Canada by Canoe

Canada by Canoe Canada by Canoe is an 8,000+km, 200+ day, record breaking expedition raising money for northern communities via True North Aid. We depart in April 2026

09/03/2026

We are very excited to announce that we will be ending our trip in Vancouver instead of the previously planned destination of Prince Rupert. We have received so much love and support on our journey so far and we wanted the end of our trip to be something special we could share with everyone who has believed in us.

We arrived at this decision with the goal of making the conclusion of our trip more accessible, and with hopes of raising more awareness for True North Aid Our reroute maintains a total expedition distance of over 8000km, and upon completion will still be the longest ever recorded single season canoe trip. Thank you all for the continued support and encouragement and we hope to see you there!

Segment 12 was our longest and most remote of the entire trip. It was both incredibly challenging and spectacularly beau...
09/02/2026

Segment 12 was our longest and most remote of the entire trip. It was both incredibly challenging and spectacularly beautiful.

As we left Lynn Lake, we noticed that the landscape began to rapidly change. All the clay gave way to sand and eskers became commonplace. We fought hard, dragging our canoe up rapids and bushwhacking through large areas of burned forest. The weather was cold and windy. We used a series of wet, muskeg-covered snowmobile trails and a small, aggressive river to reach the eastern edge of Reindeer Lake.

Reindeer Lake is the 21st largest lake in the world. We were very fortunate to have favourable winds on our first day on the lake, which allowed us to cross to the relative safety of the western shore. Along the way, we came across Arctic Lodge, a remote fishing lodge in the middle of Reindeer Lake. Layne and his team were incredibly kind to us! They gave us a hot lunch and extra food to take on our way! They even arranged for extra food to be left for us at their sister location on Hatchet Lake.

The wind picked up on our final days on Reindeer, but we managed to fight our way through the waves to the Thyme Hill River. We knew little about the Thyme Hill, but we pressed onward, lining and dragging our boat up shallow, rocky rapids. As we approached the top of the watershed, the size of the waterway continued to steadily diminish until we were forced to drag non-stop through clear, ankle-deep water. We found a secluded hidden gem when we reached Hydichuk Lake. It was an incredibly peaceful, beach-lined oasis in an otherwise harsh and rocky area. Eventually, the water got so shallow that we were forced to portage along the dried up river bed, when all of a sudden, we found a clear snowmobile trail that acted as a shortcut to the height-of-land. We continued following snowmobile trails until we reached Wollaston Lake.

Wollaston Lake is the largest bifurcation lake in the world. That means it has two separate outflow rivers. We paddled late into the night, taking advantage of the lack of wind. After a couple days, we made it off beautiful, clear Wollaston and to the top of the Fond du Lac River...1/2 (see comment for part 2)

Our eleventh segment was one of our most challenging so far. We began by paddling over to the Burntwood River, near Thom...
08/21/2026

Our eleventh segment was one of our most challenging so far. We began by paddling over to the Burntwood River, near Thompson. From there, it would all be upstream travel for the rest of the segment.

The Burntwood River has an unnaturally strong current because most of the flow from the Churchill River has been diverted down it for hydroelectric projects further south. When we were paddling, we noticed that most of the banks had eroded down to steep mud slopes covered in fallen trees. All of the portages had been washed away, overgrown, or simply never existed to begin with, so we had to bushwhack or drag up every single set of rapids.

Thankfully, we got a brief rest at Wuskwatim Generating Station. The Manitoba Hydro workers there showed us an incredible level of hospitality! They fed us a nice dinner and gave us a warm place to stay for the night. We are extremely thankful for their generosity!

We eventually made it to the Rat River, a less chaotic tributary of the Burntwood. To save on time and distance, we did an 11 km bushwhack on an abandoned and he burned out winter road from Suwannee Lake to the Churchill River. Surprisingly, it only ended up taking a mere 6.5 hours.

From there, we paddled across Granville Lake and up the Keewatin River. The Keewatin also had very few actual few portages, so we ended up dragging and lining the canoe up almost all of the rapids, some of which went on for 3 km in a row. Finally, we reached the Lynn River, a tributary of the Keewatin, and of course almost the entire Lynn consisted of rapids that we had to drag up.

For almost the entire segment, we had clouds, cold temperatures, wind, upstream travel, and a fair bit of rain. We’re hoping the conditions improve soon.

08/20/2026

On day 131, as we were paddling the vast and secluded Reindeer Lake in North Saskatchewan, we were surprised to see a power boat suddenly round a corner.

The two gentlemen on board came over to us to ask us where we were coming from. Upon hearing about our journey, they invited us for lunch at their lodge.

When we paddled up to Arctic Lodge, we were greeted with a warm welcome from very friendly staff! We were fed a delicious lunch and given plenty of food to go.

We're incredibly lucky to have come across Arctic Lodges on Reindeer Lake, Saskatchewan! It was such a wonderful experience getting to meet everyone working there!

08/19/2026

We've reached Saskatchewan! Listen to the update from Reindeer Lake, on day 130!

