Whitewater’s Greatest First Descents

Stories

Photo: Wolfgang Weber/NWT — Whitewater's Greatest First Descents

For every sport, there are defining moments, brief seconds in time that last forever, recognizable by fans and non-fans alike. The shot heard ‘round the World, the immaculate reception, Gretzky’s 894th goal, whatever they are, these events resonate and things are a little bit different from that moment forward. We don’t have a World Series, Super Bowl or Stanley Cup. Instead we etch first descents upon whitewater’s hypothetical mantle as our greatest achievements. Sometimes first descents are more than the birth of new runs; sometimes they make us believe anything is possible.

ALEXANDREA FALLS, TWIN FALLS TERRITORIAL PARK, NORTHWEST TERRITORIES

By Neil Etienne

When Tao Berman successfully cleaned Alberta’s 98.4-foot upper Johnston Falls in 1999, the paddling community perked up. Waterfall descents have increasingly gotten higher but this one not only gave hope the century mark could be broken, it was proof a 100-foot drop was really just a matter of the right river, the right levels and the right stuff.

Although he was washed from his kayak, in 2002 Tim Gross paddled himself over Oregon’s 101-foot Abiqua Falls, setting a new limit to test. In 2003, seasoned waterfall runner and extreme steep creeker Ed Lucero serendipitously discovered Alexandra Falls and all the pieces fell into place.

Heading into the Northwest Territories for a few days of surfing on the Slave River, Lucero, then 37, was shown the first major jewel on the fabled Water- fall Route, NWT Highway 1.

“I had no idea Alexandra Falls even existed so I wasn’t heading out to break any records by any means,” Lucero explained. “Once I saw it, I almost immediately saw the perfect line. It became a crossroads for me. I went there for a week and a half and plotted out whether or not I should do it.”

Topping out at nearly 106 feet, Alexandra Falls would have been the ideal location to plummet into fame for many paddlers. Lucero saw something more; a 105.6-foot-high soapbox, the ultimate chance to make a statement. He would stand up to fear in the hopes others would too.

“We were a country living in fear. We were at war, people were afraid to live their lives. I stood there and said ‘I think I can make a statement. I think I can make this fall.’ The message was to overcome fear,” he said.

Although he too swam from his boat, the bar was reset four-and-a-half feet higher.

Lucero said he won’t look for a higher drop, but suspects waterfall running will spur on its own industry and technology, pushing the vertical limits even higher. His own experiences led to the introduction of a specially armoured PFD, Stohlquist WaterWare’s Mark 1, which he designed for the impact of waterfall drops.

“The response I got at the bottom of the falls was incredible and I think a lot of people and manufacturers are going to want to get in on that. It’s prob- ably going to take on an industry all of its own and who knows how high people will be able to go.”

As of presstime, three and a half years later, Lucero’s run on Alexandra Falls remains the highest waterfall paddled and survived.

GRAND CANYON OF THE STIKINE RIVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA

by Neil Etienne

The Stikine River carves a 700-kilometre path toward the ocean through B.C.’s rugged north country and the dangling leg of Alaska, about 240 kilometres south of the Yukon border. The tail end of a transcontinental highway for the Hudson’s Bay Company’s canoes, she fed the fur trade and the Klondike gold rush.

Her crowning glory, the Grand Canyon of the Stikine, towers sentinel over a narrow 80-kilometre stretch of vicious class V+ that even after a handful of descents, the surrounding provincial park advertises as strictly unrunnable.

When the first bridge crossed the river’s banks in the early 1970s, paddlers began to imagine the possibilities. British paddlers scouted a portion of the river in the mid-’70s and even ran the river below the canyon (mostly class III), but were unsure of the upper reaches.

Around the same time, Rob Lesser was frequently planning and running expeditions in remote rivers throughout B.C. and Alaska. The famed whitewater expedition paddler and 2005 inductee to the International Whitewater Hall of Fame was running the highway back and forth during several years in the late ‘70s from his home state of Idaho, to his park ranger job in Alaska, keeping his eyes open for prime spots. He shared a few notes with the British paddlers and started plotting in earnest.

River information was scarce; this was not the enlightened Internet age. There was some information through B.C.’s hydro company and it appeared to Lesser the gradient was reasonable, even if flows for most of the year were not.

Finally, in August 1981, an all-star cast including Lesser, Lars Holbeck, John Wasson, Rick Fernald, Don Ban- ducci and an ABC Sports television crew, complete with helicopter, slipped into the Stikine.

The levels were so intense the television crew quickly had all the glorious and jaw-dropping footage they needed, cutting the trip short and flying the paddlers to the mouth for final shots. It left a good portion of the canyon unrun.

In 1985, Lesser and Holbeck, along with Bob McDougall, did what had been building for nearly a decade and returned to make a full descent.

MEKONG RIVER, TIBET TO VIETNAM

by Kyle Dickman

Iron age farmers, Marco Polo and Maoist revolutionaries all had to accept the unbridled power that kept southeast Asia’s Mekong River un-run for millennia. It wasn’t until the eve of the 21st century the mekong’s unfettered tradition was to be challenged by well-equipped expeditionaries and the demands of a changing civilization.

en route through its seething 4,600-kilometre, source-to-sea run, the mekong pounds down 3,000- metre-deep gorges, across six national borders and between some of the world’s most biologically diverse temperate forest. It is a source of food, water, transportation, energy and frequent fear of flooding for some 60 million southeast Asians living along its banks.

