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This short film is from our great friends Goh and Courtney Iromoto and edited by Scott Edwards.
This year Kielyn and I are celebrating our 16th year of guiding winter expeditions (happy sweet 16!). Add to that the couple of years prior where we spent our winters developing the skills, experience and equipment necessary to start this business, and we’ve been at this for most of our adult lives!
After much reflection and dreams about what the future holds, we’ve decided that next winter we will be taking a sabbatical. This will be a pause to reflect, rest and explore new directions for both ourselves and Lure of the North.
This decision comes from a place of deep gratitude and growth. We have always felt incredibly blessed to be able to make a living doing what we love. Guiding has given us more than we could have ever imagined: breathtaking landscapes, meaningful connections with so many of you, and the privilege of shared adventures and challenges overcome together. But it also hasn’t come without sacrifice. Growing this small business to where it is today, with guests joining us from across North America, Europe and Australia, took commitment and a wiliness to give up other aspects of life that we’ve come to yearn for. Change can be really scary and unnerving, but without that leap, we won’t know what’s possible! This is a time of exploration and could bring really exciting new energy to our lives (and hopefully yours!).
As we look forward to this coming winter, we know we’ll be savouring the moments on the trail that much more deeply as a result of our upcoming pause. That being said, this will be your last chance to join us for at least 24 months! We still have a few spots remaining on some of this year’s expeditions so don’t miss out! Now is the time!
Thank you for being a part of our journey. Your energy, enthusiasm and curiosity have helped shape who we are, and continued to drive our passion for adventure and community.
Here’s to pausing, recharging and returning with fresh inspiration for whatever comes next. This isn’t goodbye, it’s see you later!
With gratitude and snow dusted hearts,
-Dave and Kie
As our place in the woods faces almost due east, it is very clear to us as the earth tilts back and forth. As we gaze out our front window across the expansive grassy meadow the sun greets us each morning with pride and absolute beauty. In the middle of September marks the equinox in which the sun rises exactly in the east. It barrels down the center of the valley and marks to us that winter is just around the corner. Well now it is clearly rising in the southern skies and we take this time now to start shifting our focus to winter! Here is a poem I wrote this morning to mark the changing tides.
The Shift
Today I feel the shifting tides
The sun doth rise on southern skies.
The grasses have turned from green to red,
The leaves are falling, ground being well fed.
I feel the shift, down deep inside,
I turn to writing, to reflect, to confide.
A summer well spent, hard work, there’s no doubt,
An ambitious list that’s never to run out.
You can’t do it all, I tell myself often,
I give myself grace, let my shoulders gently soften.
It’s time to shift focus, with the tilt of the planet,
Light up the fires, sit in front and fan it.
It’s time, to take time, no more hustle or bustle,
Feel the shift, feed the soul, kick the leaves hear the rustle.
Look clear through the trees, you can see so much further,
The ferns have all dropped, the grouse walk with fervor.
Sink into a book, write a story or two,
Clear off the table, play a game and don’t forget the stew.
As the season progresses, I am well aware,
It is time to pull out, winter gear for repair.
But let me have just this week, or two, maybe three?
To enjoy this transition, some space to just be.
It can feel unsettling, like what should I do?
Allow yourself that space, and you’re sure to feel anew.
Did you ever wonder who would be crazy enough to sign-up and pay for a vacation that involves trudging through thigh deep snow, in a headwind for 6 hours. Followed by 3 hours of camp chores to set-up camp while your gear is frozen from the days travel and then muster the energy to put on your snowshoes to head up the hill to pack out a spot for a number II? Well, if you’re considering this yourself and if this sounds like fun to you, then please check out our Calendar of Events page. If you are considering one of our 2 week travel expeditions, then please read This Expedition is SERIOUS page. They are NOT for the faint at heart. But if you’re up for the challenge, it could change your life.
What an incredible season! We started off with lots of snow and cold to build the best ice we’ve seen in a few years which meant we kicked off the season with a bang! Sourdough pizza, day hikes and pottery were are great way to start the season with a feeling of hominess. We then trekked right from our home out into the wild with our Winter Wonderland Expedition and couldn’t have asked for a better group! We trekked across the frozen Lake Huron for 70 km for our Big Water Expedition and then promptly walked across the vast Temagami wilderness 130 km over two weeks for our Trans-Temagami Expedition. We wrapped our tripping season off by canoe-ski hauling across Killarney and right into Lake Huron to finish in Spanish for our Ice Breakers Expedition right along the North Channel!
