Canoemobile program takes to the water in Lodi area
How well do you know local waterways? Have you gone paddling in Lodi Lake, or explored the Mokelumne and Cosumnes rivers? Do you know the wildlife and plants that live in those waters?
If you don’t, this week you have a chance to change that.
Wilderness Inquiry is bringing their Canoemobile program to Galt students this week, and they’ll cap the series off with a visit to Lodi Lake during the Love Lodi cleanup event.
“It allows people to experience a waterway close to home, in a really safe way,” said Meg Krueger, the education program manager at Minneapolis-based Wilderness Inquiry.
The Canoemobile is a van that hauls six 24-foot Voyageur canoes. Each canoe can hold up to 10 people, including the instructor.
“We can take 50 students at a time on the water, or more if need be,” Krueger said.
The best part is, it’s scaleable — a whole classroom can go out together, and so can smaller groups. Each trip includes experienced outdoor instructors, life vests and safety gear, adaptive gear as needed, and paddling and safety instruction.
Local partners set up educational activity stations where guests and students waiting for their trip can learn about local waterways.
Instructors can work with guests who have disabilities, including those in wheelchairs, so they can get into a canoe.
The program grew out of Wilderness Inquiry’s work in the Twin Cities region. The organization has spent more than 30 years leading people on outdoor adventures to help connect them to the natural world around them.
In 1977, the group expanded their mission to focus on proving that anyone can enjoy the wilderness, working to make their tours inclusive to people with disabilities, the elderly and everyone else. Soon, the group branched out into several programs, including several focused on children.
That’s when they discovered that, while the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul relied on the Mississippi River for drinking water and hydroelectric power, students there didn’t know much about the river, Krueger said.
“Even most adults are pretty disconnected from it,” she said.
That’s when they bought a fleet of Voyageur canoes, handcrafted in St. Paul, and took education out on the river. The program was a huge success, so they took it to Washington, D.C. If it worked in one city, they figured, why not two?
“Thanks to the success of that program and some of the excitement that built around it, we have a partnership with the National Parks Service,” Krueger said.
Now, the Canoemobile travels around the country, working with local partners to teach students and the public more about local waterways.
In Galt, the Canoemobile is working with the Galt school districts and the Bureau of Land Management to take students on adventures in the Cosumnes River Preserve. Trips will focus on the preserve’s natural history and team building.
In Lodi, the public is welcome to come out to Lodi Lake from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday — or earlier, if they want to pitch in at the lake cleanup event — and enjoy a paddle in one of the canoes. The event is free.
While the students learn a lot, the program goes beyond that, Krueger said.
“It’s not so much about information that we share, but the experience itself,” she said. “I think everyone is going to take away something different from being close to nature or being in a big boat. They may not have had that experience before.”
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