Western interest in paddling the Mekong began as early as the 1600s but the first serious expedition, led by french explorer and diplomat ernest Doudart de Lagrée, wasn’t attempted until 1866. After two years of barefoot portaging (apparently portaging wooden dories is a bit rough on 19th century footwear), struggles with violent rapids and a tenacious case of amoebic dysentery, Lagrée discovered what the Chinese already suspected, the river was unnavigable.

For 130 years the frenchman’s assessment stood. In the mid-1990s, interest in the Mekong’s whitewater rekindled. Teams from China, Australia, Japan and the U.S. began probing the nether gorges of its Himalayan high-country.

After seven years of wading through Chinese bureaucracy, American rafter Peter Winn secured permits and logged a handful of first descents before Australian kayaker Michael O’Shea connected the dots to complete the first source-to-sea expedition in 2004. After seven months of enduring chilly Tibetan temperatures and swarms of multi-national mosquitoes, o’shea conquered the whitewater responsible for centuries of defeats.

Conquered, perhaps sadly, seems to be the Mekong’s destiny. In reaction to a multiplying population and a ballooning economy, China has entered a dam-building era unseen since U.S. engineers trowelled off the concrete of the Grand-Coulee and Hoover dams in the 1930s and ’40s. Already three dams have been completed on the mekong with plans for as many as 100 more.

Fortunately, in 2006 American Travis Winn, son of Peter Winn, and a handful of rafters caught one last ride—a famous final descent if you will—down a river that may not be run for another millennium.

NARROWS OF THE GREEN, ASHEVILLE AREA, NORTH CAROLINA

by Neil Etienne

A little less than 20 years ago, North Carolina’s Narrows of the Green River was nothing more than a portage route that joined the more gentle stretches upstream and down.

Long touted as unrunnable, it wasn’t until 1988 when creekers Tom Visnius and John Kennedy finally executed a full-on descent that the Green Narrows began its torrid ascent to popularity. In a few short years it became one of the most popular class IV–V+ stretches in the U.S.

Earning a first descent on the Narrows was difficult enough in a kayak, certainly no one would have any business running them in a canoe, right? Particularly when the river—controlled by dam release—could be pumping out a savage 8.5–11.33 cms, unlike modern flows, which seldom top 5.66 cms.

Dave “Psycho” Simpson stepped up to the Green’s banks with his Dagger Encore about a year after Kennedy and Vis- nius, but before word had really spread about the 11 gnarly class IV–V+ rapids in quick succession.

“It was overwhelming,” Simpson described his first meet- ing with the Narrows. “At the time I thought it was completely unfeasible to run. I thought it would be suicide.”

So, Psycho set out, bringing along trusted partners Bob McDonough and Forrest “Woody” Callaway. Over a couple of days they picked away at the rapids, only a couple of which had been named. The most beastly would earn its name on that trip—Gorilla.

“At the time it was completely uncalled for,” Simpson said. “It was unrunnable. The guidebooks said it was unrunnable, ev- eryone said it was unrunnable. Then I thought ‘Oh, the guide- books are wrong; what else could they be wrong about’.”

The Narrows would remain a favourite for Simpson as he would run it every chance he got, sometimes twice a day. It inspired him to tackle the Gauley, Tellico, Watauga and Russell Fork when its releases were far more substantial.

Simpson was not the only one inspired by his runs of the Green Narrows, they marked the beginning of OC creeking. Many single-blade paddlers began to think of the possibilities; an open boater had not only survived a steep class V, he had done so with grace.

Wayne Gentry’s Green Summer, the 1992 National Paddling Film Festival’s “Amateur Best of Show” showcased the Nar- rows and Psycho’s skills at that year’s Gauley Fest, where a young Eli Helbert, now at the forefront of open canoe creeking and the only open boater to enter the Narrows of the Green River Race, watched in awe.

“I remember thinking that guy’s crazy, I could never do that. But because Psycho did it first, a lot of us were willing to do it too when the time came,” Helbert says. “When I saw the movie I knew I had to try.”

OTTAWA RIVER, BEACHBURG ONTARIO

by Neil Etienne

There are few rivers in Canada that compare historically with the Ottawa. It’s a river that built a country, yet it was forgotten or at the very least overlooked, as a paddling industry raged on without it. How does a river that now rivals all others as the ultimate playboating, training and testing ground remain only a logging and trade route until the mid-1970s?

Simple. Lumberjacks don’t paddle and farmers don’t swim.

The Ottawa borders the TransCanada highway but the rapids lay hidden at the back of privately owned farmland where whitewater is more of a burden than boon. Local landowners saw no jewel and the whitewater remained a well-kept secret.

In June of 1974 Hermann Kerckhoff, founder of the Madawaska Kanu Centre, took his daughter Claudia to the Ottawa. he was there to disprove rumours that there was whitewater on the river.

Putting in on the Quebec side at what is now known as McCoy’s, the duo was pleased by what they saw, if only briefly.

“It was a total surprise to my dad and I to see any whitewater at all. After McCoy’s Chute it gets flat, so we still didn’t expect anything much downriver,” Claudia explains. “Then we came to a split and the river got our respect immediately.” Choosing the right path, they discovered what is now known as the Main Channel.

“It was total euphoria. we’d never seen such big or friendly whitewater,” Claudia recalls of the river that would someday be the host of two world freestyle championships. “This was the find of a lifetime.”

