After quietly dreaming about a canoe trip across the country Maiah Feely, along with three of her friends, made her dream a reality. The foursome stopped in The Pas overnight as part of their journey east and took a moment to share their canoeing story to date. Feely, 25, is joined by friends Nicole Pate, 23; Zev Robinson, 25; and Anne Waugh, 26. Taking a moment from their packing up for the days journey, the foursome shared their story to date ariound RM of Kelsey resident Denise Duncan’s kitchen table. Duncan hosted the team while they waited for a supply drop and swap out of one team member, Anne who was heading back to the city.
According to Freely, the journey was simply a matter of putting into reality a plan that started out as something she had wanted to do since she was a teenager. “I’ve been wanting to do it for about 10 years. My parents went on a really long canoe trip, they went from Fort Saskatchewan to just past Thunder Bay, in just about 3 months in the 90’s before I was born,” she explained. “So I grew up listening to their stories and reading paddling books and I wanted to do this big trip. I quietly dreamed about it for years. I asked Zev who is a childhood friend if he wanted to come. He said yes. Anne and Zev are together so Anne came along and Nicole is a family friend and we grew up together,”