#147 - 1,000 Mile Vision Quest celebrating cultural connections on Canada’s West Coast with Ed Hill

WEBVTT

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Welcome to Paddling the Blue. With each episode, we talk with guests from the

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Great Lakes and around the globe who are doing cool things related to sea kayaking.

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I'm your host, my name is John Chase, and let's get started Paddling the Blue.

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Welcome to today's episode of the Paddling the Blue podcast.

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Ed Hill joins me today to talk about a life-changing journey that was a partnership

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between Canada's Royal Canadian Mounted Police and Indigenous communities.

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The group paddled three Nootka-style 10-person fiberglass, ocean-going canoes

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1,000 miles down the west coast of Canada to celebrate both cultures and alternatives to addiction.

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It's an emotional look inside the journey, the restoration of the canoe culture,

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and the respect and honor for the land and people of the communities they visited.

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I'm really glad you're here to join us today.

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Before we get to today's conversation with Ed, I shared a trip that I took to

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Alaska's Prince William Sound back on episode 50, and I'm doing that trip again.

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And if you've ever been considering an introduction to Alaska,

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maybe you can come along too.

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Experience the beauty of Alaska's

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Prince William Sound on this six-day experience from July 12 to 18, 2026.

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Along with peaks rising 4,000 feet from the Sound, you'll experience glaciers

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calving in the distance, catch a glimpse of the area's diverse wildlife,

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camp on remote beaches, and more.

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It's a small group experience limited to a total of six, and I've got two spots remaining.

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Learn more at www.paddlingtheblue.com slash Alaska.

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And James Stevenson and Simon Osborne at OnlineSeaKyaking.com continue to produce

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great content to help you evolve as a paddler and as a coach.

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surfing, coaching, documentaries, expedition skills, and incident management, and more.

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If you're not already a subscriber to OnlineSeaKyaking.com, here is your opportunity to get started.

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Enjoy today's interview with Ed Hill.

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Welcome, Ed. Thanks for joining Paddling the Blue today.

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It is my honor on this beautiful west coast of Canada day.

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Yes. So your story is quite a bit different from many of those who've joined our show previously.

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So tell our audience a little bit about you as a paddler and what got you started

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with indigenous ocean-going canoes.

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Well, John, I'm a retired member of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the RCMP.

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I joined in 1968, and I had the distinct pleasure in my postings of being posted

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in a place called Bella Bella,

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which is a small Indian reserve 300 miles north of Vancouver,

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British Columbia, and in the middle of nowhere on an island up there.

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And I was exposed to the indigenous culture.

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And I'm really paraphrasing this down, of course, over the years.

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A few years later, I was posted in a place called Tofino, British Columbia,

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which is on the west coast of Vancouver Island, again with indigenous culture in the area.

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But in that community was an artist by the name of Roy Henry Vickers.

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He and i became very close friends fishing

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socializing with his partner and

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my wife and so on and i watched him paint and was taken by his technique and

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his methodology in short he taught me to paint in his technique and style and

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what does this have to do with paddling well it gets there.

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Roy quit drinking.

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He went for recovery treatment down in Arizona.

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I am an alcoholic. Almost simultaneously or thereabouts, I quit drinking.

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And so in 1984, basically both of us were clean and sober.

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I replaced my addiction to alcohol with painting.

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And so for 17 years of a 34-year career in the RCMP, I'd get up every morning

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at 4.30 or 5 in the morning and paint till 8.

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And then put on my uniform and become a Maude for the day.

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Pretty quick in that time era, a Maude friend of mine was murdered up on Teslin

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Lake by a deranged draft dodger living up in that area.

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Shot and killed this Maude.

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Mike Bidet was the Maude's name. Mike Orris was the murderer's name.

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And at the time I said I'm moved to

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someday do a painting in honor of my

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friend Constable Mike Bidet well it was 10 years later when Roy Vickers contacted

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me and said that painting you wanted to do about Constable Bidet up in Teslin

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Lake we're going to do it together and so long story short.

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I got the RCMP involved, and the RCMP flew Roy Vickers and I up to Taslin Lake.

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We found the image, and we ultimately did a painting together.

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But that doesn't sound like something the police should get involved with.

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But the way they got involved was Roy came to me with the idea that this was

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going to be a fundraiser.

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Roy Vickers, if you were to Google his name, you'd see he commands a big dollar for his artwork.

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And we were going to do a print edition of this painting and so on.

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And all of that money was going to go to build a recovery center here in British Columbia.

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A recovery center of the likes didn't exist here at the time.

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And so I got involved with the RCMP because anybody who treats addictions and

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puts addicts on the street clean and sober, that's crime prevention.

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No longer people, you know, driving drunk, family assaults, doing all those

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stupid things that we do when we're intoxicated.

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So the RCMP bought into that and they invested time in getting us up there to do this painting.

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We basically came back, published the painting.

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Sold out the complete print edition, and that print edition was the seed money

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to build a recovery center, but it wasn't nearly enough.

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And literally, as we were printing that in Victoria, Roy said to me,

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we've got to make some more money.

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We've got to bring attention to,

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to the cause of VisionQuest, because that's what we called this recovery center we were going to build.

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And I said, well, how are we going to do that? He said, we're going to do a canoe journey.

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Well, the only canoeing I had ever done was in a small canoe in Ontario,

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and that was maybe a dozen hours in a canoe. What do you mean a canoe journey?

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Well, Roy had been born up the Skeena River in Hazleton, in that area,

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210 miles up the Skeena River from the ocean.

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And he said, I've heard of the ancients, the old people who used to travel from

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here all the way down to the tip of Vancouver Island, where Victoria is now.

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He said, we're going to do that journey.

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He said, I'd like to see if we can get the RCMP involved.

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And so we contacted headquarters. I watched as Roy literally talked to the commissioner

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of the RCMP and said, we want to do this with the RCMP.

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And the commissioner agreed. And it was just about that fast.

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And so I was introduced then to big canoes that I knew nothing about.

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We actually had to get a fiberglass canoe built at Clipper Canoe in Abbotsford, British Columbia.

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We built we had three canoes

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built from the same mold they're in the nutcase

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style of ocean going canoes

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they're about 31 feet long made of fiberglass optimum paddling for speed and

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balance in the works is with 10 paddlers that would be nine paddlers and one

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steers person The big high prow on that canoe,

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the model is called a northern dancer, and whenever you get into one of these

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canoes, you understand why they're called dancers.

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And so we started training in those canoes and getting ready for 1,000 miles of paddling in 31 days.

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And the training was all a huge experience in those canoes for all of us.

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Virtually none of the RCMP that got involved with that had any experience paddling

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big canoes on the ocean or on the big rivers.

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So what's your reaction when Roy says we're going to do this journey and you

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haven't been in a canoe in 30 years?

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Well, I was 49 years old. I was in reasonably good shape, open to adventure.

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Roy had already showed me so much about myself through my artwork.

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We had experienced this wonderful trip up north to find a painting that turned

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into money for Vision Quest. The cause itself was important to me.

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I knew the value of sobriety.

