Cross Canada Canoe Expedition
Underway - Kitimat to Weewanie Hot springs
Joe O’Blenis (Submitted by Chris Koch on behalf of Joe) / 31.05.2004
Joe finally checks in with his first report of his epic journey.Hey Chris,
How\'s it going man? I\'m alive and well in Prince George. 95 km paddle yesterday! Seen 10 bears so far, did the \"Portage from HELL\", paddled some nice rapids, portaged some not so nice class 4/5 crap...pretty awesome looking waterfalls!
The trip is going well, I took today off to hang out with my friends here in PG and will be hitting the water again tomorrow for a 60 kilometer paddle UP the Fraser river, followed by a 13 km portage across a watershed into Summitt Lake...part of an Artic watershed.
I\'ve attached a couple photos and a report for the coastal section of the trip. I\'ll try to send the next two reports before leaving tomorrow.
My computer had crashed along the way so I have to redo everything now. On a good note however, my computer seems to be working again!
After years of consideration and months upon months of actual planning, the expedition finally hit the water on May 5th, launching from the coastal village of Kitimat on the northern British Columbia coast under sunny skies and light winds.
During the first few days, my friend Darryl Spencer accompanied me from Kamloops. He drove me to my starting point and proceeded to join me for the first few days of my journey. Darryl was paddling a Necky Elaho sea kayak, generously loaned to him by Dale from Ocean Pacific in Kamloops, the local Necky Kayaks dealer. Myself, as you know, am paddling a “Sea 1� solo canoe, built in Kevlar by Clipper Canoes of Abbotsford BC.
By the time we had the boats packed…by now I realized I’d brought along far too much gear and equipment (my canoe will weigh a ton out there! Yikes!)…It was nearly 2:30 PM and I was just finishing with an interview for the local newspaper. It was almost high tide and we were finally ready to launch. We slid our craft into the waters of the Pacific Ocean, dipped in our paddles and just like that… the expedition was underway. I paddled a few strokes, hollered out “NOVA SCOTIA�, let out a big “Woo-Hoo� and we were off, paddling out along the Douglas Channel. See All Event Posts