That summer expert paddlers from MKC began running the remaining branches and by 1975 others began to take note of the Ottawa’s potential.

Ed Coleman, an American rafting company owner and a mentor of sorts to Wilderness Tours owner Joe Kowalski, flew over the rapids that year and several weeks of trial rafting runs ensued.

“It just never occurred to us that there may be rapids on the Ottawa but it’s got world-wide attention now,” Kowalski says. “There’s no place better for rafting and for kayaking. The Ottawa is prob- ably the best playboating river in the world.”

Thirty-three summers later the Ottawa River will be the stage for the world’s best freestyle paddlers. International athletes will be pulling off moves created on the Ottawa and paddling boats designed and tested on it.

Not bad for a river that wasn’t supposed have rapids.

UPPER JOHNSTON FALLS, BANFF ALBERTA

by Neil Etienne

From the moment a 19-year-old Tao Berman and crew began testing Upper Johnston Falls in Alberta’s Banff National Park more than seven years ago, it has been kayaking’s greatest focal point for the general public.

Before what would become a world-record event even happened, its appeal was obvious. More than 100 dumbstruck onlookers, some even wailing in fear, lined the park’s pathways and lookout spots just to catch a glimpse of what was going on. Almost instantly, video circulated worldwide in easy-to-digest, jaw-dropping simplicity.

On August 23, 1999 Tao Berman’s run of Johnston Falls broke the waterfall record for height at the time by about 20 feet but he also broke another barrier—whitewater kayaking became mainstream extreme.

“I didn’t realize just how much exposure that drop was going to get. With that one I wasn’t looking for exposure, just a 100-foot fall to run. People started to recognize me who had never paddled before. That’s when I noticed things were starting to get different.” Berman explains.

The plunge made headlines on NBC, Sports Illus- trated, Extra, and even Ripley’s Believe It Or Not. Since then, it has been a whirlwind of attention for Tao, and in turn, kayaking. NBC’s Jeep World of Adventure Sports approached him in 2004, asking what he was up to next. “Lacy Falls, British Columbia,” was Berman’s reply.

More rock quarry than waterfall, it is difficult to fathom the remote coastal stairway sluice of Lacy Falls as one of the more pivotal locations in recent whitewater history. But it too dropped extreme kayaking into a mainstream audience. This time with 20 different camera crews on hand, footage hit CNN, Fox News, the Discovery Channel, Real TV, the Outdoor Life Network and far, far beyond.

Careening down the slick, snaking conduit of inches-deep water, hitting more than 65 kilometres per hour, Berman’s 280-foot toboggan ride to the Pacific Ocean was so enthralling, terrifying and immediate, it was ex- actly what mass media and the TV viewing public con- sume and respect.

“Tao’s descent of Lacy Falls was watched by roughly a million viewers on NBC’s Jeep World of Adventure Sports in its premier airing,” explains the show’s Executive Di- rector Rufus Frost. “Not surprisingly, we were drawn to cover Tao and his attempt at this descent because it was a dramatic feat that would resonate with viewers who did not follow the sport of kayaking.”

This article first appeared in the Spring 2007 issue of Rapid Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Rapid’s print and digital editions here.

Modern MITH-ology: Carving Eddylines

Skills

Photo: Carole Westwood — Andrew Westwood smoothly exits an eddy in his Esquif Zepher.

Entering and exiting eddies can trick even the seasoned paddler into complacency if they are not paying attention or rust has coated their skills over time spent away from the river. MITH is a simple way to remember the breakdown of skills needed to execute eddy turns regardless whether you are in a kayak, OC1 or tandem. Much of what we teach in introductory canoe courses is a product of stories passed down from generation to generation, spread by oral tradition. Sometimes these skills are eventually written down in manuals, but sadly some of the greater meaning can be lost in the process. Take P.A.T. for example; the process of using power, angle and tilt to get into eddy pools. PAT is an oversimplification of the turning skill needed to get beginner paddlers across eddylines.

The concept of carving the canoe is missing from PAT. Modern MITHology introduces momentum, initiation, tilt and hold as the tools needed to unlock the secret behind carving supernatural eddy turns. MITH addresses the shortcomings of PAT and better describes the technique used by advanced paddlers to carve their canoes smoothly into eddy turns, s-turns and peel outs.

MOMENTUM combines an object’s mass and velocity. The amount of momentum required to carve an eddy turn depends on the friction you need to overcome to cross the eddyline and how far up the eddy pool you need to travel.

It’s better to think about eddy turns in terms of momentum rather than power because, for example, a tandem boat with very little speed, or power, can still carry plenty of momentum into a carve be- cause of its mass. PAT implies you must be powering or paddling forward, but really it’s not about you paddling, it’s about the canoe having enough momentum, either by you moving it forward or by the current doing it for you, or simply by the sheer mass of an ABs canoe moving toward the eddyline. In many cases you don’t need to be powering at all, because the canoe will have enough momentum just from the speed of the current and its own mass. So to carve a great eddy turn your canoe will need just enough momentum to cross the friction of the eddyline and carry you through the carving turn and up the eddy pool.

Every turn you perform has to begin with a carve. INITIATING a carving turn can be as straightforward as performing a stern pry or stern draw stroke, or as subtle as crossing the eddyline paddling an inside circle either on your on or off side and allowing it to tighten into a carving arc as you cross an eddyline. The critical product of this step is that you need to initiate a carve and set the canoe travelling an arcing path toward the eddy pool.