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I knew the value of beating addiction. And so I'm in.

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Let's do this. And it was just almost like jumping out of the plane with somebody

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saying, it's okay. I checked your pack. It's fine.

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So this is a collaboration with the RCMP. So tell us how the journey itself,

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well, let's first even go backwards.

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How about the planning for the journey? Once you've made that decision,

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what happened from there?

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Well, you've got to appreciate that the west coast of Canada is a pretty rough place.

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There's not a whole lot of place. And talking to people who paddle canoes and

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kayaks, you recognize that when you're on the water, you're always looking for

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your escape route if something happens.

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Whether it's weather or an accident or whatever condition, you're always looking for an escape route.

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Down the west coast of Canada, there's a lot of places where when you commit

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to your day's paddle, there aren't many places to escape. It's rock walls and forest.

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And so the planning was really intensive.

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You've got to appreciate that we weren't just out paddling. We were in indigenous canoes.

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We were RCMP members and civilians paddling along with indigenous people.

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We were paddling within the indigenous culture, which is different than most

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of your listeners know about.

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We had to learn the protocols. We had to learn how to travel within the culture.

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And most nights, we stopped in indigenous communities where we were culturally,

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with proper protocol, welcome to the community.

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Taken into the community spent the evening in long houses with cultural ceremony and feasts.

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And sleep either in the long house or in our tents or even in the homes that

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we were given at the time next morning up and paddling again in all the weather

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and so on but always within the culture It was emotional.

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It was eye-opening in so many ways.

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The canoe was, you know, you've got a canoeing and kayaking show here.

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The canoe was merely the vehicle that took us back in time.

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The canoe was merely the vehicle that connected us emotionally with the culture

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that we knew so little about when we shoved off in Hazleton.

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I think it always is. It's the tool that helps us get to and experience all

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those places and all those cultures.

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And you mentioned the cultural piece of it a little bit. Let's dig into that.

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Tell us about the blending of cultures and then the experience with the indigenous

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culture. Well, I've paddled continuously since 1997 on the ocean in big canoes.

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Twice a week, 12 months a year at least, we're on the ocean and so on.

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To this day, I sing the indigenous songs that I've learned.

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When I'm in the canoes, even though I paddle in outrigger canoes,

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I'm singing the songs because I've learned that.

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That's part of the energy and the spirit of the canoe. That's part of...

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Talking to the land, to the ancestors, and so on. That's part of what I learned.

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One of the biggest differences, and I've experienced this with other canoe people on journeys,

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when they go on brigade journeys, they come into a community and they come ashore

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and they do their whatever they're going to do for the afternoon or evening

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or overnight or whatever.

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When you travel in a cultural canoe, and you come to shore to a community,

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you don't just shove on shore.

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You approach the shoreline where you're met by the chief and the village or

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the number of people waiting for you.

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You don't touch that shore. You stand off.

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And if you're a fleet of 30 canoes, each canoe introduces itself to that community.

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Somebody in the canoe stands in the canoe and tells them, we are the people

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in the Skookum-Calatan, which was the name of our RCMP canoe.

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We are the people of the Skookum-Calatan canoe.

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We come from and we'd name various places from within the canoe.

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We've traveled many miles today. We're tired. We're hungry. We'd love to come

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ashore and share some stories with you.

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And only then does the people on the shore speak and say, we like your story.

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We'd love to hear from you, come ashore.

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And then we turn those canoes around and you always come in stern first, backwards.

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That's a vulnerable, respectful way, non-aggressive way of coming ashore.

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When we travel with brigade paddlers, they're not used to that.

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We are a different culture in those canoes.

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What's a brigade paddler? Well, a brigade paddler,

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as I understand them, and you'd probably do well to speak directly to one of

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them, but from what I know of them, they're replicating the type of paddling

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that would have been done across North America,

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in the birch bark canoes that we can all envision from our school days and so

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on, the beaver traders and so on.

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And those are the canoes that would come across and come ashore and trade and so on.

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And they traveled, the Courier-de-Bois and the Voyageur, when they would leave

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Montreal to travel up and around the Great Lakes and through the water systems,

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they'd travel as a group.

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And that's how they traveled. And it was with their culture in that canoe that

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they traveled, albeit having learned the paddling from the indigenous people.

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And those canoes if you think of it in terms of

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north america traveled east west east

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and west east back and forth on the

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west coast the indigenous canoes that we are with historically basically traveled

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north south up and down the coast and into the inlets and up the rivers and

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back but traditionally up and

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down the coast completely different cultural teachings of the paddlings.

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Now, once you come ashore, what's that experience like?

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And I understand that's probably different in each location,

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but generally, what's that experience like?

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These already are starting in.

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These were extremely emotional and educational times for all of us.

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You come ashore, you're welcomed. The community is usually in regalia.

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You come ashore, you maybe exchange words once you get to shore and small gifts.

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In some communities, you were paraded through the village and were quite often

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in our red dress uniforms. We've changed maybe a mile back out of sight of the

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village and paddled in in our red surges and so on.

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Quite a colorful ceremony parading through these villages and the drums.

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The drumming hits your heart and you're welcomed with such open friendship.

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And you come into the big house, the big long house with the dirt floor and

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the fire in the center of the floor and the building is resonating with sound.

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And then when you get into, and you're seated in a place of honor usually as

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the visitors and quite often it's the food that happens first And there'll be a spread of food,

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10 yards long sometimes, of tables filled with the seafood and the traditional

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foods of that community.

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And you go along and fill your plate and enjoy your meal.

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And then the evening would happen of songs and stories and legends.

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And we'd be called to the floor to sing our song because we traveled with a

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Vision Quest song that we would sing.

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It was just a sharing of cultures that was so emotional.

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So powerful that to this day, it lives in some of us that travel that journey.

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It can't be removed. It was so powerful.

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Now, is this a recurring journey or is this a one-time activity?

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This was a one-time journey. Okay. The Vision Quest journey probably could never

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happen again, quite honestly, with the RCMP involved.

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The planners, and I was one of them who put that together,

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one of our people, one of our teachers and ocean experts in canoes was a man

00:19:51.788 --> 00:19:59.388
named Chris Cooper, who's a world traveler adventurer, not only in canoes but in many.

00:19:59.488 --> 00:20:07.288
He told us that the planning and the gear and the whole execution of this, he said,

00:20:07.448 --> 00:20:14.008
was akin to a Mount Everest expedition, to put so many people on the water with

00:20:14.008 --> 00:20:16.848
so much support and so much planning and so on.

00:20:16.988 --> 00:20:19.188
It was huge to put together.

00:20:19.668 --> 00:20:25.828
I got to tell you something that it's important for you to hear about the longhouses

00:20:25.828 --> 00:20:29.528
and the halls that we visited up and down the coast.

00:20:29.968 --> 00:20:35.108
We were, a great number of us, members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

00:20:35.108 --> 00:20:38.628
There was probably 30, I'm guessing at the number now, I don't have the exact

00:20:38.628 --> 00:20:42.308
number, 30, 35 RCMP members.