We finished our season off well by hauling in all of our firewood for the next year and we are now settling back in and welcoming spring! We are sorry for not updating the website as often as we could with stories from the trail, but we are happy to have you here now!
We will be working on our 2026 schedule soon so please come back and check it out! We hope to see you next winter!!!
Thank you so very much to Correy Hawk at Organic Archery for coming all the way up to the pond to instruct our very first bow making course! His patience and knowledge are unmatched and we couldn’t have paired up with a better match to make this course a wonderful addition to our course offerings!
If this looks like something you’d like to do with us next year, please reach out to us!
The Aurora Borealis were out in full force the other week and we wanted to share some of the shots we took over the pond and the lake. I was coming home late on the barge over the lake and caught a flicker of red light to my left. I stopped the motor, with the bright moon to my right, and the show off to my left, I knew it was going to take me a while to get home!
Every time I thought, okay, I’m getting cold, it’s time to keep driving, I would start up the engine, drive for a hundred meters and then a new pulse of colour would flash in front of me and I just had to stop and take another look.
By the time I got home and out on to the back deck, Dave was already home from coming via ATV and on the deck enjoying the show looking out over the pond.
We don’t see the Northern Lights very often from our home, and when they are out, we are typically already in bed and have missed them! But this particular night they were out early enough for us to fully enjoy the show. With no light pollution from any development, we were able to be pulled right into the magic. We were again reminded of what a special place we are so grateful to have and to be able to call home.
This past winter we embarked on a brand new kind of adventure: a mix of canoe sled hauling through late-season ice and open water paddling. It was such an amazing experience, we’re offering it again in 2025. See Part 1 of the video here:
A week of camp designed for adults to spend time in nature and with other like minded people with the sole purpose of having fun!
Start your day with the sun rising over the pond, enjoy healthy meals, daily yoga/stretching, physical and creative activities and finish the day with a sunset paddle or swim followed by a crackling fire. Each day will be different, full of activities but the most important part of this week is connection, joy and rejuvenation!
Find out more by heading over the the CAMP NOWHERE page. We hope to see you this summer!
We have returned from our last trip of the season and what a finale it was! After a tough winter with many highs and lows (temperature wise) we came up against our final challenge of the season- a melting world! So rather than run away to the far north to find deep winter, we leaned in and adapted and time travelled to a time where season transitional travel was a necessity. And so with only a week to switch gear, we sprang (pun intended) into action and built canoe-sleds, purchased dry suits, rented canoes and found a very essential tool called a “pick-a-roon” or “pike pole”. With 4 adventurous and brave participants, six of us dove in with both feet (again, pun intended).
We navigated over 100 kilometers travelling around the north side of Killarney from Johnnie Lake all the way out to the North Channel of Lake Huron through Whitefish Falls. We were walking on water, launching into the open water, exiting onto thin ice, and portaging using winter and summer hybrid techniques that got creative. We gained an incredible amount of experience in this style of travel in a short two weeks in which we concluded that this was actually a really fun way to travel. The dry suits were such a great addition to our safety and weren’t actually that uncomfortable- It did make pee breaks more challenging however…
We had all types of weather in a matter of days with snow, slush, sun, rain, good ice, bad ice, open water, high winds and even days when the sun hat came out. There were times when people questioned why they signed up for such an adventure, but that’s when we lean in together and come out the other side proud, fulfilled and excited to go back out next year!
This was a style of trip that we’ve wanted to try for many years but it was hard to plan since how do you anticipate when the conditions will be perfect. But we realized that actually, we can make a trip like this work for routes that we’ve wanted to always try but because of large stretches of open water in some sections, we’ve steered away from those routes. But after this trip, we are keen and excited to go for some routes that we’ve never done before which have always felt too challenging.
We’ve learned so much from this trip and the one thing that was iterated to us was that adapting to what life throws at you is a sure way to have an incredible adventure. So our only question to you is: Are you in or are you in?! Ice Breaker Club 2025!
One of the best parts of winter camping, or not having a toilette inside in general (12 years going strong!) is that when you do have to exit the warmth of your cozy abode you end up turning your light off to marvel at the sky above. In this particular instance, what lay before my eyes was a symphony of colors from everyone’s headlamp and the incredible synchronicity of the colored smoke that exited the pipes. Winter camping captured in its finest.
All news, no fluff! We have only ever sent out 4 - 6 newsletters a year, and always when we have a major bit of news we want to share. You know, like one of us is going to be on a fancy TV show, or we're releasing our upcoming trip or workshop schedule. Plus we also offer the occasional newsletter-only special deal!