Only canoes that are TILTED on edge will carve turns. Canoes that are paddled into turns flat will spin out, or worse, flip over. A tilted hull presents the bottom of the hull partially slanted on its side, or edge, so that the water pushes the hull around the arc. This pushing effect on the hull is what causes the boat to carve. Different amounts of tilt

will change the shape of the arc as will different hull lengths and shapes. Regardless, your goal in a carving eddy turn is to paddle along an arcing path from out in the river, across the eddyline, and into an eddy pool. Tilting your canoe will help to maintain the carve.

Travelling from any point A to point B takes time. During a carving eddy turn you must HOLD your tilt throughout the duration of the manoeuvre. The moment the hull is allowed to flatten out, your carve will be lost and your canoe will begin to spin—your carving momentum changes into spin momentum and your crisp eddy turn will stall. holding the tilt is the key to success. Practice gripping your canoe’s outfit- ting with your legs, not just for a moment, but for long periods of time. In whitewater, holding your boat is as vital as holding your paddle. Only when your canoe slows and the turn is complete should you relax your tilt and allow the canoe to completely level out.

If you are already familiar with PAT then moving up to MITH will come easily. Momentum, initiation, tilt and hold are the next steps to getting your canoe carving smoothly into eddy pools. With a little practice, carving supernatural eddy turns will become less fiction and more modern MIThology.

Andrew Westwood is a frequent contributor to Rapid. He’s an open canoe instructor at the Madawaska Kanu Centre and a member of Team Esquif.

Fountain of Youths

Stories

Photo: Rick Matthews — Fountain of Youths

In his book Last Child in the Woods, Richard Louv evaluates the current state of kids and the outdoors. He presents the reader a long list of benefits for kids spending time in nature including improved health, more active imaginations, increased social confidence and better decision making skills. Add to that list reduced incidence of Attention Deficit hyperactivity Disorder and obesity, and reduced tendencies toward anti-social activity, such as crime, and you have a very compelling case for what we already know—being outdoors is good for kids.

However, Louv goes on to paint a pretty sad picture. Kids today are increasingly cut off from nature by urban development, societal fear and intolerance for risk, and the annihilation of outdoor education and natural science curriculums in schools. Not to mention helicopter parents hovering over their little ones, protecting them from what they feel is risky.

The real kicker, Louv argues, is if they don’t have a relationship with nature, kids today will have little value, use, or need for it as adults, adults who will eventually make decisions on behalf of the environment.

We river people are in the same boat. Look around your local put-in next spring; chances are you won’t find anyone under the age of 15. Who will look after our rivers when the current crop of paddlers gets too old and tired to continue the fight?

Other outdoor sports are doing a better job. Climbing gyms cater to kids’ birthday parties. The Jackrabbit cross-country ski program has been around for generations. All kids learn to ride bikes and the downhill ski industry has gone so far as to provide free ski passes to all kids in Grade 5. They know the likelihood of them skiing as adults hinges on skiing before the age of 11.

In 1997, when the first Wave Sport Stubbies appeared on my home river, I predicted kayaking would become a kids’ sport. The stubby proved an ideal boat for beginners and kids. It was stable and short, so they could turn it. It was fat, so water shed from the deck, eliminating the need for a potentially dangerous skirt. It was magic.

Despite that promising start, my predicted boom didn’t happen.

I later realized the barriers kids must overcome to get into whitewater.

Access to appropriate whitewater is a big one. And gear. But digging deeper, Louv argues that overall kids have less interaction with nature at home and school. Outdoor education is under attack across school boards, in some cases banning whitewater altogether.

All is not lost.

RPM dads, the first generation of the whitewater boom, are now returning to the rivers bringing their elementary and high school kids with them. Teen-oriented paddling programs, whitewater day camps and parent-child paddling programs are springing up across North America. Canoe tripping camps also continue their work introducing kids to wilderness camping and paddling.

The Jackson Kayak’s Fun kid’s kayak, Composite Creations’ Splash open canoe and Werner’s small-shaft paddles are breaking down the equipment barriers. Although they will never likely be considered commercial successes, they are valuable investments in the future of our rivers.

Louv has coined the term “nature deficit disorder” to label the current disconnect between kids and nature. But pint-sized gear, progressive programs and a new generation of parents may be leading the way toward a much-needed nature-child reunion.

“Environmentalists need the goodwill of children,” concludes Louv, “to [help with] the serious adult work of saving the world.”

How can we save our rivers?

Take a kid paddling.

Jeff Jackson is on parental leave from his position as Professor of Outdoor Adventure at Algonquin College in Pembroke, Ontario.

This article first appeared in the Spring 2007 issue of Rapid Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Rapid’s print and digital editions here.

Editorial: Make Music, Make Paddlers

Stories

Photo: Dunbar Hardy — Editorial: Make Music, Make Paddlers

Mrs. Mothballs was my piano teacher. Once a week for an hour I’d sit beside her on the bench stabbing at the keys, working on scales and butchering Hot Cross Buns. Every week before my lesson I’d cry to my mother, until finally, after two months, I was allowed to quit.

It was my idea to take piano lessons. I wanted to be Jerry Lee Lewis, Burton Cummings or even Billy Joel (keep in mind I was only 10 and it was the ‘80s). But that’s not the way old Mothballs and the Royal conservatory taught music. They were all about grades, progression, theory and proper technique. I didn’t sign up to peck at scales and trace treble clefs in a workbook every night after supper.