00:20:45.288 --> 00:20:51.668
We would experience in a number of the longhouses, the elders quite often were

00:20:51.668 --> 00:20:55.468
sitting at a place of honor, quite often at the very front row.

00:20:56.528 --> 00:21:02.728
And we'd come in in our red surge and be treated like royalty and so on.

00:21:02.728 --> 00:21:07.108
And quite often, the elders would be sitting with stern faces,

00:21:07.628 --> 00:21:13.728
with their arms crossed quite often. Just the body language wasn't happy. They were just looking.

00:21:14.148 --> 00:21:20.068
And finally, in one village, an old lady spoke up.

00:21:20.348 --> 00:21:24.588
And she said, we don't trust you. We don't like you.

00:21:25.048 --> 00:21:32.568
We really don't feel good with you being in our community. And that was a shock.

00:21:34.228 --> 00:21:43.208
And she went on to explain that you in your red coats are the people that chased

00:21:43.208 --> 00:21:49.348
us down when we escaped from residential school, from starvation,

00:21:49.688 --> 00:21:53.448
from abuse, from what was going on in that horrible school.

00:21:53.688 --> 00:21:57.508
You were the people who caught us and took us back.

00:21:58.068 --> 00:22:03.848
You were the people who in September would come along with the other authorities

00:22:03.848 --> 00:22:10.048
into our villages and search out children and steal them from our community

00:22:10.048 --> 00:22:12.188
to take them to residential schools.

00:22:12.548 --> 00:22:14.048
We don't trust you.

00:22:15.156 --> 00:22:21.256
And I wasn't the only RCMP member who was upset to hear that.

00:22:21.616 --> 00:22:26.496
And it wasn't that we were upset to hear our role.

00:22:26.756 --> 00:22:34.956
We were upset that none of us in our training with the RCMP and training in

00:22:34.956 --> 00:22:38.876
how to do our job and training of the history of the force and the like,

00:22:38.876 --> 00:22:46.016
none of us had ever been told in our training of our role with the residential schools.

00:22:46.636 --> 00:22:52.656
It was a surprise to us. We hadn't done that. We were too young,

00:22:52.656 --> 00:22:54.376
as it were, to have done that.

00:22:54.736 --> 00:23:00.436
But I now know older guys who worked in the force who actually did that,

00:23:00.516 --> 00:23:02.436
and we hadn't been trained.

00:23:03.136 --> 00:23:09.356
This canoe has taken us to education, and now everybody knows.

00:23:10.176 --> 00:23:15.596
So how did you, along this trip, help change that perception going forward?

00:23:16.016 --> 00:23:21.136
First of all, when we heard that, and we heard it numerous times throughout

00:23:21.136 --> 00:23:24.736
the journey, first of all, we accepted it.

00:23:24.956 --> 00:23:27.256
We didn't argue. We didn't, yeah, but.

00:23:28.096 --> 00:23:31.236
We listened. We heard. We owned it.

00:23:31.996 --> 00:23:35.096
I certainly own it. It wasn't me who did it.

00:23:35.256 --> 00:23:43.416
But the way I've worded it is, my police ancestors did that to your ancestors. I acknowledge that.

00:23:43.596 --> 00:23:46.516
And that goes a long way to healing. Sure.

00:23:47.596 --> 00:23:50.896
We developed a trust as we went.

00:23:51.676 --> 00:23:55.916
And you could tell that because by the time we were finished,

00:23:55.956 --> 00:24:00.876
and we were finished and leaving the next day, We would have danced together,

00:24:01.556 --> 00:24:08.096
sung together, ate together, laughed together, made jokes about each other.

00:24:08.376 --> 00:24:13.996
You know, having lived in an indigenous community, one of the signs that...

00:24:14.778 --> 00:24:19.818
You're in, as it were, and we're accepting each other, is when we can joke about

00:24:19.818 --> 00:24:26.338
each other with no undercurrent, with no innuendo, just plain old laugh at each other.

00:24:26.698 --> 00:24:31.618
And when that happens, you know you got them, and you know they got us,

00:24:31.758 --> 00:24:33.818
and you know that things are good.

00:24:33.998 --> 00:24:40.158
To this day, I'm in touch with people up and down the coast that I met or first

00:24:40.158 --> 00:24:45.238
came in contact with in 1997 from My Seat in the Canoe.

00:24:45.618 --> 00:24:50.978
So from the point that you were made aware of that distrust,

00:24:51.258 --> 00:24:55.878
how did that change your entry into the villages succeeding?

00:24:56.898 --> 00:25:02.258
Well, once we kind of knew that, it was easier to go into villages and understand

00:25:02.258 --> 00:25:05.278
why some people were standoffish.

00:25:05.758 --> 00:25:09.738
Why when we would go into the Longhouse, There'd be some that would be just

00:25:09.738 --> 00:25:14.158
sitting, watching, and listening with a stern face. We understood that.

00:25:14.398 --> 00:25:20.358
So it was easier to go over and talk to them and acknowledge and bring up the subject, you know.

00:25:20.658 --> 00:25:25.438
And don't get me wrong, we didn't live and breathe that the whole way down there,

00:25:25.458 --> 00:25:30.018
but we were aware of it and we were able to address it.

00:25:30.138 --> 00:25:32.698
We didn't have to wait to be told all the time.

00:25:32.898 --> 00:25:38.698
We did the accepting and the acknowledgement. So you had multiple canoes on this trip?

00:25:39.118 --> 00:25:43.498
Yeah. So we started off with three canoes out of Hazleton.

00:25:43.998 --> 00:25:48.118
We had trained on the Fraser River.

00:25:48.498 --> 00:25:55.458
We'd trained on the Thompson River in these big canoes, going through big six,

00:25:55.618 --> 00:26:01.458
seven-foot standing waves, dealing with the pillows and the whirlpools and so on.

00:26:01.458 --> 00:26:07.378
We'd trained that way so that, and actually we had a canoe flip on the Thompson

00:26:07.378 --> 00:26:13.598
River when somebody was trying to eddy out and the canoe rolled over in those big 31-foot canoes.

00:26:14.643 --> 00:26:17.823
One of the paddlers on the head, even though we were wearing helmets,

00:26:18.163 --> 00:26:22.063
she ended up in hospital with concussions. So it was serious business.

00:26:22.283 --> 00:26:27.303
We had trained for that. So we came down the Skeena River through some pretty

00:26:27.303 --> 00:26:30.783
good water and handled those canoes pretty skillfully.

00:26:31.083 --> 00:26:36.063
We lifted the canoes and trailered around the Kitsilas Canyon.

00:26:36.063 --> 00:26:38.563
It was just too treacherous to risk.

00:26:39.083 --> 00:26:45.043
And at Terrace, there's a canoe-eating whirlpool under the bridge that we smartened

00:26:45.043 --> 00:26:48.363
up and decided to trailer around that to be safe.

00:26:48.583 --> 00:26:51.903
But other than that, we managed the Skeena River.

