I came across this neat commercial from Export Development Canada (EDC) featuring Nova Craft canoes. I thought I’d share because the shots were beautiful and the editing and message were great. Stay healthy out there.
Tag: guide
La Verendrye – Quebec (short film)
Summer solstice 2016, we set out to explore Quebec in La Verendrye Wilderness Reserve. I can’t believe it was 4 years ago. I have finally found some time to piece together all of these ancient clips into a video. Hope it provides some entertainment.
Boreal to Barrenlands “Crossing Labrador” – a video series
I came across this great canoe video series, following the journey of four young men, as they make their way across Newfoundland and Labrador. There appear to be 13 episodes in total. I thought I’ve been in some buggy areas before in my life, but it is a fraction of what these guys endured. Amazing journey. Enjoy!
“On July 12th, 2019, Noah Booth, Alex Traynor, Dave Greene and Chris Giard will embark on a 35-day canoe expedition where they will paddle, portage and track their canoes 700 kms from the Menihek Hydro Dam to the coastal village of Nain, Labrador’s northernmost permanent settlement. The route is designed to traverse Labrador in its entirety where they will travel through three major ecosystems, and cross two heights of lands.
The key objective of the expedition is to gain a cultural and environmental perspective of one of Canada’s last remaining wilderness frontiers and become the first modern day team to connect Labrador City to Nain in one trip. Throughout, the journey will be captured through film to produce a documentary that will be submitted to film festivals, as well as be promoted through their social media platforms and sponsors. In doing so, they will highlight and pay homage to the historic travellers such as the Naskapi and Montagnais Innu people who have used these lands for generations as ancestral hunting grounds as well as the European explorers such as A.P. Low, William Cabot and most recently Herb Pohl who have mapped these lands through extraordinary exploration.”
Lure of the North – short film by Goh Iromoto
In Ontario, when the lakes have frozen and the forests become silent, there are still plenty of outdoor endeavors to pursue. One such activity I’ve never had the chance to experience, is hot tent winter camping. I found this cool short film about a couple who embark on an expedition in the Ontario wilderness in the heart of winter. The company “Lure of the North” organizes such trips for those that are interested. A quick browse on their website shows pricing anywhere from $400 to $3200 dollars CAD.
I’ve been a big fan of Goh and his work. He is a cinematographer based out of Toronto, Ontario. His works revolve mostly around the natural world, and he has done much to help the canoe culture in Ontario. I particular like the way he captures certain sounds to immerse one in the environment. His shots and framing are always stunning to me.
“In the remote wilderness of Ontario, Canada, two travellers endure the repetitive mental hardship of cold winter tripping. This short film captures the experiences and emotions of their expedition. It’s tough. It’s tiring. It’s lonesome. Yet it’s a beautiful and meditative love affair as you persevere one snowshoe step at a time.”
Torres Del Paine National Park and Patagonia Camp
In March 2017, we took a trip to the southern most tip of South America to explore Chilean Patagonia. This was over 2 years ago, but I finally found some time to put together a video! It was filmed on my sony a6000 which I purchased in 2015, it amazes me how well this camera has held up over the years. It’s not 4K video, but the colors and image quality are still awesome in my opinion. It has been on a lot of trips in all types of weather conditions and survived. It is also a tiny camera so you can actually use it when the moment calls. Enjoy!
40 years later, a family revisits their epic canoe trip
I found this cool short video of a family’s canoe journey on the Inside Passage from Washington to Alaska. It was featured in National Geographic’s Showcase Spotlight. Pretty amazing trip! Would you ever go on a trip like this with family?
“In 1974, filmmaker Nate Dappen’s 20-year-old parents and uncle Andy built their own canoes to travel up the Inside Passage from Washington to Alaska. The voyage took them all the way to Ketchikan and became an epic journey that would later be retold to Nate and his brother. Determined to reinvigorate the legend, Nate convinced his father, uncle, and brother to embark on another trip. In the summer of 2017, the Dappens renovated those original canoes and continued their expedition on to Juneau.”
“Showcase spotlights exceptional short videos created by filmmakers from around the web and selected by National Geographic editors. We look for work that affirms National Geographic’s belief in the power of science, exploration, and storytelling to change the world. The filmmakers created the content presented, and the opinions expressed are their own, not those of National Geographic Partners.
