Organizers of the Canadian Voyageur Brigade Society’s Canada 150 canoe journey say the weather could have been better, but the event was a success nonetheless.
Ninety paddlers in nine canoes left Egmont June 14, arriving in West Vancouver on Sunday, June 18, with overnight stops in Sechelt and Gibsons. About 20 of the paddlers were locals, the rest came from the Lower Mainland, Fraser Valley, Okanagan, Alberta and Yukon.
“When you’re in a canoe, you’re going to get wet. [We were in] good spirits, we were singing songs,” said Russ Greaves of the Gibsons Paddle Club, who acted as media liaison for the event, which is one of several journeys the Voyageur Brigade Society is involved in across the country.
The paddlers did make one concession to the weather. Greaves said for the Sechelt-to-Gibsons and Gibsons-to-Ambleside legs of the trip, they used just eight canoes. “It was a better call to have more paddles in the water, because the water did get rough,” he explained.
Even with the change in strategy, the canoes had to take an unscheduled break in Wilson Creek to avoid getting exhausted fighting waves, tide and windy conditions, and a couple of paddlers couldn’t finish. RCM SAR volunteers were on hand throughout the journey to escort the canoes and lend a hand if needed. “I can’t thank those guys enough. We always had that confidence that they were there and we could call on them,” Greaves said.
As well as the pure adventure of an ocean canoe trip, which was a new experience for some of the paddlers, they were also looking to make connections with area First Nations and learn about their culture.
Shíshálh and Squamish Nation representatives met the canoes with traditional welcomes and the paddlers got to experience a celebration in the shíshálh longhouse.
“We’ve been using this as a process to talk about First Nations in this part of the world and how we have a conversation moving forward,” said Greaves.
Some of the local paddlers will also be taking part in the other Voyageur Brigade journeys across Canada, including one that will head up the Rideau Canal in Eastern Ontario and arrive in Ottawa for July 1.
