Now that
summer is here, there are a few boat-based "holidays' coming up that you need
to put onto your calendar.
First on
the horizon is the fifth annual Canadian
Rivers Day which takes place June 8, with events scheduled across the
country.
The day is held to "promote public awareness and wise stewardship of the
rich natural, cultural and recreational values of Canada's rivers," says the Canadian
Heritage Rivers System.
"It is an opportunity for all Canadians to honour and commemorate the
important, sustaining role of rivers in maintaining healthy ecosystems,"
adds the national river conservation program.
For details
about the Canadian Heritage Rivers System and Canada River Day events: www.chrs.ca
National Canoe Day occurs this year on June 26th.
It started last year in Peterborough (home of the Canadian Canoe Museum) as a way to celebrate the canoe
being named one of the "Seven Wonders of Canada" by the CBC program of the same
name.
This year
there will be another grand celebration in Peterborough, and everyone (and their canoe) is
invited. If you can't make it to Peterborough, "take your canoe to lunch,
paddle with a friend, paddle with lots of friends, sing canoe songs, read canoe
stories, fill your canoe with ice and cold drinks and have a party . . ."
suggests James Raffin, Executive Director of the Canadian Canoe Museum.
Or "make a canoe video, have a paddle picnic or a canoe-be-que, portage up
main street, save gas and paddle to work, have a canoe-a-thon to raise money
for a worthy cause, paddle to Parliament or your provincial or territorial
legislature, whatever -- just do it in a canoe on National Canoe Day."
The museum wants to hear about other events by e-mailing
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with
"details, plans, stories, pictures" to be posted on its website.
Also available are stickers declaring: "My Canoe is a Wonder."
National
Canoe Day is among many cross-country happenings over 11 days in Celebrate Canada!, which leads up to Canada Day on
Parliament Hill.
To learn
more about the National Canoe Day and the Canadian Canoe Museum in Peterborough: www.canoemuseum.net;
1-888-34-CANOE.
Meanwhile, for most of this summer, the journey of a lifetime is being taken by
160 paddlers in the 2008 David Thompson
Brigade from Alberta to Ontario.
The trip, which began May 10th, is a bicentennial commemoration of a journey by
geographer David Thompson. Thompson is generally considered the "greatest map
maker of his time," having mapped approximately 20% of North America.
The brigade left Rocky Mountain House, Alta., and is paddling and portaging
over 63 days and 3,600 kilometres to Old Fort William (Thunder Bay), on the northwest shore of Lake Superior.
Over 27 years in the late 1700s and early 1800s, Thompson, a pathfinder,
surveyor and map-maker, travelled 107,000 kilometres over an area covering
3.9-million square kilometres.
Check on
the David Thompson Brigade at www.2008thompsonbrigade.com
