Adam Shoalts: A man, a mission, a canoe
Going “Where the Falcon Flies”
By Lorie Steiner
One fine spring day, Adam Shoalts spotted a majestic peregrine falcon soaring across the fields near his home close to Lake Erie. For this modern day explorer, it was a sign that he should follow the falcon’s migration route from southernmost Canada on an astounding 3,400-kilometre journey to the Arctic. Alone. In a canoe.
En route, he braved storms on the Great Lakes, bushwhacking without trails, hunger, bears, frigid white-water rapids and obstacles galore. His fifth book, “Where the Falcon Flies”, takes readers along vicariously on this incredible journey. I was thrilled to speak with Adam about his life as an explorer extraordinaire. Prepare to be wowed!
Q: So, Adam, what’s it like ‘living’ for months in a canoe?
Adam: A canoe is very versatile. Sometimes I’ll stand in mine for 10 hours if I’m travelling up a river. In “Beyond the Trees: A Journey Across the Arctic”, I spent all day long standing in my canoe holding an 11’ long pole and pushing off the bottom. Doing that, you can pole up rivers really fast, even with rapids and strong currents. My longest day on “Where the Falcon Flies” was 17 hours of travel. For clarity, that wasn’t standing in the canoe poling upriver, that was ‘just’ 17 hours of travelling/paddling.
Another advantage is that a canoe holds a lot of supplies and has easy access to everything you need. If I want to eat in the canoe, it’s right there in front of me. If I want to take photos and video or need to write something in my journal, I can grab that. If I need to purify water over the side of the canoe without going to shore, I whip out my little carbon filter. You can do 17 hours in a canoe because you can stand up and stretch, or sometimes I’ll stretch my legs over the side or lay down and rest my head on the back and stretch out full length. Sitting, kneeling, cross-legged – you can shift around in a canoe. Which is definitely an asset if you’re doing this 13 to 14 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 3 months consecutively.
Q: How do you prepare mentally and physically for a long canoe trip?
Adam: I don’t have a set routine but I’m always active. If I’m not on an adventure or an expedition, I’m wandering the woods around my house. There’s a lot of ravines, swamps, fallen trees, so I’m constantly ducking under things, climbing over them, jumping across streams, climbing hills. Staying flexible is a huge asset. Last time I went to Toronto, I took the GO Train and ran from Union Station to the CTV studio. That’s like free exercise. To me, the journey is its own kind of training. You use the first week to break into the routine and that’s the best training there is because you’re paddling, portaging, hiking – all those things.
On the mental side, a big part of my thought process is: What is the weather window? How late in the season can you actually push on? Once you get into October, the weather is really deteriorating in the far north. You could have snow, you might have to chip out the ice on the lake before launching your canoe and it’s often stormy and very windy. I pushed my 2017 journey, “Alone Across the Arctic”, into September because I didn’t really have a choice. So for my “Where the Falcon Flies” excursion, I started in April to give myself the longest window of opportunity to finish because I had no way of forecasting how long it would take. It ended up taking 90 days, but it might well have taken four months, depending on factors outside my control.
Q: Your realm is forests, lakes and rivers… any words on climate change?
Adam: The environment is the major theme throughout all my books. I think it’s essential that we preserve and restore wild places. Endangered species rely on those habitats and wild spaces are crucial to our mental and physical wellbeing as humans. I’m also a big believer in biodiversity. The diversity of living things – whether it’s trees, plants, mushrooms, wildflowers, insects, amphibians, reptiles, fish, mammals, birds – adds colour to the world. The fact that you can see over 400 different species of birds in Southern Ontario alone is amazing. Birding is one way you can explore nature without having to rough it or go far away. I think if we had that mindset about the value of wild places, climate change would take care of itself.
Part of my motivation for “Where the Falcon Flies” (the journey and the book) was to show people that not just the north but their own backyard in Southern Ontario has special natural space. I wrote about the Scarborough Bluffs, the Toronto Islands, the greenspace under the Burlington Skyway, the islands around Montreal to hopefully awaken in people a new appreciation and excitement about what’s right around the corner. What appealed to me about this journey is it would combine both – a journey to the Arctic but starting from my front yard and seeing everything along the way. I’ve heard consistently from people that they really enjoy reading the part of the book that’s in their neighbourhood, such as “That’s where I kayak” or “I can picture exactly what you’re describing.” So I’m hoping it resonates with people.
*Adam Shoalts, PhD, is a Westaway Explorer-in-Residence at the Royal Canadian Geographical Society, author of several national bestsellers and a national champion of the Trans-Canada Trail. adamshoalts.com
