Educational Workshops

Please join us to hear about Mike Stacey's adventure on the Wind River in 2022.

The Wind River is a river in Yukon, part of the Peel River watershed. It lies to the west of the Bonnet Plume and Snake Rivers.

Part of the greatest constellation of wild mountain rivers in North America, the Seven Sacred Rivers of the Peel Watershed.

In the heart of the Peel watershed, a huge tract of unspoiled wilderness that was recently protected from industrial development.

Wind River valley was the setting for the fabled “Lost Patrol,” a doomed group of North-West Mounted Police in the early 1900s who through a series of bad decisions found themselves running out of food in frigid mid-winter conditions.

Wildflowers and wildlife abound, including Dall’s sheep, mountain caribou, grizzly bears, moose, wolves and several species of raptors.

As the crystal clear water dances over colourful cobble the whitewater canoe excitement will overload your senses as we journey through dramatic mountain ranges!

The Arctic Grayling fishing is fantastic!

Zoom link

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87105857630

Meeting ID: 871 0585 7630

The Hart River is one of the most energetic and pristine rivers in the Yukon. It also may be one of the least travelled rivers in all the Yukon because of its difficulty to access. 

The Hart River is a fly-in/fly-out canoe trip and one of the main tributaries of the Peel River. The river offers everything from flat water to Class II-III sections as it winds through ledges of sedimentary rock.

Photography, hiking, paddling, fishing and exploring were amoung the joys experienced last summer by 6 WCA members on a 3 week trip on the Hart RIver.

Please join in a presentation that includes video, drone fottage and still photos from the Yukon territory.

The Zoom presentaion will include details of the thier trip and followed by questions/answer session.

Zoom Presentation details;

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86315239161

Meeting ID: 863 1523 9161

Have you ever thought about winter camping? Not sure where to start? Do you have questions about gear and logistics? Or, are you a seasoned vetran looking to improve your setup? 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 food planning and preparation.

This one-hour, in-person educational workshop hosted at MEC's North York location, will answer all the questions you may have about beginning to winter camp.

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.