Arts and Entertainment

New film ‘Full Circle’ takes viewers on 10-day journey circumventing Killarney Provincial Park

October 2, 2025   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

Scott Jordan and Daryl Phillips invite us all to “Journey deep into the breathtaking lakes and backcountry of the La Cloche Mountains, perched along the north shore of Georgian Bay. With its clear blue lakes, striking white quartzite and pink granite hills, Killarney Provincial Park offers some of Ontario’s most unforgettable canoeing and hiking adventures.”

They have produced a movie celebrating 30 years of their own backcountry travel in Killarney Provincial Park by circumventing the park over 10 days, canoeing and portaging as their route took them.

Hosted by CanHist, Full Circle will be shown this Saturday, Oct. 4, in the Corbetton Church on the grounds of the Museum of Dufferin (MoD), between 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.

Special guest Kevin Callan will host the event, share personal tales from the park, and lead a post-film Q&A with the filmmakers. Callan was listed as one of the top 100 modern-day explorers by the Canadian Geographical Society.

There is quite a difference between frontcountry and backcountry travel, as Scott Jordan explained during a recent interview with the Citizen.

He and his wife, Sharon, had been travelling since they both retired, he from 32 years of teaching English at Orangeville District Secondary School (O.D.S.S.), saying, “We kicked off with our retirement with Al Pace (Canoe North Adventures).”

They had a wonderful northern experience canoeing with Pace’s son, Taylor, as their guide.

“His instructions about paddling were very helpful,” Jordan commented.

He went on to explain the differences between what defines front and backcountry travel. Frontcountry offers all the amenities: showers, internet connection, the company of other campers, and access to supplies.

“Backcountry travel means what you load in the canoe is what you have for however long you are out there,” Jordan explained. “There’s nobody usually, except you might see other campers.”

Jordan and Phillips have been carrying satellite device technology for the last four years.

When they were making this film in September 2024, they saw lots of bears, but luckily, he reported there were “no encounters.”

Otherwise, there were lots of loons and a Barred Owl whose hoot is humorously famous for sounding like the question, “whose cooking for you?” Say it quickly and you can hear it for yourself.

Jordan added that they didn’t see moose while they were making the film. They have been working on the film since they returned from the trip last September.

Daryl Phillips, a photographer and graphic artist, is the filmmaker, and Jordan has composed the music with Phillips’ son, Mack.

His approach has been letting the rhythm of the paddle suggest a tempo. In other places, the lighting of dawn or dusk dictated either a major or minor key. Travelling montages demanded a more upbeat composition; more contemplative moments were subtler and softer.

Finding a place to camp is not a matter of chance along the way, but of planning before the trip. Killarney requires a reservation for camp sites, so campers know their destinations.

“They are established sites, signed and numbered,” he described it, saying, “You get to a point where you run out of water and there are signs on the portaging path to the next lake.”

For this trip, “We wanted to circle the park; this was to celebrate our travels in Killarney – on our own and with friends and family.”

Over all the years of camping, they could document the lives of their children. Jordan had no experience until he went to a camp as a youngster for his first canoeing experience.

His childhood was in Orangeville, and after five years away to university, Jordan came back to Orangeville.

Killarney was not their first experience camping; he and his wife went once on their own. It was a disaster. They got lost, ran out of food, but that taught Jordan a life lesson: “You have to respect before you can love.”

Some time later, Jordan went with Daryl Phillips, and it was fabulous. In spite of her understandable hesitation, his wife joined them another time, and Jordan claimed that it was good even though they got lost again and more, but that is the price of being in the wild.

He offered, “When you are in the backcountry and you open the tent flap in the morning. you see the lake.”

This movie is not a disaster film. It is not a travelogue, nor a how-to film.

What it is – the film looks more at why to continue backcountry camping. It restores a person, now freed from the pressures and noise of our modern lives.

Jordan praised Killarney’s quartz white mountains; as an extension, it is about the connection between oneself and the natural environment.

“Something magical happens between friends,” Jordan averred.

He loves the power of a story around a campfire and connection with the land, noting that one of the themes that emerges is waking with the dawn and going to sleep with the sun, usually by 9:30 p.m.

This journey was canoeing over 100 kilometres, and there were 20 kilometres of portages, of which the longest was three kilometres.

“We carried our long packs front and back with equipment, food and the canoe over my head,” Jordan related.

They took a break as needed; there was no rush.

“We didn’t have to prove anything,” he said.

Who would he particularly call to come to see this film? To the person who feels burnt out by the pace and demands to produce. Anyone looking for a wonderful show.

“It’s a wonderful place to find relief,” was the promise. “Kevin Callan is moderating. He knows a lot about how to get involved.”

Yet, why do Jordan and Phillips continue to return to Killarney? Perhaps, because it is where they first learned to love backcountry camping.

“Full Circle” will be shown at the Corbetton Church at the Museum of Dufferin (MoD) on Saturday, Nov. 4, from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. Refreshments will be available for purchase.

Tickets are $20 and available online at www.canhist.ca, by clicking on Small Town Big Ideas.

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