River Day in Edmonton

Yesterday we participated in the River Day event in Edmonton where we had a kiosk to talk about our trip. We also wanted to raised awareness about the importance of the Canadian waterways as well as inspire families with young children to plan outdoors adventures.  Building off our experience from our recent trip on the North Saskatchewan River from Edmonton to North Battleford we gave tips to parents with young kids on how to manage young children in the canoe for long periods of time. Mali also gave paddling demonstration and we showed many young kids how to paddle in a canoe. 

We also had a chance to answer many questions regarding logistics and gear. What type a food we would bring and how we could cook it? Where we would camp? Were or how we would get drinkable water? How we would power our electronic devices for 4 months? What type of tent, mattress and sleeping bag we would be using? This was also a great opportunity for us to get advice and ideas regarding these different logistics aspects from other experiences paddlers.

It was also great to get a chance to inform people about the different rivers and lakes we would potentially have to paddle to get to Montreal. Some participants even told us that it would be worth it to do that trip just to get bagels and smoke meets from Montreal!!! It was great to meet many other paddlers and families and talk about our trip. We got lots of encouragements and we hope we inspired others to get out there and explore the outdoors. We also got to networks with paddling clubs from Edmonton and we hope to plan presentation or meetings with many of them to talk further about our trip and get advice from the ones that have already done similar trips. 

Overall a great event on a beautiful day in Edmonton with lots of great peoples. We also want to thank Rhianna Flaherty for planning such a great event and for letting us participate.