00:26:52.443 --> 00:26:58.743
It was a wonderful experience to come down the river and get spoiled by the

00:26:58.743 --> 00:27:02.443
down current pushing it, because pretty soon at Prince Rupert,

00:27:02.503 --> 00:27:07.643
we were going to hit the ocean and be subject to tides and currents and weather and wind and so on.

00:27:07.643 --> 00:27:12.143
So, the majority of the trip is river-based, and then you pop out into the ocean

00:27:12.143 --> 00:27:14.203
at Prince Rupert? Oh, yeah, I don't know.

00:27:14.643 --> 00:27:19.143
210 miles of 1,000 miles is on the Skeena River. Okay.

00:27:19.483 --> 00:27:26.683
The rest, 800 miles zigzagging down the west coast is on the Pacific Ocean.

00:27:26.843 --> 00:27:33.643
Okay. And we were in behind cover most of the time in terms of islands and so

00:27:33.643 --> 00:27:36.063
on, the inside passages, it's called.

00:27:36.063 --> 00:27:41.783
But in that, that's the area that you don't find escape too easily if the weather

00:27:41.783 --> 00:27:45.583
turns because of the land that's beside you.

00:27:45.803 --> 00:27:49.523
We managed every day to get into cover and so on.

00:27:49.643 --> 00:27:53.783
And there were days when we couldn't go on the water because of conditions and

00:27:53.783 --> 00:27:57.963
we'd have to stay in the village an extra day and so on.

00:27:57.963 --> 00:28:03.723
But if you were to check your charts, you'd see there's a place called Cape

00:28:03.723 --> 00:28:06.163
Caution on the west coast.

00:28:06.323 --> 00:28:10.943
And it's basically just north of Vancouver Island over on the mainland.

00:28:11.083 --> 00:28:14.903
And it's a point of land that faces the open ocean.

00:28:15.483 --> 00:28:21.323
And we'd spent the night at a place called Open Bight the night before.

00:28:23.423 --> 00:28:29.703
And we still have the sand from that beach in our gear all these years later

00:28:29.703 --> 00:28:34.183
because the sand on that particular beach was almost as fine as flour.

00:28:34.543 --> 00:28:40.383
Every beach on the West Coast has a different personality and that particular

00:28:40.383 --> 00:28:42.663
beach, it was like white flour.

00:28:42.823 --> 00:28:45.923
And so it's still in our gear all these years later.

00:28:46.523 --> 00:28:51.923
We left there in beautiful calm water. or I actually have a photograph of us paddling out.

00:28:52.183 --> 00:28:57.963
Two hours later, we were in 20 foot swells and we weren't taking them head on.

00:28:58.143 --> 00:29:04.023
We were taking them from starboard to port side, rolling with them because we

00:29:04.023 --> 00:29:05.203
had to go that direction.

00:29:05.463 --> 00:29:12.563
So it was quite the trip. Two hours of basically head down, not a stroke could be missed.

00:29:13.878 --> 00:29:19.118
You just kept going because one wrong stroke and we'd have been on the rocks.

00:29:19.558 --> 00:29:23.138
It was really quite, at one point I yelled out to the crew,

00:29:23.418 --> 00:29:28.218
hold on, I'm going to take a picture and you don't want me using profanity on

00:29:28.218 --> 00:29:33.518
your show because that was the profanity that came from the canoe because I

00:29:33.518 --> 00:29:36.378
was just trying to get everybody's head laughing for a minute.

00:29:36.698 --> 00:29:43.878
It was an attention getting time. We got into the beach on the far side of that

00:29:43.878 --> 00:29:49.598
point called Barnett Bay, and we rested for about an hour, and then we took off again.

00:29:50.098 --> 00:29:56.038
And the big Coast Guard ship, the Gordon Reed, had been following us,

00:29:56.118 --> 00:30:03.598
and they sent out their skiff and ordered us off the water, telling us we were bloody crazy.

00:30:04.258 --> 00:30:09.658
And they actually lifted our canoes onto their ship and took us to Port Hardy

00:30:09.658 --> 00:30:11.678
because we were ready to paddle all the way.

00:30:12.438 --> 00:30:16.298
So that was one of our many adventures in those big canoes.

00:30:16.538 --> 00:30:20.158
Now, you mentioned the Coast Guard ship. So did you self-support,

00:30:20.258 --> 00:30:24.218
meaning that did you have your personal gear in the canoes or did you have another

00:30:24.218 --> 00:30:25.718
vehicle or another boat following?

00:30:26.078 --> 00:30:36.298
We had an indigenous Sane boat traveling with us. its hull full of donated food.

00:30:36.638 --> 00:30:39.658
One of our people supporting us.

00:30:40.818 --> 00:30:44.278
It was the owner of Super Value at the time, and through his food connections,

00:30:45.038 --> 00:30:52.478
they donated literally a hull full of food for us to support us,

00:30:52.658 --> 00:30:58.438
which incidentally, when we get to some villages that really couldn't afford to be,

00:30:59.277 --> 00:31:03.197
you know, accepting all those people. We'd help them with food from our hull.

00:31:03.417 --> 00:31:06.157
We also had two yachts along.

00:31:06.537 --> 00:31:11.897
Two men, Greg Grant and Blaine Hagedorn, brought their yachts along,

00:31:12.057 --> 00:31:16.417
and they served as, because we were alternating crews in and out,

00:31:16.757 --> 00:31:20.557
the canoes would start paddling in the morning at 6.30, 7 in the morning,

00:31:20.717 --> 00:31:24.257
and maybe not finish till 5, 6, 7 at night.

00:31:24.637 --> 00:31:28.917
So throughout the day, there'd be two crews. One would paddle till noon-ish,

00:31:28.917 --> 00:31:34.617
and the other would take off from there to keep the canoes moving. So they supported us.

00:31:34.897 --> 00:31:39.177
And we had a Zodiac along with us. And in various communities,

00:31:39.177 --> 00:31:43.857
they'd send a boat along with us to support us for half a day or so.

00:31:43.997 --> 00:31:48.357
So we were able to do all of that with help that way. Okay.

00:31:48.737 --> 00:31:52.197
So you had plenty of support along the way for that.

00:31:52.197 --> 00:31:56.997
We were really well supported and it was a community affair.

00:31:56.997 --> 00:32:03.757
Almost all of our gear was donated by a company called Navarro,

00:32:03.877 --> 00:32:05.497
who now no longer exists.

00:32:05.677 --> 00:32:08.337
But they clothed all of us.

00:32:08.617 --> 00:32:12.637
The paddles came from Clipper Canoe in Abbotsford.

00:32:12.957 --> 00:32:16.797
The canoe itself was made at Clipper Canoe in Abbotsford.

00:32:17.117 --> 00:32:22.697
We were supported because of the cause, because we were going to be building

00:32:22.697 --> 00:32:29.117
a recovery center for addictions here in British Columbia. It was just universal

00:32:29.117 --> 00:32:31.217
support everywhere we went.

00:32:31.417 --> 00:32:35.597
The media produced a documentary about the trip.

