Great shots

Some photos of the trip..

Above is the Borealis team, on Lake Winnipegosis, I think it is. Oh my, I'd better get my photos labeled, or I'll forget everything! This was a spectacular day, absolutely still.

A campsite in Quetico Provincial Park, one of the best on the trip. You can't see the little dam we swam below, or the memorable campsite.

I've arrived!

Well, it's done. We have all arrived safe and sound at Fort William--last Saturday, July 12.

Like other places, we were greeted formally with gun blasts and ceremony. Old Fort William really knows how to do this big though. We were paraded up to the Great Hall, where photos were taken, and we realized we had finished.

Celebrations included both a dinner and concert that evening, and a closing brunch the next morning. Stories and thank you's were exchanged. Then we all dispersed, each going our own ways. It was remarkable to see two other big canoes on their trailers in Dryden Sunday afternoon--and even more fun to see one of them on the road near Lacombe, AB on Tuesday morning. We are still connected despite the dispersal.

Like a theatre group, this community has been temporary. While connections might well be continued among some, the brigade will never be re-formed. It existed for a particular purpose only, and that has been fulfilled. We have celebrated the life and times of David Thompson. I have rekindled my love for canoeing, and intend to continue that. I have made new friends and reconnected with old paddling pals. Again, I hope to keep those connections live.

It's been quite the trip--more a journey than the destination.

Other stories

I'm only now getting the details of others' blogs about this incredible trip.

Paddler in the Paddle Canada 2 canoe Don McMurtry's version is here: http://donmcmurtry.blogspot.com/

Paddle Canada 1's blog is at http://paddlecanada1.blogspot.com/

Another paddler on the Paddle Canada 2 team, Richard Wagers also posts verbiage plus many photos
http://web.mac.com/rwagers/Site_2/Photos.html
and http://web.mac.com/rwagers/Site_2/Blog_2/Blog_2.html

Our canoe is labeled Pathfinder (the name of our team) so you might just see me there.

from Lac du Bonnet, on the road crew today. The paddlers are on the Winnipeg River, making their way through whitewater and big reservoirs.

Sharing the seat

A big part of this trip is beyond canoeing. It's all about strangers living and working together. True, we get to know each other, but it's not always easy to get along all the time.

Each of us has our own ways of doing things, from paddling in the canoe, to packing our gear, to just sharing the work. Some of us do better at getting along, chipping in with the chores. Others are more carefree and less concerned about the good of the whole group.

So it's a challenge to accommodate everyone. It's a challenge to get along.

We're learning how to do this, and even teaching others things, like how to paddle more efficiently, and hopefully how to get along better.

Again, there's a long line for the computers. About 100 people are on this trip, and many don't have their own laptop or Blackberry.

getting in the flow

It's day to day these days, just going with the flow. Public internet access is limited--I see I'm not as up to date as some. I don't have a Blackberry or anything similar, as do some folks.

This week we're challenging the Winnipeg River in flood. Upstream work! Some rapids on a big river. Some wilderness camping. And I'm the captain of the team this week.

It's lots of fun, and hard to revert to home thoughts when I do phone home, the worlds are so different.

There's a big line for the 2 computers here, so I'll close already.

at Cumberland

We're moving further east each day. Today we started at the EB Campbell dam on the Saskatchewan River, still in Saskatchewan, but not for long. In two days we will enter Manitoba.

For a primer on this river, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saskatchewan_River

This is proving to be a marathon kind of trip. Lots of paddling, more than one usually does in a day, at least at my age. Thanks to more paddlers than seats, we can change up our crew at least partly on most days. We appreciate this. We are up early, mostly at 4:30 am, although today it was 3:30 am. We're on the water by 6 usually, an hour earlier today (no wonder my fingers aren't working so well.)

Yesterday we were off the water by 2, planned so we could avoid winds on the big Lake Tobin. Which we did. It was actually the first day we could have a real happy hour, a time to sit and chat. We had no obligations to sit and listen to speeches or perform for locals. It was lovely. We could even get to know each other better.

Those who are not paddling have to clean up camp, move to the crew change spot, then get in paddling gear for the change. The new road crew then moves to either the next crew change location, or to camp. It's a bit of a crazy way to live. But it's only for a couple of months.

A lot of this is about how our team of paddlers is getting along. Most folks are pitching in and helping where necessary. Most folks paddle, or not, according to the needs of the team. It's the exceptions that are difficult to address, and can make for difficult feelings occasionally. No, we've not had any blow-ups, or even anything close to it. Only a bad flu bug that has laid a couple of the brigade low, including one of my team.

