Taking Canada for Granted

By Bruce Lindsay

What beautiful weather we’ve been having. Have you been getting outside and enjoying it?

This week, on May 2nd I am leading a group of young Korean men into the bush for a canoe trip. You might think I’m crazy. When you know the whole story you will know I’m crazy.

Here’s the story.
Calvin is a young Korean guy, 22 years old, who has been living with our family as he attended Trent University for English as a Second Language (ESL). He finished school and was planning to take a trip to Cuba with 2 other Korean friends, then fly home and look for a job and start a career. He may propose to his girlfriend soon, he tells me.

Earlier this month, I mentioned that I'd have a few free days at the end of this week, and I’d like to take him on a canoe trip before he leaves. He wanted to go! In fact he was so excited he could hardly contain himself.

Later, I learned that Calvin cancelled his trip to Cuba to come along with me. He told Dana, my wife, all this over dinner one evening. His friends were very disappointed. Not disappointed that Calvin wasn’t going to Cuba with them, but that they were going to Cuba instead of on a canoe trip. Calvin said they were both wishing they had an opportunity like his.

I was blown away!

Not only was I shocked that Calvin would rather rough it in the bush with me than holiday in Cuba, but that 2 other guys felt the same way. I told him that if they wanted to go that badly, then he should invite them along. I don’t mind having extra people with us.

I’ve been thinking about this a lot over the past week. I’ve had to start making plans. What route should I take? I doubt these guys are strong swimmers or canoeists. I don’t know if they have any outdoor skills at all. It might be like taking three 7 year old kids – albeit kids who are strong enough to carry the packs and canoes through the portages. I need to be sure they don’t tip their canoe because the water will be very cold! People have warned me that there may still be ice on some of the lakes. It might be very cold at night. There might be tons of black-flies.

The ground might be too wet. The wood might be too wet.

There might be a fire-ban. There are many reasons to worry. Many reasons to think I’m crazy.

But I can’t wait!

I’ve checked (no fire-ban, no ice in the lake), nothing but cold water, possible rain and possible below seasonal temperatures. Who cares!

Let’s go!

How many people reading this have never gone on a canoe trip? How many have never experienced the beauty we have in Canada – for free! How many have instead, spent thousands of dollars to go to some beach somewhere south. The more I think about it the more I feel that these boys are doing the wise thing. There will always be beaches in hot places. But there might not always be places you can canoe into and not see another soul.

Camping near a waterfall; silently paddling near a loon or trying to catch up to a swiftly swimming otter; letting the river take you downstream, as you pass some deer, alertly watching you go; being woken up by birdsongs; being sung to sleep by the lullaby of owls, frogs, crickets and the nearby waterfall. This may be their only chance in their lives to experience these things. I’ve experienced them before, but I keep wanting more. These young men are in for a trip they will never forget. It will be difficult. It will be bracing. It may leave them feeling sore and tired. But it will be so very worth the effort.

Don’t take Canada for granted. Camping may not be your thing, I know. (My wife’s idea of roughing it is opening a window.) But I want to encourage you to step outside. Drive a little north. Stand near the water. If you dare to take a step further, step into a canoe. Paddle hard! Work until your arms are sore! See how fast you can go. Break a sweat! Sing out loud. And you will begin to feel the joy of les coureur-de-bois.

“What sets a canoeing expedition apart is that it purifies you more rapidly and inescapably than any other travel. Travel a thousand miles by train and you are a brute; pedal five hundred on a bicycle and you remain basically a bourgeois; paddle a hundred in a canoe and you are already a child of nature.” – Pierre Elliott Trudeau

For 24 years I was a light canoeman. I required but little sleep, but sometimes got less than I required. No portage was too long for me; all portages were alike. My end of the canoe never touched the ground 'til I saw the end of it. Fifty songs a day were nothing to me. I could carry, paddle, walk and sing with any man I ever saw... I pushed on - over rapids, over cascades, over chutes; all were the same to me. No water, no weather ever stopped the paddle or the song... There is no life so happy as a voyageur's life; none so independent; no place where a man enjoys so much variety and freedom as in the Indian country. Huzza, huzza pour le pays sauvage! - Anonymous coureur-de-bois quoted by a Hudson's Bay Co. historian.