From Capsize To Confidence: Camper Christina’s Wild Year

A beaver roommate, a septic disaster, and a storm barreling in at 2 p.m.—and somehow this became the most rewarding trip of the year. We sit down with Camper Christina to unpack a bold return to Quebec’s Route 61 after a confidence-shaking capsize, and follow her step by step through low-water puzzles, rocky R1s, and the moment she realized the “dump zone” was now a shallow wade. It’s a story about reading current, trusting training, and choosing to go anyway when life piles on.

We also wander through her new rural home life—three acres, a pond, and Beavy the beaver doing pond-ice sabotage—plus the realities of winter roads and near-miss lessons that sharpen situational awareness. On the creative side, Christina takes us behind the scenes on building live presentations: capturing 15+ hours of footage, crafting tight trailers, and shaping a narrative that educates without spoiling the show. Then we share a first look at Camper Christina’s Corner, a one-minute paddling story booth built from a canoe and hosted at the Hamilton Adventure Expo, with prizes from community partners and a promise to spotlight real voices all year.

Rounding it out, we talk Algonquin’s Barren Canyon as a low-portage option packed with wildlife and scenery, smart storm timing, and practical safety like wearing PFDs in cold water seasons. If you’ve ever stared at a route that once scared you, this conversation offers a map back—mixing backcountry skills, mindset resets, and a reminder that adventure thrives in imperfect windows. Subscribe, share this with a paddling friend, and tell us: what fear are you ready to paddle through next?

www.camperchristina.com

https://www.instagram.com/camperchristina/

https://www.youtube.com/@CamperChristina

Transcript

SPEAKER_01: 0:00

Hello and good day. A welcome to the Super Good Camping Podcast. My name is Pamela. I'm Tim. And we are from Supergoodcamping.com. We're here because we are on a mission to inspire other people to get outside and enjoy camping adventures such as we have as a family. Today's guest is chatted us with us the most of any of our guests. This will be her fourth appearance on the podcast, I think. Fourth. I want to say fifth. Fifth, maybe fifth. She was our very first guest ever. She loves the outdoors and video making. She heads out on lots of adventures year-round, and most are solo adventures. She's completed level one, two, and extractor level courses for sea kayaking, level one to four canoe certifications, wilderness tourist aid, and map and compass level one and two certifications. She's produced her own courses on backcountry camping and winter camping. You can check out her YouTube channel to see some of the awesome places she visits. Please welcome back Camper Christina. Yay, welcome. Yay! We love your shirt.

SPEAKER_02: 0:56

Nice shirt, nice shirt.

SPEAKER_01: 0:57

Thank you. I had a mage for today. That's Tim's photography right there.

SPEAKER_02: 1:04

Photography.

SPEAKER_01: 1:05

Photography.

SPEAKER_02: 1:06

I take lots of pictures. I shoot lots of video. I just am too lazy to edit it. So you guys never get to see that.

SPEAKER_01: 1:11

Well, Christina likes doing the video editing.

SPEAKER_02: 1:13

Apparently she does. She's a bit of a whack job. Could be why we love her. Uh how the heck are you, and what have you been up to lately? I know, I know life's been busy with moving and all of those things that take take up so much time and stuff, but uh I have to assume a life is good at the new place.

SPEAKER_00: 1:32

Life is very good at the new place. I have a pet beaver.

SPEAKER_02: 1:36

I heard. I just saw you looked like you were watching.

SPEAKER_00: 1:39

I'm about to say that because people are just like, what for many reasons, even if they think I'm gonna be talking about a legitimate beaver, which I am. Um, I mean, he's not my pet. I guess I inherited him when I got the house. Um, actually, he came by about a month after I moved in in June, and he just kind of stayed. I call him Beavy, and he's my bud. He's super chill, and uh, I love to see what he's up to. He's now built a lodge in the corner of the pond. Um, I was excited because I thought I would maybe get to skate on it this winter, but he's trying to keep the pond not frozen. Um mine is 19 right now, so today he's struggling. But every morning I wake up and there's kind of a little puddle around where his lodge is. So it's kind of interesting. Um, yeah, it makes me kind of not want to leave home sometimes.

SPEAKER_02: 2:33

Very cool.

SPEAKER_00: 2:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 2:35

That's I I would imagine having a pond like literally outside your door is a pretty cool thing.

SPEAKER_00: 2:43

It is. I can look out my I can look out the window right now. If it was daylight, I could see it. Uh it's it's pretty awesome. Um, I have three acres, huge amount of forest in the back. I was hoping to see deer. I only seen them twice so far. Um, there's a dog in the house across the street, so someone said maybe that's why.