We want to give a huge thank you to the Manitoba Hydro team at the Wuskwatim Generating Station. We showed up at their b...
08/12/2026

We want to give a huge thank you to the Manitoba Hydro team at the Wuskwatim Generating Station. We showed up at their boat launch on the evening of August 7th after an exhausting and freezing day up the Burntwood River, and they greeted us with truly incredible hospitality. It had rained heavily the past few days, so all of our clothes were thoroughly soaked and extremely dirty.

The station crew offered for us to stay with them at their camp, where we were able to shower and do laundry for the first time since we left Ontario. We gratefully accepted, and we were able to enjoy a lovely dinner with the team before departing the next morning.

This segment had been very challenging, with much more difficulty to come, and we cannot express our gratitude enough to the team for providing a much needed respite when we least expected it.

Our tenth segment was short, but brutal. Things started off smoothly as we departed Sea Rapids and set off down the East...
08/10/2026

Our tenth segment was short, but brutal. Things started off smoothly as we departed Sea Rapids and set off down the East Channel of the Nelson. This part of the river was full of spectacular open rock faces and countless little islands with a mild yet enjoyable current.

After Cross Lake the character of the river distinctly changed. The Main Channel merged with the East Channel and the water volume picked up considerably. Manitoba Hydro had built portages in the past for this stretch of the river; however, after years of neglect, they’ve all been reduced to brutal bushwhacks.

Easily the most notable feature of this stretch of the Nelson was White Mud Falls - an enormous, powerful beast of a rapid with a standing wave perhaps 10 metres high! The scale and strength of White Mud Falls was simply incomprehensible! Never have we seen water behaving in such a manner before. Even 1 km downstream, there were still standing waves large enough to effortlessly swamp a canoe.

At Sipiwesk Lake, we portaged off the Nelson on a surprisingly well-maintained snowmobile trail to Landing Lake where we fought a relentless headwind with gusts of over 50 km per hour. Eventually, we reached the small rail-side community of Thicket Portage where we witnessed very harsh living conditions and many abandoned buildings.

We then spent hours clearing a path on two abandoned winter roads to eventually reach Paint Lake. There, we were surprised to suddenly see cottagers, campers, and boaters going about their summers. We did a 7 km road portage to Upper Ospwagan Lake and did our food drop early, finishing off the segment.

Our ninth segment was our longest yet in terms of distance. We paddled across Red Lake and gradually all traces of civil...
08/02/2026

Our ninth segment was our longest yet in terms of distance. We paddled across Red Lake and gradually all traces of civilization faded as we headed west to Woodland Caribou Provincial Park. There, we made our way across open, rocky portages and stayed on spacious, pristine campsites. We soon reached the headwaters of the famous Bloodvein River.

We decided to re-route and travel all the way down the Bloodvein so we’d have fewer bushwhacks. On our 100th day, we crossed into Manitoba and entered Atikaki Provincial Park, where the Bloodvein picked up steam and rapids became commonplace. Most of the river in Manitoba was surrounded by surreal, scorched areas from wildfires in recent years. It felt otherworldly. We encountered far more paddlers on the Bloodvein than anywhere else up to this point.

We stopped at Bloodvein River First Nation, where we were shown hospitality and kindness. We were lucky to arrive just in time for an educational event marking the 150th anniversary of the signing of Treaty 5 and the tragic consequences experienced by Indigenous peoples around Lake Winnipeg.

We then headed north along the shore of Lake Winnipeg, the sixth largest lake in Canada. We were disappointed and horrified by the abysmal water quality and vast algae blooms covering the lake. We had to paddle up rivers along the shore to find drinkable water because our filter can’t stop algae toxins. The beaches and flat rocky islands were beautiful. We saw a surprising number of terns, gulls, and pelicans. We also had a close encounter with a greedy black bear munching on Saskatoon berries outside our tent, but he caused no problems.

We were relieved to reach the end of Lake Winnipeg and enjoy being able to see both shores as we reached the Nelson River and paddled through Norway House. The locals were extremely friendly, and the community has a rich fur trade history. We did our food drop at the first set of rapids on the Nelson, the picturesque Sea Falls. We finished the segment a day early, despite the extra distance. We averaged about 55 km on paddling days, our highest daily average of the trip.

07/26/2026

The most amazing moments about this trip go way beyond the landscapes, bushwhacks, portages, and paddles. It's about the people and communities we are honoured to encounter.

It seems we were just meant to visit the incredible community of Bloodvein. At the last food drop, we decided to take the Bloodvein river instead of bushwacking our original route. Our friends at True North Aid have had the honour of visiting Bloodvein and were thrilled to learn we'd get the chance as well.

Approaching the community, we found an eagle feather. We kept it and saw it as a sign that we could use this to give our thanks and honour the people we were going to meet.

We were given the coordinates for an island camping spot, right across from a community member's home. Truly one of the most spectacular places we've ever camped. After setting up, we received visitors from the community and were invited to their community event and feast the next day.

How fortunate we were, to be in Bloodvein on their 150 year treaty signing educational gathering. We learned so much about the original intent of the treaty, as well as outstanding issues and history of the community.

Some places and people stay in your heart forever. Bloodvein and its people, their generosity and care, will be something we never forget.

Photos and Video credit:

Address

Toronto, ON

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when Canada by Canoe posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Business

Send a message to Canada by Canoe:

Shortcuts

Share

Category