CANOE
PEOPLE of 2010
T h e Wi l d Wo m a n
Beth Mairs 52
W
NAIRN CENTRE, ONTARIO
YEARS CANOEING: 39
hen I ask Beth Mairs what she would say to a woman who is considering going on
a canoe trip, she responds in her typical witty style, “What’s your credit card number?” Mairs, the über-successful founder of Wild
Women Expeditions (WWE)—which really has the heart of a not-for-profit and is now in its twentieth year of operation—knows first hand how canoe trips can have a profound effect on people’s lives. In her late twenties, Mairs was suffer-
ing from severe burnout as a Toronto social worker. While on a canoe trip with a few close friends, an afternoon of free-fall thinking con- vinced her to make the leap. “Out there, I was more in touch with myself, the Earth, other people and my humour,” says Mairs, who opened WWE three years later. The concept of women’s-only was natural
for Mairs, who worked as a guide at an all- girls out-tripping camp in the mid-70s. Mairs stresses that “everyone’s contribution is im- portant” and it resonates through all WWE trips, which have expanded over the years to include sea kayaking, cycling, backpacking and fly-fishing. This summer, in celebration of Wild Wom-
en’s twentieth anniversary, Mairs and her partner Betty Ann McPherson will be filming
the documentary, Does This Canoe Make Me Look Fat?
“We wanted something that was playful
and a bit of a send up in terms of the assump- tion that all women are weight preoccupied,” says Mairs. In doing so, she hopes to broaden the narratives and voices of the adventure film
genre. —Stephanie Park
46
EARLY SUMMER 2010
New!
PHOTO: COURTESY OF WILD WOMEN EXPEDITIONS
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