00:32:35.857 --> 00:32:39.437
We had reporters embedded with us on the journey.

00:32:39.657 --> 00:32:45.957
It was a big historic journey for the RCMP here in Canada.

00:32:46.457 --> 00:32:49.097
So how did you arrange the connections with the villages?

00:32:49.657 --> 00:32:55.957
Well, that happened because we're the RCMP, because we have RCMP members in

00:32:55.957 --> 00:33:00.977
most of these communities and certainly associated to every community on the coast.

00:33:01.217 --> 00:33:05.737
That happened basically the year ahead of time, six months ahead of time,

00:33:05.937 --> 00:33:12.617
where RCMP members would visit each village and say, look, we're coming through

00:33:12.617 --> 00:33:14.517
with traditional canoes.

00:33:14.657 --> 00:33:16.497
We're traveling within your protocols.

00:33:16.777 --> 00:33:22.657
We're traveling within the culture as we will learn it and absorb it on the way.

00:33:22.877 --> 00:33:25.417
Would you be interested in us stopping here?

00:33:25.897 --> 00:33:27.617
And virtually everybody said yes.

00:33:29.165 --> 00:33:32.405
You know, I'll tell you something here that's important to know, too.

00:33:34.225 --> 00:33:40.225
The non-Indigenous, the white man, let's use that term, throughout the early

00:33:40.225 --> 00:33:46.385
history, stole an awful lot of the culture, took it away from the Indigenous people.

00:33:47.525 --> 00:33:53.125
Their potlatches, their cultural ceremonies were forbidden by law.

00:33:53.405 --> 00:33:55.585
You'd be arrested if you were potlatching.

00:33:56.185 --> 00:34:01.965
Residential schools took the language away. Their artwork was literally stolen

00:34:01.965 --> 00:34:07.485
from their communities and sold or given to museums around the world.

00:34:07.665 --> 00:34:10.265
Even now, they're being repatriated back.

00:34:10.665 --> 00:34:17.005
The stories associated with totem poles and artwork was basically stolen.

00:34:17.005 --> 00:34:20.205
You're forbidden to talk about it. It was gone.

00:34:20.585 --> 00:34:23.665
And with that went the canoe culture.

00:34:24.085 --> 00:34:30.905
The canoe, which has a spirit, which has a story, which has an origin in a community,

00:34:31.165 --> 00:34:34.545
that was discouraged as well.

00:34:34.725 --> 00:34:41.725
So an awful lot of these communities had no community contact with canoes anymore.

00:34:42.365 --> 00:34:48.345
Now they fished from motor vessels and the like, but the canoe culture in many

00:34:48.345 --> 00:34:51.985
of these villages was gone. And so.

00:34:53.057 --> 00:34:57.297
In one village I visited, this was after, a year or two after,

00:34:57.497 --> 00:35:00.817
I visited a village in the RCMP canoe.

00:35:01.177 --> 00:35:06.297
We were met, this was on the Fraser River at Chehalis Reserve.

00:35:07.037 --> 00:35:14.137
And when we came in and stopped our canoes and did the protocol to come ashore,

00:35:14.377 --> 00:35:19.557
and then turned around and came ashore, the chief, Ron John,

00:35:20.197 --> 00:35:22.537
he met us with his elders.

00:35:22.537 --> 00:35:29.137
And he had a circle of about a dozen older women in their regalia and we exchanged

00:35:29.137 --> 00:35:31.137
gifts and words and then that was it.

00:35:31.257 --> 00:35:36.317
Now we were going to go for lunch with them and we pulled the canoes ashore and we were going to go.

00:35:36.437 --> 00:35:39.817
But I talked to the chief, and this is really important to hear.

00:35:40.017 --> 00:35:45.477
I talked to the chief, I said, Chief Feek, I noticed that a number of the old

00:35:45.477 --> 00:35:48.517
ladies were crying. Can you tell me why?

00:35:49.057 --> 00:35:54.437
And he said, we had been about a half hour late getting there.

00:35:54.517 --> 00:36:00.457
And he said, we got down here a half hour before you came, and we were standing talking.

00:36:00.757 --> 00:36:05.277
And these old ladies, some of them would be in their 90s, they were telling

00:36:05.277 --> 00:36:07.277
us, because this village had

00:36:07.277 --> 00:36:12.037
been there for hundreds, maybe thousands of years, so it's got history.

00:36:12.377 --> 00:36:17.297
He said, these old ladies were telling us how they would stand on this beach

00:36:17.297 --> 00:36:22.797
with their great grannies and hold hands and look up the river.

00:36:23.477 --> 00:36:27.877
And the great grannies, now you've got to appreciate if these ladies were 90

00:36:27.877 --> 00:36:36.957
in 1999, their great grannies would have been born in the 1800s, maybe 1850.

00:36:38.417 --> 00:36:43.157
The old ladies said that we used to stand as little girls holding our granny's

00:36:43.157 --> 00:36:44.637
hand and looking up the river.

00:36:45.397 --> 00:36:51.297
And they'd tell us of the great canoes coming and visiting, and of the wonderful

00:36:51.297 --> 00:36:54.377
things that happened when the great canoes came.

00:36:55.157 --> 00:37:00.337
And they said those were only stories. We thought we would die,

00:37:00.617 --> 00:37:06.357
said these old ladies now, never having seen great canoes come to our village.

00:37:07.217 --> 00:37:13.757
And today we did. So it wasn't that the communities stopped using the canoes,

00:37:13.857 --> 00:37:16.237
it's that the canoes were taken from the communities.

00:37:16.437 --> 00:37:21.117
In some cases, the canoes were literally taken because they were artwork or

00:37:21.117 --> 00:37:24.697
they were needed for museums around the world or whatever it might be.

00:37:24.857 --> 00:37:28.877
And the culture had been lost. As we traveled the West Coast,

00:37:29.157 --> 00:37:33.917
now, don't get me wrong, there are dugout canoes and there were communities

00:37:33.917 --> 00:37:38.897
in our communities who use dugout canoes to this day, huge dugout canoes.

00:37:39.707 --> 00:37:42.367
And they travel in them, and they journey every year with them.

00:37:42.387 --> 00:37:44.647
And we ultimately met with them on this journey.

00:37:45.087 --> 00:37:49.487
But many of the communities, even with dugouts, when we would come into their

00:37:49.487 --> 00:37:54.147
villages and be in the longhouse, they'd, of course, tease us about our tonka

00:37:54.147 --> 00:37:56.747
toys, our plastic canoes.

00:37:59.267 --> 00:38:04.427
But when we'd leave, and they'd get talking, they'd realize the versatility

00:38:04.427 --> 00:38:09.467
of that canoe, the speed of the canoe, the ease of moving it on land,

00:38:09.807 --> 00:38:15.447
the ease of taking it up and storing it so that it can be used year after year and so on.

00:38:15.847 --> 00:38:21.807
And so while Clipper Canoe built these three canoes for us to take on this journey,

00:38:22.287 --> 00:38:30.347
now all these years later, Clipper Canoe has sold hundreds of these canoes up and down the coast.

