The Happy Camper: Women Are Leading 2026’s Top Paddling Expeditions
There’s a lot going on in the canoe tripping world this paddling season. Several extended excursions are being done across Canada, and beyond. The epic journeys are being taken on by legendary aging paddlers, but most are being done by young enthusiastic adventurers—and the best part is that most of them are women. How cool is that!
Check out and follow these amazing canoe excursions on social media and help give them a boost to their finish line.
Edge of the Atlantic
The first one to mention here is the all-women’s group making up Edge of the Atlantic. Six experienced canoe trippers (Madlen Anderson, Emily Kay Dunning, Abby Auran, Katherine Heinle, Annabel Weil, Emeline Krill) who are all collectively empowering the next generation of female adventures.
This season, they will be paddling 1,000 kilometres across some of North America’s most remote waters to the Arctic Ocean: from Labrador City, NL to Kangiqsualujjuaq, QC.
Together, they’ll be blazing a new Arctic canoe route and along the way, building a legacy of mentorship, conservation and courage.
Iceland Circumnavigation – Justine Curgenven
Justine of Cackle film fame is a good friend of mine, and she’s inspired me beyond words (and my daughter) with not just her accomplishments but her momentum to keep getting out there.
This summer Justine and her partner Jean-François Marleau are circumnavigating Iceland—a 2,500 kilometre clockwise kayak journey she’s been determined to revisit since her solo trip on the island’s west fjords 25 years ago.
This isn’t going to be an easy one. Crazy currents, strong winds, big waves, but an amazing coastline she’s dreamed of returning to.
Ireland by Paddle – Juliana Brotzman
I met Juliana Brotzman a few years back at a UK symposium. It was one of the most incredible moments of my life. Wow! What enthusiasm for life she had then and still does.
Her and paddler partner Nate Gueltzau have headed out on an aspiring speed attempt to circumnavigate the island of Ireland, and along the way, will be raising cash and awareness for Team River Runner, an organization supporting veterans and service members through adaptive paddling.
The two plan to paddle 1,100 miles over 15-22 days, or a minimum of 50 miles a day to meet their goal. Yikes! But this isn’t Juliana’s first rodeo. She’s got enough paddling hours under her belt that would shut down any mere mortals—woman or man or whatever.
Canada By Canoe – Will Vyse, Nolan Aziz and Georges Kirijian
Three members of the original Canoe4Covid team who completed a 60 days and 2,000+ kilometre canoe trip across Ontario back in 2019 are now taking on a 200 day, 8,000 kilometre single season coast to coast journey across Canada, from Tadoussac, Quebec to Prince Rupert, British Columbia.
The Canoe4Covid team raised over $87,000 for Food Banks Canada in 2019. Their new initiative—Canada by Canoe—is hoping to raise $1 million for True North Aid—a group that helps empower Indigenous peoples to build a brighter future.
Check out their tracker to see where they are now.
The Treaty 6 150th Commemorative Canoe Voyage—Students from Lloydminster Public School Division
Spoiler alert. This trip has already happened, and was completed, in June. But it definitely needs to be checked out.
Students and staff from across the Lloydminster Public School Division, located between the Saskatchewan/Alberta border, completed an eight day, 348 kilometre canoe journey. They did it in a voyageur canoe. How cool is that! Their route was along the North Saskatchewan River between Fort Pitt and Fort Carlton. It’s a significant waterway trail and well chosen. This journey retraced the same traverse done in 1876 during the negotiations that led to the signing of Treaty 6 at Fort Carlton and later at Fort Pitt.
The trip gave thetime and opportunity for the students, and the other students following online, to reflect on history while building understanding for future generations. It was to commemorate the 150th anniversary of Treaty 6, but while I followed it online, read the stories and watched the videos, I think it became much more than that. It gave a pure lesson to the students on connection to land, water and story.
A good question is: how did I know about this one? I mean it’s not in the main social media like all the others (but it should be). A big thanks goes out to my friends Mike and Fiona at Badger Paddles who told me about it, and who also donated red-tipped paddles for all the students paddling in the voyageur canoe. How true Canadian is that!
The statement placed on the journey’s website says it best: “We paddle in learning, respect, and connection. Nanāskomowin.”
Here’s a CBC News Report about them.
I did an interview with them, check it out:
