The Paddle the Waters Expedition

Back when I was hiking on the Eastern Continental Trail, I had plenty of time to think about what kind of things I wanted to do afterwards. I thought about canoeing or kayaking on a river often. Though I haven’t really had a good opportunity to get out on a river, other than a poorly-planned attempt at a source of the Amur river, I have been finding some interesting expeditions done by other people. There are not a plethora of published source-to-sea expeditions on the world’s longest rivers, and most that I’ve found have been accomplished by professionals. For that reason, I’d like to mention a different type of expedition on the Mackenzie river that I have always admired.

In 2012, Ben Roche and Vicki Lefrançois set out to travel from the Columbia Glacier, the source of the Athabasca River, downstream to the Arctic Sea at the mouth of the Mackenzie river. Four and a half months later, they accomplished this mission and became the only expedition of this type on the Mackenzie that I can find. Starting with a tough hike in the snow out to the glacier, heavily laden with gear, and ending in Tuktoyaktuk in early September as winter rapidly approached. Along the way they battled challenges such as high winds on Great Slave lake, hordes of mosquitos and flies, and long, lonely sections of river, especially the Mackenzie.

I admire this expedition for several reasons. First, it’s not often that an expedition of this difficulty is taken on as a couple. Most trips that we see are completed by one person alone, usually a man. Second, though Ben, Vicki, and their faithful companion Tallak had trained well before the trip, it appears they did not have the experience of doing a trip of this nature before this attempt. The fact that they appear to have completed the trip with little to no serious thoughts of quitting shows their drive and of course their brilliant work as a couple and as a team.

This is perhaps the aspect that interests me the most concerning this trip. The fact that Ben and Vicki were able to do this trip not only as a couple, but as a multilingual couple, is real inspiration that perhaps someday my wife and I could do something similar. In the video compilations put together by Ben and Vicki (alternatively called the Paddle the Waters team), I get the sense that they just know how to have fun together, which is a big part of making those difficult times on a trip much more bearable.

Another thing which made this expedition interesting is that the Mackenzie River is the second longest river system in North America, yet it is rarely talked about because of its remote location. To see an expedition venture up the barely-inhabited Mackenzie River and go the entire distance of that great river, is a treat. I believe that the Paddle the Waters expedition on the Mackenzie shows that with good planning and determination, even amateur paddlers can take on a big expedition such as a source-to-sea descent of the Mackenzie River. I hope someday to do something similar. In the meantime, I must congratulate Ben and Vicki on completing such a quest, one which they will certainly be proud of for the rest of their lives.