A lot of people don’t understand that their sleeping mat is just as important as their sleeping bag when it comes to keeping warm on a camping trip. I learned this the hard way during a 10 day spring trip into Quetico Provincial Park. For context, Quetico is in Northern Ontario, and we went in […]
The Tha-Anne River first started flowing through my imagination in August 2019. After 42 days of criss-crossing Saskatchewan, Manitoba and Nunavut, I was descending the very final rapids of the Thlewiaza River when I glanced over my left shoulder and saw another river – the Tha-anne – surging in from the North and merging with […]
Energy balls have been a staple of my expeditions for the last 7 years; relatively easy to make, calorie-dense, and still delicious even after a month of eating them 2 or 3 times a day. I came up with this recipe while preparing for a 50-day, 1,000-mile solo canoe trip in the Arctic that was […]
After years of refining the recipe I think it’s time to publicly share ‘Power Oatmeal’. This has been a mainstay of all my northern expeditions since 2019! On a recent trip to the Nahanni, we ate this on 10 out of 12 mornings and never got bored with it. And as soon as we got […]
On a longer canoe trip it’s not a question of whether your equipment is going to break but rather when it’s going to break. That’s why it’s not unusual to spend about an hour a day fixing packs, tents, clothing and gear after you’ve been travelling in the wilderness for a week or two. A lot of canoeists bring […]
Put three canoeists in a room to discuss footwear and you’ll get four different opinions. It’s a controversial topic, to be sure. My own opinions have been shaped by mistakes made while canoeing, wading and portaging during decades of doing longer expeditions in the remote North in Alaska, the Yukon, NWT, Nunavut, and northern Saskatchewan, […]
I think most people reading this will agree that being out in nature is usually deeply calming. There’s a Japanese term that describes this phenomenon called Shinrin-yoku, or “forest bathing”. This term was coined in the early 1980s by Japanese government official Tomohide Akiyama, who was trying to promote the value of forests to the Japanese […]
Spray decks are fitted covers made of waterproof cloth that stretch across the deck of your canoe to to prevent accidents and ensure safer and more enjoyable paddling. They are essential for difficult northern expeditions, especially if you’re going to be heading out onto large lakes or into rough or windy conditions. I’ve used a […]
Many years ago, I was out on a lake with my girlfriend in her parents’ motorboat. An Ontario Provincial Police patrol motored up and asked to see our required safety equipment, including PFDs, a heaving line, an anchor and a bailer. We had the first three items, but we didn’t have a bailer. Finally, my […]
CIRCUMNAVIGATE (cir·cum·nav·i·gate ˌsər-kəm-ˈna-və-ˌgāt)“To go completely around especially by water” The Canadian Shield is a land of undulating rock, endless lakes, a stark beauty that is difficult to find elsewhere. And one of the most fabled areas on the Shield is the East Arm of Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories. On Great Slave Lake the […]
