In
May's posting of “Talking Waters” (2011), I wrote comments
about
Pierre Trudeau's ... Nature-Love of his canoe:
What
sets a canoeing expedition apart,
is
that it purifies you more rapidly
and
inescapably than any other travel.
Travel 1000 miles
by train and you are a brute.
Pedal 500 miles on a bicycle and you remain
basically a bourgeious.
Paddle 100 miles in a
canoe and you are already a child of Nature!
When my son was young, he spent a couple summers taking
“Learn to Canoe”
Classes through the Recreation
Department...held at our city's waterfront facility.
In later years, he developed a greater
passion for golf and skiing.
Today, the opportunities for paddling are
innumerable: canoes and kayaks,
Sculls
and dragon boats...which take centre-stage in many summer time
water events in our vicinity. High Schools
have rowing teams and competitions
to
improve their skills. St. Catharines
has a major water facility that attracts
not only local and provincial level rowers,
but also those of world-class distinction.
The “Summer Olympics” in London, England
this year is a prime example of the
great interest in these sporting
challenges. From Southern
Ontario, we have
competitors in various disciplines of
paddling and rowing.
Wilderness
Awaits
Wilderness lands of Minnesota
and Ontario ~ like the Superior National Forest,
Quetico Park, Wabakimi, Killarney
and Algonquin National Parks ~ were formed
years
and years ago. They waited ... as
continents drifted, as glaciers
advanced and retreated, as the Canadian Shield was created, as early people
hunted and left their crypted paintings on
billion-year-old-rocks.
These primitive and challenging lands now
wait for those who would travel by
canoe. (From “canoestories.com” you
can read about people who paddled
and portaged through wilderness areas ~ places of discovery
and adventure
~ places of
challenging white water.
The awaited end
result? Pure Enjoyment and Exhilaration!
In Today's World...there are adventurers
who, so engrossed in the pioneer days
when fur traders travelled the Canadian
rivers by canoe, now challenge
themselves in the re-enactment of those long arduous treks...as tests
of their willpower and strength.
Centennial
Voyageur Canoe Pageant (broadcast May 14, 1967)
Ten canoes plus 100 men racing over 3300
miles in 104 days equals one big
Centennial project. It's Canada's 100th Birthday
this year and this pageant is
just one way people are celebrating the
country's past and looking to its future.
The CBC's Bill Guest hosts the network's
live radio coverage of the pageant's
launch on the North Saskatchewan River at Rocky Mountain
House, Alberta
to Montreal,
Quebec ... site of Canada's EXPO 67!
The competition, representing 8
provinces and 2 territories,, is tracing a route
Through rushing rivers, along windswept
lakes and across gruelling portages.
It's a way of paying homage to the fur-trading-voyageurs and
explorers who
opened up the country. Spectators in the
hundreds, have turned out to watch
the official start on a rainy day.
The Manitoba team won the
race after a gruelling effort.
Of Interest:
One of Manitoba's team members, Don Starkell had a
difficult
childhood, an abusive father, spent 4 1/2
years in an orphanage and later
with
a foster family who introduced him (in his teens) to the Kildonan Canoe
Club.
When he was 17, he was named, “Most
Outstanding Novice”. He competed
professionally as a canoeist winning 10 out of
12 races that he entered in 1967.
Further Interest: A few years ago,
an old yellowish-paged book came into my
hands about
a Winnipeg
resident, at age 50, who with his 2 sons, in 1980,
set
out upon an epic canoe journey to the
mouth of the Amazon River ~
Belem, Brazil. The novel told of his many
“trials and tribulations” along the route
...many difficulties encountered and
peoples he met. Eventually, he and one
son accomplished their feat. The book
was excellent!
I loaned it to a local bridge friend...and
after a few months, asked her about it,
wanting its return. Unfortunately, she
moved out of town...the book never
seen
again...LOST!
Now, in my research today, I discovered
that it was Don Starkell, who set out
on this intended mission with his 2
sons...and approximately two years later,
succeeded.
AMAZING! This, previously, I had
not realized!
Paddle
to the Amazon
On June 1, 1980, Don Starkell and his two
sons, Dana and Jeff set out on this
epic journey never before attempted. They followed the Red
River out of
Winnipeg to its headwaters south of Fargo, South Dakota. From there they
portaged to the Minnesota River, then
entered the Mississippi River,
travelling to the Intracoastal Waterway at La
Rosa in Louisiana.
