Educational Workshops

Wilderness Survival and First Aid Course This 2-day course on wilderness survival and remote wilderness injury management will provide participants with the knowledge and skills to access risk and manage stressful situations effectively. We will be reviewing the basics of outdoor skills & preparation before segueing into frameworks of wilderness survival & crisis response behavior in remote wilderness settings. Our instructor, Peter Desmet, has decades of experience in wilderness exploration and survival skills education. This course is designed for people traversing into the wilderness, whether on foot or watercraft. Saturday is a full day of theory held indoors at the Minden Community Centre. Sunday is the hands-on portion held at Queen Elizabeth II Wildlands Provincial Park in Minden Ontario.

For generations, The Lower Madawaska River has been a learning ground for paddlers to hone their moving water skills or experience a whitewater river trip for the first time. Since 1997 Paddler Co-op has been building a stronger paddling community by training and bringing together paddlers of all ages and abilities at Palmer Rapids as a not-for-profit cooperative. Paddler Co-op is spearheading a fundraiser to purchase its rental property to secure a river access point for paddlers and recreationalists for future generations. Learn about the vision of the first public access point for paddlers at Palmer Rapids and why this project is actually centered around the youngest paddlers we (don't yet) know.   

Ryan O'Connor is the executive director at Paddler Co-op and a passionate paddler and explorer. Since his first river trip on the Coulonge with his family as a young child, his love for whitewater and adventure in the outdoors has led him to pursue a career in the outdoor industry as a whitewater canoe and kayak instructor and wilderness guide. Ryan's journey has brought him to rivers all over Canada, the US, Mexico and Uganda in both canoe and kayak, and he now calls the Madawaska Valley home. Ryan holds certification as an advanced moving water canoe and kayak instructor and instructor trainer, a river rescue instructor, and head instructor at Paddler Co-op. He recently competed in the 2023 Freestyle Kayak nationals and won silver in the 2019 Open Canoe Whitewater Slalom North American Championships. 

Donation link

https://sweet-home-paddler-co-op.raisely.com/

Join via Zoom on Thursday April 4, 24 at 7 pm

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83564789615

 Meeting ID: 835 6478 9615

The Annual General Meeting (AGM) will take place by Zoom this year.

Agenda:

1. Welcome by the Chairman
2. Approval of 2023 AGM minutes wca_agm_-_20220315_final.pdf (wildernesscanoe.ca)
3. Committee Reports:
   • Membership
   • Treasurer 
   • Nastawgan
   • Outings
   • Communications
   • Conservation 
   • Website 
   • Election of Directors, Volunteers welcome
4. Other Business  

If you are interested in joining the board or sitting on a committee we can always use your help.   Send us an email at  chair@wildernesscanoe.ca

2024 Openings; Membership and Treasurer

/sites/default/files/storage/Nastawgan/2023-4.pdf

Dawne and David Robinson have been with the WCA since 1999.  Bio to come.

Join Zoom Presentation on Wednesday, Feb 7, 2024 at 7 pm 

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87235475958

 Meeting ID: 872 3547 5958

Maps play a pivotal role in the paddling experience. We use them to plan our trips, to navigate, and even to reminisce about the places we’ve been and the experiences we’ve had. Join Jeff, an avid paddler and mapmaker, as he explores the special relationship between maps and paddling, as well as the journey that lead to him creating his own series of maps.

Jeff McMurtrie is a paddler turned mapmaker. He got his start tripping through Algonquin at the age of 8 when his father took him on a weeklong trip. Once he was 15, he planned his first trip with a friend from school, which, as it turned out, was quite the ‘adventure’. That inadvertently lead to the start of his mapmaking career, as it inspired Jeff to create the most accurate and detailed map of the park ever created.

Join Zoom Presentation on Wednesday, Jan 31, 2024 at 7 pm 

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83295943134

Meeting ID: 832 9594 3134

This 16 hour course concentrates on the basics of packaging and transporting patients, and managing life and limb threats in remote environments. It includes prevention and treatment of common environmental problems like hypothermia and heat exhaustion and stroke.
The Wilderness First Aid programs are designed for the recreational outdoor enthusiast, trip leader, and the professional guide. These courses are based on the principals of wilderness care and first aid.

