Kneeling with my left padded knee on the seat of the canoe, I gripped the siderails tightly with my gloved hands. Simultaneously, I pushed off the chunky ice below with my right foot, using a cleated shoe that created traction against the frozen ground. It’s a process called “scootering,” and together, four of us worked to propel our 300-pound canoe across the ice until we reached frigid water. We quickly jumped into the canoe, grabbed our oars, and sliced through the water to keep our momentum going. My cheeks were pink from the biting wind, but the exertion kept me warm.
Luckily, I was with a professional who knew how to navigate over and around the sheets of ice and through the open water of the St. Lawrence River in Québec City, Canada. Our guide and captain, Maxime Gaillard, would call out the conditions from the back of the canoe, as he was the only one facing forward. “Ice everywhere” was something we heard more than a few times.
Read full article on Matador Network.