JACKPINE PADDLE
Starting in the summer of 2020, Ayalik Fund partnered with Jackpine Paddle of Yellowknife to offer Inuit youth, boys and girls 14-15, the opportunity to participate in a mobile canoe camp, to learn new skills, enjoy the wilderness setting just an hour outside of Yellowknife, discover themselves and make new friends. We are excited about this new partnership.
For the first year of the program, Jackpine Paddle organized a two-week canoe expedition for 12 boys from Kugaaruk and Cambridge Bay. After an introductory canoe skills camp, they paddled 60km through Tibbitt Lake, the Pensive Lakes, and down the rapids of the Cameron River.
Every year since then, Jackpine Paddle has outfitted and co-led separate 12-day canoe trips for boys and girls, 14-15, in the wilderness areas surrounding Yellowknife. These experiences have become a cornerstone of the Ayalik Expeditions program, with some youths returning for a second trip, and some going on to the more challenging “senior” trips for older youth held every summer in wilderness regions of northern Québec and Ontario.
In addition to the Jackpine tripping staff, every canoe trip has two assigned Ayalik staff: an experienced outdoor educator as Expedition Leader, and a trained mental health worker as an added resource and counsellor for the youth.
For the first year of the program, Jackpine Paddle organized a two-week canoe expedition for 12 boys from Kugaaruk and Cambridge Bay. After an introductory canoe skills camp, they paddled 60km through Tibbitt Lake, the Pensive Lakes, and down the rapids of the Cameron River.
Every year since then, Jackpine Paddle has outfitted and co-led separate 12-day canoe trips for boys and girls, 14-15, in the wilderness areas surrounding Yellowknife. These experiences have become a cornerstone of the Ayalik Expeditions program, with some youths returning for a second trip, and some going on to the more challenging “senior” trips for older youth held every summer in wilderness regions of northern Québec and Ontario.
In addition to the Jackpine tripping staff, every canoe trip has two assigned Ayalik staff: an experienced outdoor educator as Expedition Leader, and a trained mental health worker as an added resource and counsellor for the youth.
The 12 boys from Nunavut, with the trip leaders, ready for a day of paddling, 2020.
Hector Inuksaq (14) and Terrence Qavvik (15), both from Kugaaruk, running the whitewater in the Cameron River, 2020.
Eight girls celebrating at the end of their 12-day canoe trip on Great Slave Lake, 2024.
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