• Route: shown by the dark blue line

• Start: Nipissing - September 9, 2007

• End: Key River - September 19, 2007

• Distance: 160 kilometers

• Travelling Time: 10 days

As many of you know, we love the wilderness and canoeing into the beautiful scenery of the lakes and rivers of the backwoods of Ontario. We have canoed in Killarney Provincial Park and in Temagami. As our first expedition for Paddling Against Poverty we are going to canoe the French River.

Our trip will start on Sept.9/07 and will take us from our put-in at Birchwood Camp & Cottages on the South River, which flows into the South Bay of Lake Nipissing, west along the south coast of the lake to the mouth of the French River, through the entire length of the French River, out into Georgian Bay, east along the coast, and up the Key River to the town of Key River on highway #69 to finish on Sept.19/07. A distance of 160 kms over a period of 10 days.

We had originally not planned such an extensive trip (something in the order of 5 days would be normal for us) but we got the idea that we could turn it into something more than just a wilderness experience for us. We thought that if we turned the trip into an expedition which retraced the route followed by the early voyageurs we might be able to catch people's imagination and interest enough that it would warrant sponsorships towards Canadian Feed The Children projects in Central and South America, Africa, Canada and other parts of the world where poverty, malnutrition and immiserated living conditions are elements of daily life for many people.

Canoeing and kayaking in the wilderness is a beautiful and really unparalleled experience. However, it also takes endurance, perseverance and plain dogged determination to get through rough weather, long portages and need we mention the possible encounter with a bear! We have been fortunate not to have encountered any bears at our campsite thanks to our friend Jack Tobin, a wildlife biologist, who has taught us how to stay safe in bear country. The wilderness is after all home to our precious wildlife and when we go into the wilderness we should go with some reverence and attention to the land, animals and vegetation that live there.

Keep an eye on this site for updates about our preparations and plans and please consider joining the many people who are sponsoring 'Paddling Against Poverty'.