Benoit Gendreau-Berthiaume, Magali Moffatt and their son, Mali, arrived at the Hudson Yacht Club for their final night of camping after completing an almost five month canoe trip. (Photo by Kristina Edson)
Mali disembarks from the canoe onto the Hudson Yacht Club grounds. (Kristina Edson)
Parents sharing outdoor living example in future documentary
When Montrealers Benoit Gendreau-Berthiaume and Magali Moffatt decided to move back to Quebec from Edmonton, AB. after five years spent out west where Gendreau-Berthiaume completed his PdD in forest ecology, the family, which includes their five year-old son Mali, didn’t just load up their car for the return trip; they packed a canoe and set out to travel through five provinces strictly via Canada’s rivers and lakes.
The family, which departed Edmonton on May 2, reached Quebec on Sept. 24. They spent the next night at the Hudson Yacht Club where we spoke after they had reached the sandy shores. On Saturday, Sept 26, they paddled the final leg of the almost five month journey, arriving at the Cap St. Jacques Nature Park where the family of three were greeted by family, friends, and well wishers many of whom were strangers that had followed their watery adventure.
Gendreau-Berthiaume and Moffatt say they decided to take the unusual trip in a17-foot Prospector Royalex lite canoe packed only with what they could carry, which included a tent, clothing, dehydrated foods, a small stove, three cameras to capture much of the journey for a future documentary, and an IPad Mali was allowed to use at the end of the day, to take a break from what they called an intense life. “We wanted to show our son and other families that you can do outdoor activities and be active with your kids… that you don’t always have to be inside looking at a screen,” Gendreau-Berthiaume said.
Moffatt said she found herself increasingly unhappy with a life devoted to schedules and material possessions. “We had to sell most of our stuff to make the journey and the more we got rid of, the happier I became,” she said. And though Gendreau-Berthiaume was an experienced paddler who developed a passion for the activity as a child during summers spent at a camp in Portneuf, Qc., Moffatt was newer to it.
At five, Mali’s claim to fame is that he’s camped more in his short life than most adults do in a lifetime. Moffatt recalls camping with her then infant son while her husband conducted field research studies in Banff National Park. The couple say though the idea for the trip began as a joke, as they researched it in earnest they decided to give it a go. “We didn’t plan a whole lot, we made sure we would be safe and have what we needed to camp along the shores on our way home, but we just decided to do it,” Moffatt recalled.
The trip
Settled into their canoe that was outfitted with a spray deck that kept them warm and dry, the family left Edmonton in early May via the North Saskatchewan River, which they followed into Saskatchewan and then Manitoba. Other waterways traveled included: Cedar Lake, Lake Winnipegosis, Lake Manitoba, the Assiniboine River, the Red River, Lake Winnipeg, the Winnipeg River, Lake of the Woods, Rainy Lake, the Canoe Boundaries Waters which included Pigeon River, and Lake superior. After reaching Thunder Bay the family opted for safety, bypassing the more challenging parts of Lake Superior by renting a car and driving to Sault Ste-Mary. From there they paddled Lake Huron to the French river, which led them to North Bay and the Mattawa River, followed by the Ottawa River for the homeward stretch into Montreal. They say they averaged 30 km. to 50 km. of paddling each day, sometimes doing upwards of 70 km. when paddling downstream. The parents credit a Grade 8 class for helping them map out their route.
Challenges
Gendreau-Berthiaume said the trip went well most of the time. Mother Nature was on their side, offering good weather while they were out west, and the same as they traveled east. “When the weather was terrible here in the spring, it was really nice out west and as it turned bad there in the summer, it was beautiful where we were. We only had a little bit of bad weather,” he noted. Moffatt said she had some tense moments when they encountered what she estimates were nearly 6-foot waves on some of the larger lakes, while wind gusts they encountered on some waterways could often strand them on the shore. They say they portaged 50 or more times in total, pitched a tent nearly every night and as often cooked their food on an open campfire. They mailed eight re-supply boxes to predetermined locations along the route, though their food supply was bolstered by a new skill Mali acquired during the voyage. “He saw people fishing and asked me why we didn’t fish,” Gendreau-Berthiaume recalled, adding he’d never been interested in the sport. Though not fully keen, the dad bought his son a pole at their next stop and was stunned to see the boy quickly master the sport, and even land fish large enough to feed the family. A low point in the trip came when the three had to complete a 14 km. portage without their normal aids. “We have a portable cart we can put the canoe on when we portage but this trail included several wooden bridges that were too narrow for our cart, so Ben had to carry the canoe that weighs about 90 lbs. and Mali and I carried everything else,” Moffatt recalled. The greulling challenge was conducted in 35 C. temperatures amid bug infested forests. “It was by far the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life… I began to cry at one point,” Moffatt admitted with a now rueful laugh. They ended the portage in the dark, on the shores of Lake Superior. They had left some of their belongings on the trail, which Gendreau-Berthiaume retrieved early the next morning while his wife and son slept.
Back home
On the eve of their final paddle home the next day, as they anticipated seeing family and friends for the first time, the couple joked about hopping into a taxi and turning up on their parents’ doorsteps. Instead, they got ready to pitch a tent one final time on the Hudson Yacht Club grounds, and contemplated the likelihood of ordering pizza from somewhere that would deliver. Moffatt says she’s looking forward to cooking again, and to having a dishwasher. They will move to Gatineau where he has secured a full time job. She will work part time at a mountain supply store. The couple don’t know what the future will hold in terms of outdoor adventures, but they feel the experience on the water is a permanent part of their lives. “We’re going to focus on making our documentary so we can share this experience with other families and we can show people how beautiful and diverse our country is. We saw things we never thought we’d see. We feel so lucky to have done this,” Moffatt said. Gendreau-Berthiaume and Moffatt are starting a crowd funding page to help them finance the cost of making their documentary. To learn more go to their web page at www.paddlinghome.weebly.com
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