Educational Workshops

Hugh P. MacMillan’s 1970 Nor’Wester Canoe Brigade: Retracing of a fur trade route from Thunder Bay to Winnipeg

This presentation, based on the lead article in the Spring edition of Nastawgan, will highlight some of the colourful characters who were part of the 1970 brigade, commemorating Manitoba’s centenary and the 300^th anniversary of the founding of the Hudson’s Bay Co., as they traced the fur trade route from Thunder Bay to Winnipeg dressed in voyageur garb and paddling five 26’ North canoes. Mark Stiles, the author and a participant on this remarkable journey, will elaborate on its historical significance and its frequent chaotic, yet in retrospect highly amusing, occurrences. Mark will leave ample time for questions. He encourages participation from anyone who was part of the 1970 brigade or who knew some of its eccentric figures, such as the renowned Hugh P. MacMillan and the notorious Shaman Chief Kitpou.

Bio note

Mark Stiles resides in Ottawa where he is mostly retired after 40 years of work in developing countries and with Indigenous organizations in Canada’s northern regions. Like many of us, he is a canoe head: a long-time member of the WCA, currently a member of the governance and nominating committee of the Canadian Canoe Museum, a former member of the Ontario’s canoe team in the 1971 B.C. Centennial celebrations, a privileged paddler on some of Canada’s most remote river systems, an active environmentalist and a good friend of the late Hugh P. MacMillan and Shaman Chief Kitpou.

Background;

Nastawgan 2022 Spring Issue

/sites/default/files/storage/Nastawgan/2022-1.pdf

Hugh P. MacMillan is the author of Adventures of a Paper Sleuth, Prenumbra Press, 2004, an account of his colourful life's work tracking down priceless documents related to the history of the fur trade and the province of Ontario. The book contains a brief account of Hugh's 1970 Canoe Brigade in chapter 2.

Shaman Chief Kitpou

Chief Kitpou Facebook

This WCA interactive zoom session will feature a joint presentation by John McDonnell (Executive Director, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, Ottawa Valley Chapter), and Wally Schaber (Head Volunteer, Friends of Rivière du Moine) giving an overview of the Three Rivers project led by CPAWS, to create a large environmentally protected area in the watersheds of the Dumoine, Coulonge, and Black rivers (adjacent to the Ottawa River in west-central Quebec), and the related creation of wildlife corridors linking protected areas across regions, as well as specific measures to support wilderness recreation on the Dumoine. Session participants will gain an appreciation of what's involved and what's at stake with respect to expanding the protection of wilderness areas.

Have you ever thought about winter camping? Not sure where to start? Do you have questions about gear and logistics? Then this is the course for you! We will discuss the basics of winter camping (hot tenting with a portable wood burning stove), gear requirements, tent set-up and such.

This one-hour educational workshop hosted online will answer all the questions you may have about beginning to winter camp.

The WCA executive has voted to start posting WCA in-person events for 2022.   

This is based on the assumption that Covid-19 cases are down and the government green lights in-person outdoor events for 2022.

This Zoom workshop will be divided into 2 parts.

Part 1 will just be a brief demostration on how any member of the WCA can log into the website and post an event. (10 minutes)

Part 2  will be a general public Zoom discussion about possible outings members want to post or have questions about.   We will try to connect the dots  between members that have done a certain trip and ones that are thinking about doing that trip.  (50 minutes)

If you are a guest please join us and see what our club has to offer.

Topic: Let's Talk About 2022 WCA Events

Topic: WCA Trip Planning Spreadsheet Workshop

This is a Zoom Workshop on how to access and use the WCA  Trip Planning Spreadsheet Workshop Template.

You can find the Template under CLUB ACTIVITIES > Organizer Resources.

The Trip Planning Spreadsheet is tailorable to your trip specifics.

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88581064679

Meeting ID: 885 8106 4679

A small group of fully vaccinated WCA members paddled the Larder River in early summer of 2021.

This Zoom presentation  will review this little traveled route.  Three days of water falls and Class 1-2 runnable whitewater and no one around.

Topic: Larder River Presentation

Time: Dec 14, 2021 07:00 PM Eastern Time (US and Canada)

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88080169764

Meeting ID: 880 8016 9764

Cooking in the Outdoors with Cliff Jacobson

Join Cliff for a WCA Zoom Presentation and Q&A session, where he will answer all your questions.

Cliff has been a WCA member since the early 1980's.

Please join us for this presentation.

The Mississagi River is a river in Algoma and Sudbury Districts, Ontario that originates in Sudbury District and flows 266 kilometres to Lake Huron at Blind River, Algoma District.

A group of WCA members paddled 143 km of the head waters of this river in the summer of 2021.

This trip was also written up in the Nastawgan 2021 Spring Journal.

This Zoom presentation  will include our stories, pictures and movies from our trip.

The Moisie River is a river in eastern Quebec. Known as the Nahanni of the East, it is a wild river of North America. It has been proposed to protect the river with the Moisie River Aquatic Reserve. 

The Moisie River basin lies between the basins of the Rapides River to the west and the Matamec River to the east. It covers an area of 19,273 square kilometres (7,441 sq mi).. The Moisie flows south from Lake Opocopa near the Labrador border to the north shore of the Saint Lawrence River east of Sept-Îles, Quebec. The town of Moisie is located at its mouth. The river is 410 kilometres (250 mi) in length. We started from a bridge of highway 389 over Pékans River (at 52°43′48.19″N 67°24′47.31″W ) is 373 km.

The Aux Pékans River (French: Rivière aux Pékans) is a river in the Côte-Nord region of Quebec, Canada. It is a tributary of the Moisie River.  We paddled 75 km of this river before we joined the Moisie River.

Join us for this presentation.

Are you heading out for your first canoe or camping trip and confused about what you really need to bring? Are you worried about how you are going to carry all that gear? Or, are you a seasoned veteran who is serious about lightening the load? Then this course is for you!

We will be exploring the basics of ultra-lightweight canoeing/camping techniques, where to start, how to be mindful with gear selection/purchasing and introduction to food dehydrating. Whether you are a seasoned veteran or just beginning your camping journeys, this course has something for everyone.