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There
are a couple of long distance canoe trips this summer on the
Web. And as the Hide-Away Canoe Club is taking the year
off, it is nice to see some others also doing the online
thing.
Bill
Layman is a strong northern paddler with a great connection to
paddling history. He has been making a name for himself with
previous online trips and stories already published. This
year’s 55-day saga from The Churchill River to Hudson Bay is
online at www.out-there.com.
It’s
a two part trip with a younger man on the first half to
Wollaston Lake where Bill was joined by wife Lynda Holland for
the final part of the trip to Arviat via the Thlewiaza River.
Bill
writes in an upbeat style and puts a lot of local history into
his stuff including some really unique sources. The photos are
small and simple but it’s very difficult to come up with
great pictures when there is only one canoe in the group!
His
trip is through the area where P.G, Downes paddled for his
Sleeping Island book and Oberholtzer and Magee did their noted
trip in 1912 which was recently featured in the book Toward
Magnetic North (see Outfit 104).
Another
online saga of similar length is by the McGuffin family. Gary
and Joanie are well known to wilderness paddlers and
now, Sila, their three-year-old daughter has joined the pair
– along with malamute Kalija – on a trip from the Pigeon
River, between Grand Portage and Thunder Bay around the
spectacular northern and eastern coast of Lake Superior and
continuing into Georgian Bay and finishing at Port Severn.
Their trip can be found at www.greatlakesheritagecoast.com.
Gary
McGuffin is a superb nature photographer and it is very
interesting to see some of the things he can do with a digital
camera. Many of Gary’s most interesting images involve very
long exposures that create unique light on film. That is not
possible with digital technology but like the great artist he
is, he makes it work nonetheless.
He
is using the Canon 1-D, a state of the art SLR digital camera
that produces superb images — especially in the hands of a
master. Gary still has to deal with the fact there is only one
canoe however, but there are a lot of wonderful Lake Superior
scenes in what surely is one of the finest paddling areas in
the world.
And
speaking of Web stuff, we got this note from the Canadian
Canoe Museum:
Greetings
all!
The
Canadian Canoe Museum would like to announce the birth
of its totally upgraded, completely renovated new website!
Visit
www.canoemuseum.net
for the latest information on our exhibits, education
programs, and a special section on our canoeing heritage.
We
hope you enjoy it, and would like to gratefully acknowledge
Quid Novis for their excellent work in driving the site from
concept to completion.
Your
feedback is welcome, and please forward our web address to
anyone else you think may be interested.
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Becky
Mason sent us an update on the Nahanni mine situation.
Dear
Friends,
The
MacKenzie Valley Land and Water Board has ordered an
environmental assessment (EA) for the CanTung mine. This is
excellent news for Nahanni National Park Reserve! Public
concern (your letters) as well as environmental concerns were
the reasons the Land and Water Board gave for
holding a special hearing on the renewal of CanTung's water
license,and then for referring the application to an
environmental assessment.
However,
the current water license will be extended for the length of
the EA process or until Sept, 2003, so that CanTung would not
have to cease operations while the EA is being
conducted.
(NOTE:
There is an opportunity to call for a public hearing of this
extension. The Board has stipulated that it will call a public
hearing “if necessary” ie. if we demand one)
Thanks
to all of you who helped to make this EA happen! Apart
from the hopefully positive outcome, this process will also
send a strong message to both the Canadian Government and all
other resource extraction interests to think twice before
threatening to develop the South Nahanni watershed.
Suggestions
from the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society on what more
you can do to help;
You
can write a letter expressing concern about the proposed one
year water license extension. The MVLWB has proposed a
one year extension of the CanTung water license. This means
that the mine will be
allowed to operate under current license conditions while the
Environmental Assessment is being conducted. This is not
acceptable. If significant public concern is expressed, a
public hearing can be triggered to look at the terms of the
extension granted to Tungsten. In this way we can, at the very
least, push for more stringent operating conditions during the
next year. For more information about the proposed extension
see:
http://mvlwb.com//N3L2-0004/60dayextend.pdf
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