My inspiration for music was flattened and playing the piano, as it was presented to me, was stupid.

Thirty years later I’ve picked up the guitar. This time I’m approaching music much differently.

I’m picking songs that I want to play and figuring out the chords and enough of the rhythm to strum along. This time I’m just having fun playing music. I’ve even joined a band of like-minded, but much better, musicians known as the Rapid Palmers (a tribute to our paddling town, Palmer Rapids).

After six months at the guitar I’m now going back and diving into theory books, learning to read music and thinking about proper technique. I’m even planning on signing up for formal lessons. Now that I’m hooked on playing music, I want to learn to be a musician.

This spring, Rapid Media is putting together the Canadian Whitewater Instructor Conference. My objective is to bring together whitewater instructors from across the continent from different organizations, clubs, paddling schools, colleges and camps to share ideas and answer important questions like: why do more than 90 per cent of paddling school students never paddle whitewater again? And, what can we do to turn more of these would-be paddlers into lifelong enthusiasts?

“We need to inspire them to paddle,” a young instructor said to me when she heard about the conference.

A light bulb went off in my head, “no we don’t!”

The thousands of students taking paddling courses are already inspired. They’ve dreamed of paddling, found a school or club, booked a course, paid their money, and have driven into mosquito country for the weekend.

They’re inspired.  Our job as paddling instructors is not to kill it.  They are inspired like I was inspired to take piano lessons, before Mothballs killed it. She bogged me down in theory when I just wanted to play Great Balls of Fire.

Maybe the reason so few whitewater students don’t continue to paddle after their first course is because they come to us dreaming of adventure and shooting rapids and we bog them down with stroke progression, drills and complex river morphology lessons. Maybe we should just teach them a couple chords, the rhythm of the river and then let them play.

This is just one idea I hope is discussed at the Canadian Whitewater Instructor conference and on chairlifts, in bars and wherever you gather to talk about paddling and get ready for spring.

If you plan on attending the Canadian Whitewater Instructor Conference, stick around for Palmer Fest and catch the Rapid Palmers, they promise no Billy Joel.

This article first appeared in the Spring 2007 issue of Rapid Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Rapid’s print and digital editions here.

Butt End: The Shame of the Wilderness Pornographer

Stories

Photo: James Smedley — Butt End: The Shame of the Wilderness Pornographer

I never would have guessed the northwest corner of Algonquin Park could be so crowded. A line-up of 36 canoes cluttered the take-out for the portage into North Tea Lake.

Thinking back, the route wasn’t as busy when I first paddled it 12 years ago. Of course, that was before I wrote a guidebook that praised the scenic splendour of North Tea. Was it immodest to wonder if this mob was in some way my fault for having exposed and exploited the area? Had I truly become, as my friends have labelled it, a wilderness pornographer?

Writing guidebooks can be emotionally challenging. What starts as a way to promote and ultimately protect a wild area can lead to too many paddlers loving a place to death.

I’ve had fellow canoeists shun me after writing up one of their secret spots; I’ve had cottage owners threaten to shoot me between the eyes if I ever write about their lake again; I’ve even witnessed a group of anglers burning one of my books which dared to wonder about the fishing on a particular lake.

While I waited impatiently to use the portage into North Tea, I thought maybe a good old-fashioned book burning might not be such a bad idea.

However, as I was sinking into despair, the page turned. As I moved forward in the queue, I noticed that in the canoe ahead of us a mom and dad with two children had a copy of my guidebook on Algonquin Park. The youngest girl had it open to the chapter on North Tea Lake.

I started to chat with the family and learned it was their first interior trip, a trip they had decided on after purchasing “some guy’s guidebook.”

I was ecstatic. This family was all the justification I needed to continue promoting wilderness areas to anyone that was even semi-literate. Heck, the daughter even allowed me to go first on the portage because I was loaded down with a heavy pack and an 18-foot canoe.

I skipped off, barely noticing the weight of the canoe, until a paddle blade to my crotch stopped me dead in my tracks.

A woman coming from the other direction in a T-shirt that read “Damn the Dieticians” barged through, swinging her paddle— the only thing she was carrying—and swearing as she warned me to get out of her way. I wasn’t quick enough.

I gasped in pain, shuffled off the trail, and made a silent prayer that she had never so much as picked up one of my books.

Kevin Callan’s new guidebook about Quetico Provincial Park, available to righteous trippers only, will be released this spring.

This article first appeared in the Spring 2007 issue of Canoeroots Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Canoeroots’ print and digital editions here.

By Paddle and Paintbrush

Stories

Photo: Gary McGuffin — By Paddle and Paintbrush

If you ask Rob Mullen, the stink of formaldehyde can’t compare to the scent of the boreal forest in September. The Vermont wildlife artist took a deep breath 20 years ago while drawing dissection diagrams as a biology student and decided he’d rather be painting living creatures.

Mullen—who’s been canoeing since buying a Grumman with money from his childhood paper route—has used a canoe as a tool of his trade to travel the boreal forest that covers much of Northern Canada. He says you don’t need an artist’s eye to notice changes in the forest. “It’s impossible to ignore the logging, damming and mining that’s been going on.”

Mullen was on Ontario’s Missinaibi River in 2001 when he decided to assemble a team of artists to help spread appreciation for the forest to a wider public.

