For Pierre Pépin and Jennifer Gosselin, their canoe has been more than a mode of transportation, a family home and their lifeline for the past 14 months; it has been a doorway to the infinite possibilities of human kindness.
The couple traded in their home and all their belongings in June of 2014 to begin a two-and-a-half year journey totaling an estimated 17,000 miles through Canada and the States.
The duo began in Ottawa, Canada, and paddled and portaged across the Great Lakes before veering south down the Mississippi River to the Florida Keys and starting the journey back.
PADDLING Magazine was able to reach the pair on the banks of the Rideau Canal as they waited for the lockmaster to open the floodgates beginning another full day of paddling.
And full days they are. At 55 strokes per minute for 55 minutes per hour, they estimate they paddle about one million strokes each every 50 days.
Neither traveler is a newcomer to adventure. Pépin has already crossed the Arctic on backcountry skis, biked across Canada, ascended over 21 peaks in South America and has motorcycled from Quebec to the Tierra del Fuego, Argentina. Gosselin herself has ascended Cotopaxi in Ecuador, one the highest active volcanoes in the world, and together in 2012, they completed a 1,300-mile canoe expedition following a voyageur route from Grand Portage, Minnesota, to Repentigny, Quebec.
“It changed us,” says Gosselin. She says when they returned from the voyageur route to their jobs and home in Quebec City and the rat race of working 80-hour workweeks just felt wrong.
So they sold their home, including everything from the living room couch to the kitchen toaster in order to hoof it, relying on the generosity and kindness of strangers.
“We’ve been so blessed to meet so many good people,” says Pépin. “We’ve stayed in backyards, houses big and small, someone’s garage, mansions, cottages, on tiny boats, and yachts. People open their doors to us all the time.”
And with that, Pépin says people have a habit of opening their hearts. He says people tell stories even their friends and family don’t know because soon the couple will be gone in the canoe paddling away with a little piece of their story.
Along for the ride is their Karelian Bear dog, Jasmine. Gosselin says Jasmine has become so used to life in the canoe she is unmoved by high waves, choppy water or even wildlife.
Throughout their travels the couple has seen everything from sharks to wild boars, cougars and eagles. “You name it, we’ve seen it,” says Pépin.
They say they’ll work through the winter before taking off in early spring for an even larger loop out west across Canada before returning once again in fall of 2017.
Gosselin says they hope to write a book about their adventures across North America by canoe but in the meantime, you can follow the couple’s regular blog posts on their website www.wildravenadventure.com.
This article first appeared in the October 2015 issue of PADDLING Magazine. For more great content, click here and get the this issue on your desktop or device.