SPEAKER_02: 3:00

Barky barky, maybe, yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 3:02

Yeah, the barking. But uh Beavy has a pet, a pet as well, a little muskrat that hangs out with him sometimes. Um, so I've seen him, I've seen otters, uh, I have a plethora of birds that I am the caretaker to now, and uh I feed those guys year-round, and um, yeah, it's it's pretty awesome. Um, winter has been challenging so far. I've almost been uh struck by an oncoming vehicle twice now in a week. Uh last Thursday, actually. A week ago, um someone came flying in the air at me. So cool. Uh it's a little bit treacherous driving, um, but that's the way it is. Uh, I guess that's what I gotta do to live out here.

SPEAKER_02: 3:44

So I'm I thought it was just down here in Toronto that they all forgot how to drive in the winter and then had to remember by smashing into somebody.

SPEAKER_00: 3:52

It's um most of my drive to work is roads like this. Why do we mean so which is fine, but um people seem to want to drive really fast, and uh yeah, the guy was coming at me, and I saw the one car coming, and then the other one just missed the turn. He he went right across the road, right in front of me, went down the ditch, up the ditch, airborne, flying. I'm like, oh god, and uh somehow it just kind of tilted and they landed right side up and bounced a couple ways there a couple feet and then landed in a driveway right next to me. So pretty scary, yeah. So it's it's been an adventure all in itself, but still worth it so far. So got a lot of snow. Um, we don't have a ton here. Um, Jenny is an Aurelia, they have a lot more there. Um, we've gotten about I've only snowblown fully like once, well, twice on the weekend. So uh maybe eight inches ish. So yeah, not too much, but we got more coming.

SPEAKER_02: 4:56

So yes, we do. We haven't we haven't had we've had some some crappy heavy wet gunk, you know. So the the stuff that's you can't you can't snowboat if you want to because it just goes blow up on the you know beside your head uh so I've had to push that around a bit, but so far so good. We're not we're just starting to get into those kind of temperatures. I think we're supposed to hit minus 12 tonight when we're recording this. So that'll be the that'll be the first double digit negative we've hit so far.

SPEAKER_00: 5:30

So yeah, well it's not minus 19, so it's not minus 19. And this is the coldest it's been like today and yesterday just kind of dropped last night. Um it's minus 19 on my outside thermometer right now, and I don't that's not with the wind chills, so um, yeah, it's it's a little bit chilly, but it's not bad, it's not snowing, and we have the super moon, it's actually called the cold moon, and it's out right now over the pond, and it's just beautiful.

SPEAKER_02: 5:54

So okay, we're gonna pause this so I can go have a look. Uh okay, cool. Well, that's I that you it's obviously we have chatted a bunch of times in real life as well. Uh so so sorry for you guys having to listen, listen to us do ketchup because that's that's what that's what pals do. We catch up once. Um speaking of catch up, what's since we haven't spoken in two years, do a short version because you do a bunch of stuff. But what have you been up to? What pick give give us some of the highlights you've been uh out and about doing?

SPEAKER_00: 6:28

Uh well this year was a bit rough because I moved in June and um, you know, by myself. So uh spent months and months and months and months purging. I had a basement. Now I have a two-bedroom house without a basement. Um, I have some outbuildings, but still it was a lot of you know, um paring down stuff and getting rid of a lot of things, which was great. Um, and so that kind of left me a little bit stuck because I moved on June 19th, and uh then it was paddling season, like it had already started. Yep. So um I hadn't had time to plan much. Um so I ended up spending a lot of time in Opamican this year. Uh I met them at the Toronto After Adventure show in February, and they're like, you know, we've got this new park and come see us, and we'd love to have you. And so I thought, well, uh, let's see. So I sent an email to Marissa, uh, who runs some things over there, and she was like, Yeah, you know, you should do this and this, and I actually ended up going there four times this year. So um I'm gonna be doing a presentation on it uh on the I think on the Sunday at the Toronto After Adventure Show, um, which I'm excited about just to kind of show all the different things that you can do there. And I haven't even done all the things that you can do there, but um, they always seem to have openings, it's not very far, it's a three-hour drive from here, just like tamogamy, and uh you know, beautiful area, lots of different things you can do there. So uh I spent a lot of time there, and I also went back to another place in Quebec, which you guys heard about last year. Um, for those of you who don't know, I went to Quebec to do this amazing route called Route 61 at a place called Le Verendre, and um I calfsized on the first day of my trip. Bye-bye. Bye-bye phone, right? Um that's really all I lost was my tripod selfie stick and my phone because it wasn't lashed into the canoe, which I do now. Um, and uh I just I had a bit of trauma from that, I guess. Um, you know, I lost some confidence. Um, I did go back out on I think four or five trips before the end of the season last year. Um this year I found the same thing. I was kind of feeling a little bit like uh I did a few more extra trips this year with friends. Uh I think I did quite a few trips with Jenny this year, who was willing. She's always willing to head out on an adventure with me, which is great. And um I went back to Route 61. As I promised everyone, the the end of my presentation at the Toronto show last year was, well, I'm gonna go back and I'm gonna see if I can find my phone. And I think some people took it literally. Like, I got a couple messages saying, Oh, did you find your phone? And I'm like, Well, I didn't really look. Um, I actually was in the dump area and didn't even realize I was in it because the water was so high when I was there last year, um, and then solo this year. Um, I don't know how what you guys saw, but the water levels everywhere were down this year.

