Love for the Outdoors Guides Ontario Paddling Entrepreneurs
Their morning commute is serenaded by the call of the loon and the only rush is that of the water.
Their workday begins with the golden rays of sunrise and ends with the last faint glimmer of the setting sun. Their offices are huge - as big as nature itself. Their job benefits include fresh air, good health and the smiles on their clients' faces.
These are the working conditions of the dozens of Ontario entrepreneurs whose careers have followed the path of the paddle. It's a profession older than Ontario itself.
"The canoe is as Canadian as you can get," says Greg Klassen, an avid canoeist and Director of U.S. Marketing for the Canadian Tourism Commission. "Our founding economy was based on transportation routes developed by the canoe. These routes were the water-bound highways of North America."
If you were to choose one place within Canada where the canoe played the most pivotal role, it would be Ontario, a province that boasts almost a quarter of the world's freshwater lakes and rivers, a breathtakingly beautiful land that has become the leading destination for paddlers from around the world.
"Ontario was explored by water, settled by water and is blessed by water," says Steve Bruno, Marketing Advisor to Paddling Ontario, the alliance of preferred paddling outfitters and lodge operators. "There's a natural organic history here that cultivates passionate paddlers - people who want to share their passion with others - people who've decided they can build a business around paddling and profit personally and economically by doing something they love."
These paddling entrepreneurs have joined together to create Paddling Ontario, an alliance of two-dozen canoe, kayak and lodge operators whose businesses have been given a stamp of approval. They are judged on the basis of experience and qualifications and a specified level of success, reputation and customer service.
"We set the bar high in terms of standards so we could create a tourism product different from anything else in the marketplace," says Bruno. "It provides assurance to our visitors that they will experience a consistency of service and quality wherever they go within our organization."
The partnership has paid off. As a business entity, Paddling Ontario members make an important contribution to Ontario's tourism economy - approximately $25 million per year, with the average visitor spending $145 per day.
"Paddling is an organic genesis of our history," says Bruno. "From that history, from aboriginal to voyageurs to settlers to the modern day recreational paddler we've built up the momentum that's given us the best place to paddle and the best outfitters in the world."
Best in the World
POA Member celebrates international renown
When Lynne Cox of Canoe Frontier Expeditions answered the phone in October 2003, she couldn't believe her ears. It was National Geographic Adventure magazine calling and they were including a trip offered by her company as one of the top 25 adventure trips in the world.
The trip they chose was Canoe Frontier's eight to ten day kayak and polar bear observation expedition down the Winisk River in Ontario's Far North.
"Considering how many thousands of people read the magazine, it really put us on the map," says Lynne. The article featured a prominent photograph and quotes from guests who had been on the trip and since its publication, there has been a spike in enquiries.
The exposure from National Geographic is a pretty big coup considering the outfitting company she runs with her husband Bernie is only six years old. Canoe Frontier is located at Pickle Lake is 200 air miles north of Thunder Bay and 320 air miles south of Hudson's Bay.
"We are the most northerly road accessible community in Ontario, so we're literally at the end of the road," she boasts.
What's unique about the business model is the combination of outfitting with an air service. Bernie Cox operates North Star Air, a specialized charter air service offering flights across Ontario's last frontier.
"We love the tranquility," says Lynne, who grew up in Burlington, Ontario. "The biggest reward is sharing these trips with our clients who come here for a spiritual renewal. When they come back from their trips they are overflowing proclaiming that the experience has changed their soul and given them a new perspective on life."
Life in the Rapids Lane
Claudia Van Wijk, Madawaska Kanu Centre
Claudia Von Wijk has been navigating success on and off the water for most of her life. A bronze medal winner and one of the top five kayakers, in the world, she was born into the sport.
Her parents, Hermann and Christa Kerchoff, were Canadian kayak champions in 1969. To share their love of the sport, they bought some land on the Madawaska River, northwest of Ottawa, to create a kayak school, based on the German ski school model. In 1972, the Madawaska Kanu camp was born.
Claudia and her husband Dirk have since taken over the business and what started as a part-time affair is now the largest canoe and kayak business in Ontario, employing 25 full-time and 60 part-time instructors every season.
"MKC is more than a place to learn how to paddle," says Claudia. "My parents started a tradition of wonderful home-cooked food, warm hospitality and great camaraderie all set within a learning environment."
About 2,000 paddlers per season attend MKC from across Canada, the United States and overseas. Many of the instructors are from Europe and Australia, where the school is known as one of the top kayaking centers in the world.
"What a dream come true this has been for me," says Claudia. "To be able take my passion and make it my profession, I am extremely fortunate."
To this day, Claudia says she cannot pass by a river without stopping to watch the current, study the eddies and plan the route she would take as she expertly navigates the rapids in her kayak.
Quest for Adventure
John Langford's Passion for Algonquin
When he was growing up in the big city of Toronto, John Langford knew that someday he would have to escape. What he didn't expect was that he would be fleeing the city so early in his life.
"The plan was to make six figures in advertising in my first career and then pursue my passion for Algonquin in my second life," recalls Langford. "Well, I hit my mid-life crisis early and moved up north at the age of 23."
Up north for Langford was Algonquin Park, a place he had spend many a summer throughout his childhood and youth. He cut his teeth in the tourism business working for other companies before launching his own company - Voyageur Quest - in 1991.
"We bought a little chunk of land on a hope and a prayer, that's how we started out," says Langford. "Voyageur Quest is symbolic as a name because we offer more than just a wilderness getaway. It's a cultural and a historical experience for people who haven't spent a lot of time in the outdoors."
It has proved to be a good business model for Langford who runs Voyageur Quest and the Algonquin Log Cabin year-round. Algonquin Park is an accessible wilderness area ideal for beginners. The proximity to Toronto (he has an office there) means that he can market to first-timers as well as to companies looking for team building and corporate getaway experiences.
"Every one of our trips is designed for people brand new to this. They bring their clothing and their toothbrush and we supply the equipment and the adventure."
"It is a good business," says Langford. "But I don't do it just for the money. It's the passion. This is something that's inbred, I'm sure."
Getting Hyer on Northern Ontario
Encounters with wildlife abound in vast wilderness
When he was in search of adventure, Bruce Hyer and his wife Margaret chose Wabakimi Wilderness Park, a vast area north of Thunder Bay Ontario that encompasses more than 2.5 million acres.
Their business, Wabakimi Canoe Outfitters and Eco-Lodge, attracts paddlers from all over North America - people in search of a true wilderness experience. There are no roads in this part of the world so guests are taken to the start of their expedition by floatplane or train.
Like many of the people you will find when paddling in Ontario, Bruce is a city kid who grew up dreaming of living in a log cabin. Today his dream has come true and he and his wife want to share it with people who truly appreciate nature in one of the largest pure wilderness areas in North America.
"It's one of the last refuges for the woodland caribou," says Hyer. "They like the same habitat as the canoeists, around the lakes, islands and beaches so there is a chance to observe them in their natural habitat."
"We've got the caribou, eastern cougars, wolverines, martins, otters and wolves. The list goes on. It's an incredibly diverse eco-system."
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