“There is an ignorance about this forest that is out of line with its importance. You can put the information into charts and graphs, but to motivate people you have to involve the heart, not just the mind,” says Mullen. “Plus,” he adds, “ I was tired of tripping alone and wanted some company.”

In 2005 Mullen formed the Wilderness River Expedition Art Foundation and, along with photojournalists and paddlers Gary and Joanie McGuffin, led an 18-day trip on Quebec’s George River last September with four other acclaimed wildlife and landscape painters.

Paintings from the trip will form the “Visions of the Boreal Forest” exhibition in the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History next year in Washington, D.C., before touring to cities across North America.

Mullen hopes the exhibition will connect a few dots for people. “As resources around the world dwindle, the market is driving prices up and now it’s feasible to run a road deep into the forest to haul stuff out,” says Mullen. “Development has to be guided by something other than just our consumptive appetites. We’re trying to show people where their junk mail comes from.”

BY GEORGE

Though the George River sees only a few canoeing parties a year, Gary and Joanie McGuffin knew its non-technical rapids would be perfect for artists that wanted to go deep into the wilderness, not deep into the river. It flows fast and clean over a cobblestone bed along the west side of the Torngat Mountains, which separate northern Quebec from Labrador. The broad valley it has cut into its namesake plateau allows for a longer growing season than the surrounding tundra and has allowed a finger of the boreal forest to point north up the valley to Ungava Bay.

“The rapids aren’t complicated,” says Joanie, “but there are big waves and it’s fast and wide so you have to start out on the correct line. A dump could mean a lot of lost gear.”

NOT LIKE WATCHING PAINT DRY

The group took 18 days to cover 320 kilometres on the fast-moving river, which works out to about the same speed people in black turtlenecks move through an art gallery. But the pace only taught Joanie an appreciation for the artistic process. “Artists are the ultimate trippers because they take time to study the land,” she says. “Some paddlers race down a river so they can check it off their list. Artists don’t just admire the landscape from their canoe. They see a ridge and then go to see what they can see from it, or what’s behind it. It’s the best way to trip.”

WILD THINGS

Having spent 24 years seeking inspiration for her wildlife art, British-born Lindsey Foggett wasn’t about to let a little frigid whitewater stop her from paddling the George in September, a time when the 400,000-caribou-strong George River herd would be on the move.

“If you are serious about painting animals, you have to encounter them in the wild where they are behaving naturally,” says Foggett. “An animal’s manner, and even its muscle tone, is completely different in a zoo.”

STUDY IN MUD

The opaque watercolour paintings John C. Pitcher does in the field are reference studies for works he’ll start later in his Vermont studio. Pitcher did this study after noticing a wolf track in the mud beside a small creek he was fording. “A sketch like this not only gives me the proportions and colour that I need later, but also connects me to the encounter. I also take photos for later reference, but when I paint a scene I establish a cognitive connection with it and come to know it better than when I worry about what exposure will capture the blue shades of the sky reflecting off the mud.”

CRASH COURSE

Quebecker Jean-Louis Courteau was unsure about being selected to stern the fourth canoe: “Since I paint mostly landscapes the canoe has always been an ideal way for me to get around. But I paddle lakes and marshes. Whitewater was new to me. I had heard stories of gigantic waves and thunderous rapids on the George. So on the first day I was nervous. In fact, I was terrified. I didn’t want to take a bath. Now, of course, I’m hooked.”

FIELD WORK

“The George River has its guardians: the cold, the wind and the blackflies!” explains Jean-Louis Courteau.

“I have painted in Laurentian marshes and the jungles of Guatemala but I’ve never seen so many voracious little vam- pires as on the George. They made sketching and painting on the spot a challenge. And when the temperature dropped enough to keep them at bay then Tshiuetin—the north wind—took their place. But this puts you in a state of mind that lets you paint more than what the eyes see. What you experience in the field inevitably goes into the work.”

GARY MCGUFFIN: PHOTOGRAPHER AS ARTIST

“Photography is the coming together of pleasing light and lines, but it’s not just a case of technical ability, you have to show how your subject relates to its surroundings. How do you present your subject to tell a better story than the one you initially see in the viewfinder? Can you position the camera differently to show how the caribou relates to the river, or should you open the aperture and blur the background?

The photos you make on a canoe trip are different from ones you would make if you dropped into the same place on a float plane. If it takes you three weeks to get some- where, it changes how you see things when you get there.

I’m really happy when I’m in the creative zone. As the sun gets low and the light gets soft I become oblivious to everything else. That’s when I say, ‘Joanie, you’ll have to set the tent up tonight.’ And I’m gone.”

This article first appeared in the Spring 2007 issue of Canoeroots Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Canoeroots’ print and digital editions here.

Family Bike Adventure Checklist

Stories
Family

Photo: Henry Georgi — Family Bike Adventure Checklist

As your family’s fleet of bicycles grows, it gets harder to move the wrench fast enough to keep up. Though periodic attention from a skilled mechanic is always a good idea, you can stay ahead of most maintenance issues by keeping your eye on a few important areas.

Brakes: coaster brakes (a.k.a. pedal brakes) require virtually no maintenance. Other types of brakes require some attention. For rim brakes, ensure that the brake pads are properly positioned so when engaged they aren’t too high rim). As the pads wear, the cable will become slack. Tighten the cable, either at the lever or the wheel, so the lever can’t touch the handlebar grip. Disc brakes are increasingly popular and come in two main types. Mechanical disc brakes need periodic cable and pad adjustments; best done by a professional. Hydraulic disc brakes adjust for pad wear automatically, but you do need to monitor the pads to ensure they don’t wear out entirely. If a hydraulic brake feels soft, it needs bleeding. Again, take it to the pros.

