Just recently, Leigh and his adventurous family shared this short trip report with us. If you read on, make sure to prepare yourself to be inspired!
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| Day one Kinbasket Lake at the Canoe River inflow. |
We completed our 32 day 365 km trip from Valemount to Nakusp. The trip went as planned with no major issues just lots of amazing experiences, campsites, sunsets and quality family time. The campsites ranged from remote settings on Kinbasket Lake surrounded by 9000ft peaks to a Provincial Park on Revelstoke Lake with a great playground out the tent door for the kids to enjoy.
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| Beautiful Rocky Mountains on Kinbasket Lake. |
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| Snack time Kinbasket Lake. |
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| Well below the posted speed limit on the Mica Dam portage. |
The paddling was mostly big lake canoeing with some moving water below the Mica and Revelstoke dams. We made a point of starting early and being off the water by noon when the wind and waves often picked up. 15 to 30 km was our distance range during our paddle days (we usually paddled 3 to 4 days then rested for 1) which left plenty of time to set up camp, let mom and dad relax and for the kids to swim and explore around camp. The two portages around the dams were tough work but worth ever bit of sweat. We definitely had some strange looks from folks as we walked down the highway with our canoe…
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| Nap time! |
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| The "Just enough room camp" Revelstoke Lake. |
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| Climbing skills coming in handy below Revelstoke Dam. |
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| Safety first…kids anchored to a tree while we lower the canoe. |
This trip was the longest and best trip we have done yet. The sense of accomplishment after years of refining our gear, planning, reviewing maps, surfing google earth, food prep etc is hard to put into words. The fact that we did this trip with our kids (age 2.5 and 5.5) made the trip all the more enjoyable. They are seasoned paddlers by now and in fact they do better sitting in the canoe than they do sitting in the car. We passed only 2 other canoeists in the 32 days. Most people we met had travelled there by vehicle. The richness of the experience travelling "in" the wilderness by canoe is lost when moving "through" it in a vehicle. Having these experiences is definitely a driving force for us and pushes us to explore our provinces waterways as a family by canoe.
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| Goof off time in their Stripes with Revelstoke ski hill behind. |
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| Batten down the hatches Upper Arrow Lake. |
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| Smooth sailing Middle Arrow Lake. |
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| Nakusp…Day 32…and still smiling! |
The Northwater deck combined with our 20' Clipper Mackenzie worked flawlessly. We easily packed 21 days worth of food (we resupplied in Revelstoke) and all our gear into the boat with room to spare. The deck kept the gear dry, cool and cut down on the wind shear/drag. The 2 cargo hatches were excellent in size and location for loading and unloading gear. All four cockpits were excellent as well. We used the shrouds many times to shield us from cool morning wind, rain and even from the hot August sun. We can't thank you guys enough for the amazing design, quality and durability of your canoe decks. We cant wait for the winter months so we can start planning our next family canoeing adventure. Cheers. Leigh, Brenda, Mya & Natasha…
Thanks to the Leigh Purvis for sharing his amazing family adventure with us so we could share it with all of you. A special thanks also to Brenda, Mya & Natasha for their very encouraging spirit for adventure. For more information about North Water Custom Decks, please visit our website: www.northwater.com.
