Canoeing for comrades
- Details
- Published on Wednesday, June 8, 2016
By Sheila Runions
Banner Staff
On April Fool’s Day Mike Ranta of Atikokan, Ont. began a cross-country trip he expects will take six months to complete. According to posts on mikeranta.ca, he started April 1 at dawn “at the ocean’s edge at Fisherman's Memorial, Steveston, BC. Heading up the Frazer River, Mike is aiming to set a speed record on his 2016 journey… faster and farther than any person in history. This epic journey will be accomplished when Mike [lands] at Dominion Beach, Cape Breton, N.S.”
He embarked on a similar venture in 2014 but weather forced him to quit early so his effort was not truly a national journey. This time he’s taking a longer route (approximately 7,500 rivers’ edge kilometres) and hoping to accomplish it in a shorter time (six months vs. seven in 2014). His goal is to land at Dominion Beach on Sept. 29 — his 45th birthday — so he must average 45 kilometres per day in order to meet that goal. Already two months into the journey, there have been many obstacles along the way.
Filmmaker Patricia Lambkin is taking video of this canoe journey where and when she can, planning to create a documentary some day. While waiting for him to cross underneath the bridge near Deerboine Colony on Friday, June 3, Patricia shared information about the adventure so far.
“He’s had some harrowing moments. The nose of his canoe was sucked into a whirlpool, which was enough to make the dog jump off. There were only three or four inches of the canoe showing when Mike finally drained it; it was nearly fully submerged. The river system and its water was too high and swift so he had to carry his canoe, which he loads on a collapsible trolly he made which fits in the canoe. He walked for 38 days straight, from Hope, B.C. to Alberta. He had intermittent and short passings on a river but it was never for more than half a day; it was too dangerous with the spring runoff and all the floating debris. He walked Hwy. 3, Crow’s Nest Pass, with all those switchbacks up and down the mountains. He literally wore the heels off his boots and was walking with bare heels on the highway; he also went through four sets of tires on his trolly. When he’s pulling the canoe, it’s 90 pounds of weight and his stainless steel walking poles are 10 pounds each. He took a month of high altitude training in the mountains and hills of the west so he could run without stopping. And he was adding 60-70 pounds of weights too! At some point in B.C., he had to drag his canoe in the snow, he couldn’t pull it on the trolly.
“He was hoping to get back in the water behind the Frank Slide in Alberta but there was white water there, barbed wire and more debris, so he continued walking to Lumberg Falls where he was finally able to get back in the water; he’s been in there and paddling ever since. He paddles 12-14 hours a day, non-stop, stroke after stroke, every day. The dedication he has to do this… He has an inner core, the mental and physical endurance to deal with the isolation of just yourself and a dog. It takes a certain kind of grit.
“If he’s able to meet his average of 45 kilometres a day, he’ll have lots of time to get to Cape Breton but on his walking days, he didn’t go that far. Some of his paddling days have been good, making 60-65 shoreline kilometres, so we just keep hoping. On days like today where he has a strong headwind, that slows him down a lot too. He is relentless in his determination to get to his destination, but he’s sensible. One time he stayed in camp until 9 p.m. and paddled by the light of a full moon until 4 a.m., just to avoid the heat.”
So why make such a gruelling journey? In Mike’s own words, which come from a video on his Facebook page, he is doing it “in appreciation of our veterans. I just want to take this time, while I have the ability in my life, to paddle across country and say thanks to these guys and stop in from legion to legion as I go, and get their signatures on my canoe. The sacrifice they make for us affects us all and gives us our way of life in this country, our beautiful nation we call Canada. I can’t think of a better way to say thanks to all the great Canadian veterans than by doing a more Canadian thing than paddling across the country. It’s going to be an amazing trip and I want everybody to follow along at mikeranta.ca or Facebook, Mike Ranta’s Paddle.”
