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CAN YOU FLY IN? WELL, IT DEPENDS


As paddling season gets underway in re- mote destinations, would-be trippers look- ing to access roadless routes may find them- selves lost amid conflicting information on floatplane logistics. For many popular bush plane models like


Cessnas, Beavers and single engine Otters, strapping a canoe onto the floats is the only transport option. However, regulations ap- plicable to flying with external loads are of- ten ambiguous. According to Transport Canada spokes-


person Melanie Quesnel, “Flying a canoe ex- ternally is prohibited without a permit.” In the lower 48, the Federal Aviation Adminis- tration also requires special certification to transport canoes on floats. Permits are issued to operators on an in-


dividual basis so different carriers may or may not be allowed to transport canoes de- spite using the same type of plane. “In the 1970s, the FAA’s Alaskan division


developed guidance for carrying external loads…[that] requires the aircraft be moved into the restricted category,” says FAA Pub- lic Affairs representative Elizabeth Isham Cory. In Alaska, restricted aircraft can only carry


crewmembers—no [ DISCOVERY ] Migration Sensation DISCOVERY: FIRST NEW WORLDERS ARRIVED BY CANOE


In 2008, scientists made a rather exciting discovery at a cave in Paisley, Oregon—an- cient human turds buried in 14,000-year- old rock strata. Science has long assumed the first people


to inhabit the Americas—the Clovis peo- ple—walked across Berengia, a land bridge over the Bering Strait, from Siberia and southward through the Rockies 11,000– 12,000 years ago. Te Paisley discovery rocked the scientific


world. Says archaeologist David Meltzer, “Te pre-Clovis genie is out of the bottle, and there’s no way of stuffing it back in.” People before Clovis? Since the Ice Age


was still in full swing, the high mountain passage that the Clovis are believed to have used would have been buried in ice. Tese earlier settlers must have traveled by sea, and like the hunter-gatherers they were, fol- lowed marine animals living on rich coastal


kelp forests. Enter the first paddlers in the New World. Teir route took them along the shore


of Berengia, down the coast of Alaska and along the outside of the Queen Charlotte Islands, finally arriving at ice-free Oregon some 2,000 kilometers later. Anthropologist Dr. Niobe Tompson


speculates in his recent documentary, Te Code Breakers (CBC, Te Nature of Tings, January 2010) that these ancient mariners likely built umiaks—wide, open boats up to 40 feet long, powered by single blade pad- dles or oars and fashioned from walrus skin, driftwood and bone. To envision these vessels, you need look


no further than Arctic photo archives or the work of replica builders like Washington state’s Skin Boat School. Says Tompson, “We can only assume that what works in recent times—the structure of the modern


PHOTO: COURTESY SKINBOATS.ORG/ALASKA ARCHIVES


Alaskan and Chukotkan umiak—is similar in function and appearance.” Unfortunately, the sea long ago reclaimed


the coastline these ancient boats traveled, which means scientists may never find hard evidence of their passage. Nevertheless, Tompson says, “Pieces of the puzzle…give us a sense that sea travel was the only way humans could have reached North Amer- ica…before the Ice Age ended.” —Kit Cross For information on skin boat design, visit


www.skinboats.org. Watch Te Code Break- ers at www.cbc.ca/documentaries/natureofth- ings/2011/codebreakers.


www.canoerootsmag.com 19 passengers— while transporting external loads. Te spirit behind regulation is sensible—


policy-makers, pilots and passengers don’t want to see mishaps. Te Transportation Safety Board of Canada reports nine acci- dents involving externally loaded canoes. Whether the boats were directly to blame for the incidents is unclear. Because of the nature of small scale oper-


ations, “meaningful regulation and enforce- ment are a long way off,” says Al Pace, own- er/operator of Canoe North Adventures, an award winning outfitter based out of the Yu- kon and Northwest Territories that relies on floatplanes for 80 percent of its trips.


“Larger carriers come under much great-


er scrutiny than your average Ma and Pa charter operation,” Pace continues. He also notes the divide between the rule-makers and what’s going on at remote floatplane bases. “Tere’s no question that operators de-


termine their own techniques,” Pace says, alluding to the bush pilots who opened up the North long before regulations were ever considered. “If [authorities] really want to develop solid policy, they should leave their desks and join us on some trips up here.” —Michael Mechan


A Cessna 206 ready for you on the Nahanni. PHOTO: IAN SCRIVER


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