A group of canoeists in a 24-foot voyageur canoe will make a stop at the future Chik-Wauk Museum and Interpretive Center Monday, July 13, 2009 to help celebrate the 100th anniversaries of the Superior National Forest and Quetico Provincial Park.
The festivities will include canoe rides; children’s activities; naturalist and voyageur interpretive presentations; live music by Gerald Thilmany; book signings by Betty Hemsted, who photographed and wrote Wildflowers of the Boundary Water, and by Kelly Dupre, artist, and Sue Ahrendt, editor, who compiled Becoming a Boundary Waters Family; a program and slide show featuring the history of Superior National and the Quetico; and a $10 shore lunch to benefit the Gunflint Trail Historical Society.
Kids will have the opportunity to try their hands at starting fires with a flint and lifting 100-pound Duluth packs, among other things.
Events will start between 11:20 and 11:30, the voyageur canoe will arrive for lunch at noon, and the program will begin at 1:00.
Able-bodied attendees are asked to park (for free) in the public landing on County Road 11 (Sag Lake Trail). Paddlers in voyageur-type canoes will provide shuttle service to and from Chik-Wauk between 10:30 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. Limited parking will be available along Moose Pond Road (off County Road 81) for those unable to travel by canoe.
The Canoe the Heart expedition involves various groups of canoeists traveling the “heart of the continent” relay-style, handing off the voyageur-style canoe at various points along a 350-plus-mile route beginning in Atikokan, Ontario. The “voyageurs” will travel through Fort Frances to a border route that will start in Rainy Lake, Minnesota and pass through Voyageurs National Park. From there the paddlers will enter the Superior National Forest at Crane Lake and travel through Ely, eventually paddling Lake Superior from Grand Marais to Grand Portage and ending in Thunder Bay, Ontario.
Unlike the early voyageurs, participants will not have to carry 100-pound stacks of furs, but they will still need to portage the large canoe and all of the groups’ supplies and camping gear. They will also hand out educational materials regarding Leave No Trace principles and non-native invasive species to those they meet along the way.
The expedition is sponsored by the Heart of the Continent Partnership – a Canadian/American coalition of land managers and local stakeholders working together on cross-border projects that promote the economic, cultural and natural health of the lakes, forests and communities in the Ontario/Minnesota border region. Additional information and applications for the Canoe the Heart Expedition are available at: www.heartofthecontinent. org.
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