They followed the waterway south around the
Gulf of Mexico to Veracruz,
where in November, they wintered for three
months...repairing their canoe,
resting
and restocking of food and water.
(Jeff abandoned the adventure
and returned home.)
Don and Dana paddled along the coasts of Mexico and
Central America to
South America. On October 14, 1981 they made land at Port of Spain, Trinidad
...recuperating
there for 6 weeks.
On New Year's Day, 1982 they set off and
three days later, crossed the
Columbus Channel to Venezuela.
Over 2 months, they travelled the Orinoco
River
(where a long distance upriver is Angel Falls,
on a tributary to the Orinoco)
then into the Rio Negro, and joining the
Amazon River at Manaus, Brazil.
Here the river flowed downstream to the
mouth of the Amazon at Belam,
Brazil
on the Atlantic coast. The date was May 2,
1982.
In
1986, the names of Don Starkell and Dana Starkell,
were
entered into the Guinness Book of World Records
for
having completed the longest canoe journey ever...
a
distance of 12,161 miles.
A
newscast, January 30, 2012:
Don Starkell passed away at age 79.
Across
Canada
by Water
“Team
Trans CanEAUda” Completes a 4300 Mile Epic
It was snowing, the temperature well
below freezing and the Arctic waterways
Turning
to ice when 6 friends finished a
cross-Canada canoe journey on
October 14, 2011 in Inavik, North West Territory on the Mackenzie
River.
They were 6 college or university students
(ranging in age from 22 to 24 and
Yebo, a husky-lab mutt) who started
their expedition nearly 6 months earlier
in Ottawa
and paddled over 4300 miles across 4 provinces and 1 territory.
In the end they were spurred on to reach
their final destination by the quick
onset of winter.
“The cold is a great motivator,” stated one
student.
Team CanEAUda spent over a year planning
this summer-long odyssey
across Canada in name of watershed and
wilderness preservation and in
support of the nongovernmental environmental
organization, Canada Parks
and Wilderness Society and Ottawa
Riverkeeper.
With 6 weeks to go, the team pored over
maps and realized they must push
their already planned 8 to 9 hour paddling days by a few additional hours.
They pushed aside the hardships of
bone-chilling cold temperatures, waning
daylight hours and 4 cumulative months of
exhaustion.
They woke at 5 am and often didn't pull off
the water until 7 pm, well after
the fall of darkness. With the assistance of the Mackenzie's steady
current,
they put in regular 55 to 70-mile-days.
“We are all happy. The novelty of paddling in the snow was
fascinating
after 4 or 5 months of spruce trees. But all spent the last 2 weeks yearning
for
a warm fireplace. No one really regretted
getting off the water
on
October 14, 2011,” quoted another student.
.........................................
Readers
~ You may feel as I did when assembling this material...
Overwhelmed?
And with many questions?
What
inner spirit drives these adventurers to such extremes?
Is it their deep
passion for canoeing?
Is it the strong
desire to explore and to map uncharted rivers
and lakes?
Is it the challenge
of team-work to accomplish the above?
Is it like Mt. Everest? It's there to do! It’s there to achieve!
These
Canoe Quotes by Authors may appease your thoughts:
What
the camel is to desert tribes, what the horse is to the Arab,
what
the ship is to the colonizing Briton,
what
all modern means of locomotion are to the civilized world today,
that
and more than that,
the
canoe was to the Indian who lived beside
the
innumerable waterways of Canada!
(William
Wood)
Take
everything as it comes;
the
wave passes; deal with the next one.
(Tom
Thomson)
Anyone
who says they like portaging
is
either a liar or crazy.
(Bill
Mason)
Everyone
must believe in something.
I
believe I'll go canoeing.
(Henry
David Thoreau)
A
true Canadian is one who can
make
love in a canoe without it tipping.
(Pierre
Trudeau)
Anyone
can make love in a canoe;
it's
a Canadian who knows enough
to
take out the centre thwart!
(Philip
Chester)
...........................
“Pearl of Wisdom”
SUCCESS: In order to Succeed
We
must first Believe
that
We Can!
(Michael
Korda)
Merle
Baird-Kerr . . . written January 23, 2012
Comments
Welcome ... scroll down (may enter as “anonymous”)
or
e-mail ... inezkate@gmail.com
No comments:
Post a Comment