Special thanks to Kate Ming-Sun, Director of The Quiet Guiding Company who’s our guest blogger today. She gave a look at what it has been like to run a canoe touring business during the COVID-19 pandemic…

We had a canoe season, everyone!

Let’s back up a second.

If you were at the Toronto Outdoor Adventure Show in February you might have seen me and my cozy Quiet Guiding Co. booth near the Adventures in Paddling stage. You may have even stopped by to say hello. In fact MANY of you stopped by to say hello. I can’t thank you enough for your chats about Temagami, Killarney, and Quetico. About the joy of canoeing, the first dip of a paddle in a cobalt blue lake, the haunting call of a loon, the first sip of coffee while watching fog skim the water.

Three weeks later the Quiet Guiding Co. season imploded. The implications of COVID-19 looked insurmountable for anyone in tourism. I muddled my way through ten weeks of doubt and indecision about what to do with all the public departures listed on my website. I connected with clients and prospects over email to see how they were getting outside in their own ways. I shared photos and recipes and advice about packing list questions on social media.

When Ontario Parks committed to opening backcountry camping and canoeing on June 1st, I had some decisions to make. I knew I could keep our groups smaller than the Province’s mandate. But I didn’t feel comfortable bringing canoe trippers deep into Quetico or even Temagami when essential services could be spread very thin in those regions. And there was the not-so-small technicality that I couldn’t operate yet as a business. So off the calendar went the Temagami and Quetico trips. And I made a silent promise to myself and to all of my future clients that I would make these trips happen soon.

On June 12th, the Province gave the green light to guides and outfitters to run their businesses.

“HOORAY!” one colleague in the industry emailed me.

I had two weeks to hustle and fill my first trip in Killarney – a July 4th departure paddling through the popular Bell, Balsam, David Lakes route. Five intrepid women stepped in to kick off the busiest 8 weeks I’ve ever had as a guide (for sure as a business owner!).

I don’t want to minimize how much chaos, uncertainty, and devastation COVID-19 has wrought on all of us. I feel lucky to have had a healthy and safe canoe season. It was a privilege.

I do want to thank Killarney Kanoes, Widgawa Lodge, and Wild Women Expeditions for partnering with me this year. I also want to thank the anonymous individuals and businesses who steered people my direction when they were looking for a guide. And finally I want to express my gratitude to the 23 individuals on four different trips who took a chance on my company and my COVID protocols. Thank you for allowing me to bring you into the backcountry of Killarney Provincial Park. As you know now it's one of my favourite places to paddle.

We watched cotton candy sunrises and golden sunsets together. We drank percolator coffee. We listened to sandhill cranes and barred owls and whippoorwills. We swatted deer flies and sweated through hot, sunny July days. We layered up in Goretex for pouring rain in late August and early September. We wobbled our way through ankle-deep mud puddles on the portage trails. We laughed (and laughed and laughed) through all of it. And we marvelled at our stroke of luck to find ourselves here, with each other.

7 - First time paddling a 3 person canoe.jpg

So thank you, to all of you. You made Quiet Guiding Co’s second season truly memorable. Now it’s time for me to reset, recharge, and plan for 2021. I will see you out there.

Thanks again to Kate for guest blogging (if you want to send us a guest blog… let us know!). If you want to lear more about the The Quiet Guiding Company, be sure to head over to their website, or follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram (and there is lots of good info on camping in general on their blog).