SPEAKER_02: 9:35

We we noticed the same thing. It's funny because Pamela, a picture came up on our smart screen the other day, and Pamela's like, is that the same place that you guys were at? Because Thomas and I did a spring trip up at Palmer Rapids and then a fall, late summer trip, and and it was. We quit and all of that water that we were looking at in the spring was was way over there. There was none over here anymore. It was just stunning difference.

SPEAKER_00: 9:59

Yes, so that's what happened to me. Um I think even Hap Wilson had said the water is the lowest in Tamogamy's been in 50 years this year. So um I was, you know, making my way through, and you know, day one I wanted to conquer it. I wanted to get through that spot and get to that lake that I never saw and make camp there. And um, when I headed out in the morning, um, just before I lost my service, uh, there was a big thunderstorm coming in, thunder and lightning and all the fun things, and it was supposed to be coming in at two. So I was kind of trucking through and you know, I was filming everything, going, oh wow, that doesn't look like it did last year. And then what I did last year when I made my presentation was I took pictures and video clips from other trips that looked like what I remembered in my mind. And so then I had this third, now I was having this third perception of what I was seeing, right? Because I was like, okay, I remembered it one way, and then I put this picture in there in the presentation, and now it looks like this. And it was different also because of the water levels. So um I get to the spot where I thought I dumped, I didn't even realize at first. I'm just paddling along and I'm like, oh, there's some really shallow water here. You know, I kind of jump out of the canoe and I start pulling the canoe through, and I'm looking around, and I'm like, this is the place. I didn't even recognize it. I did not even recognize it. Last year it was rushing water coming towards me, no way to get up it, um, dumped me, right? Like, just flipped me over. And this year I'm walking through and I'm about halfway through, and I'm looking around and I'm like, oh my god, I'm here. And so I paused, and of course, I'm in like some, I don't say they're rapids, because the water is like, you know, just just deep enough for me to pull the canoe through if I got out. But um, it's shallow, and I'm standing there, and the current's pretty strong and it's pushing me, and I'm like, okay, hang on, I gotta move the canoe over, I gotta take some pictures and videos, and I kind of had a little bit of a breakdown there, and kind of, you know, just the emotions really hit me that I was back in this place, and and it was too late to look for the phone because I had gone way past where I dumped already, and I didn't want to go back because I had this weather coming in, and so I just kind of, you know, stopped for a few minutes. I took some pictures and videos, and then I I carried on. Um, it turns out that that wasn't actually the hard section of the day. Um, the next R1, I had assumed that I had dumped on the second R1 just because I had paddled through another one and thought it was the first one, but I was actually only I dumped in the first R1. So I paddled a little bit after I went through there. The second R1 was treacherous. Uh, it was kind of like this, and uh I don't know how people get through it with a bigger canoe. Like I've got a 14.6, um, I got stuck on a couple of the turns, the water was only this deep, so I'm literally pulling but not lifting the boat up over these rocks, and at one point it got jammed where like the front was on a rock and the back was on a rock, and I'm lifting up the whole canoe full of all my gear, and I'm like, the storm's coming, I gotta go. But then I'm like, wow, look at this. I gotta take pictures and videos. And, anyways, I ended up getting out, and then there's a big, huge beaver dam. I finally make it onto the lake that I'm camping on. I start paddling across it, and the wind starts picking up, and just as I'm getting to where the campsite is, uh, it's beautiful beach landing, the waves are starting to smash me against the rocks, and I get out and I set up my buck shelter super fast and get all my stuff in it, and then the lightning and thunder came, and the whole rest of the day was thunder and lightning, and I was just like, wow. But um, the trip was amazing, the route was unbelievable. Um, it was full of so many different kinds of challenges. Uh, you know, like there was a sand cliff at one point, it was the end of the portage, and it's like this, and I'm standing at the top going, Are you kidding me right now? Like, and then at the bottom of it, there were rapids, and I'm not a fan of white water. And so then I stood down at the bottom for a half an hour, going, Oh, what am I gonna do? How am I gonna get through this? And literally it was like, done, right? And I'm laughing afterwards, going, you know, but I was paranoid still because I still had that unease from last year. Um, but everything was in my favor this year. The water levels were low, the weather was great. Uh, anytime it rained, I was sleeping, or I had just gotten to camp. Um, the wind was at my back, literally, on some of them. The scenery was stunning, some of the most beautiful waterfalls I've ever seen. And when I got to the end, I just cried a little bit and uh very, very emotional. And um, I'm so proud of myself for going back and doing it. And uh, you know, I've done, I don't want to say I've done harder roots in comparison. Yeah, some of the fire burn places I've done in Tamogamy, difficult, challenging, crazy. Um, so it was it was equally hard, but just so much more rewarding after um what I what I went through to get there, you know. Um, and it was funny because I almost canceled the trip, I don't know how many times. Um, I was so anxious going into it. As I mentioned, I've got this new house, and uh everything was supposed to have been done. The septic, I have septic now, never had septic before. Septic was supposed to be cleaned. I had an invoice saying septic was done, and it's like my car's running, it's all packed up. I'm about ready to start this 10-hour drive to do this trip that I'm super anxious about. And I do one last pee in the bathroom, flush the toilet. Up everything comes. And uh in the toilet, in the shower. Um it's surprising because it doesn't smell. You would think, oh, this poop's coming up. It's just like water with little black specks in it. But I'm my whole bathroom started flooding, and I'm like, are you kidding me right now? Like, I've got to leave at a certain time because the campground I was staying at, I was doing a jump off the night before. And I'm like, I'm not supposed to go, like, everything is telling me to stay home right now. And um, I called a guy at work and he's got a plumber friend, and he said, you know what, go, go on your trip, do your thing, you know, leave a key, I'll send the plumber guy and we'll have it all fixed up for you. And I literally wiped up the floor and just got in the car and left. And again, so glad I did. It wasn't a sign, everything went great, but um, you know, people are always like, Oh, you know, I never have the guts to do that, or that would make me scared. You know, I get scared too. We all get scared, right? We all get anxious, we all have these signs of things that happen, and you just kind of gotta, you know, go through it and smile and just do it. And I did, and I made it. So um, really, really rewarding to finish that that route and uh so happy I went back and did it. So that was pretty much my trip of the year, the big one. I did a lot of other trips, but um nothing as significant, uh, in my opinion. So yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 17:36

