Giving Back to Lake Superior: 3370 Field Explorations with L.U. Rec students 2011

Posted on September 15, 2011 by zkruz

So for the third time I made my way up to Thunder Bay to instruct for the 3370 3rd year field explorations course. It was another great group of 3rd/4th year students from the Outdoor Recreation Parks and Tourism (ORPT) program at Lakehead University. Having such an affinity for the north shore of Lake Superior, Thunder Bay and the ORPT program, this course is definitely one of my favourites.

It was funny how i was looking to rideshare as I always do up to Thunder Bay and my good friend Aaron ran into my parents at the Dundas Cactus Festival and mentioned how him and his partner Jess just got back from traveling in Norway and were planning on driving up separate as they were meeting Jess’s parents north of South River to use their VW van while they searched for a new place to live. I knew they were coming back but didn’t think it would fall in place so well. It worked out well for Aaron and Jess to pick me up in South River, drive to where her parents were and switch their stuff over so they could take their time in the VW bus up to Thunder Bay and I could get a head start in Aaron’s subaru.

This felt so good to drive solo along the lake. I made a stop to touch base with my co-istructor Bryana in Wawa who was worked with Naturally Superior Adventures. It was actually my first time at their site by the mouth of the Michipecoten River and it was a beautiful morning. I went out for a nice paddle around the bay and then continued on with the drive. I stayed at my friend Darrell Makin’s newly built cabin right on Lake Superior at Jackfish Bay (click here for link for pictures and stories about Darrell’s cabin at Jackfish). I went for a nice morning paddling there too out to Cape Victoria with Scot Kyle, one of Darrell’s only neighbors at Jackfish who happened to be out there when i was. It was so great to get out paddling on these beautiful mornings. It really helped clear my head and prepared me for a great trip. For those of you who don’t know Darrell, he is a super fantastic human being and is also the main co-ordinator for the field explorations course and is co-authoring the guidebook for Lake Superior with me.

The students this year chose to focus their group project on service learning by “giving back to the lake” as much as possible. We all took part and worked together doing as much as we could along our way. We built a new thunder box, cleared trail, fixed axes, rakes, made nice signs and whatever else needed to be done at a variety of sites along our route
Our trip started in pouring rain on the beaches of Terrace Bay (known more locally as Hydro Bay). For the most part we had really good weather which made for high group morale.

We hiked both mount Gwynne and Mount St Ignace as we paddled through Rossport Islands, Simpson Island, St Ignace Island, and Nipigon Bay. We finished our trip in nice sunshine playing intense games of “Bunny Bunny” at the mouth of the Jackpine River. (click any of the photos below for links to the whole album)

Bay of Fundy Discovery Course with Outward Bound Canada, Kennebecasis River, Grand Manan Island & the Fundy Footpath

Posted on July 29, 2011 by zkruz

From July 3rd to July 27th I flew out to New Brunswick to be a part of an amazing 17 day Outward Bound course. I was fortunate enough to have some family friends who lived in St. Martins and own and operate the Caves Family Restaurant who I sent a few days with before and after the course.

After spending a few days getting our gear and food organized the students arrived and we were off to the Kennebecasis River for the kayak training for a few days around Long Island. We then went off to Grand Manan Island for our expedition kayak section spending about 8 days in and around the outer coast of the island.

The second part of the expedition was hiking the Fundy Footpath from just outside St. Martins to the Fundy National Park over the last 6 days of the course.

Sea Kayaking Detroit River from Lake St. Clair to Lake Erie

Posted on June 28, 2011 by zkruz

June 24th-25th, 2011 I paddled the detroit river with my good friend Natalie and her dad Todd Lucier from Northern Edge Algonquin. It was a great trip celebrating Natalie’s graduation from film school as paddled through her home town of Windsor, Ontario. We kayaked about 72km along the Canadian shoreline of the Detroit River exploring Peche Island at the mouth of the River in Lake St. Clair, paddling under the Ambassador bridge connecting Windsor and Detroit and camping out at local paddler Don’s place near River Canard past Fighting Island. The next morning we continued out to explore the Boblo Island abandoned amusement park and out to Lake Erie to the Lucier’s family cottage just past Colchester, Ontario. Click the photo below for more photos from the trip.