Across the Tundra … the Hard Way
27 Aug
With the summer winding down — especially in the far north — it’s the time of year when even the hardiest canoe-trippers are coming off the trail and sharing their stories of adventure.
A hardy expedition that caught our attention was one made this summer by the five women known collectively as the Borealis Paddling Expedition. The group — Meg Casey, Nina Emery, Beth Halley, Emily Stirr, and Karen Stanley who joined the others en route — spent two months canoeing from Fort Rae on the North Arm of Great Slave Lake to Kugluktuk on Coronation Gulf of the Arctic Ocean, following the Emile, Parent, Coppermine, Kendall, and Rae Rivers. Their route was long on both paddling and cross-drainage portaging.
In 2005 the same party paddled north from Wollaston Lake via the Dubawnt, Thelon, and Back Rivers to Chantrey Inlet on the Arctic Ocean.
You can enjoy some of what the Borealis Paddling Expedition experienced this summer via the group’s trip blog, HERE. You can experience the 2005 trip HERE.
The trips were made, in part, to encourage donations to the YMCA Camp Manito-wish endowment, the northern Wisconsin camp where the members of the Borealis Paddling Expedition first learned their tripping skills.
