Canoeing, Kayaking, Rowing @ Ruby River

Watersheds come in families; nested levels of intimacy. Serbs, Russians, Indians, Amish, the 1.3 billion in the People's Republic of China; as you work upstream toward home, you're more closely related. The big river is like your nation, the lake is your cousin. the creek is your sister. the pond is her child. For better or worse, in sickness and in health, you're married to your sink. - Michael Parfit, National Geographic

The canoe is a symbol of wilderness - of rivers running free. It is an ideal craft with which to penetrate the wilderness; an ideal craft with which to run wild rivers. The early canoeists were unfettered people - full of independence, self reliance, adventure, and courage. They were physically tough, and their souls sang with a “joie de vie.”

The legacy of the canoe is intrinsically tied in with the history and early commerce of the northern half of this continent, Canada in particular. Indeed the early history of Canada is almost a series of ever longer and bolder canoe trips into the heart of this continent. When steam and rail came into use the canoe still continued to be the best and easiest method for travel into remote areas - even for Canadian governors, several of whom made long and exhausting canoe trips into the hinterlands of their territories.

Even today, in the era of float planes, the canoe is still useful for trappers, prospectors, geologists, surveyors, forest rangers, and timber cruisers from Newfoundland to Alaska.