Wilderness Canoe Tripping Schedule 2009

Well.....Here's is the Earth Tracks Wilderness Canoe Tripping Schedule for 2009!
All of these trips I will be guiding personally. Earth Tracks has partnered with Northern Edge Algonquin in running these trips and we are excited to further this relationship. For more info please visit thier website http://www.northernedgealgonquin.com/ or the Earth Tracks site at http://www.earthtracks.ca/

Nipissing River Trip: May 2nd - 9th

Waterfalls, Watercolours and Wanderings: June 11th - 16th

Waterfalls, Watercolours and Wanderings: June 25th - 30th

Seeking Solitude: July 2nd - 8th

Morning Tea with Moose/Wilderness Awareness: July 9th - 12th

The Way of the Naturalist: July 16th - 21st

Morning Tea with Moose/Wilderness Awareness: July 23rd - 26th

Wolf Howl: July 31st - August 3rd

Tracking the Wildlife of Algonquin Park: August 27th - 31st

Wolf Howl: September 24th - 27th

Following is a list of Canoe Trips that I am organizing for Northern Edge Algonquin. These trips will be facilitated by very competant and experienced guides other than myself.

Morning Tea with Moose: July 2nd - 5th

Yoga Canoe Trip: July 9th - 12th

Morning Tea with Moose: July 16th - 19th

Yoga Canoe Trip: July 31st - August 3rd

Seeking Solitude: August 6th - 12th

Wolf Howl: August 13 - 16th

Wolf Howl: August 27th - 30th

Wolf Howl (Womens Only): September 4th - 7th

Waterfalls, Watercolours and Wanderings: September 10th - 15th

Yoga Canoe Trip (Womens Only): September 17th - 20th

Heart of Gold: September 24th - 30th

I hope to see you on one of our many Canoe Trips this season. Please give us a call or email if you are interested in any of these trips. earthtracks@gmail.com 800 953 3343

Winter Time @ The Edge

Things have been moving at ‘winters pace’ around here lately. Yesterday morning the mercury read -35 degrees and everything was laying pretty low waiting for the morning sun to break the deep freeze that has set in the last couple of days. Imagine being one of the many animals that live in the forests here, what would you be doing in these temperatures. It made me think of the Native Algonquin people who are the original habitants of this land. Traditionally this area including Algonquin Park was utilized by small family groups who would break from the larger villages and spread out across this bountiful land to hunt for the winter. Would they be ready for the winter to transition into spring? What kind of shelters would they be living in? What would thier daily routines be like? These people blended with the landscape and were a natural part of the eco-system. The original caretakers of this land. I was thankful for these people who went before us. How can we follow in thier footsteps? How thankful are we for the gifts and comforts that we have in this day and age? How can I be the most effective caretaker of this land? What gifts and visions do I have for the future? Just some of the questions that I asked myself as I walked across the frozen lake towards the Edge. Today is a beautiful day, a new day. May we walk our paths in a sacred manner for the future generations.

Alexis Burnett

Traditional Hide Tanning Class

Earth Tracks partnered with Sticks and Stones Wilderness School to run the Traditional Hide Tanning Workshop in Caledon, Ontario over this cold, wintery weekend in January. We had a great indoor workspace complete with woodstove and shelter from the elements. We taught the ‘dry-scrape’ method of working buckskin and managed to do 5 hides from start to finish. It was amazing to watch participants work through the process with such enthusiasm and

determination. It was no small feat, but we managed to complete each stage and ’smoke’ each hide on the last day of the class. Below are some of the many photos that we took over the course of the program showing each of the stages that we went through. It never ceases to amaze me how you can transform a ‘green’ or ‘wet’ hide into a beautiful piece of buckskin. We are going to offer this class again in the fall time -- October 8-11th 2009. More info and photos from this class can be found on the website. http://www.earthtracks.ca/

The Way of the Naturalist Class

Well, I've been back from out west for about a month and a half and things have been moving along steadily. Catching up on a lot of things and getting ready for a new year of programs and canoe trips. Recently I just returned from a couple of weeks in southern Ontario where I ran a couple programs and lead a few nature interpretive/tracking walks for Brock and Mcmaster Universities. Everything turned out to be a great success and I made some new contacts and friends in my travels.

Here’s a few photos from the Way of the Naturalist class sponsered by the Brock outdoors club at the university. Unfortunately we didn’t take too many photos, but we did have a great time studying and learning about the natural world. This class focuses on how to go about studying nature and developing your core naturalist skills. We spent our time learning about Hazards, Mammals, Plants, Trees, Birds and how to journal and identify them in the field. We split our time between class room learning and walking in the forest putting into action the skills and tools that we learned inside. We also had some fun delving into the worlds of tracking and bird language. Two skills that have the ability to greatly enhance our awareness of the world around us. Learning how to track and move like the animals and utilize the knowledge of bird language can greatly increase our ability to move undetected through the forest and begin to experience nature like never before. These skills have the power to open up a whole new world and allow us to begin to unravel the many mysteries of nature.