Highland Adventurers prove 'life doesn't stop at 50' with 1000 mile journey through Canada
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
Cory Jones and Dave Crosbie, successfully complete a 1000 mile canoe through the Canadian Wilderness.
The expedition titled Unpeeled, Dave Crosbie and Cory Jones completed a gruelling 1000 mile canoe through the Canadian wilderness over the summer. They passed through two time zones and six river systems, on their mission to prove that life doesn't stop at 50.
Expedition team leader, Cory Jones from Golspie, runs the award winning canoe and kayak business, Highland Experiences.
And team member Dave Crosbie from East Lothian, is the owner of Tree-ditions, Lothian’s premier company for nature connection using traditional woodcrafts and indigenous skills.
Cory and Dave spent two years preparing for the trip which started in the high mountains of the Yukon, travelling through grizzly bear territory and included the two major challenges of Aberdeen Canyon, a five–kilometre portage through swamp and thick bush and an ascent of the 140 kilometre Rat River to the Continental Divide between the Atlantic and Pacific.
The group of six people started the expedition on Elliot Lake in Ontario, Canada, before travelling down to the Hart River.
Cory said:“It was spectacular, not only was the scenery amazing when canoeing through rugged mountain gorges – but we had views of grizzly bears. At one point, we followed a wolf along the river for about a mile”.
From there the group paddled into the Peel River, where they were faced with Aberdeen Canyon: a five-kilometre canyon, filled with swamp and thick bush.
Dave Crosbie said:“It was hard graft dragging our canoes and equipment around Aberdeen Canyon, but my greatest memory will be the ferocious mosquitoes that attacked us all the way”.
The group then spent a couple of days in the small settlement of Fort McPherson, staying with a local community group who teach indigenous skills to a new generation of local children.
Dave said :“It was a privilege meeting the first nation Gwich’in people and enjoying their hospitality. I learned lots about their traditional hunting techniques, and have been overwhelmed by their generosity”.
Cory and Dave then split from the larger group of six, and continued alone for the last leg of the expedition; on the Rat River. Cory and Dave faced the 87 mile upstream canoe, to the Continental Divide on the Rat River.
Cory commented:“It was 14 days of hauling, dragging and carrying our canoes, and is something we don’t want to repeat. But we have travelled to where very few people have been before, in the wilderness north of the Arctic Circle”.
Once Cory and Dave reached the other side of the continental divide on the Rat River, they paddled down the Bell and Porcupine Rivers into the most northerly settlement in the Yukon at Old Crow, where their 1000 mile journey came to an end.
After a summer of the epic canoe expedition in the Canadian Peel and Yukon catchments, Cory then took a few days to relax on a solo sea kayaking trip on the northeast coast of Vancouver Island in search of whales and orca.
Cory set off on a five day solo expedition in the Johnstone Strait off Vancouver Island and within 20 minutes encountered killer whales. Cory said he saw orca on almost every day of his trip, once having them pass within 100 metres of his kayak.
On other days he had to navigate through dense fog banks, and avoid crashing into cruise ships travelling up the Inside Passage route. He kayaked to the famous orca 'rubbing beaches' where the huge creatures rub their bellies on the pebbles of the beach to remove parasites.
During his trip he saw dozens of humpback whales breaching, rising and breaking through the surface of the water. And whilst camping on a remote island in the Broughton Archipelago, Cory saw a black bear swim onto the island and he was camping on, and Cory said he had to chase off the bear by shouting loudly, and madly banging pan lids together.
Cory said about the trip:"The wildlife was exceptional and I never imagined seeing so many humpback whales and orca. This was one of the most amazing places I have ever explored: stunning scenery, remote uninhabited islands, mountains and temperate rainforest right down to the shoreline of the sea.
"I am already looking forward to returning to the area in 2023 for more exploration."