How many days of tripping are you sort of racking up these days, like the the you know, the last two, three years?

SPEAKER_00: 17:44

Um on average, I do approximately two trips a month um year-round, um, depending on when that is. Maybe August is three, maybe January is one. Um, it just depends on the time of year and the weather, and um, they're generally weekends. Uh, I don't work at my office on Fridays. I work longer hours Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. So I'm still working a full week, but I'm cramming it into four days so that it sounds lovely. But Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, 90% of the time I'm sitting in front of my computer editing videos. I mean, the footage that I have um just from Le Verendre, I have 15 and a half hours of video footage from Le Verandre from a five, it was a six-day trip. So um I'm down to 12 hours now, and I'm working my way through that right now because I'm trying to get ready for the shows. So the next couple weekends are gonna be, you know, getting these these videos done and um making these presentations and getting ready for the spring shows. So um, which I'm really excited about.

SPEAKER_02: 18:51

So on on the thought of presentations, like you present at the Toronto show every year.

SPEAKER_00: 18:58

Um Yeah, I think it's my seventh or eighth year.

SPEAKER_02: 19:01

Um Right, and I've seen yet that when Dave Bain, David Bain was doing the uh the winter symposium and all that sort of jazz. So I make the assumption you sort of slot one of your upcoming trips to be what you hope to do the presentation about, because you've got I mean, there's got to be an awful lot of brain process for how you think it's gonna go, and then to see how the trip goes, and then to put it all together. So, like I know it's gonna be a bunch of work. I I that's not the question. It's is it a shitload of work? Yes, it is. How what's the process to go? Yeah, I think I think that's gonna be the trip, and then how do you how do you put a presentation together? How long does that portion of it take? Like that's gotta be, you know, you gotta put together your slideshow or your video presentation or you know, all the little bits, have all your make all your notes. I'm not I'm not trying to set anybody up to to be able to do presentations per se. I'm just like I I want people to know what it's What an ordeal it is when you go to see them at the show and they do, you know, 45 minutes or whatever it is, and and how many hours that 45 minutes has cost.

