Food Packing Day, June 5th

Food Packing Day at Les Voyageurs is pretty much what it sounds like, we pack (almost*) all our food, for our trip this summer. After Jerky Day the crew decided we were going to be USA themed! We dressed our best and showed up and had a lot of fun. The crew divvied themselves up tasks to try to make this go by quickly. We had Peter running the show, telling Caleb and Oliver what to go get, and how much of it. Meanwhile Sasha, Ayden, Marcus and Maveric were busy cutting string, creating labels, and bagging the food. The crew was very detail orientated, taking preventative measures to prevent molding, navigating through a peanut allergy, and having their share of fun. Anyways we took a quick lunch break at Culver’s, came back and finished the food with some assistance from the Men’s Far North Crew. The Day was a success and that is one thing checked off the list before we’re ready for Canada!

June 2nd, Jerky Day

The best preparation day at Les Voyageurs! Today the crew met at Greg Trigg’s house, who has famously hosted Jerky Day for past, present, and future voyageurs, big shout out to Greg! The crew all dressed up in green to celebrate and started working away. The goal of jerky day is to convert slabs of beef into strips of beef jerky. The guys would get dropped off slices of beef, and would have to trim the fat out, and separate the meat into one container, and the fat into another. It is a long tradition for the fat bucket to get dumped if the crew is doing a poor job, a few of the guides came around and dumped the fat… yikes. Anyways the boys cut a lot of beef, put it into containers and put marinate in them, and stored them before we dehydrated them. Afterwards the crew hit a quick stop at chipotle to refuel, and went to Sierra and Savers to look at some trail clothes, and to choose a theme for food packing day!

Third and Fourth Meetings

Hey everyone! The boys have started to get busier, on our meeting on Sunday the 17th the boys started by setting up a tarp. It’s a task they will do everyday on trail, and it gives an opportunity for them to utilize the knots they have just learned. Afterwards we went inside and took a look at our kettle pack. The kettle pack is the pack that stores almost all of the crews gear besides the food and anything personal. They got a rundown of what everything is, and how to pack kettle. They split into two teams and had a little friendly competition to see which team could pack the better kettle, some of the other guides were very impressed, they did very well! That was all we had time for!

For our meeting on Saturday the 23rd we crushed a quick portage out, to the red mail box and back. Afterwards we started looking at maps, and started thinking about route ideas. After a shift to starting in Pikangikum the crew has some more flexibility and potential to do what they were wanting to do earlier when first talking about the route. They started putting together potential route ideas, places they could resupply, and how each route may affect which river they may end on. They were getting pretty pumped up and talking over the pros and cons of everything. After getting slightly burnt out they practiced on their knots and P Cord wrapping skills, then finished by eating a very needed meal at McDonalds!

First and Second Meetings

1st Meeting:

We started the meeting out by having a little tour of basecamp and we got to know each other a little bit. Shortly after we went over some crew expectations and goals we had for the summer. We then went out and learned how to flip up a canoe onto our shoulders the proper way, and went for a short portage. The boys went out in pairs to the tennis courts on Pine Point, switched half way and came back, a 0.3 mile portage. They then took some time and tried to put all of our maps together, after learning a little trick they made quick work and had a complete map of the whole park. I pointed some things out like, 4th of July falls, the famous fire tower, some big portages, and much more to the boys. The boys used this time to brainstorm a little and voice their preferences for a route and an idea of what they may want. Shortly after we took some time to learn some knots, the bowline, square, and taught line, and that was it. Very successful first meeting!

Second Meeting:

The main agenda of this meeting was figuring out our food for the summer. The whole crew decides what food we are bringing and how much of it. They were very diligent with this, planning for around 80 meals can be a big task. They were working together well, and were also smart by looking ahead on how it may be to cook the meals, and how it may be to pack and portage some of the food. Afterwards we crushed a quick half mile portage, and came back to learn the paddle strokes. There are three fundamental strokes, the power stroke, J stroke, and the C stroke. The power moves the boat forwards while the J and C strokes turn the boat. Learning how to paddling correctly can be tricky and feel somewhat counterintuitive, so we first practiced it on land, and then we did some practiced it on the dock. Shortly after we worked on our knots a little bit, and wrapping the p-cord, and we finished up!

Hey Everyone

Hey everyone I am Grant Cvancara (“Swan - Chair - Ah”) and I’ll be your guide for this summer! I am currently a sophomore at the University of Saint Thomas studying Mechanical Engineering, in my free time I like to be outside, go running, rock climb, whitewater kayak/canoe, and much more. I have gone on three prior trips with Voyageurs. My first year was in 2022 and we did the Etomami River in Manitoba. I came back in 2024 for my Far North trip and did the Coppermine River and explored remote parts of the Northwest Territories and Nunavut. I came back last summer to guide my first ever trip which was in Wabakimi Provincial Park in Ontario.

You can check in here and see blog posts after crew meetings. I’m totally stoked to guide this crew this summer, if you feel the need to contact me you are more than welcome to.