If planning the next family vacation makes you sweat, settle in for a 3400km, three-month family canoe journey from Jasper, Alberta, to the Arctic Ocean at Tuktoyaktuk, NWT. The Clark family left their jobs, home and community behind for a 100-day northern adventure.
Have Kids, Will Paddle won the Best Canoeing Film award at the 2014 Paddling Film Festival. “We go on wilderness trips to escape our civilized world, to strengthen our family bonds, and to get grounded in nature,” explains a wild-blooded and gentle-mannered Clark.
“We appreciate the opportunity to live in the moment, enjoying a simple existence as a family.”
The film captures the essence of a family vacation, except the disappointments include the shock of a savaged landscape near the tar sands along the Athabasca River, and the discovery that 1500 river km of the trip had very little current. The lows are eclipsed by the highs of a 4 a.m. paddle on the mirror of Great Slave Lake, the kids asleep in their cockpit, and 100km river days on the Mackenzie.
