During a trip to Canada with Woodland Ways, where myself and 14 other people canoed and wild camped nearly 500 miles of the Yukon river. One of the many great expeditions that Woodland Ways offer. This was a great trip with lots of wonderful scenery and spectacular wildlife. As an expedition our main goal was to travel the distance which would mean getting up each day breaking camp before paddling sometimes up to 50 miles, if the condition were good, we needed to make good progress in order to complete the 500 miles in the required time.
Once we finished paddling for the day, the work hadn’t stopped, we need to work together to get a fire going in order to cook our communal meals we also needed to filter and boil to purify the river water and make sure everyone had enough to drink including the many cups of tea. Once the camp chores were completed most people would head off to their tents in order to get a good night's sleep ready for the next days paddling.
I on the other hand was struggling to get to sleep, whether it be the constant daylight and my body clock keeping me awake while the sky was still so bright, or whether because I wanted to make the most of my time in this remote wilderness. I would sit in an evening watching the river and the wildlife whether that be eagles nesting in a tree opposite or a beaver dragging logs across.
Always being keen to be improving my bushcraft skills I took this time in the evenings to make craft from material I wouldn’t usually have access to. The thick bark and the Canadian birch trees was perfect for making containers or the wood for making spoons. But after a few night when I had made several different spoons and other assorted crafts I wanted to make a bigger project.
Soon after deciding this at the camp site the next day I found a larger tree that had been felled by a beaver so it could nibble on the younger branches at the top. I knew then what I wanted to make . I wanted to make it into a canoe paddle. I loved the idea of turning this birch tree that had been felled by a beaver into a paddle and then use the paddle while canoeing the mighty Yukon. All such iconic symbols of the Canadian wilderness merged together during this epic trip.
As we were travelling by canoes and large-scale carving projects like carving a canoe paddle were not on the planned itinerary we didn’t have large carving tools with us. But we did have our Laplander saws, knives and a small hand hatchet. I used the hatchet to first make some wedges and a large baton. I used the hatchet and the baton to score a line down the length of the log then used a combination on the hatchet and wedges to split the log into two halves.
I knew that the log wouldn’t be wide enough for a larger beaver tail paddle but would work for a thinner otter tail. I borrowed one of the otter tail paddles one of our team had brought from Whitehorse. Using a piece of charcoal from the fire I drew around the paddle on to my split long.
I had never carved a paddle before, but how hard could it be, it’s just like carving a spoon, just a really big spoon. Once i had my line i just needed to remover all of the wood which wasn’t part of my paddle.
At first I was keen to remove large amounts of material to make my log paddle as light as possible, as we were still on expedition, putting a large heavy log in an already heavy canoe, full of not only personal camping gear but food to last the duration and communal stores, my paddle needed to lose weight and fast.
By the end of the first day and a lot of axe work, I had a much thinner more manageable paddle shaped stick that would travel better, but it was far from being a finished paddle.
Then over the next couple of days each evening i would sit and watch the sky redden but never blacken as the sun lingers below the horizon as dusk waiting to become dawn. I would use my knife to carve away more and more of the paddle until as it became closer to my finished shape. In an ideal circumstance in a wood shop with all tools I would have used rasps files and sandpaper to make the paddle as smooth as possible. But out in the wilderness on expedition this wasn’t possible. I was able to lightly carve away and then scrape smooth. But with the paddle being such a large project and the available time in the evenings, before I would eventually need to sleep I was limited into how smooth I could make it.
I knew that if the paddle shaft wasn’t perfectly smooth and I tried to paddle with it I could end up blistering my hand as it rotated through my clenched fist for the many hours I would be using it. But I wanted to finish the journey and paddle in to Dawson City with the paddle I made. So on the last night I wrapped the part of the paddle where my hand would be with some paracord, this would also protect to paddle from being scrapped down the side of the canoe.
So the final day came, my paddle was as good as it was going to be and I used it to paddle the last 20 miles into Dawson City the journey was done, time for a well-deserved ice-cold beer and a pizza with everything on it, before we would start our way back to the UK.
Travelling and exploring remote wilderness locations on expedition is such a rewarding experience and so is being able to turn a natural raw material into a functional thing whether that be a paddle or a spoon. And to me that is what bushcraft is all about, and when your are able to combine both it can be a really magical experience, if you have the chance i highly recommend it.