In the years leading up to the Canadian Centennial (1967), there was understandably plenty of spit balling with regards to creative ways to celebrate both the anniversary and the history of our country.
Among the ideas being floated: a race from Rocky Mountain House (Alberta) to Montreal using essentially the same style of voyageur canoes that paved the way to the opening of the land we now call home.
The trial runs would feature summer expeditions from 1964 to 1966 with many of Canada’s most accomplished paddlers on hand. The experience was, very loosely, the first quasi-meeting point for Sudbury siblings Joe and Dave Derochie and Edmontonian Ted Bentley.
This month, the trio will gather once again, now averaging almost eighty years of age between them, tackling the Trent Severn Brigade as part of an eight-person team, the entire eleven boat delegation numbering between 120 to 150 strong and covering a 307 kilometre trek beginning in Waubaushene and finishing in Peterborough.
It’s an excursion that very much speaks to these intrepid travelers, part of a country-wide paddling community that will gather to some extent or another to tackle expeditions short and long every year or two (or sometimes more) – all for the love of being out on the water.
Understandably, that is a deeply rooted affection for those who venture this pathway.
“We lived on Wembley Drive and it was a ten minute walk to the original Sudbury Canoe Club, right behind the hospital,” recalled Dave Derochie. “I would be down on the lake playing and someone took a shining to me and brought me into the club.”
From 1954 to 1968, roughly speaking, the SCC was the site of the greatest era of paddling success in Sudbury history. “There was a lot of people, a lot of activity and a lot of good people running the club,” recalled Dave. “That place was packed with trophies and awards from championships.”
Two of the four boys in a family of 12 children, Joe and Dave would only add to that collection of hardware. Though Joe would start later than his younger brother, he would ascend to the very top of the mountain, attending the 1960 Summer Olympics in Rome with C2 partner John Beedell.
“The first time we took him out there, Joe is paddling – and he’s liking it,” laughed his younger brother. “I was very physically strong at the time,” Joe chimed in.
Most prominent in the C1 boat, Don Stringer was a two-time Olympian (1956 & 1960), his father among those who helped administer life at the SCC. Though Dave did not ever compete at the Olympics, he was part of a five-man grouping from Sudbury which took part in the first Canada Summer Games in Nova Scotia in 1969 (along with Ralph and Leo Polowich and others).
The foundation of what has now evolved into a lifelong enjoyment of lengthy trips along countless of the country’s most prominent waterways was flourishing right in the centre of Sudbury.
“Sudbury had a lot of great paddlers and a lot of great crew paddlers – but they also held North American Championships on Ramsey Lake and they would come from right across the United States,” Dave reminisced.
“It was big time.”
“In terms of a lake viewing for a flat water race, Lake Ramsey is ideal,” noted Joe. “The announcer would be up at the top of Bell Park. You were right near the 500 metre mark but you could see the race start down by the yacht club.”
Still, it wasn’t as though competitions were limited to these parts – not by a long shot.
“Our first regatta of the year was on Centre Island (Toronto) on July 1st,” offered Dave. “That was the start of the summer for us – and then we would go to Mississauga and Ottawa.”
Apparently, there is simply no taking the love of the great outdoors from the likes of Joe or Dave Derochie, or Ted Bentley, or the entire clan that will gather near Port Severn this week.
“I retired in 1992 and moved to Vernon (B.C.),” said Joe. “There’s lot of skiing, lots of summer and winter activities – and lots of paddling.” Reaching his retirement six years later, Dave would make the move to Bay of Islands Drive just outside of Whitefish River – a site with ample paddling options right out his back door.
It’s easy to see where the connection to their western friend would take root.
“I lived about a block from the North Saskatchewan River,” noted Bentley. While he started, still high-school aged, with the two-person marathon canoes, things evolved quickly from there. “We had these ugly 19 foot canoes and it you did it just right, you could sit six guys in there. It was approximately the same as the fur trade boats.”
The adventures of the late sixties beckoned to the nostalgia of the Canadian wilderness.
“That was the revival of the big canoes,” said Joe. “That’s what got people involved in tripping and the larger canoes. The actual brigade itself just kind of evolved.”
In fact, it wasn’t until 2005 that these three fine gents actually gathered in the same boat for their first trip together. “Everybody still wanted to race but the feds weren’t sponsoring it anymore, there’s no money – but we were all old enough and rich enough to just go and do it,” said Bentley.
While the camaraderie of kindred spirits is key, so too is that sense of excitement that comes with each and every outing. “This one is just a walk in the park (307 kms),” chuckled Joe. “But weren’t not as young as we were, either. Everyone wants to go in a ride in the lift locks (in Peterborough).”
It’s all part of experiencing all that Canada has to offer, courtesy of the rivers and lakes that bind us together, from one coast to the other – just as the voyageurs discovered so many years ago.