Wheels: check that the rims are true by spinning the wheel and making sure it does not wobble. Ensure that the wheel is properly attached to the bike by making sure the axle nuts or quick release levers are tight. Finally, check for loose hubs by holding the front forks or rear stays in one hand and wiggling the wheels from side to side to check for play.

Handlebar grips: As simple as grips are, they can be a hazard if they are worn or don’t fit properly. Make sure that the ends of the grips are intact and don’t leave the hollow ends of the bar exposed, ready to take a core sample of your youngster. If the grips are loose and slip or rotate on the bar replace them with a new pair immediately.

Handlebars and saddle: sandwich the front wheel between your legs and try to turn the handlebars from side to side. If the bars move when the wheel stays still, tighten the stem. The photo shows how to do this on a quill stem. It usually requires a 6mm Allen wrench (shown) or a 13mm box end wrench (a crescent wrench will do in a pinch). Tighten the top bolt on the stem just enough so that the handlebars cannot move independently of the front wheel. Now wiggle the saddle. If there is any rodeo potential tighten either the bolt that fixes the seat post clamp to the saddle stays or the clamp that holds the seat post in the frame. Your child uses these points to control the bike so they should be secure.

Headset: this is the bearing set that the handlebar and fork rotate on and is often very loose on kids’ bikes. To check the headset, engage the front brake and rock the handle- bars fore and aft. If you feel some play it is loose and should be tightened. The majority of kids’ bikes come with what’s called a threaded headset/quill stem. If the bike in question resembles the one in the photo then you will need some specialty tools to tighten the headset. Pick these up at your local bike shop. Be sure to take the bike with you because there is some variance in the sizes and styles of threaded headsets and therefore the tools you’ll need. You can also ask the staff for basic instructions. For more instructions on this (and other jobs) visit www.parktool.com and look under the repair Help section.

Tyler Merringer is the owner and head mechanic at Revolution Cycles in Rossland, B.C.

This article first appeared in the Spring 2007 issue of Canoeroots Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Canoeroots’ print and digital editions here.

The Wild Ones: Family Bike Trip

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Family

All photos this page: Mike Payne — The Wild Ones: Family Bike Trip

The bikes roll into town in tight formation and come to a stop in a diner’s dusty parking lot. Like a good henchman, Mike goes in to case the joint and see if it’s big enough for our gang and a good place for the bosses to take their meal.

Heads turn to watch our entrance. The server takes a deep breath and approaches cautiously. She can see there is a power struggle going on and that things could get ugly. Luckily, when the bosses sit down, there is no kicking, biting, or screaming.

Our gang includes a four-month-old infant, a 20-month-old toddler, a one-year-old and three newly initiated parents. We had rolled out of Kingston, Ontario, that morning to do a four-day September bike tour to Sandbanks Provincial Park in Prince Edward County.

You have to travel a little differently when under the ever-vigilant eyes of the bosses. There can only be so much time spent looking for picturesque wineries and beautiful picnic lunch spots. In- stead, they have us on constant lookout for farms, big trucks, playgrounds, even a supermarket on a rainy day to run around in. One of the keys is constant movement, which makes a slow-rolling vacation perfect for a young family.

And rolling slowly is the best way to travel in a convoy such as ours. Pedaling is noticeably harder on bikes burdened with panniers full of camping gear and the extra weight of the space-age pods we are towing. Today’s decked-out bike trailers, with their inflatable tires, sensitive suspension systems, infant slings, bug meshing and wind screens decrease the top speed we can maintain, but they ensconce the kids in comfort and as new parents we know that when the bosses are happy, we are happy.

Riding on any of the three routes from Picton to Sandbanks Provincial Park is normally quiet and safe outside July and August, but today, in no hurry, we choose an even more scenic long-cut. The motion lulls the kids into a peaceful reverie as they gaze at the ever-changing countryside, pointing out cows, horses, houses, more cows and lakes. On the practically car-free Ridge Road, we ride three bikes abreast and chat, daydreaming about our next bike tour and planning a swim by the dunes at the park’s warm West Lake.

Four-month-old Sacha, however, soon begins to squawk and we are forced to reconsider the kids’ needs and the flow of the day. If we stop here to feed Sacha, the other kids may wake up and demand a snack and a play now. Since we still have dinner, tents and dark- ness to contend with, we opt to pass the dunes and take our swim at camp, in the cooler Lake Ontario. With an adult to kid ratio of one to one, we devise a plan. Beth stops to service Sacha while Geoff and Mike continue on slowly, concentrating on pedaling just hard enough to maintain the magically calming motion.

When we escort the bosses into Sandbanks Provincial Park, we see there is no intimidation effort necessary to secure a gorgeous site on the beach—the park is nearly empty. The bosses are stripped of their clothes and get down to the serious work of ingesting sand and watching the waves roll in. We sip wine at sunset as the bosses run up and down the beach shrieking at seagulls.

“Our children have blessed us, we suppose, with the sight of many sunrises.”

Nighttime routines unfold as they do at home: the favourite blankey, the beloved teddy bear, a familiar book—only this time the snuggling takes place on sleeping bags and the reading is illuminated by headlamp.