SPEAKER_00: 20:09

Um, I think my process is probably much longer than most people's. Um I actually don't generally present on trips. Last year was the first time, the first year that I presented on a trip. Um, well, and it was on the capsizing. And so for that trip, I had no pictures and videos whatsoever. So, and I ended up with 76 slides or something of photos. So it was a really lengthy process for that because I had nothing, and I was literally scouring through, you know, I think in my mind, okay, I'm paddling through that river. What did it look like? Well, it looked kind of like the Lady Evelyn. And then I'd go through my Lady Evelyn, you know, footage from each trip that I've done there and go, oh, that looks just like it. And then I'd get that picture and put it in the slide, and then set up the slide with the text or whatever, and then onto the next slide. So I mean, a slide could take me an hour or two hours, um, depending um for for this one. Um, because I did the cap size last year and I told people I was coming back to do it. I'm doing it the La Verandre trip, which I haven't done any very little, three hours of editing so far. So um I've saved it and I didn't want to put it up on YouTube because I don't want people to see it and then come to the show and be like, I already know about that. Which is gonna be partial what Opemican is, but I'm doing that one on the Sunday because we get a lot of newbies at the Toronto show on the Sunday. Um, you know, people who some of them don't even know who I am or you know what I'm doing. Not that they should, but you know, like they're people that are like, oh, what's this outdoor stuff? Let's go see these things. And so um it's gonna be a bit more on the park, but on my adventures in the park. So that won't be too hard. But yeah, it's I would say um probably three solid weekends. Um I've already been working on the La Verandre video. Um, first I want to make the videos because they're gonna get released after the presentation. Um, but also I I go through the videos, and as I'm going through the video editing, I'm taking notes now, like, okay, oh yeah, this, this, and then I'm taking the clip right from there and putting it into my little folder that says, you know, OAS Prezi. And so that when I go to start making it, I've already got all the clips and things there, and I can just draw from them and then reduce them. Because the first thing I need to do is make what I make a trailer. Um, not everybody does that, but I like to make a trailer for the show and you know, be like, you know, little clips and bits and pieces. And last year it was like, Oh, I saw a bear and blah blah blah, and you know, and then like to get people excited and go, Wow, what's that about? I want to go see that. Where is that? When is it, you know? Um, and I do that partially for the show and partially for me. I like to attract people and be like, hey, look what I did, and let's let's you know, come check this out. It's really cool. And um, so that'll be the first thing I do, and then I'll start working into the presentation. So um, before that, I have something else that I'm working on, um, which is a contest.

SPEAKER_02: 23:08

Uh yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 23:10

Um, so I want to talk a bit about that because uh it's not something I normally do, but um, I am going to be at the Hamilton Adventure Expo. Uh, I think you guys are going as well. I think everybody's going. It's it's a huge new show. Uh, this is the second year I missed last year. Um, I wanted to go, but when I heard about it, I had already committed to Kinucopia, the Quiet Adventure Symposium, and the Toronto show. And they're all like weekend, weekend, weekend in a row, driving to Kennucopia. It's in Madison, Wisconsin. It's a 14-hour each way. Like, it was just too much. And I said, I'm really sorry, I want to come, but that's four hours of driving for me each way. Plus, you know, I ended up canceling Quiet Adventure because of the US stuff. Um, we want to go into politics, but um, and I did go to Kinecopia, but this year I'm just doing Toronto, and so I really wanted to attend the Hamilton Adventure Expo. I love what they're doing, and um, I have been invited to do a little contest. Um, Jeff uh from H2O, um, who's one of my lovely sponsors, um, he has invited me to share a little space in his booth, and uh, you guys are getting the scoop on this because nobody knows about this contest except the people who I've talked to about getting prizes, um, and Jeff, of course. So um Hamilton doesn't even know about it. They know I'm doing something, but they don't know what. So um basically, uh, have you ever heard of Speaker's Corner?

SPEAKER_02: 24:39

City TV staple, which I hear is coming back, by the way, just a side note.

SPEAKER_00: 24:43

I think it's coming to Hamilton this January.

SPEAKER_02: 24:47

They're bringing it into the uh the new Elma Combo, but yes. Oh really!

SPEAKER_01: 24:51

They just got their stars.

SPEAKER_00: 24:53

I didn't even know that. Okay, so for those of you who don't know, maybe the younger crews, um there was a booth that they used to have at uh Queen and something in Toronto, and I think it was a dollar, and anybody could go in this booth and put your quarters in there and film a video of whatever you wanted to talk about, you know, whether it was like they didn't clean the roads properly in the winter or you know, people's dogs were pooping everywhere, whatever it was, and then they would pick some and they would air them on TV, and it was a big thing, yeah. So um, I got the idea from that. I'm really not sure where I got it from, but um one day I just got this because I've been thinking and thinking and thinking, and that's the process, right? February, the shows end and my brain starts going, what am I doing next year? What am I gonna present on? What am I gonna talk about? And it goes on and on and on until I find that trip or I get that topic, you know, tips and tricks or whatever it is, and then I start working on it throughout the whole year until I start. So it's not just a couple weekends, it's really a very long process for me because I really want to do something great and I love presenting. Um, but anyways, the contest uh it's gonna be called Camper Christina's Corner. Uh, Jeff is making me up a booth, which is can you guess what the booth is made of? Can we see it?

SPEAKER_02: 26:15

Like a tent, like a TP? It's gonna be a canoe sheet booth. Oh, of course it is. A canoe, yes.

