Zoey Duncan
Halfway through a 130-day journey across the country by canoe, four paddlers are finding inspiring support from all the Canadians they encounter—even the insects who call this part of the world home.
“I’ve worked 10 years seasonally in the bush in the summer and I haven’t had anything like this,” Hugo Kitching said of the surprising lack of bugs.
Kitching, along with Dana Fountain, Peter Gorman, and Pascal Landa, is paddling 4,500 km along Canada’s rivers this summer.
The men began their trip May 1 south of Jasper, Alta. and now have covered 2,946 km on their way to the former North West Company headquarters in Montreal.
It’s an incomparable way to experience Canada, the heavily-bearded foursome agreed, from the generosity of the people to the vastness of nature and the disintegration of the forestry industry.
The men spent Canada Day in Rainy River, where lifetime resident and Korean War veteran Harry Arnould gave them a tour of the town and who was a “great teller of stories and tales” over an afternoon spent at the Legion there.
The region’s hospitality continued Sunday night. The men still had not found a place to camp and a storm was rolling in when they spotted a welcoming lawn between Emo and Devlin.
They asked the homeowners if they could camp on the lawn for the night, but they got a little more than they’d hoped for.
The home belonged to Philip Jones, manager of McDonald’s here. In addition to giving the guys a place to stay for the night, Jones portaged their canoe from the lower river to Pither’s Point, brought them coffee and cookies in the morning, and treated them to a bite at McDonald’s.
“He’s indicative of general hospitality that we’ve experienced as we’ve gone up this route,” Fountain noted.
“It’s amazing to realize that Canadians, regardless of their socio-economic position, are all kind of ready to take their shirt off and give it to you if you need it,” he added.
Their route, inspired by the journeys of First Nations’ people for thousands of years, as well as the original voyageurs, has taken them past many towns suffering through the decline of the forestry industry.
“We’re seeing a lot of transition, a lot of towns slowly kind of crumbling and disintegrating into the landscape as industry that used to dominate gets moved away and shuts down,” said Fountain.
“I don’t know how many towns we’ve gone through in which the forestry industry has been there, but it’s cleared out and it’s gone and so are the jobs and so is the community.”
The group also is raising awareness for the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS), and the past 65 days spent living in the bush has given them a thorough and wind-blown understanding of Canada’s riverside wilderness.
“It’s something that I wanted to know better,” said Landa, originally from France.
“And that we wanted to publicize the great parts of it and also the things that we find along the route, like the broken bottles we keep picking up and throwing away when we can, disposing of them as well as we can, and finding tires and refrigerators on the route.”
They’re understandably at the mercy of the weather every single day of their trip.
“Most people don’t live in harmony or rhythm with nature and so regardless of what the weather is outside, they can continue on in their normal day,” Fountain reasoned.
“Whereas with us, we are highly-dependent on it. If there’s a strong wind, we’re stuck wherever we are.”
They can paddle downstream up to 17 km/h, but can be slowed down to as little as four km/h when they’re pushing against the current. And some days on the water are considerably tougher than others.
The next two weeks on the way to Thunder Bay will be a vacation compared to struggling through Lake Winnipeg, Fountain said. Yesterday they were joined by three new paddlers: two girlfriends and another friend of the men, and they’re expecting an interesting shift in the group dynamic.
“The focus of the trip will be less about quantity of kilometres covered over [a] set number of days and more about relaxing,” Fountain said of their next leg.
They planned to leave civilization behind this morning for an entire month with all seven paddlers in two canoes. Their sole re-supply stop will be at a fly-in ranger station in Quetico Provincial Park.
“I hope that other Canadians join and continue on this tradition of going through Canada, for sure,” Fountain said, chuckling with the others as they recalled all the people who are more than happy to live vicariously through the canoeists than attempt such a trip themselves.
For updates on the trip, visit www.mountains2montreal.ca