Hey there! We’re Elise and Ross—a married couple from Ontario, Canada.
We both share a strong passion for outdoor adventure, and it only seems to grow stronger the more we get out there.
Like many people who went through some serious life shifts at the beginning of the pandemic, we both found ourselves itching to keep ourselves both healthy and sane when there was nothing much to do.
It turns out that backcountry camping was just what the doctor ordered.
Over the years, we’ve camped all across Ontario (and beyond).
From short one-nighters to expedition-style trips as long as 15 days, we’ve come a long way from the beginners we once were.
We’re big on canoe tripping
We’re primarily canoe trippers, which means that the majority of our camping trips involve backountry routes and campsites that are only accessible by lake or river travel.
We’ve been really lucky to be able to take so many trips over such a short period of time, and the both of us feel incredibly blessed to live in such close proximity to so many gorgeous lakes, untouched forests, winding rivers, and natural areas that we could spend an entire lifetime exploring.
We also really love to document our trips—having invested in a GoPro, Sony DSLR, and Mavic Mini drone over the years.
Check out our canoe tripping highlights video below to get a taste of what we’ve been up to!
Canoe tripping has become our escape.
There’s nothing quite like living in alignment with the elements to help reset your mind and body, humble your soul, and challenge you in ways that make you really appreciate all the modern comforts and conveniences back home.
We take wilderness travel seriously
As welcoming and enjoyable as nature can be, we know that it also demands respect, and we always need to be prepared for the worst possible situation.
It’s been important to us to develop our paddling, lining, rescue, and first aid skills so that we could complete our trips in the safest way possible.
We’ve completed/become certified in:
- A 4-day whitewater canoe clinic at Cabin Falls Ecolodge on the Lady Evelyn River (Temagami, Ontario), led by renowned Canadian adventurers Hap and Andrea Wilson
- Whitewater Rescue (WWR) I & II
- Wilderness First Aid (WFA)
From rushing rivers to vast open waters
In the summer of 2022, we spent 10 days paddling a completely remote stretch of the largest freshwater lake in the world—Lake Superior.
This ocean of a lake—with its moody conditions, sudden foggy patches, massive rollers, and ice-cold temperatures—was like nothing we’ve paddled before.
It doesn’t even come close to paddling other big bodies of water, like where we live on Georgian Bay (part of Lake Huron).
Camping on Superior’s kilometre-long sandy beaches, being windbound for days, and seeing lake trout swim right by your canoe aren’t the types of things you can experience just anywhere.
We’re also big on winter camping
These days, we’re four-season campers—which means that we’ll get out there in February and camp in freezing cold weather with our canvas hot tent.
And no, it’s nothing like summer camping at all!
We love it though, and given the amount of gear we’ve acquired and money we spent to acquire it, we’re certain that more winter camping trips are in our future.
We’ve even camped in the Canadian subarctic tundra…in the dead of winter
The subarctic zone lies just below the Arctic Circle.
This region is best known for its vast boreal forests, tundra landscapes, and wildlife populations that outnumber humans—including moose, caribou, wood bison, black and brown bear, red fox, wolves, lynx, and more.
In January and February of 2023, we took a trip up to the Yukon Territory, where we embarked on a 10-day guided dogsled and winter camping expedition through frozen lakes, mountains, and valleys.
It was cold, gruelling, and beautiful.
More than a month later, Elise was still recovering from the physical consequences of such an intense trip.
She suffered a sprained knee and shoulder impingement in both arms from falling off the sled and being dragged several feet, plus tendinitis in her thumb joints from death-gripping the handles for days on end.
It’s been the hardest trip we’ve been on yet.
Lessons were learned, and our spirits were humbled.
The summer season is short here in Canada, and winter can be pretty brutal, but getting out there also a nice change of pace from being stuck inside for the whole season.
Camping has become such a passion that we share together, and we’ve learned so much over the short time we’ve been doing it.
Our hope is that through our blog posts and YouTube videos, we can inspire others to get out there and try it.
Over the past few years, we’ve bought and tested tons of equipment and gear.
We’ve struggled a lot as outdoor enthusiasts who didn’t really know what we were doing.
We’ve figured out what sucks, and what works.
We’ve made mistakes, failed completely, and even had some close calls with disaster—but we’ve also learned a lot.
And we’re just getting started!
Let’s go camping again
We hope that you enjoy what we share, and perhaps even learn something!
We have many more trips planned, so you can bet on more content coming your way in the near future.
In the meantime, be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel and follow us on Instagram and TikTok!