SPEAKER_00: 26:23

So it is uh, I believe a half of a canoe. I don't even know the size. I sent Jeff these sketches that I made that came out of my crazy brain. I get these weird ideas sometimes and they come to fruition, and they're like, wow, this is cool. Um, so the canoe is standing up, but you turn the seat sideways. So somebody can sit inside of the canoe, and I'm going to be filming one-minute video clips. Anyone can come and tell a one-minute paddling story. I'm gonna have a bunch of different topics, I'm still settling on those. Um, but you know, your favorite paddling adventure or double blade, single blade, whatever you want to come and pick a topic. And you come into the booth, um, you film a one-minute video. I filmed the one-minute video, you're gonna film up, fill out a little form. I'm gonna have some in advance online, and um, pick your topic, and then uh you do this one-minute video, and then after the show, we're gonna go through the clips and we're gonna pick people to win prizes from the best of each topic. Um, so again, it's still not 100% finalized, but you know, we've still got a few weeks. Uh, so so far I have uh uh Treca is giving me a tent to give away worth like$500. Um, AquaQuest is giving me some gift certificates for$50. Uh, I've got Agawa. I'm trying to get a lot of the local vendors that are at the show, like Agawa, and um I've talked to um Camp Kitchen, still waiting to hear back from them. Uh Joe Robinet's new book is out. He's given me a copy of his book to give away. I've got a copy of Adam's new book to give away. Um, Leek Dry is giving me some socks to give away again. Sulek 46 is gonna be donating some prizes. Um, so tons of amazing prizes that you can win. And all you have to do is come and share a paddling story um at the H2O booth. Um, it's gonna be done on the Saturday of the Hamilton show, and it's only gonna be done at the Hamilton Adventure Expo. So I'm pretty stoked about it. Um, I'm not sure if people are gonna love it or not, but I hope so.

SPEAKER_02: 28:26

Oh, they're gonna.

SPEAKER_00: 28:27

And then what's gonna happen is those video clips are gonna get used throughout the year. So people can actually see them themselves on a story or a reel sometime throughout the year from H2O or myself or uh whoever they won the prize from, um, sharing their paddling story on social media on a bunch of different pages.

SPEAKER_02: 28:48

So kind of cool. Yeah, that's excellent.

SPEAKER_00: 28:52

Yeah, it's a lot, I know.

SPEAKER_02: 28:55

Yeah, no, well, I think that's great because I I mean I knew you were doing a contest, but I didn't know what the deal was. So, like, yay, that'll be that'll be a ton of fun.

SPEAKER_00: 29:04

Yeah, so and there's a lot, I mean, like, I think Kevin, it's Kevin's given away a Nova Craft Canoe, so there's all kinds of prizes that are gonna be going on. Um, Treka's also giving me a bunch of other stuff. Um, we haven't confirmed yet, so I have a phone call with them on Saturday, but um, you know, I don't want to do it too early, and I don't want the cat to be out of the bag too soon. So, but I knew I was doing this with you this week, so I've started, you know, about a week ago I kind of started reaching out to people and saying, hey, like, do you think you might want to be interested in in doing this? And you know, we have such a great community, like everybody's just like, yeah, you know, why don't you give away one of these and why don't you give away this? And awesome. So, and that gives me an opportunity as well to promote our our community and our vendors and you know, show off the talents of everybody and um in the booth where they sit. Again, this hasn't been fully designed yet, but I'm hoping to put like the logos of all the sponsors in behind. So when the people are filming the videos, like you're seeing my you know, Treca back here and my my logo back here, you'll be seeing like SueLuk46 and Agua and you know, Leek Dry and Trekka, and all the people who are sponsoring or donating prizes, they'll be advertised again there, and then when the videos get posted online once again, so yeah, it's kind of a win-win for everybody.

SPEAKER_02: 30:24

For those that don't know, Camper Christine is a rock star of the community, and she's has fully embraced the whole social media thing. So she's on YouTube, she's on Instagram, she's on Facebook. Yes, you're on Facebook. I don't even know where else. You're probably on TikTok. I don't do TikTok. I'm not on TikTok.

SPEAKER_00: 30:44

People keep trying to get me to do kit TikTok and that other one that's on like I listen. I I publish I put I publish uh a post on Instagram and Facebook almost every single day, at least one. Um, my Facebook for some reason has gone bananas. I I think I'm at uh the last 28 days I have 400,000 views. God dude, it's just crazy. And I've jumped something like 300 followers in the last two weeks. So they get these little, I don't know, little ruts that they hit, and it's just like boom, and then I don't know why. It used to be my Instagram, and now my Instagram's kind of like and my Facebook is crazy. So I don't know. I just I just post what I like and what I hope people will like, and you know, it's non-political, it's just calm and soothing things, paddling through a creek, or you know, sometimes they're portages and they're kind of fun for me. People are like, whoa, why are you doing that? But I love them, so I try to uplift people, and especially with things going on in the world today, it's just kind of social media is a lot of a drag, and uh there's just a lot of crap, and people are just some people are not nice, but my page is a friendly spot, and people comment and they say nice things and they share great information, and um, it's just a wonderful little little place that I have there, my little corner of the internet. So I enjoy it.