The sand we discover when we finally slip ourselves into our sleeping bags is a gritty reminder of the fort-building that went on in the tent earlier—and of our shifting priorities. There was a time when we fastidiously kept sand away from our food, tent and toothbrushes. Now we smile fondly at the thought of our kids and roll over to an immediate sleep, one that will last at least an hour if we are lucky.

Two years ago we would have slept until the sun baked us out of the tent, but our children have blessed us, we suppose, with the sight of many sunrises. Coffees firm in hand, we watch the girls make sandcastles and beckon them to the picnic table for breakfast.

Today we’ll visit the dunes for a few hours of risk-free exploration before hitting the road in search of a winery to sample a few bottles that don’t come with nipples.

After four days on the road our gang will return to the clubhouse, satisfied to have successfully expanded our ever-growing home turf.

Beth Rubenstein and Mike Payne cycled across Holland and Belgium with their daughter Zoe when she was seven months old.

This article first appeared in the Spring 2007 issue of Canoeroots Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Canoeroots’ print and digital editions here.

Grandcamping on the Rise

Stories

Photo: Ian Merringer — Grandcamping on the Rise

A third wheel—or generation—can really get in the way on a camping trip. That’s why a few wise companies have started organizing outdoor adventure and camping programs strictly for grandparents and grandchildren—parents have to find their own fun.

“It’s a unique learning experience,” says Despina Gakopoulos of Elderhostel, a non- profit group that organizes more than 400 inter-generational programs around the world. “Grandparents and grandchildren say they get to know more about each other when they spend time without the parents around.” She says the outdoor adventure trips are growing in popularity as outdoor activities like camping and rock climbing become more mainstream.

Myrna Boulding started running Elderhostel’s inter-generational programs in 1986 at Strathcona Park lodge on Vancouver Island. “The programs and activities are designed so the two generations learn

And experience new things together,” she says. “It’s a real bonding experience.”

Most of Elderhostel’s programs are run by a camp or resort like Strathcona, where the week-long program is really just summer camp with the grandparents. Groups of grandkids and grandparents learn to canoe, rock climb, hike and then camp overnight under the watchful eye of an instructor. It’s no torture test though. If grandparents don’t feel up for anything— including a night on a camp mattress—they can always opt out.

Boulding says both generations make new friends in the groups. “I don’t know which generation has more fun.”

This article first appeared in the Spring 2007 issue of Canoeroots Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Canoeroots’ print and digital editions here.

Family Camping: I Want to Ride My Bicycle

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Family

I can’t pick up a parenting book or magazine without ranting to my wife about the often useless, and I suspect completely made-up, quotes from pseudo parents the authors use to make their points. Take for example this one from The Mother of All Toddler Books, Sharon, a 29-year-old mother of one, says, “You have to believe in the discipline method you’re using in order to be able to properly enforce it.”

Thanks Sharon.

First of all who is Sharon (or Nicole, Loree or Kathlene) and what makes her more of an authority on nutrition or behaviour modification than any other parent? I don’t want to hear about their problems, I want advice from experts with ph.Ds or at least from parents with real experience (like 11 kids).

The other problem I have is that these authors are always telling me how to deal with problems, not how to prevent them. For example, if you want your toddlers to stop whining, your pre-schoolers to have an appetite and your teenagers to stay out of trouble, I say get them outside and allow them freedom to explore… I say get them on a bicycle.

ADVENTURE, TRAVEL, AND INDEPENDENCE ON A BIKE

Biking is such an important part of family camping. Riding bikes is something you can do around the campground or it can be the means of travel for a week-long camping vacation. Bikes offer adventure, travel, skidding, jumping and the fastest way to get fishing in the creek. Bikes for kids are independence and exercise, two things that have never been more important than in our modern Xbox world.

To support my argument, and in the spirit of mocking the advice found in mainstream parenting media, I present to you three experts who really do exist, whose advice I respect and whose desire to be outside and riding bikes with kids is truly inspiring.

Beth Rubenstein from Kingston, Ontario, a 32-year-old mother of two and family doctor, cycled with her husband and seven-month-old daughter Zoe from Amsterdam to Brussels, “We didn’t want to give up our active travel holidays just because we’d had a baby. It turns out the rhythms of travelling with a baby are well suited to a cycling vacation. When she slept we rode. When she was awake we rested and explored. And at night we camped. It was really that easy and not that different than our other cycling trips.”

Rick and Wendy Matthews, grandparents in their late 50s from Mount Hope, Ontario, remember back to their cycling trips with their kids in the early 1980s. “The bikes went with us on every camping trip. When Laura and Jason were 15 and 11 we flew overseas for a four-week trip through Yorkshire and Wales,” remembers Rick. “In the hostels they got to meet kids from around the world.” Twenty years later, three generations of Matthews go family camping together and on at least one four-day cycling trip every summer (photo above).

Doug Detwiller, an elementary school teacher living in Gibson, British Columbia, along with other cycling enthusiasts and parents developed Sprockids, a national program that introduces kids to cycling. Nine to twelve year-olds work their way through a fun program of riding skills, bike mechanics and safety and etiquette.

Funny, you’d think a program kids enjoy and is credited with building self-esteem, empathy for others and providing kids with a feeling of belonging would be mentioned in parenting books and magazines.

Maybe Sharon, the 29-year-old mother of one, doesn’t believe in riding bikes.

But I do.

This article first appeared in the Spring 2007 issue of Canoeroots Magazine. For more great content, subscribe to Canoeroots’ print and digital editions here.

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