Know of a great short film that should be part of our Showcase? Email sfs@natgeo.com to submit a video for consideration. See more from National Geographic’s Short Film Showcase at http://documentary.com Get More National Geographic: Official Site: http://bit.ly/NatGeoOfficialSite Facebook: http://bit.ly/FBNatGeo Twitter: http://bit.ly/NatGeoTwitter Instagram: http://bit.ly/NatGeoInsta “
Great Smoky Mountains National Park – Sevierville, Tennessee
I normally wouldn’t log this trip as an expedition, but with a 19 month with us, it sure felt that way. My friend was getting married in Nasheville and he suggested that I head out a week early to explore the Great Smoky Mountains National Park as well as the surrounding Gaitlinburg area before the wedding. Gaitlinburg is listed at 6 hours and 41 minutes from Richmond, and I have always been looking for an excuse to go to the smokies. We felt like the distance might have been quite a stretch for our 19 month old son, but he has always been quite a good lil traveler so we decided to brave the roads instead of the airplane. He had never travelled such a distance by car before and I had no idea how he would tolerate it. So we ended up allotting a 12 hour travel window for us with scheduled 2 hour breaks in between so he could run and stretch his legs.
Departure: 6:30am. The first leg of the trip went very well. We were able to get in 2.5 hours before our first stop in the town of Roanoake, Virginia. We stopped at Greenhill Park, and it was the absolute perfect pit stop. For a toddler, this park was like an oasis. It had it all, a playground, picnic tables, shaded areas, and even the roanoake river coursed through the park for fishing and cooling off. The bend of river that traveled through the park was very clear and shallow. It was perfect to wade and search for fish and crayfish. Our son loved this spot a little too much and as expected, it was a battle to get him back into the car…fortunately, the weather was merciful and by mid-day it was still surprisingly comfortable.
Soon enough we were on 81 south again, as the interstate rolled gently through the hills towards Tennessee. We covered a couple of hours before we stopped again in Bristol, VA/Tennesee for lunch. We finally finished the leg to our cabin at about 4:30pm (a total travel time of 10 hours) 2 hours ahead of schedule! We actually stayed just outside Gaitlinburg in a town called Sevierville, Tennessee (population 16,716). We were all excited to stretch our legs, jump on the bed a few times, and get outside and take in some of the beautiful views. It did not take us long to get settled into our new home for the next 5 days and 4 nights. Our son instantly fell in love with the place and of course the air hockey table. We all rested easily that night, in a cabin up in the clouds after a long day of travel – we were pretty worn out.
Gaitinburg
Black bear.
smoky mountains
The next morning, we woke up early to head into the national park. The drive was a short and easy 20 minutes into the park. Out of all 60 national parks in the United States, the Great Smoky Mountains is the most visited park with more than 11.6 million visitors in 2016. This is likely due to the fact that it is one of the few parks on the east coast and it is also free admission. I was surprised to see the level of commercialization of the surrounding area. The town of Gaitlinburg is essentially one big tourist trap, with everything from “Ripley’s Believe it or not” to go carting! I personally found this to be off-putting but many people seemed to love it. I guess I always imagined the national parks as one of the few special places on earth protected to bring us closer to the outdoors. They are meant to inspire future generations to learn about the environment and the importance of different ecosystems. Instead, in Gaitlinburg, there are endless shops and stores that sell meaningless t-shirts and merchandise… all of which will likely end up in a landfill within a couple of months. While, Gaitlinburg can be very entertaining for children, it feels out of place so close to a national park.
The park itself is very nice and actually very similar to Shenandoah National Park. We chose our hikes carefully…..something feasible with a 27lb 19 month old on your back. We arrived early in the park and were fortunate enough to get a parking spot at Laurel Falls. It was an easy one with only 314ft elevation gain over 2.4 miles. Our son particularly liked the Sugarlands visitor center where he finally got to meet a black bear (the goal of his trip). He even posed next to it for some pictures. He always seems to enjoy visitor centers at parks, whether they be state or national. They offer a quick run through of the key faun and flora in the park. We later head into Gaitlinburg to tour the town and find some dinner.
fog
on top of clingman’s dome
Now that we knew what we were up against, we wanted to rise early and get to Clingman’s Dome, the highest point in the park and in Tennessee. It is located in the heart of the park at an altitude of 6643 ft. Fortunately with a child, the parking lot brings you within one mile of the observation deck, where you make a steep ascent to be amongst the clouds. The temperature at this altitude was 52 degrees farenheit, a stark contrast from the 82 degree weather back at our cabin! Visibility fluctuates rapidly at this altitude as well, and we hunkered down in our CRV until the sun started to show. Interestingly, at this altitude, there was an information cabin and gift shop. We bought a sweater and a stuffed bear and hung around the parking lot until the sun came out. We caught our break when we caught a glimpse of Fontana Lake on the North Carolina side over a mile away. The climb up is steep with numerous benches along the way for visitors to take breaks. The landscape is pretty amazing with the distinct douglas fir trees that painted the horizon. The clouds moved fluidly over the mountains and created an ocean of moving shadows over the mountain range.