SPEAKER_02: 32:07

That's cool. Well, we need yeah, you're right. We need that buffer against the insanity that's happening out there right now.

SPEAKER_00: 32:15

Yeah, present.

SPEAKER_02: 32:17

So what's what's on the horizon? We know you're gonna do your thing at the the Hamilton show, which sounds very cool. What else is what else is in the works?

SPEAKER_00: 32:25

Yeah, sorry if I went on about that. I'm just super excited about this. I think it's gonna be really, really fun, and I hope people get it. Um, what else is in the works? Well, you know, I'm gonna be at Toronto. I'm gonna be Saturday, I'm gonna be doing the presentation on Route 61 on Le Verandre. Sunday I am presenting on Opemican. Um, so I'm really excited about that. I think tickets are already on sale for the show when this airs. Uh goes on sale December 15th. Great speakers, lots of cool things in Toronto, always. Um, and I've got some winter camping events coming up. Uh, Family Day, um, I should be out at Mew Lake and uh Silent Lake, I'm gonna be going back to. I love winter camping there. Um, hoping to do some other cool trips. Um, that's all weather dependent, and again, um, right now my timeline is focused on getting these presentations done, and once that's done, I can go out and play in the snow. So um, and hopefully by that time the snow is nice and settled and good and here for for the season. So, yeah. How about you guys? Did you do anything exciting this year? What was your favorite trip?

SPEAKER_02: 33:30

They were all good, all of our trips. Well, no, Pamela's gonna disagree with the the Georgian Bay. We got uh it we we've we've done a lot of whitewater, not necessarily intentionally this year. So we we oh we hit we hit big wind on Georgian Bay, and we're we were windbound for uh a few days, but it was fun because we were windbound with um Jay and Sherry from Beauty of the Backcountry and um Alex and Jess from Tense and Timber. Uh so that was fun. Just hanging with like they're just they're just awesome folks.

SPEAKER_00: 34:06

Yeah. You guys were in Killarney together too, weren't you? Or was that the same thing?

SPEAKER_02: 34:10

Well, it was that was so it was basically out of the south end of Killarney. So we we stopped at Killarney overnight and then we put in everybody else showed up the next day or two days later.

SPEAKER_01: 34:22

Two days, I think Jay and Jerry were two days, yeah.

SPEAKER_02: 34:24

Yeah, they they actually stayed in the city. It was supposed to be the next day, and then uh weather was crap as well, yeah. So we it was we we picked the worst week of weather that we could have, but it was still a great time. Don't care, it was good fun. Yeah, it was it was flattening tense and stuff. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 34:45

Well, I'm glad you made it out okay. Yes, sounds like a fun time. It's always fun camping no matter where you are, what you're doing, or what the weather is like. So if you know how to do it right, I mean, if you got the right gear, you you're always set.

SPEAKER_02: 34:58

Well, that's it. Somebody said, Well, what if it rains? What if it rains? I have tarps, I have tents, I have rain gear. I'm I'm also not made of sugar, so I am not gonna melt.

SPEAKER_00: 35:08

It's oh yeah. Uh, I did a great trip in Algonquin this year. It's not it's just started going up. Um, by the time this airs, I think the whole series will be out on my YouTube. Um I've been having some problems with my knee as well this year, so that's kind of slowed me down a bit, and I haven't done as many crazy trips as I'd like to. Um, it is back now and everything seems to be good, so I'm like just ready to get back out there next season for like some crazy canoe trips. But um, I went to the Barren Canyon. And uh a funny story, hopefully you can fit this in, but um I did one of my very first backcountry trips in Acre uh on the is it called the Eastern Eastern Pines backpacking trail?

SPEAKER_02: 35:55

Yes, I think.

