Jack Elliott
This summer there seems to be more traffic than ever traversing our waterways.
The latest group coming through the old voyageur route was headed to the Arctic Ocean via the Mackenzie River, from Ottawa—a distance of 7,000 km.
Talk about a journey.
I discovered the group of eight, calling themselves “Trans Caneauda,” settling into the campground at Hannam Park in Rainy River last Tuesday evening (July 12).
“You’ve got the best facilities we’ve seen on the whole trip,” enthused one trekker, just back from a hot shower at the public washrooms in the park.
This group of “20 somethings”—students, post-grads, musicians, and adventurers—are mostly from the Ottawa area, with one Calgary transplant.
Nine initially set out from Ottawa on April 30 with four canoes but lost one paddler, Alex Bevington, due to a medical reason at Fort Frances.
They had to ship their extra canoe onto Winnipeg, where they will pick it up and be joined by a replacement member.
The other member, Yevo, doesn’t paddle. He’s their super-friendly dog who is in charge of naps and sentry duty.
This group is on an adventure-of-a-lifetime to raise awareness of Canadian wilderness as well as promote watershed conservation.
But it took a year of planning, a $3,000 personal commitment, and a lot of fundraising to cover the estimated $50,000 cost of the expedition.
The group is following the voyageur river system to Fort McMurray, Alta., then it’s down the Athabasca River system eventually into the Mackenzie and north to the Arctic Ocean.
They expect to arrive in Inuvik around Oct. 15, and have promised each other they would not resort to cannibalism if they get iced in before reaching their final destination.
They were expecting to be back on the water by 7 a.m. last Wednesday. But at 7:15 a.m., they still were at tables in the park wolfing down plates of doughnuts—their sugar-covered faces glowing and effusive in their comments praising their most treasured Rainy River discovery, Wood’s Quality Bakery.
Oh well, they’ll burn off those calories before they hit Lake of the Woods.
The public can keep track of them all along their journey. Visit www.transcaneauda.ca and click on the “tracking” link.
They carry a Spot GPS unit that uploads their location to satellite every 20 minutes (parents, just what you need for your teenagers). So log on and follow along as this amazing group of young people takes on a remarkable quest for the Arctic.
