Canoeing across Canada


Anita, safe on dry land again.
Anita, safe on dry land again.

Anita is a delicate, waif-like girl with beautiful blue eyes, and possessed of the ability to soothe weary canoes. Beneath the fragile exterior, however, there must lurk muscles of steel, for she has just completed a 2,000 mile trip across Canada that involved paddling, towing, lining, portaging and all sorts of other energetic things for 84 days!

Seduced by an uncle and aunt who are clearly insane and granted reluctant permission by her parents on the promise that there would be "no rapids", she set out with seven others (including the aforesaid uncle and aunt) to retrace one of the classic routes of the old fur traders. The first day of the journey involved floating down a river through awe-inspiring sceneery - after that things went downhill, partly by going uphill.

The expedition sets off.
The expedition sets off. The bare legs show
that the mosquitoes still lay ahead!

After several days on the first river they turned into another where they were faced with 50 miles against a current so swift that they could not paddle and had to wade through chest-deep water towing heavily laden canoes. That was followed by a 5-mile portage into a river choked with 10' high beaver dams - and after that came the rapids Anita's parents had been promised didn't exist.

Our first tilm is Anita talking about the experience - see her fragile beauty for yourself - and then we have some footage of the rapids and the nifty little railway that helped them avoid one particular stretch of white water.

I'm very grateful to Anita for allowing me to use this material. There is a URL for further information at the end of the first film.