The Gibsons Paddle Club, in cooperation with the Canadian Voyageur Brigade Society, is helping organize a Canada 150 canoe journey that’s set to start in Egmont on June 14 – and there are opportunities for the public to get involved.
Canada 150 paddlers will meet in Egmont on June 13 to get prepped and ready for the first leg of the cross-country journey that will see various canoe brigades take on different portions of the trek.
The Gibsons Paddle Club expects about a dozen ocean-going canoes with 10 to 12 paddlers each to set out from Egmont on June 14 for the Sunshine Coast portion, crossing through Skookumchuck Narrows to Sechelt where paddlers will camp overnight at SSC Properties.
The next day, paddlers will portage through Sechelt from Porpoise Bay to Trail Bay at 9:30 a.m. and then at about 1 p.m. canoes will be launched on the Trail Bay side from the shíshálh Nation’s beachfront.
Canoes will travel from there across to the Trail Islands and anyone with a non-motorized watercraft is invited to join in.
That evening paddlers involved in the Canada 150 trek will camp in Trail Bay and take part in A Night at the Longhouse feast and cultural event. The public is invited to the event; tickets can be purchased in advance at www.aboriginalecotours.com.
On Friday, June 16, paddlers will head to Gibsons, making a stop in Roberts Creek at noon for lunch where a ukulele band will entertain, and then end the day at the Gibsons Public Market where dinner will be served to paddlers.
On Saturday, June 17, the canoe brigade will take to the water from Gibsons at about 9 a.m. and then paddle around Keats and the Pasley Islands, stopping for lunch at Plumper Cove. This is another paddle the public is invited to join in on.
On Sunday, June 18, the final day of the Sunshine Coast portion of the paddle, canoes will head across Howe Sound to Bowen Island and then go on to Ambleside in West Vancouver for the closing ceremony of the Sunshine Coast leg of the cross-Canada canoe journey.
Find out more about the entire journey at voyageurbrigade.org