I'm writing from the Cumberland House community school. They are planning quite the program for the day. The children were let out of school early to participate in canoe races--from age 11 and up! With real entrance fees and prize money. Canoeing and canoe races are very much part of the culture here. No wonder the Cumberland House team is always first into camp, even though they often start later.

That's it from the river bank.

I'm off to the North

I'm sitting in Prince Albert, SK's public library, after four? days of paddling on the North Saskatchewan River. I started upstream of Battleford at a rural community called Big Gully. They fed us well, and welcomed us with warm hospitality including live music.

Fort Carlton not only had even better food, they had pagentry galore. Pipers brought us up from the river in a parade, and then seranaded us during dinner. They too had a fiddler, who could catch up to the CD for the Scottish country dancing so well the crowd demanded the music be live only. Native dancing of various sorts rounded out the program. Of course all 100 or more of us voyageurs were in costume to some degree or other. It was rather thrilling! see http://www.youtube.com/user/ThompsonBrigade2008 for some video of us.

the videographer Jay is travelling with us, and will keep adding more photos. My own photos are most disappointing.

You may have noticed that food is important. One day the food was a little thin, and we noticed. We like lots, but then if you're working as hard as we are, food matters. We're paddling about 8-11 hour days, often with a crew change in the middle somewhere. I was worried about how physically prepared I'd be. I'm getting there now.

We're moving out of the parkland part of the prairies into boreal forest. That means, hopefully, less wind but more bugs. The chill has kept the bugs down considerably so far. I'm not eager for a big explosion of them though.

When I arrived, the team was up to 13 paddlers. That meant some creative crew changes. Now we're down to 11, and I think we'll be that for a while now. Interactions can be pretty interesting. We're mostly pretty experienced paddlers, with our own preferences for doing things. While we each try to be accommodating, we also have our bottom lines.

and, the big canoe we're paddling has space limitations. It feels more like packing a kayak!

For the exact route plan see http://2008thompsonbrigade.com/2008DTBpaddlers_schedule08Apr24.pdf
for the best estimate of what's happening. Who knows when I'll be able to post again though.

They're off!

Yesterday, the Brigade took off from Rocky Mountain House, Alberta. Thanks to the GPS live tracking, I could see that they had gone down the river. see http://www.2008thompsonbrigade.com/ and click on the Live Tracking "Click Here" spot to see for yourself. It was slow on my computer.

I could see that some of the canoes were behind the others. Later in the day I could see that one finished well ahead of the others, getting back to camp in good time.

Not all seemed quite right though. Even at dark, there were some "canoes" still on the river. I wondered whether the technology was working properly, as I can't imagine any of them still out there. Or, maybe some of them decided to camp along the river.

It was exciting to remember the spots they are in--I've paddled them many times--and imagine the scene. Six canoes with 6-10 people in each, plus a driver and the canoe trailers. And the tents for that many people. And all the confusion of trying to get that many people going at once.

I can't wait to hear the real story!

Oh, the stuff!

Oh, my the amount of stuff sitting on my office floor!

I can't believe how much stuff I think I'm going to take for a camping trip. My list doesn't include all that much, but when I realize I'm going to have to look decent for the locals, more clothes seem warranted.

And should I take a CD or two? I'm not even sure if our school bus will have a CD player. I'm certainly not counting on a mp3 player system! I know I'm taking a song book, and the lyrics to the voyageur songs we'll be singing. And a journal. And several changes of shoes. Once again, big feet are a liability.

I've been asked to use a new-fangled tiny tent supplied by one of our sponsors, Totem Outfitters, instead of my Cadillac Egyptian cotton one, to save space on our bus... collectively, we have too much stuff too. sigh. But camping trips are always a compromise. How much stuff can I carry? What do I really need?

Now that I'm getting it into the packs, it's looking better. And, I can actually get to my desk and computer without the obstacle course.

oh, the stuff of our lives.

the Sun Run

Today dawned crisp and cool for the Sun Run--but none of the predicted snow or rain! It turned out to be even sunny sometimes. It was a perfect day for running actually. And to think I briefly considered chickening out.

I should remember that it turns out that way often--I enjoy it even if the weather turns dirty--and more than half the time, the weather isn't that much of a problem. This is one to remember.

My training got broken up considerably this year by travel and other ailments, flu mostly, so I wasn't sure just how this 10km run would go. I do have the advantage of having run one of these before--last year--and know that I can indeed rmember how to put one foot in front of the other for a while longer than it feels comfortable. The signposts even tell me how far I've come.

I did keep track of my time, so I had an idea whether I was faster or slower than last year. Things felt a bit slow at first. It was as if my muscles needed to get warmed up; once that happened, I didn't have to walk for 30 seconds to get my calf muscles from feeling so tired. I managed to better last year's time by about 3 minutes.

