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HOPE FLOATS Journeys Around Canada finishes strong! 22,617 kilometres

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  CONGRATULATIONS!   WE DID IT!    We traveled 2416 kilometers in our final week of our Journey around Canada, bringing us to a total of 22,617.57 kilometers.    Wow!    Way to go team!    Not only did we journey all the way around Canada, we did it with 1,500 kilometers to spare! Once we reached Lock 1 of the St. Lawrence Seaway Authorities Welland Canal, we launched our dragon boats and paddled up the Canal to the beautiful Welland Recreational Canal to make out way home to the Welland International Flatwater Centre! Where will we go next?  We are going to take a week or two to plan our next adventure.    The Hope Floats Grow Grant implementation committee is currently putting together a twice weekly zoom workout for Breast Cancer Survivors and their family and friends.     In the meantime, we hope to see as many as you as possible on the South Niagara Canoe Club Monday, Wednesday & Friday zoom workouts with SNCC coach Tim Ostiguy.      Your Wellness Committee Ann, Anne, Anne Mar
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Quebec City.."la vie est belle"

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  "la vie est belle" translation is "life is good".  French Canadians love this expression because they really do enjoy to live in the moment. Who wouldn't enjoy a gorgeous street like this in Quebec City. History, culture and ambiance are all here waiting for us to experience and enjoy!  Speaking of "experience" let's check out the one and only ice hotel in North America. Just 30 km outside of Quebec City this hotel is built brand new every year. Made entirely of ice of course it features a grand reception area, a bar wherein your drink is served in a glass made of ice and, there are hotel rooms. You sleep on a bed of ice (yes they give you warm comforters). The theme changes every year in this hotel as they assemble the blocks. There's even been a chapel in previous years for getting married in! Does that include an "icy" reception I wonder. All kidding aside, not sure if we'll see it this year as it's weather dictates usual
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End of Week 8 - la fin de la semaine 8 nous amène à Québec

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Another fantastic week of teamwork! We traveled 1,704 kilometers last week for a total of 20,030 kilometers! With one week left of 2020 and our Journey around Canada, we are now in Quebec City. This is what 20,030 kilometers around Canada looks like from space! Each week we have stragglers sending in their kilometers, the corrected numbers (with several stragglers from week 8 are now: We spent some time in Halifax where we learned that we were on the traditional ancestral lands of the Mi'kmaq indigenous peoples, known as Mi'kma'ki. Linda Sage,one of our founding members was born in Halifax Nova Scotia. We were pleased to honour Linda by spending a little extra time touring around Nova Scotia. It was a nice rest for our weary muscles as we head into our final week of our journey around Canada. Thankfully we brought our snow shoes! We headed down to the most southern tip of Nova Scotia, Cape Sable Island, home of the Lobster Pot Christmas Tre
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Inspiration abounds! Hope Floats & Supporters are having some fun in Halifax! Magine that!

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Week seven of the Hope Floats journey to Vancouver (morphed into journey around Canada) was great fun as we traveled another 2198 kilometers! We spent quite a bit of time in the Maritimes and haven't finished with our gorgeous east coast yet! After paddling 173 kilometers from Channel Port Aux Basque to Cape Breton Island we decided we needed a rest. Instead of portaging with the dragon boats, so we sent them ahead to wait for us in New Brunswick for our paddle to P.E.I. We put on our snow shoes and headed out to experience the Cabot Trail. and took a short break in Inverness, where we hung out and played some hockey. We then circled around the south end of Nova Scotia and we find ourselves in Halifax. Each week we have a few stragglers sending us their kilometers and adjust accordingly, we have traveled an amazing 17.930 kilometers in 7 short weeks! We have 2 weeks to go, including the Holiday Season so even though we are close to home, we need to pull to
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Inverness, Nova Scotia

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 On our journey this week we’ll depart Newfoundland at Channel-Port aux Basques and cross over the water to reach Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. Two of my active walker supporters Joan and Doug have a son and future daughter-in-law that just moved to Inverness this summer on the Cape. So what a great opportunity to stop by in Inverness to say hello and check out this very pretty town!
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End of Week Six - Whaddyat? Come From Away!!!

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Way to go team!!!!   After a week of heading south east, 2,356 kilometers later we find ourselves back in civilization in St. John's, Newfoundland! One of crew fell on the tundra last week and we have been taking turns piggy backing her.   That combined with portaging with the dragon boats has been quite the challenge!   We have traveled a total of 15,683 kilometers in six short weeks!   That's an average of 2,613 kilometers a week. Week Total 1 2313.55 2 3571.74 3 2584.721 4 2564.64 5 2292.58 6 2356.18 15683.411 We have 3 weeks left of our journey with less than 8,000 kilometers to go!   We are in the end stretch, and it is time to pick up the pace again crew!  We had a strong start and have gliding along on our efforts, now we need a strong finish!    Give me a hard 10 between now and Christmas and it will be smooth sailing into 2021!
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End of Week 5! Bonjour, Bienvenue au Québec

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It was a long hard trek through the beautiful Canadian Territories  but we made it!    Here we are in Northern Quebec. The harsh weather and portaging with the dragon boats across the Northwest Passages slowed us down a bit.  We covered 2,168 kilometers this week for a total of 13,251.      We made up some time on the water!   Over the weeks, we have had a few stragglers fall back, and the batteries on their cell phones died, so they were late getting their kilometers on the record.    An update of the actual numbers are: Week Total Running Total 1 2313.55 2 3571.74 5885.29 3 2584.721 8470.011 4 2612.64 11082.651 5 2168.68 13251.331 As we head into week 6 to start moving south east toward Newfoundland/Labrador let's all remind ourselves of the impact each and every one of us makes on the success of our crew!
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End of Week 4! Can you guess where we are?

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Wowza!   It will never ceases to amaze me how much can be accomplished with teamwork.    Hope Floats and all our supporters make one very impressive TEAM!   In week four, we traveled another 2,519 kilometers for a total of 10,970!!!! We are at latitude/longitude  65.49968 -115.20880 in the Northwest Territories! Due to a lack of convenient roads, we have taken to the off road trails, and are now traveling as the crow flies. As we enter into week 5 of our journey, let's take the words of Audrey Hepburn to inspire our efforts! Nothing is impossible, the word itself says, I’m possible!”                     Audrey Hepburn
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All aboard the Polar Express

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 So I had to trade in my bicycle for these Nordic walking poles as we head into different terrain up North. Pole walking is a great workout. Did you know that you can engage upwards to 90% of your muscles on a correct formed walk. And you'll notice your posture improve too! So important as we age.  Mmmm...I think I used the other 10% of my muscles (face) with a big smile when I found Santa's Polar Express train! Maybe we might run into him?
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Week 3 - What a Week in Vancouver!!!

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  Our 3rd week of our journey we decided to stay in Vancouver to see the sights.  Collectively travelling 2,560 kilometers we walked every street and then some!  Find some great self guided walking tours by clicking here.  Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, originally a small sawmilling settlement in the 1870's named Granville now has 651 streets, covering 2,333 kilometers, the longest of which is 13 kilometers in Kingsway, Burnaby. Ok then, when one goal is achieved, another must be set!!! Hope Floats and Supporters Journeys Around Canada!!!!    We have reached Vancouver, we've toured the area and had a tea party with Abreast in a Boat and now we will head north to the Yukon Territory, across the Northwest Territories and into  Nunavut , down to Quebec, paddle across Hudson Bay to Quebec, across Quebec to Newfoundland and Labrador, paddle across the Gulf of St. Lawrence to the Island of Newfoundland where we will take the ferry across to Cape Breton, down to Nova Scotia and
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