Many people make the decision to leave their cars at home and walk or bike to work. There is even a West Kelowna, B.C. man who kayaks 15-minutes across the Okanagan Lake to his job, but one canoeist has taken it to a whole new level.
On Wednesday, May 13, Barrhead native Dylan Bajer left from Barrhead via the Paddle River to his job as a guide with Nahanni River Adventures, in Fort Simpson, N.W.T., with the help of three friends, Justine Wilmot, Dylan Bajer, Sarah Johnston and Liam Law.
“I first came up with the idea when I was sitting on the Mackenzie (river) thinking, I wonder if one day I could just paddle to work,” Bajer said. The Mackenzie River is another river excursion offered by Nahanni River Adventures, in the North West Territories.
At the time, Bajer wasn’t even sure it was possible, but after a few Google Map searches he found out that it was.
“All the rivers and lakes connect,” he said, adding that he dismissed the idea until he mentioned it to his friends Wilmot, Johnston and Law, who he met at his other job.
Besides being a guide for Nahanni River Adventures, Bajer works for Enviros Base Camp, near Canmore, Alta, and the Ghost Wilderness area bordering Banff National Park.
The camp, which is also known as Enviros Wilderness School, provides addiction treatment for youth aged 12 to 18 and their families through a three-month intensive adventure based wilderness program.
“We quickly became really good friends and for some reason when I mentioned my idea, they wanted to come along,” Bajer said.
However, the decision to undertake the more than 2,200 km adventure will see them travel on the Paddle River, Pembina River, Athabasca River, Lake Athabasca, Riviere des Rocher, Slave River and the Mackenzie River, before reaching their final destination of Fort Simpson.
Starting in about November, the group started to prepare for their 68 day expedition, meeting on a regular basis.
Every Tuesday the group would get together and cook four to six meals. In order to conserve space on their journey the majority of meals were dehydrated.
Wilmot said after the food was dehydrated the process of making the meals was pretty straight forward.
“The hardest part of the whole thing was cooking all these meals, but not eating them,” Johnston chimed in. “The one meal I am looking forward most to is the grilled strawberry-jalapeńo salsa.”
The group also plans to treat themselves along the way, baking such things as cinnamon buns and pies in their Dutch oven.
Another area the group spent a lot of time planning for was emergencies. Besides taking along an industrial sized first-aid kit complete with assorted antibiotics, the group has a SPOT Satellite Messenger.
“Essentially it’s a small switchboard device that interacts with GPS satellites and you can send preprogrammed messages,” Johnston said, adding that if something really goes wrong all they have to do is press the SOS button. “The unit will then send a distress signal, that includes our GPS co-ordinates to the SPOT company and they will communicate directly with the local Search and Rescue and other emergency agencies.
As for what the average day will entail, Bajer said in large part he is treating the expedition like he would any other job.
“You wake up, have breakfast, paddle for eight hours or nine hours, before calling it a day,” he said, adding that on a good day the group hopes to travel between 60 and 80 kms.
However, it will not be all work. Bajer said the group has scheduled a number of rest days.
“A couple of us are artists and two of us play music so we also made sure we had some time so that we could pursue our hobbies,” he said.
Law said one of the things he is looking forward to is meeting the people who live in the communities along the river, especially the First Nation communities.
“I sent 15 letters asking permission to go through their land,” he said. “All the responses were so welcoming and I am really looking forward to being able to meet the person and getting to know them and their culture.”
Wilmot said she believes her favourite part of the trip is the journey itself.
“Although we are all guides and adventurers none of us have ever been on a trip of this length,” she said. “We have learned how to plan our own expedition and I am so proud of all the work we have done to get this far.”
And for Bajer, he said his goal is just to take everything in during their journey and to grow closer as friends.
To follow the group’s progress go to www.home2work.ca where Bajer’s brother will post periodic updates.
