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Event | Workshop | Trip | Course | Symposium

Canoe Trips & Paddling Programs

An Integrated Educational Experience

We are engaged in teaching paddle strokes and portage techniques, in erecting tents and building campfires – the physical stuff of the canoe trip. However, we are about instilling a sense of wonder and unbridled joy for the world; about teaching kids to live with each other, to work together through difficulties and differences; about awakening a dormant awareness to the glorious thrust that is the flapping, crawling, breathing world; about understandings which come as much through the heart as they do through the head; about building a richness in life constructed from personal meaning, not material possessions; about learning the names of plants, not celebrities; about teaching care and respect for the natural world, one's communities, and oneself; about discovering that we can accomplish far more than we ever knew; about coming to know that the moon still rises over the schoolyard and rain still falls on the shopping mall, and that, wherever we live, we live in the natural world; about seeing, with our own eyes, the beauty of the world and knowing, with our own hearts, that we belong to it.

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In short, we use the canoe trip because the canoe trip is about good teaching – about the types of experiences which lead to good people.

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​It has been said that "what gives each person his or her personal identity is that person's private store of recollections. If so, then people should be careful curators of the assortment of memories that they collect over the years" (John Locke, Kathleen Dean Moore). Memories make us who we are – the experiences and ideas that are powerful enough to remember are the ones which come to form the character of our lives.​ Canoe trips are essential in this. We want students to be able to say things like:

 

"I am a person who remembers the feeling of looking out from a small, rocky island under the centre of a starry sky. Perched on a lake as calm and black as the night, enveloped both above and below in quiet darkness, with stars like a pattern on the heavy quilt."

 

Or, "I am a person who remembers turning a bend in the river and being presented face-to-face with the overwhelming majesty of a moose knee deep in the mud, grazing on boundless grasses."​

 

Or, "I am a person who remembers bearing witness to the rare beauty of a unseen loon calling longingly across a lake, reverberating it's sound across the rocks, echoing beyond the trees."

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To see more about what our canoe trip programs are like, read about the Headwaters Experience.​

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Quetico Provincial Park, Ontario, Canada, Headwaters Wilderness Program, Canoe Trip, Lake, Forest, Sky, Paddling Canoe

Program Details

Curricular topics addressed

  • Canadian History

  • Canadian Geography

  • Canadian Studies

  • Environmental Science, Ecology, Biology

  • Philosophy

  • Outdoor Education

  • Physical Education

Ideal for

  • Grade 6-12, elementary, middle, and high schools

  • Nature & Outdoor Centres

  • University students

Headwaters Highlights

An experience of living in community

  • A sense of belonging and purpose toward the larger group, beyond oneself. In addition to developing both leadership and teamwork capacities, knowing what it is to live in a community who rely on you and on whom you rely is a profound experience, and a rare gift​

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A meaningful relationship with the natural world

  • Unique to Headwaters, we intentionally weave environmental philosophy, naturalist knowledge, and eco-social history into everything we do, developing a relationship with nature far more meaningful than simply "enjoying the outdoors"

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Time away from cellphones

  • With no cell phones or other electronic devices permitted on our trips, it is a gloriously rare opportunity to unplug and re-connect

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Traditional travel

  • We travel by canoe and wooden paddle, we portage on foot. We cook on an open fire that we made ourselves, preparing each meal communally. Our food consists of homemade recipes long perfected for the canoe voyage, with fresh baking savoured when we please. We sleep in tents. We awake when our bodies are rested, rather than by the clock. We gather blueberries from the land and our water from the lake. We travel as according to how the weather dictates. We take rest days whenever we find a good spot. We live without haste, for the trip itself is the point.

Character Development

All of our programs intentionally develop moral character, with a special focus on the following traits:

  • Joy for life and its experiences

  • Care for others and our world

  • Wonder about life's mysteries

  • A feeling of awe for both the grand vistas and the little things

  • Respect for the wellbeing of others and our world

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We place an emphasis on developing resiliency as the groundwork of moral character

  • Resiliency teaches us to keep going even when things are uncomfortable. Because of this, it is the core of moral character, enabling us to ask, "what is worth doing, even if I fail?"

Where this program can take place

  • Local river or lake (day program option)

  • In a wilderness setting (overnight trip option)

Program length

  • Single-day paddling program (4 hours), or multi-day overnight canoe trip

  • The length of this program can be modified based on the needs of the participants

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