canoe maker

National Canoe Day & G20 Canoes

Yesterday was National Canoe Day, an event run by the Canadian Canoe Museum to celebrate our national icon. Events were held all over the country. In a bid to escape the G8/G20 Chaos in Huntsville and Toronto, the family decided to head over to the event in Peterborough.

Unfortunately, heavy rain, slow traffic and a wailing child made the 1.5 hour drive seem like an endless oceanic flight. The Mrs. also seemed to have lost our camera when we visited the Toronto Zoo with our little man the day before...so no pics. Thankfully, Andre Cloutier and Alex Guthro posted some photos of the event on this thread on the WCHA forums.

When we finally arrived, the event was nearly ending but I got to catch up again with a few local members of the WCHA including Mike Ornsby who runs Reflections On The Outdoors Naturally blog. Got to see his new cedar canvas canoe built by Bruce Smith, a gorgeous solo boat with cherry gunwales and some walnut trim.

Also on hand were some vintage boats including a recently acquired 1919 Rice Lake Canoe with its quirky Aluminum Deck Plates. There's a thread about it on the WCHA forums here. Pulled a shot from the thread below:


1919 Rice Lake Canoe with Aluminum Decks
I was quickly introduced to Dick Persson of Headerwater Canoe fame who was caning some seats. Got to meet finally meet Terry McCaul, a volunteer with the CCM who was doing some paddle carving. Terry's paddles are also functional works of art, complete with gorgeous spined blades, cord whipped shafts, and laser engraved artwork. A shame that our lost camera was not on hand to take pics.

After returning back to the city, ended up reading that the wives of some G20 delegates were also introduced to some canoe culture as part of their Canadian experience. From this article in The Toronto Star:

"Eight of the first ladies spent the morning tucked away in a small, sparsely decorated hotel boardroom where they dined on chocolate canoe paddles and learned how to make nonedible canoe seats from a master craftsman."

(From L to R) Callista Mutharika (Malawi), Svetlana Medvedeva (Russia), Ban Soon-taek (UN), Laureen Harper (Canada), Nabuko Kan (Japan), Geertrui Van Rompuy (European Council) and Patience Goodluck Jonathan (Nigeria) sign on a canoe in Toronto on June 25, 2010.


Chocolate Paddle and pastry "canoe" served to the G8 wives.