Dog Lizzie will make sure I don't forget to go running. As if I could forget that I have a big canoe trip coming up.

All the details!

Oh, my, the details!

Getting ready for any big trip means remembering a lot of details. But this one involves being pretty self-reliant for most of the trip, and totally self-reliant for some of it. That means there's no room service, or even a restaurant for the morning coffee. We'll be camping, sometimes with the support of our school bus-turned-RV, sometimes totally canoe camping with what we can carry with us.

And, I am helping us all organize the food. Much of the trip we'll be bus/van supported, and close enough to a grocery store to eat fresh food--except when we will be hosted to supper by a friendly community we're passing through.

So today I am working on the kitchen equipment list, then confirming who can bring what. "Just work" as the Team Leader Ted says, but it is meticulous work. And essential for a smooth running kitchen.

We all know that a good team runs on its stomach! I know I do. Confession time--this is the big reason I volunteered to be the kitchen coordinator--so I could have some say over the food. Not that I plan to cook any more than my share of the time, and I want the others to tell me what to put on the shopping list.

If we eat well, we'll be happy campers.

Perseverance

I'm learning all over again about being outdoors in all kinds of weather. Even though I've trained for the 10 km Vancouver Sun Run, I've managed to almost all of that when it wasn't raining--I HATE running in the rain.

I don't mind so much canoeing in the rain, for some reason. Perhaps because I've done it before. A lot. But I'm having to get used to it again. I've forgotten just what works to keep my feet dry AND warm. I've forgotten the mystical moments when it truly doesn't matter that it's as wet above the canoe as it is under it.

I still don't like paddling in snow--yes, it snowed here a week ago while I was on the water, and I just missed some sleet yesterday.

I'm being reminded as I paddle what it feels like to keep going even though I'd like to quit. And what it feels like the next day when my arms feel like they might drop off. Well, not really, but not like normal either.

I can feel my body getting stronger though, and my paddling rhythm becoming steadier. And dog Lizzie loves coming along for the ride, even if she can't even dog paddle.

Where & When?

(map from http://www.2008thompsonbrigade.com/mapofroute.htm)

This trip starts on May 10 in Rocky Mountain House, Alberta, and winds its way all the way to Old Fort William near Thunder Bay, ON.

I will join it west of North Battleford, Saskatchewan, on May 20, 2008.

What a variety of country we will paddle through! I'm familiar with the area around RMH--I used to live near there, and paddled there often. It starts in boreal forest, and flows into parkland, and moves back into the boreal forest. As the North Saskatchewan River flows east, the hills get smaller, but they certainly never disappear. This is not flat like southern Saskatchewan, although that flatness is only relative. The rolling hills continue for some while. I've never been to Cumberland House, SK or northern Manitoba.

I've read about the beautiful rocky valley of the Winnipeg River--which we will paddle upstream on--not around so many rapids as used to be though, gratis of the several power reservoirs. And I've heard of how so many voyageurs got lost on Lake of the Woods. We'll have GPS and real maps.

Years ago I paddled east from Fort Frances through Rainy Lake and east along the U.S. border to Quetico Provincial Park. Now we will paddle and portage our way through the fabled Quetico. And on to Old Fort William on the route the Northwest Company used after 1803. There will be plenty of portaging to do.

David Thompson, of course, would have paddled this route more than once in his work for the Northwest Company. He wouldn't have had the fancy gear and lightweight kevlar canoe--but he was likely in much better shape. Often he travelled with his wife and family.

Given that our Brigade will be comprised of at least seven canoes with about ten paddlers in each, we'll soon be a family of sorts. Even if we won't all be in the same boat.

Getting Ready

I'm getting ready to go canoeing, big time. I've decided to join the 2008 David Thompson Bicentennial Brigade. It's paddling from central Alberta, Rocky Mountain House specifically, to Lake Superior, Old Fort William near Thunder Bay. It's a long ways!

3500 km approximately.

I'll join the Brigade on Day 11 in western Saskatchewan, so I'll only paddle about 2600 km.

YES, I'm training for this. I'm too old to just jump in and hope my body will survive.

First, I'm in training for the Vancouver Sun Run. I lapsed over the summer and fall, so I've had to start over.

and, I'm doing some gym work, mostly upper body and core stuff.

and, I've started paddling already. This is the Lower Mainland of BC. Spring is already here on this first day of spring. The crocuses are almost finished, the daffodils almost out.

Yesterday I had quite a nice day on Whonnock Lake in eastern Maple Ridge. The sun came out for a bit, and the wind was very light to none. Much different than on Monday when it was rain and even small hail.