breakfast views
We would spend the next few days at the cabin, relaxing and taking in the surrounding views and listening to the sounds of the mountain range. We did occasional trips back out to Sevierville for supplies and food, but the pickings were slim. Of course, a trip to Tennessee would be incomplete without a visit to a local distillery for some bourbon. We picked up a couple of bottles from the King’s Family distillery as gifts for friends and family back home. All in all, our lil toddler loved the trip. The Great Smokies itself is a beautiful park. Perhaps one day, we might return to take on the most popular and strenuous hikes like Mt Leconte or Andrews bald, but I seriously doubt that we would be back in this area with so many more National Parks left to visit. I was surprised at how well he did in the car, and this gives me hope for future trips.
Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park
In May 2018, we took our 7 month old out west to see Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Park. I put together this video of our memorable time out west. Enjoy!
Save Solace – a petition to protect Temagami, Ontario
Please sign this petition to help the Friends of Temagami stop construction of the Turner Road into the Solace Wildlands, Temagami’s last remaining tract of roadless, virgin forest!
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry (MNRF) has given Vermilion Forest Management (VFM) license to build a 25 kilometre-long, kilometre-wide primary logging road straight through the heart of the Solace Wildlands.
The Turner Road will destroy a wild, undisturbed forest, erasing campsites and portages in use for thousands of years.
Please help us hold VFM and the MNRF to account and help protect the last intact wilderness in Temagami. Let’s tell VFM and the MNRF that the value of an intact forest is worth far more than its timber.
– The Solace Wildlands contains the last roadless forest tract in all of Temagami and the headwaters for the lakes within Solace Provincial Park and the Sturgeon River Provincial Park
– The Wildlands have never been logged, and likely contain rare old-growth forest
– The Turner Road would destroy intact forest, erase campsites and portages, and eliminate well-used link routes between provincial parks in Temagami
– The road would cross several portages and campsites and include a bridge right above Talking Falls, a remote, well-established campsite that canoeists spend days travelling to reach
– VFM has not included these campsites and portages as Areas of Concern (AOC) on their maps. There has been no ground-truthing of the proposed route and no environmental impact study
– VFM chose the Turner Road route after their application to build a bridge over Sturgeon River Provincial Park to access the Wildlands was denied three times
– VFM currently has no allocated cut blocks in the region and are building the Turner Road ahead of the 2020-2030 Forest Management Plan
– Forestry access roads already exist south of the Wildlands yet VFM wishes to clear-cut undisturbed forest right next to existing protected areas
– The MNRF’s Land Use Policy for this Enhanced Management Area emphasizes “park-based values with emphasis on ecological integrity” over resource extraction, yet the Turner Road has been approved and is already under construction
– The Ontario government and the MNRF continue to ignore calls for greater protection in the Temagami area, despite a federal commitment to protect 17% of terrestrial areas and inland waters by 2020
– Our roadless, intact forests need protection. The Solace Wildlands connects three provincial parks and a conservation reserve and provides undisturbed habitat for wildlife
– Solace Wildlands-area lakes are designated natural trout lakes. Only 1% of Ontario’s freshwater lakes contain lake trout, which represents 25% of all trout lakes worldwide
– Protecting the Solace Wildlands would connect and unify existing provincial parks, creating larger wildlife and recreational corridors and preserving intact canoe routes that have been in use for thousands of years by the Teme-Augama Anishnaabe
The environmental damage caused by building a road through the Solace Wildlands will be irreversible. Of the 16,000 square kilometre Temagami area, only 15% is currently protected by provincial parks and conservation reserves. Every year, logging and development creeps closer and closer to protected areas. Every year, portages, campsites, old-growth forests and cultural history are lost to logging.
VFM has plenty of options for resource extraction without cutting through the Solace Wildlands. These options would not impact wilderness and recreational values. VFM maintains that their license to manage this forest means building a road straight through it and cutting it all down. Friends of Temagami disagrees.
The Friends of Temagami encourage and support greater protection for the Solace Wildlands as part of a larger strategy to create a more unified network of existing conservation reserves and provincial parks within the Temagami area.
#SAVESOLACE
WAY NORTH 