00:38:30.927 --> 00:38:35.587
There's an annual journey here on the west coast called Tribal Journeys,

00:38:35.587 --> 00:38:41.147
And it's all indigenous people who travel down into the States one year and

00:38:41.147 --> 00:38:44.307
maybe up the west coast of Canada the next, back and forth.

00:38:44.567 --> 00:38:51.907
And they travel with hundreds of canoes. But there'll be dugouts and the Tonka toys.

00:38:52.207 --> 00:38:56.367
There will be the plastic canoes that they laughed about.

00:38:56.567 --> 00:39:02.007
But many, many, many, many communities on the west coast have got those canoes.

00:39:02.127 --> 00:39:07.707
They still travel culturally. They still travel safely, but some of them use

00:39:07.707 --> 00:39:10.007
these canoes as well as their dugouts.

00:39:10.567 --> 00:39:13.427
So it's come back then.

00:39:14.907 --> 00:39:19.847
Absolutely. Excellent. Way back in 1997.

00:39:21.867 --> 00:39:29.307
It was, quote me on the year, but Frankie Brown out of Bella Bella did the,

00:39:29.307 --> 00:39:36.107
got to us, I think it was called, canoe journey from Bella Bella to Vancouver for the big World Fair.

00:39:36.487 --> 00:39:43.267
And that was really the beginning of the resurgence of the canoe culture on the West Coast.

00:39:44.217 --> 00:39:48.517
And now every year, if you want a canoe story, there's one for you,

00:39:48.737 --> 00:39:53.217
is the tribal journeys canoe journey that now happens every year.

00:39:53.357 --> 00:39:58.637
And basically they're retracing the canoe journeys that their people have done

00:39:58.637 --> 00:40:01.377
for 6, 7, 8, 10,000 years.

00:40:01.397 --> 00:40:04.317
And it happens every year here on the West Coast.

00:40:04.497 --> 00:40:06.957
And we joined up with them on this journey.

00:40:07.197 --> 00:40:14.117
We were honored when we got to Port Hardy, to the reserve called Fort Rupert.

00:40:14.217 --> 00:40:17.137
We joined up with Tribal Journeys.

00:40:17.757 --> 00:40:26.377
Imagine three canoes full of cops, white cops, traveling now with the Tribal Journeys.

00:40:26.377 --> 00:40:34.517
It was a huge healing experience, and it was really wonderful to travel in a

00:40:34.517 --> 00:40:36.377
fleet of canoes like that.

00:40:37.117 --> 00:40:43.737
And I go back now to the songs. Every canoe has its songs. Every culture has

00:40:43.737 --> 00:40:46.257
its songs that they sing on the water.

00:40:47.057 --> 00:40:51.517
And so all day long as you travel, somebody's singing a song.

00:40:51.717 --> 00:40:54.597
It was our radio station as we traveled on the water.

00:40:54.757 --> 00:41:00.697
You're always hearing the various songs traveling, and they do provide energy on the water.

00:41:00.857 --> 00:41:04.377
They do provide solace in the long hours.

00:41:04.377 --> 00:41:12.097
They do provide diversion when the conditions get bad and you hear a song somewhere

00:41:12.097 --> 00:41:17.497
motivating you, encouraging you, and assuring you that it's going to get you through.

00:41:18.317 --> 00:41:20.317
Would you be able to share one of those songs?

00:41:22.697 --> 00:41:27.897
I sing on the water all the time to sing on the river.

00:41:28.797 --> 00:41:32.177
Okay, I'll sing a stanza or a verse.

00:41:32.337 --> 00:41:36.017
All right. First, I'll tell you, though, that when we were training on the Skeena

00:41:36.017 --> 00:41:41.317
River, excuse me, on the Thompson River, just out of Kamloops,

00:41:41.997 --> 00:41:47.197
we were three days, we would travel about 19, 20 miles down the river,

00:41:47.937 --> 00:41:53.957
trailer back up, go down the river again, working the back eddies and the big

00:41:53.957 --> 00:41:58.797
standing waves and the whirlpools, learning how to maneuver around them and so on.

00:41:58.797 --> 00:42:05.477
And at night, we would camp up in the big Ponderosa Pines up in the flats above the river.

00:42:05.917 --> 00:42:10.357
And we'd have a campfire in our tents, and we'd sit around the campfire and

00:42:10.357 --> 00:42:14.857
talk about the day and what it's going to be tomorrow and so on and so on.

00:42:15.017 --> 00:42:17.117
One night, sitting at the campfire.

00:42:18.138 --> 00:42:23.438
Set of headlights came up the dirt two-track road to our campsite,

00:42:24.058 --> 00:42:29.398
stopped, and out got an indigenous woman from the Kamloops area.

00:42:30.118 --> 00:42:37.038
And she approached our circle, which was probably about 30 or 40 of us there at the time.

00:42:37.538 --> 00:42:42.618
And she asked permission to sit and visit with us and did. And she told us that

00:42:42.618 --> 00:42:48.838
by now our Vision Quest event and journey was in the news.

00:42:49.038 --> 00:42:52.898
People knew about what we were training for. So she had heard about our journey.

00:42:53.418 --> 00:42:58.358
And she said, this is really important to me personally and to our community

00:42:58.358 --> 00:43:04.118
and to all Indigenous people is finding healing from addictions.

00:43:04.638 --> 00:43:09.818
And she said, it's so important that it's been weighing in her heart.

00:43:09.818 --> 00:43:17.638
And she said, a song came to me, and this is quite often how we receive songs, is in this fashion.

00:43:17.818 --> 00:43:21.678
She said, a song came to me, and I'm told that I'm to give it to you.

00:43:22.198 --> 00:43:29.678
It's yours from now, from this day on, she said, and it's yours to use on the water and to share.

00:43:30.218 --> 00:43:37.338
And so for the rest of that evening in the darkness, we sat and talked to her

00:43:37.338 --> 00:43:41.618
and learned the song, and we sang it together numerous times,

00:43:41.998 --> 00:43:44.718
back and forth, back and forth, till we learned it.

00:43:45.178 --> 00:43:52.058
And on this journey, there wasn't a day goes by that we didn't sing the Vision Quest song.

00:43:52.418 --> 00:43:58.598
Had I known you were going to asked me to sing it. I brought my drum up, but I don't have it here.

00:44:00.198 --> 00:44:05.258
This is the Vision Quest song that she sang. Usually it's done in four verses.

00:44:05.998 --> 00:44:08.498
I will just do one for you.

00:44:07.760 --> 00:44:36.720
Music.

00:44:09.558 --> 00:44:23.838
Hai, nai, nai, oh, hai, nai, oh, hai, oh, hai, oh, hai, oh, hai, nai, nai, oh, hai, nai,

00:44:39.498 --> 00:44:43.078
That's one verse of the Vision Quest song.

00:44:43.298 --> 00:44:50.258
Thank you. Given to us that day on the bench land above the Thompson River near Kamloops.