SPEAKER_00: 35:56

I did a backpacking trip uh Thanksgiving weekend in 2002, and I almost froze to death. I hate the cold. I'll just start there. I almost froze to death. I um I was so cold, I hate the cold. I had on everything that I brought in with me, and when I rolled over in the tent, the condensation was clinkling down the side, like because it was frozen. And I vowed never ever to camp that late in the year again. And now, of course, I winter camp, um, you know, mostly hot tamping, but I cold camp and you know, some of the summer trips and spring and fall, you're minus 10, minus five, too, right? Um, so I've never actually paddled there. So I thought this is gonna be great. So I planned this really great loop. It had a two-kilometer portage in it, and then my knee, I went to Grape and Wine in Niagara the weekend before, and I spent like 11 hours out partying. Um, when I say partying, it's mostly dancing, and um, my knee was very, very unhappy. So I changed up the route, but I still went, I did two nights on Stratton, and then I paddled out over into Carcaju Bay and did a night there, and then I paddled back to the access. I drove to Squirrel Rapids, Squirrel Rapids, yeah, and then parked there, and then paddled up through uh the Baron River and camped one night there, and then I waited until all the people left because it was the holiday Monday of um Thank was it Thanksgiving? Yeah, Thanksgiving weekend. It was the holiday Monday, and I waited till everybody left, and then around four o'clock I paddled through the canyon. I was pretty much all by myself, and I met these two lovely young men from the states, uh, and they're like, Oh, look, there's a moose. And there was a moose up in the canyon, up in the rocks. I would never have even, I mean, I would have never even looked there. I couldn't believe it. And uh yeah, it was a pretty epic adventure. I also saw a bear and a wolf on the way in, and I saw a bear on Stratton. So um, everyone who keeps saying, I see wildlife all the time, Camper Christina. Why don't you? It's because of the places I go. I usually go to these crazy remote places where bears don't really know what people are and they don't look for you for food. And when I go to somewhere like Algonquin, poof, all the wildlife starts popping up everywhere. So um, that's why.

SPEAKER_02: 38:35

Very cool. Well, I I have to say, I'm painfully jealous. I have planned the last two years, we have planned and booked Barren Canyon loops, and both times, well, I can't, I think Thomas was sick one year. Thomas was sick this year. He got he went came down with the flu like two days before we're supposed to go. And because I had booked a loop, as I got to like maybe he'll feel better, but we're four days in. Like, I don't that I can't do that in you know, seven-hour drive plus that in one day. So that that one went in the toilet. Uh, and I think the year before, I think his schedule just didn't play out for it. He ended up having to bail and go do work things. So I'm going to do it again because third time lucky, right? It's not three strikes and you're out.

SPEAKER_00: 39:22

Yeah, and it was great to do it the way that I did it, even though I would have loved to do all the portaging and stuff. Um, because a lot of people have already watched part one uh and two are up right now, and by the time this airs, I think the whole series will be up. But people were saying, this is really great because I don't like to portage or I can't portage. And so it was a great way to kind of show people you know, you can come in here, do a 50 meter portage in a Stratton, stay there for a couple of days, go out, go to Carcaju, 50 meter portage back out, and then I think it's a 350 or something on the Baron River, and it's a pretty decent portage, it's not like super crazy hard or anything, so um super. Easy places that you can go visit that you know are fairly easy to get in and out of. Um, because I went Thanksgiving, it wasn't crazy busy, but it was still really busy there. So um I met a lot of fun people too. Um, but lots of people not wearing their PFDs. So I'm safety first, everyone, please.

SPEAKER_02: 40:18

Totally agree, totally agree. Uh, we talked to two gentlemen recently, uh 10 kilometer, was it a 10 kilometer portage? Yes. The it in the in up in the Arctic, yeah. Like a multi-day portage.

SPEAKER_00: 40:34

Can you I don't know if you can call that a portage, can you? It should be a drive or something.

SPEAKER_02: 40:40

They're in the middle of nowhere, man. They these guys do some pretty hardcore stuff. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 40:45

Oh, yeah. Well, the guys that I met, the two guys from the states, they dropped off their bikes at the Squirrel Rapids, and they started at uh like Acray, and they went through and did part of the route that I was gonna do. They did half of the loop, the loop coming back that I was gonna do, and then went up through the Barren River and went out at Squirrel Rapids, and then they rode their bikes back to get their car at Accray. Um, I haven't talked to them since they got out, so I hope they made it. Um, if you're watching this, guys, get in touch. I don't know if you're okay, but I'm sure they are. I would have heard something. But uh, I did get them to wear their PFDs, so I kind of feel like that's a dream. Good job. I'm super good.

SPEAKER_02: 41:31

That's funny. Uh okay, I think that's it for us. Fine.

SPEAKER_01: 41:39

All right, that's it for us for today. Thank you so much to Camper Christina for joining us again. And also do check her out, camperChristina.com, check her out on YouTube, check out her Algonquin trip on YouTube, and by the time this airs, um well, by the time this airs, nothing. Yeah, nothing. Okay.

SPEAKER_02: 41:58

Check her out on Facebook too.

SPEAKER_01: 41:59

Well, all of the series will be up on YouTube, that's what it was as by the time this airs, all of the series. Right. Melgonquin will be up on YouTube, and check her out at the Hamilton show in her speakers corner, and also check her out at the Toronto Adventure Show for Saturday and Sunday. And check us out, we'll be at the Hamilton Show and at the Toronto show. Um, not presenting, but uh, we will be there, and uh also please check us out, email us anytime if you want to, at high at supergoodcambing.com. That's H I at Supergoodcambing.com, and we will talk to you again soon. Bye. Bye.

SPEAKER_00: 42:30

Thanks so much for having me, guys.

SPEAKER_01: 42:32

No, cool.