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Canoe North Adventures gears up busy year of exploration in Canada’s far north

October 16, 2025   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

Canoe North Adventures (CNA), based out of Hockley Valley, is booking unusually large numbers for their 2026 list of canoe trips in Canada’s far north.

“Way ahead of last year,” said Al Pace, co-founder of the company with his wife, Lin Ward.

This weekend, they are hosting two very special info sessions on Oct. 18 and 19, both at Farmhouse Pottery, 307114 Hockley Road, near Orangeville.

On Saturday, Oct. 18, from 1 p.m., this session will tell you about their fabulous canoe and raft adventures on the Nahanni River, including the Upper Nahanni and Broken Skull.

Sunday, Oct. 19, at 1 p.m., will present the Heart of the Arctic, small-vessel cruises with Adventure Canada, including Greenland. For access to this part of the Arctic, one can only get there on a small ship.

There will be light refreshments on both days.

Interestingly, they are seeing bookings from Manitoba, B.C., and across the country. It appears Canoe North’s reputation has grown throughout Canada.

“It’s taken us 30 years to get there,” he commented, smiling, and added that they publish their news online every day.

“I think some of our appeal is coming from that backlash of the U.S. Canada has a very exotic face in the North, historical locations, and the incredible landscape.”

These wonderful adventures provide such interesting places to experience and explore.

Pace outlined the age groups he sees booking North Canoe Adventures, which are 10 days of canoeing and camping. For the most part, it comes up at a solid client base, 55 to 70 years old.

Beyond that, with Adventure Canada on board a small ship, the meals are all prepared, and no one is sleeping on the ground.

People like that this is a family-run business, and the company is seeing a strong uptick in international bookings from Europe, clients from France, the U.K., and Sweden. Quite often, there is a referral or they discovered CNA through the internet.

Pace also mentioned that they had a late-season trip this year.

There was a booking with a charitable organization, True Patriot Love, supporting veterans leaving the force because of injuries.

“This was 22 women who paddled in the Nahanni River,” Pace said. “All were the soldiers suffering from mental health issues and their support group. We had a late-season trip; luckily, it was a warm season. We’re very proud of our team guides taking this group on canoes and rafts. It was the last trip on the Nahanni for the season, and they felt honoured to have the river all to themselves.”

It was also a fundraiser for True Patriot Love, and it raised $800,000.

Pace shared why, to him, this trip mattered, “Leaving the force due to injury and to find their way in a civilian life is extremely hard. Soldiers love their work, love being soldiers, and when injuries take away their career, they are devastated.”

Over this 2025 season, there were lovely trips along rivers, and the company was very proud of their guides’ attention to people’s safety. On one trip, they saw 20 moose.

On another trip was a rarely seen wolverine. That was a group of people from Caledon who had a beautiful experience on the Horton River.

Now in his 60s, Pace sees his role as evolving into mentorship. With their incredible guide teams, he has stepped back and let the guides do their work.

Safety is all. If there is ever a risk, Pace can speak to the guides on a satellite phone, from which he has information about their location and the immediate environment around them.

At this point, Al Pace can choose to join the adventure with a special client or when there has been a call for Pace to guide from clients who have travelled with him before.

“Every time it’s an honour,” he said.

Great young people are coming from guide courses out of universities, having included in their studies, risk management, client management, river rescue, and first aid.

The young people coming to Canoe North are way ahead of others they have seen before.

“They are around age 30-plus and they are bringing life skills they have at the prime of their lives,” was how Pace was impressed with them.

Some have more water skills; some have less and are assigned to more novice rivers. It is quite a skill to match up clients with guides.

“Our son Taylor does all the screening and guide/client pairing,” said Pace. “Taylor and his wife are living in Alberta and actually taking on more of running the company,” his father made the point of how very proud he and Ward are of the couple.

Number one is safety on the water. Some groups are novice and need more teaching, but it is difficult to prep clients, as they have in the past, before their trip, because of the increase in international clientele.

The assurance came, “We can help instruct our clients; we can send them to any number of operators to help them improve their canoeing skills.”

In this time of obvious growth, the question becomes how much bigger Canoe North can or should grow.

“We have a very short season; there are 10 available weeks to operate,” Pace began. “As Taylor schedules trips, we run about 15 groups in each season – that’s a lot of moving parts.”

“I don’t think we can enhance our programs. As it is right now, we are setting our 2027 trips,” he added.

This is a new era of excitement; the North has become far more of a focus of conversation, and takes people right to the action.

“It’s more important what we do,” said Pace. “We do feel quite some concern about the urgency to come to this.”

After a time of dry weather, it was so exciting to see some rain. Canoers like the rivers to be fuller; if the level is lower, there can be consequences.

Pace affirms, “It’s the perfect time to explore the north – perfect to take advantage of these opportunities.”

They are very busy with their pottery shop right now. Added to the much-loved pottery made by Pace, there is a beautiful collection of Inuit soapstone carvings.

Looking ahead to a new head office in Alberta, while maintaining the office here in Hockley Valley, there are some opportunities. In their headquarters in Norman Wells, they also run a small northern lodge, which they have been renovating. Potentially another type of northern holiday, the lodge can provide a wonderful visit to the Canadian North and a revenue stream to support the canoeing.

Pace said, “Lin and I have been trying to finish what we started. They don’t have to worry about new projects – there is very little infrastructure required now.”

For all the details about the info-sessions this weekend at the Farmhouse Pottery and more:

Call 519-941-6654 or Email:info@canoenorthadventures.com.

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