then there remains a further possibility-- that those who recounted the Sagas were aware of the Church's hostility to the extent that they incorporated minor deflections and obfuscations of their own as a protective measure, including false trails designed to misdirect the Church for as long as possible. To which must be added the other side of the coin--that the Church itself fed in obfuscations of its own, especially perhaps, to divert attention away from the benevolent side of the matter. Thus distracting references to Christianity on one hand and descriptions of hostilities with the "Skraelings" on the other to imply that the Vikings had little real contact or made any real incursions into North America, even though they undoubtedly had the means, the motives and almost half a millennium to do so.  But even here the reader should be forewarned that are further complications that exist concerning the traditional Viking lands (Helluland, Markland and Vinland) and these too need to be factored into the equation (see "The Greenland Duality" in Part III).

Thus it unfortunately follows that it would be unwise to take the Icelandic Sagas entirely at their face value. Nor, for the same reason would it be wise to treat them as error-free references when it comes to such matters as sailing directions, exact times en route, or the location of specific buildings and sites per se. Accordingly, it appears necessary to use the information in the Sagas with due caution, adopt a general approach, and apply as many references as possible--the flora and fauna especially--to reduce the long arm of coincidence until one ecological niche emerges as the best logical choice for the location of "Vinland."  Moreover, once the Pacific Northwest location for Helluland has been gained, it becomes a relatively simply matter to continue south according to the information provided in the Sagas to arrive next at Markland, and ultimately locate Vinland itself in a remarkably warm and fertile ecological niche in the southeast corner of Vancouver Island.