Crossing Canada from the Pacific Ocean to the Hudson Bay under your own power would be a gruel no matter how you slice it, never mind trying it in a canoe. But that’s what Pete Marshall, Winchell Delano and Steve Keaveny are planning with their Trans-Territorial Canoe Expedition from May through to September 2012. PL checks in to see how their planning is going…
Covering nearly 2,600 miles, the expedition hopes to help raise awareness of the fact that “there is a lot of vast land left in Canada to appreciate and use as our playground,” says Marshall. “It’s important to protect and use these areas to keep them from industrial development.”
The team of explorers plan to carry everything with them, stopping at five different resupply points along the way. The group will be alone for about 20 days in between each point. Final supplies on the Great Slave Lake will give them the last boost for the final 45 days to the finish in Hudson Bay, hopefully before its notorious winter storms start to blow.
One of Marshall’s main concerns about the trip is the race against winter, beating the ice to their destination before the water freezes over. Another concern is paddling up the rivers, which will result in many long days.
The expedition will include traversing such famous bodies of water as a descent of the Yukon River, paddling up the Mackenzie, and crossing Great Slave Lake. Once in the icy tundra of the North, the boys will paddle through the traditional hunting grounds of the Caribou Inuit onto Hudson Bay where they will reach their end after approximately 135 days later.
“We’re pretty excited about it and psyched to get underway,” says Marshall, who plans to blog his mission on Paddling Life.
–Errik Hill