To know the full details (and cost) of this course you need to log in and read the entirety of this outing on the WCA website, and the CWMT website. The CWMT is a certified education centre for the Emergency Care and Safety Institute and an Authorized Provider for the Canadian Red Cross.

** The WCA highly recommends that people organizing back country canoe trips take this course, especially for multiple day trips where 911 help isn't accessible. Also, it doesn't hurt to have multiple people trained on any trip.

Note: This is a repeat of the same course given in March 2023.

Greenmantle River, a Wabakimi Gem

This wild little river may lack girth and length but it is long on adventure and isolation.  Hidden in the far northwest corner of Wabakimi Provincial Park, the Greenmantle River provides access to a huge swath of protected wilderness.  Perceived as too small to navigate, the paddler is challenged by long, twisting technical rapids, log jams, down trees, shallow wetlands and one demanding portage.  The reward is an opportunity to explore a remote boreal forest and possibly catch an elusive brook trout. 

Our presentor, Vern Fish is the former Executive Director of the Black Hawk County Conservation Board in Waterloo, Iowa.  He serves on the board of directors of the Iowa Natural Heritage Foundation Board and the Conservation Corps of Iowa/Minnesota.  He is currently the president of the Friends of Wabakimi.  An advocate for clean water, he serves as an elected commissioner on the Black Hawk Soil and Water Conservation District.  A passionate paddler he has run wild rivers from South America to the Mexican border and north to the Arctic Circle with stops at Hudson Bay.

Join Zoom Meeting at 7 pm

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87084912035

Meeting ID: 870 8491 2035

There should and always will be risk to canoe travel. Thank goodness, we are taking a reprieve from driving on highways for a spell. 

Risk on canoe trips is too messy/wiggly to be determined from a  pre trip document. Risk must, most wisely, be assessed in the field based a myriad of factors and measured against the joy factor of experiences. We set a very low bar when a successful canoe trip is considered only a safe canoe trip. This is a call for more wisdom and more JOY. 

Bob Henderson long time WCA Member bio;

Bob has been guiding canoe trips since summer camp days 1973.  Early travels in Algonquin, Temagami and Quetico eventually lead to Arctic travels.  Bob taught Outdoor education at McMaster University 1980 - 2009. He writes mainly about outdoor heritage travel and conceptualizing outdoor education.  Recently he is co-editor of Paddling Pathways: Reflections from a Changing Landscape: winner of Best Anthology 2023 with New Generation Indie Book Awards and Finalist for Best Non-Fiction with Whistler Book Awards. 

Zoom Meeting Link; https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81895561223 Meeting ID: 818 9556 1223

Dwayne Wohlgemuth and his spouse Leanne Robinson live in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, and have spent many summers and many months paddling and hiking together throughout the NWT. Their two boys, aged 8 and 5, have been on many of these months-long adventures. Their most recent long trip was a 90-day voyage in 2022 from Behchoko, NT, to the tundra along the Coppermine River. Paddling from spring through autumn with two children in tow is a story of how paddling has transformed into our preferred way of life in the summers. 

Tune in to a Zoom Presentation to hear there adventure.

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/85882234397

Meeting ID: 858 8223 4397

Have you ever thought about starting to take up winter camping? Not sure where to start? Do you have questions about gear, logistics, food preparation and wilderness safety/risk management? Or, are you a seasoned veteran looking to improve your set up and learn something new? Then this is the course for you!

We will discuss the foundations of winter camping using a hot tent in conjunction with a portable wood burning stove, gear requirements, tent set-ups, food planning and wilderness safety/risk management.

This 1-hour, in person educational workshop hosted at MEC’s North York location, presented by WCA members Luigi Salerno and Doug Ashton, will answer all the questions you have about winter camping. There is something for every skill level.