00:44:50.818 --> 00:44:56.118
Thank you. Thank you for sharing that, for sharing the journey That's a first

00:44:56.118 --> 00:45:01.858
for me singing on the radio So tell us a little bit about the Vision Quest Society.

00:45:03.087 --> 00:45:09.607
Well, VisionQuest started when this journey, actually before the journey began,

00:45:09.607 --> 00:45:11.827
because we had already got the monies together.

00:45:12.807 --> 00:45:18.827
And it went through a number of years of difficulty in getting it together.

00:45:19.047 --> 00:45:21.347
There were always VisionQuest recovery houses.

00:45:21.987 --> 00:45:25.467
We had various people heading it up and helping us get it going.

00:45:26.087 --> 00:45:28.627
But government support was meager.

00:45:29.587 --> 00:45:34.187
The Vision Quest recovery program is one of abstinence.

00:45:34.267 --> 00:45:39.167
It's not about controlled use. It's not about using alternate drugs.

00:45:39.447 --> 00:45:45.487
It's about detoxing and abstinence and the 12-step program.

00:45:45.887 --> 00:45:49.847
And it works for some, of course, not for everybody.

00:45:50.167 --> 00:45:55.007
And gradually over the years, Vision Quest has stubbornly grown.

00:45:55.007 --> 00:45:58.267
We have so many

00:45:58.267 --> 00:46:01.267
people who have found recovery through Vision

00:46:01.267 --> 00:46:08.587
Quest we have both men and women benefiting from this and presently as we speak

00:46:08.587 --> 00:46:13.487
in a place called Logan Lake British Columbia which is up near Merritt in the

00:46:13.487 --> 00:46:20.527
south central part of British Columbia is the Vision Quest recovery house known as The Lake.

00:46:20.827 --> 00:46:28.007
And as we speak, there are 60 to 90 men in that recovery house in the six-month

00:46:28.007 --> 00:46:31.587
or more program to find recovery.

00:46:31.827 --> 00:46:39.147
And the RCMP proudly were involved with the beginning of this because it is crime prevention.

00:46:39.407 --> 00:46:47.487
If that person who's been subject to any kind of crime relative to their addiction

00:46:47.487 --> 00:46:52.407
now finds recovery, that crime isn't happening anymore.

00:46:52.567 --> 00:46:56.347
And that's the first job of a police officer, believe it or not.

00:46:56.467 --> 00:46:59.207
It's not to give traffic tickets or arrest somebody.

00:46:59.347 --> 00:47:02.707
The first job of a cop is crime prevention.

00:47:03.067 --> 00:47:05.707
And that's where Vision Quest is right now.

00:47:07.084 --> 00:47:11.964
Thank you for your work creating Alternatives to Addiction. Yeah, and it continues.

00:47:12.424 --> 00:47:17.104
You should know that out of this canoe culture that I was introduced to,

00:47:17.504 --> 00:47:22.824
when we finished that journey, when I touched the beach at Victoria,

00:47:23.424 --> 00:47:28.624
the commissioner of the RCMP was literally standing on the beach waiting for

00:47:28.624 --> 00:47:32.144
us to shake our hand as we stepped off out of the canoe.

00:47:33.004 --> 00:47:37.944
And I hadn't planned on saying it. as I stepped out of the canoe,

00:47:38.124 --> 00:47:42.904
I said, this cannot be the last time this happens.

00:47:43.584 --> 00:47:50.844
And anyway, ever since then, ever since then, there's been a journey called pulling together.

00:47:51.524 --> 00:47:59.064
And pulling together started way back then in, I think it was 2001 was the first journey.

00:47:59.064 --> 00:48:05.844
And that is police officers and non-Indigenous people and government employees

00:48:05.844 --> 00:48:08.524
working with Indigenous people.

00:48:08.744 --> 00:48:15.724
And it's usually a seven, eight, ten-day journey every year that happens here in British Columbia.

00:48:16.044 --> 00:48:19.564
And it's been going continuously ever since.

00:48:20.404 --> 00:48:26.344
What I like to say about that canoe that we traveled in down the West Coast,

00:48:26.344 --> 00:48:29.744
As we traveled, it left in its wake—.

00:48:30.733 --> 00:48:39.953
Friendship, understanding, cooperation, a rekindled legacy, and it continues to this day.

00:48:40.153 --> 00:48:45.973
And every pulling together journey that's a child of Vision Quest sees anywhere

00:48:45.973 --> 00:48:54.133
up to 15, 20 canoes traveling 8, 10 days a year, continuing the good work.

00:48:54.133 --> 00:48:58.413
Because as much as Vision Quest was about finding a recovery center,

00:48:58.773 --> 00:49:05.293
we never realized how powerful the cultural and emotional connection would be

00:49:05.293 --> 00:49:07.033
with the indigenous people.

00:49:07.433 --> 00:49:10.613
And that's what pulling together is continuing.

00:49:10.953 --> 00:49:19.473
It's continuing that mending, that cultural work, and that appeasement understanding

00:49:19.473 --> 00:49:24.913
that happens with us. Well, thank you for sharing that, and thank you for furthering the message.

00:49:25.913 --> 00:49:29.273
It was an experience. It was life-altering.

00:49:30.013 --> 00:49:37.273
I can open my journal at any given page any day and read it and just be taken right back in time.

00:49:37.413 --> 00:49:41.453
See, you can imagine for the indigenous people what it must be like to have

00:49:41.453 --> 00:49:45.733
that memory inside of them come back.

00:49:45.833 --> 00:49:49.593
Those old ladies who saw the canoe come in for the first time in their life.

00:49:49.593 --> 00:49:55.973
Imagine that memory that comes back for them and rekindles that in their community.

00:49:56.913 --> 00:50:00.333
Absolutely. Ed, how can listeners connect with you if they want to learn more

00:50:00.333 --> 00:50:04.673
about your journey, about Vision Quest, or have any other questions?

00:50:05.193 --> 00:50:08.473
Yeah. First of all, I'm an artist, so I have a website.

00:50:14.793 --> 00:50:20.213
Edhillart.com. And you'll see in there that each painting has a story with it

00:50:20.213 --> 00:50:25.473
that's the indigenous teaching that every piece of artwork has a story so an

00:50:25.473 --> 00:50:27.193
awful lot of them are canoe related,

00:50:28.888 --> 00:50:34.568
The canoes themselves are Clipper Canoe, Western Canoeing and Kayaking.

00:50:34.708 --> 00:50:42.268
You can talk to them at clippercanoes.com because I'm sure somebody's going to want to see those.

00:50:42.668 --> 00:50:45.828
Incidentally, they don't make the Northern Dancer Canoe anymore.

00:50:46.068 --> 00:50:50.568
As much as we traveled in those big heavy ocean waters in it all that time and

00:50:50.568 --> 00:50:52.548
never had a mishap, it's fine.

00:50:52.928 --> 00:50:59.108
To a newcomer, it feels very jumpy. So they've actually created two new canoes

00:50:59.108 --> 00:51:05.868
of the West Coast design, and they're far more stable feeling, and bigger, and bigger.

