Tumpline Who’s Counting?
JAY MORRISON is on schedule to paddle ACROSS CANADA in one year—or maybe two
FROM THE BEGINNING it was ambitious. Few paddlers can even conceive of pushing off for an 8,000-kilometre solo paddle. So what would motivate Jay Morrison, a former tri- athlete and retired civil servant from Otta- wa, to attempt to paddle across the country in a single season? “Conservation,” says Morrison. “When
I retired, I wanted to re-invent myself as a spokesperson for the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society and for wilderness con- servation. If you want your message to get across, you have to do something.” To prepare for his expedition, Morrison
spent a year training, reading and building a partially-decked custom canoe. He charted his route, which follows the northward curl of the boreal forest from the St. Lawrence to the Beaufort Sea in the Arctic Ocean. His goal was to reach Inuvik in the Northwest Territo- ries before the freeze-up in late September. Morrison set out from Les Escoumins, Que-
bec, in April. Over the first few months, he says the weather cooperated, his gear held up, he was on schedule and physically he felt good. “I wasn’t as challenged by the physical aspect as I thought I’d be,” says Morrison. “I just always felt really rushed.” A turning point came on Lake Superior in early June, when Morrison paddled 90 kilometres on a wet and windy day, determined not to slip behind schedule. Some- time after dark, he stumbled from his boat, set up camp and fell asleep without eating. Morrison remembers the startling beauty
he awoke to the next morning and credits it with an epiphany about the purpose of his trip and the drawbacks of his strict schedule. He wondered whether he was missing the point of his own journey by pushing to finish by September. “I realized I’d regret not taking the time to
see all there was to see and talk to everyone I could along the way,” says Morrison. He now plans on reaching Inuvik in 2007 and says a less rigid itinerary is better suited to his main goal of spending time in communities and reminding Canadians about their rich natural heritage. “People talk about health care being the
defining feature of our country. But lots of countries have good health care. No other countries have our wilderness.” It’s a message he hopes he’ll be better at con-
DESTINATION: INUVIK. PHOTO: RICK MATTHEWS
veying with a slower pace. “When I meet people I want to be able to say more than, ‘I paddled 80 kilometres today and I’m really tired.” Follow Jay Morrison’s progress and read his online journal at
www.cpaws.org. —Amy Flynn
CANOE ROOTS n 15
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