This 15 days canoeing adventure in august 2004, together with Roy Perritt and, between others, “White Water Willy” in the Vérendrye wildlife reserve was one never to forget.
Willy was baptised “White Water Willy” after an heroic dive into the ice cold water and athletic rescue swim to recover our gear when one of the canoes tipped in one of the rapids.
Paddling this wildlife reserve, at that time, we didn’t know yet that years later we would return to this territory and stay with the caretakers of this land, the Anishinabe Nation.
La Vérendrye wildlife reserve is one of the largest reserves in the province of Quebec, Canada, covering 12,589 square kilometers of contiguous land and lake area (Assinica wildlife reserve is the largest in the province, but its territory is broken up in four non-contiguous parts).
It is named after Pierre Gaultier de Varennes, sieur de La Vérendrye, a French-Canadian explorer. Located 180 kilometres (110 mi) north of Ottawa (Canada’s capital), it is traversed from south to north by Route 117