Sharing the Wilderness Experience
The Wilderness Canoe Association is a non-profit organization of individuals interested in wilderness travel, mainly by canoe, kayak, and backpacking and, in winter, by skis and snowshoes.
| At the heart of the Wilderness Canoe Association is an active program of club outings that take place all year. Diverse in nature, outings are organised on a volunteer basis by fellow members and range from day to weekend and occasionally extended (week-long or more) canoe and camping trips. | Participants provide their own equipment, food and transportation. On these trips, inexperienced members have the opportunity to informally learn the basic skills of wilderness travel and canoe camping and to establish the contacts that may lead to organising their own wilderness trips. |
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A Brief History The WCA was founded in 1973 by a diverse group of paddlers drawn together by their common love of canoeing and the Canadian wilderness. Membership numbers have increased to more than 700, based primarily in southern Ontario but including a sizeable number of kindred spirits in other regions and from outside the country. As the WCA grew, it also expanded its field of interest. Many members are not only canoeists and kayakers but also four-season wilderness travellers using hiking boots, snowshoes, or cross-country skis to explore our wild places. In keeping with the ancient discovery of the canoe as the ideal craft for self-propelled travel on the open waters of the rugged Canadian Shield, wilderness canoeing is the primary focus of the WCA. |
Objectives
The stated objectives of the Wilderness Canoe Association are as follows:
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- To promote and advance the interests of wilderness canoeists
- To aid in educating the public to an awareness of, and a concern for, the natural forces and the delicate balance inherent in the wilderness environment
- To provide a flow of information pertaining to canoeing and wilderness matters to members of the Association and the public
- To encourage closer communication among canoeists and related organisations
- To further explore new canoe routes, and to ensure and preserve the right of way on those routes now established, while stressing the careful and considerate use of all such routes
- To encourage individual responsibility in canoeing by providing a programme of practical canoe experience
Wilderness Canoeing --a lonely canoe silently breaking the calm, misty water surface at dawn, the smell of wood smoke at the end of the day, the sunset silhouetting a solitary pine, the haunting call of a loon echoing from the rocky shores of a northern lake, the excitement of guiding a canoe through the roaring rapids of a wild river....
The joy of sharing wilderness experiences such as these is the essence of the Wilderness Canoe Association.