peanut butter and jam on tortillas for lunch, and some facsimile of freeze-dried noodles and gravy for dinner. Energy bar breaks during mid-morning and mid-after- noon rounded out our Spartan diet. We sent our food ahead to towns along the route by
mail before we left. Call ahead and talk to the person in charge of each respective post office so they’ll hold it beyond the usual 30 days before returning it to sender. Often you’ll be able to find a $5.95 buffet in the town where you pick up your cache. Go on in, then amaze, confound, and finally bring the poor proprietor to tears as you pro- ceed to eat every last bit of food on the buffet table.
Getting half a year off to go on a canoe trip Don’t let a job get in the way of a dream. Ask your
superiors nicely. If they refuse, quit. There are thousands of jobs out there but there is only one trip of a lifetime. Let the canoe become your office and the tent your home. “Back in the days when I canoed across the country…” is going to sound better to your grandchildren than, “Back in the days when I processed insurance claims….”
Gearing up A180-day trip requires the same gear as a weekend
trip to Algonquin. All you essentially need is a canoe, tent, stove, pot set, paddles and basic clothing. Ah yes, one more thing: When we got to the Rockies we faced a
400-kilometre portage over the divide between the North Saskatchewan and the Fraser. Get some mid-wheels for that section. We slugged through in seven mind-numbing days, pulling our canoe and gear along the Yellowhead Highway. I shudder to think of toting our load the same distance on our backs.
Attitude If on day 10 you’re hoping for day 180, the trip is as
good as over. On long trips, the best mental approach is to savour every day, one paddle-stroke at a time. You can never look ahead. Living in the moment is the way to go. Remind yourself that you will never pass this way again. On a point-to-point canoe trip, every dip of the blade brings you in contact with different sights and sounds that are gone a moment later. When it’s pissing rain, you’re paddling upstream on
the Saskatchewan River, the bugs are hammering you, and you miss your family and friends, think to yourself, “Where in the world would I rather be?” Inevitably, your answer will be “Nowhere. Nowhere but here, on a canoe trip across Canada.”
In 2003, Frank Wolf bicycled 2,200 kilometres across the Yukon/Alaska back- country in winter. His film of that trip aired on CTV. Between adventures, Frank works as a retail minion at Mountain Equipment Co-op in Vancouver.
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