1,426-km kayak journey
58-year-old Lakefield man completes 48-day trek by kayak from Thunder Bay
LAKEFIELD -- Hugh Dobson wore a plastic tiara that said Paddle Queen to a party in his honour on Thursday.
Dobson, 58, had just completed a sea kayak trip from Thunder Bay to Lakefield (where he lives).
It took him two months. He paddled 1,426 kilometres.
“It was epic,” he said, grinning, the tiara perched on his head.
About 20 relatives and friends gathered to celebrate with him on the patio of the Canoe and Paddle pub on Queen St. in Lakefield.
Dobson co-owns the pub. The party started as soon as he paddled into Lakefield.
For years, Dobson taught outdoor education to elementary school students, and he also taught whitewater canoeing. By the time he retired in June 2016, he was vice-principal at Norwood District High School.
From the age of 18 he’d dreamed of doing a long paddle trip. As soon as he retired, he started planning and training for it.
The first part of the trip was the hardest, Dobson said: paddling solo across Lake Superior. He set out in early June, carrying all his camping gear on the kayak.
Every night he camped in the wilderness, along shore. He was concerned about bears; he never encountered one, likely because he purposely made noise as he set up camp.
The waters of Lake Superior weren’t rough, as he paddled – but it was foggy. Dobson said he often had to rely on his hearing, in addition to his GPS, to navigate.
“You have to listen for the shoreline to know you’re close to shore,” he said.
It took 22 days to paddle from one end of Lake Superior to the other. But from that point on, he was no longer alone.
Dobson’s wife, Kim, and three of his friends arranged to meet him at various points between Sault Ste. Marie and Lakefield. In their own kayaks, they paddled alongside him for long stretches.
Kim paddled for about 500 km, from Georgian Bay to Lakefield.
“It was great – I loved it,” she said at the celebration.
The Trent-Severn Waterway was fun, Kim said: you can stop in locations such as Bobcaygeon and take a break, even get an ice cream cone.
“It got easier and easier as we got closer to here,” she said.
With just 10 km left of the trip, the couple was met by a flotilla of canoes. Friends and relatives had come to meet them – including the couple’s daughter, Jess.
Jess is a pre-school teacher who lives in Kingston. She made a special trip to Lakefield with her canoe so she could go meet Mom and Dad on the home-stretch.
“When we saw the water tower in Lakefield, it was, ‘Hey – you’re home! You made it!’” she said.
Dobson said he tried to be careful for the entire trip – especially on Lake Superior, when he was alone.
“My mantra was, ‘No adventures today’,” he said. “I didn’t want anything to go wrong – and nothing did.”
As well-wishers arrived on the patio, they all hugged Dobson and congratulated him. People kept calling on his cellphone – some from Thunder Bay – to make sure he’d arrived safe.
Pub staff greeted him too, many of them bringing out beer and caesar salad (no croutons – just the way he likes it).
“It’s nice to be home,” he said with a smile.