00:51:06.288 --> 00:51:11.448
If this was 31 feet, I think they're 41 feet or more. They're big canoes.

00:51:11.568 --> 00:51:13.688
Wow. Where are those three canoes today that you had?

00:51:14.088 --> 00:51:18.468
Pardon? Do you know where those three canoes are today that you used? Oh, boy.

00:51:20.528 --> 00:51:26.668
The RCMP canoe, yeah, the one canoe belongs still to Chris Cooper.

00:51:26.868 --> 00:51:29.268
The other one belongs to Roy Vickers.

00:51:29.508 --> 00:51:37.728
The RCMP canoe, which was historic, and if you look up Vision Quest at the website,

00:51:37.968 --> 00:51:39.688
you'll see pictures of that canoe,

00:51:40.348 --> 00:51:45.708
visionquestsociety.org, visionquestsociety.org.

00:51:46.528 --> 00:51:56.128
That historic RCMP canoe, the RCMP actually sold it. Okay. I couldn't believe it.

00:51:56.448 --> 00:52:01.708
But it went through Clipper Canoe. And I happened to be going through Clipper

00:52:01.708 --> 00:52:06.568
Canoe one day, and Lynn Smith said to me, come and look at this.

00:52:06.608 --> 00:52:12.388
And I went and saw my old friend, Skookum-Calitan, up on sawhorses at the back.

00:52:12.388 --> 00:52:16.508
And I said, well, the RCMP is selling it. It's going to be going to Oregon,

00:52:16.508 --> 00:52:21.248
and they're going to sandblast off all the crests and make their own canoes.

00:52:21.428 --> 00:52:26.228
I made a call to Gibson's, where I live, and the Sunshine Coast.

00:52:26.948 --> 00:52:33.668
And five hours later, we had a consortium of people who put $500 each in,

00:52:33.828 --> 00:52:38.348
as well as the local school district, who bought a great portion of it,

00:52:38.448 --> 00:52:40.128
and we bought that canoe.

00:52:41.293 --> 00:52:45.473
And that canoe, Skookum-Kalatan, lives here on the Sunshine Coast.

00:52:45.733 --> 00:52:52.573
We take school kids out in that canoe every year and educate them about the

00:52:52.573 --> 00:52:55.253
culture, about the canoe history.

00:52:56.153 --> 00:53:01.573
We teach them and let them, and these are Indigenous kids, let them live their

00:53:01.573 --> 00:53:03.793
canoe culture in a canoe.

00:53:04.153 --> 00:53:10.773
So the good work of that canoe goes on today. Great memories and a great way to continue the legacy.

00:53:11.833 --> 00:53:15.653
Yeah. I should mention, do you know the name David Foster? Okay.

00:53:16.233 --> 00:53:18.573
David Foster, the musician, the

00:53:18.573 --> 00:53:24.273
composer, the composer of the music for Chariots of Fire, that ilk of God.

00:53:24.453 --> 00:53:28.333
He gave us a song in 97. It's called A River of Love.

00:53:29.253 --> 00:53:33.713
And that's our song. If you were to Google it, you may be able to find it.

00:53:33.793 --> 00:53:37.013
I don't know if it's still around or not. we'll see if we can track that down

00:53:37.013 --> 00:53:40.393
and we'll add that to the show notes and you've given me lots of other things

00:53:40.393 --> 00:53:42.313
to add to the show notes and we'll talk offline.

00:53:42.513 --> 00:53:45.893
There's a few other things that I think I'm interested in learning about.

00:53:45.993 --> 00:53:48.773
You mentioned the documentary so we'll see if that's out there and we can include

00:53:48.773 --> 00:53:52.013
that in the notes for folks to check up on later. Okay.

00:53:53.073 --> 00:53:57.293
Ed, this has been fantastic learning from you and hearing about the journey

00:53:57.293 --> 00:53:58.513
and about Vision Quest Society.

00:53:58.793 --> 00:54:02.353
I've got one final question for you and that is who else would you like to hear

00:54:02.353 --> 00:54:03.953
as a future guest on Paddling the Blue?

00:54:05.073 --> 00:54:11.233
Well, there's a lot of them because of the very nature of what I do and the

00:54:11.233 --> 00:54:13.093
contacts I have and continuing.

00:54:13.533 --> 00:54:18.753
And I'm going to give you a name of one person to call, and she will literally

00:54:18.753 --> 00:54:26.793
exhaust you with the number of people she can connect you with that have done crazy canoe journeys.

00:54:27.193 --> 00:54:35.873
And that's Lynn Smith, L-Y-N-N-E, Smith. and that's at clipper canoes.com.

00:54:37.073 --> 00:54:43.493
And Western Canoeing and Kayaking, Clipper Canoes, provision an awful lot of

00:54:43.493 --> 00:54:46.953
these journeys somehow with their canoes and other stuff.

00:54:47.073 --> 00:54:49.133
And they end up on these great journeys.

00:54:49.413 --> 00:54:52.873
And if anybody can connect you, rather than give you one or two names,

00:54:53.073 --> 00:54:56.653
I'm giving you access just to a ton of names, John.

00:54:56.973 --> 00:55:02.873
All right. Well, I will connect with you separately and we'll get Lynn's information and connect with her.

00:55:03.293 --> 00:55:06.633
So, Ed, thank you again. This has been wonderful. I appreciate your time and

00:55:06.633 --> 00:55:07.613
appreciate your journey.

00:55:07.953 --> 00:55:11.873
Again, thank you for all your work in creating alternatives to addiction and

00:55:11.873 --> 00:55:13.913
congratulations on your own journey.

00:55:14.333 --> 00:55:19.993
Well, thank you. And I just think it's very relevant that a canoe did that job. Yes, thank you.

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00:56:06.808 --> 00:56:11.468
A big thanks to Ed for sharing the 1,000-mile journey along Canada's West Coast,

00:56:11.508 --> 00:56:15.428
for his work creating alternatives to addiction, and for providing that respectful

00:56:15.428 --> 00:56:17.548
insight into the cultural experience.

00:56:17.768 --> 00:56:21.868
I really appreciate that Ed was willing to share that song with us. That was really cool.

00:56:22.248 --> 00:56:26.008
Ed mentioned a documentary about the trip, and you'll find that and more resources

00:56:26.008 --> 00:56:32.508
about the trip and Vision Quest Society at www.paddlingtheblue.com slash 147.

00:56:32.828 --> 00:56:34.528
If you're interested in joining me in

00:56:34.528 --> 00:56:40.468
Alaska in July 2026, learn more at www.paddlingtheblue.com slash Alaska.

00:56:40.708 --> 00:56:45.408
And if you're not already a subscriber to onlineseacayaking.com or onlinewhitewater.com,

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00:56:55.328 --> 00:56:58.488
Thanks again for listening and I look forward to bringing you the next episode

00:56:58.488 --> 00:57:00.248
of the Paddling the Blue podcast.

00:57:01.468 --> 00:57:05.028
Thank you for listening to Paddling the Blue. You can subscribe to Paddling

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00:57:24.708 --> 00:57:27.808
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