View topic - Loss of Western Canoe Culture...

madhat, See what you can find out about linkinf a few lakes on the Bonaparte Plateau. A local teacher wrote a guide for it at one time, but I think BC Parks discourages canoeing there now? Sounds like you'd love the exploration!

kgd, Wish I coulda taken your course!!

Pat.

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Learning to paddle is like learning a language:
It's easy to learn the basics, but will you be understood in a strong wind?

While I do understand the OPs point about choices, I think people on my generation and younger (I am early 30s) do have different barriers. Kevin Callahan wrote an opinion piece a few years ago saying young people basically do not go on extended trips because they are unmotivated. I cancelled my subscription to that magazine as I found the opinion rude and lacking a basic understanding of my generation. Sure I could choose to take a year off to do outdoor things or get a job that I can leave on a whim, but if I want a career in my field I probably cannot. Look at youth unemployment. CBC did a skit about a youth lottery. The prize was a full time job for 40 years with benefits and they made out like it was winning a million dollar lottery. It was sad, true and hence funny to me and my friends.

Now I work in a field where I do get time off but since graduating 10 years ago, I have taken about 20 additional university courses - which has limited how far from the internet I can be while on vacation. In the last few years I have been able to space my courses for a break from the internet in the summer. However, since I still do not have job security, I actually work as a guide on my holidays so I keep those skills sharp in case I do end up unemployed and need a job to pay the basic bills. So I do get to trip, but not in 20 day intervals.

As for kids, I see 2 barriers. First, most high school kids work. Post-secondary is getting more and more expensive and the amount of training needed is longer and longer with less on the job training. Second, requirements for taking kids on trips is getting so intense that less and less schools can afford the trips or the perceived liability.

Christina, I see your point. Its a tough world out there for young people and no doubt the 22 year old's of today arguably face an even steeper battle than yourself. I probably had an easier time getting into that 'lottery' job you speak of, but that doesn't mean I didn't have to jump through hoops and spend a couple of decades in career-developing purgatory before I could actually contemplate tripping again outside of the odd long weekend camping trips.

Thats why I think early exposure to the outdoors is important, provided parents can accommodate the time to teach them or muster the monetary requirements of giving them a genuine summer camp exposure. It can be a difficult thing to do for parents. It can even be a tough thing to convince your kids that it is a good thing especially when they are adolescents. But I do think they need that seed of experience which grows in their hearts a fondness for the wilderness in order to get them back into the outdoors when they are able to again as adults. They need something to remember that the pursuit to outdoor experiences is a worthy one.

Our oldest daughter is 22, and our youngest 18. When the kids were just tots I said to my wife "If we can only afford to sign them up for one activity, it has to be summer camp." As my parents were about as far from "outdoorsy" as you can get, the fact that they sent me to camp each summer had a profound influence on me. We began sending our daughters to camp at age 7, and always managed to scrape together the cost, even if the bill made us cringe.

Well, I think the investment paid off. While our oldest has moved on, our youngest now spends her entire summer at camp as a counsellor. This year her job is that of "Tripper", leading various cabin groups of youngsters on backcountry trips throughout the entire summer...and getting paid for it!

No doubt an experience that will shape her future, and solidify her connection to the outdoors. I couldn't be happier. Now, if I could just get her to commit to a trip with her Old Man. Maybe in a few more years.

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www.mikemonaghan.ca

Totally off topic here but need your help

However could any of you fellers take a few moments to answer my post on the N Thompson River

Or direct me to someone who can

Its the one previous to this one

Very much appreciated

Richard

I have been searching around for Richard Youd's book, The Bonaparte Plateau: An Access Guide. I have been unsuccessful in finding it so far, even gone so far as e-mailing the publisher with no response. Any ideas where I can find it?

I`m newly arrived in BC from Eastern Ontario so to me I do feel there is less canoe culture here. Kayak and mountain bike culture seem to be alive and well though. Oh how I miss my white pine Canadian shield canoeing.

I've found a copy of Richard Youd's book on the Bonaparte Plateau. I hope to explore there a bit this year, and post my findings. I had some friends trip around the Emar Lakes last year, but they suggested there was nowhere to camp around the chain aside from the vehicle accessible sites on Janice and Willowgrouse Lakes. They regretted carrying all their gear for the entire circuit, only to end up back at their vehicle by the end of the day.

Time is certainly an issue, and so is money, but I will bring up a point that hasn’t been mentioned. Decreased earnings (taking into account cost of living increases over the years).
I just figured my SS benefit (US), one thing that was enlightening is that my best earning years were 2000 & 2001 (then the dotcom bomb). The 80’s were my best decade. How could this be? I make a lot more money now (layoffs due to 9/11, housing recession cause periods of unemployment) Wages have stagnated, have not kept pace with cost of living increases. Everyone seems to own a McMansion where I live, both husband and wife work, day care is expensive, those big homes have big taxes and require just as much energy as older less efficient, but smaller, homes. And Dad drives a full size pickup with all the options (bed is largely unused except to haul things bought at the shopping mall) while mom drives a 4WD SUV (that never sees off road). Kids are enrolled in every activity imaginable that reduce parents to taxicab drivers, they driver their kids to school rather than ride the bus or walk, which consumes more time they don’t have.

It’s kinda nice for me, the places I paddle aren’t crowded like they used to be. Peop[le today expect to be entertained, they are not active in the entertainment (excerpt for selfies to show they were there).

madhatt, I'd be interested to know more about that route, if you do it. I know there is a volcanic plug to climb and a lodge on one of the lakes.

Regarding Emar Lakes...

There are sites available, just not the groomed ones that people are accustomed to. Most people are just ripping around the loop as it can be done in several hours if desired.

This is a rustic loop that get very little use. Bring a saw and be prepared to reclaim a small site and help maintain the trails.

There is a beautiful spot on the peninsula on Emar.

Thanks, Ted. I know there several other routes in the area, as well.And Moose Valley is a couple of hours away so several days could be spent doing short routes.

Thanks for the update, Ted. I haven't had much time for wilderness paddling lately, but I was up on that plateau last weekend with my 3 year old son camping at Latremouille Lake. I am hoping to do the Emar circuit with my wife and son since the distance isn't too great. Perhaps I should make a reconnaissance trip without the wee one, first.

Cheers!