Off to Canada

July 29, 2025

It’s an hour drive from Ely to Cook. I arrive at the US Forest Service office at 10:00 just as Anne pulls in. She jumps out of her truck. We load her backpack and Duluth pack next to mine. We head north.

About a year ago, I walked into this same office with Terry. Anne was at work. We were looking at maps and asking her questions. Terry asked if it was possible to paddle from Rainy Lake to Hudson Bay. She told us of her trip three weeks earlier. She and two long-time friends and fellow paddlers were on their last leg of a three year expedition paddling up from Minnesota to Hudson Bay. Just past the village of Oxford House, while paddling through a rapid, they crashed into a rock tipping the canoe, losing gear (including their Garmin locator) and suffering injury. Anne had broken ribs. Yet they pulled the canoe with its remaining gear back to Oxford House. Tough women, eh?

By the time Terry and I left, Anne and I had made plans to finish her route. During this year and several iterations of this plan, we are on our way starting with a five day trip to Churchill, Manitoba.

Our first stop on the auto trip was the French Canadian town of Saint Jean Batiste. By the way, Anne’s partners on the Hudson Bound trip were both named Deb. When they were paddling up the Red River they arrived at the village and this guy named Ulysse pronounced (you liss) played the role of a town greeter. Anne was still connected to him and he and his wife had volunteered to host us for the night.

I didn’t feel like a stranger for long. They were welcoming and soon seemed familiar.

A great start.