Brown plans to turn love of outdoors into a career

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It was truly a wet and wild year for Jeremy Brown in 2005, who spent five months of it travelling the waterways of Canada, the United States and Mexico.

From June 1 to July 22, the 28-year-old outdoor enthusiast from Dryden paddled from Thunder Bay, Ont. to Batoche, Sask. as part of an expedition co-ordinated through the Metis Nation of Ontario that retraced the 2,300-km route used by Metis voyageurs in the 18th and 19th centuries. He then spent another three months in a kayak, challenging some of the more aggressive waterways in North America as he trained to become a certified guide.

The Metis expedition provided Brown with a number of lasting memories.

"The group is what I liked most because we were together for pretty much 11 weeks, including the training time, and I just made really good friends out of this experience. I also liked meeting people along the way because the hospitality from them was great. We were inspired by people who were inspired by us."

Through travelling in a historic 26-foot voyageur canoe, Brown said he learned more about the Metis culture and what it must have been like for his ancestors to paddle the same rivers. More than 200 years ago, Metis men travelled the treacherous waters trading goods for the Hudson's Bay Company and the Northwest Company.

Brown said for him the highlight of the Metis expedition had to be meeting relatives along the way, specifically in the Camperville/Duck Bay region of Manitoba.

"It was really cool and interesting to paddle right through the region where my ancestors have been," said Brown. "I probably met two dozen of my relatives along the way."

During one of their stops at Lake Winnipegosis in Manitoba, a local fisherman visited the voyageurs and asked which of them was related to the Chartrands.

"I said 'That's me.' He started telling me stories about my great grandfather and how he was a great guy. He was the man when it came to fishing and hunting. It sounded so cool to hear these stories," Brown said. The stories had an impact on him as he paddled on the lake, knowing past generations of his family had done so years before.

"Going on this trip, I knew I would learn more about the Metis culture but to learn about my family along the way was incredible. There are so many stories I have told and still have yet to tell about this trip and it could make for a great book."

After completing the Metis expedition, Brown rested up for a month, then entered into the 90-day Whitewater Intensive Leadership Development (WILD) program offered through ESPRIT rafting, owned and operated by international adventure travel guides Jim and Erin Coffey.

The WILD program is based in Canada but moves throughout Canada, the United States and Mexico, with participants taking on whitewater in eastern Ontario, western Quebec, New York State, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia, Veracruz and Oaxaca.

"I went into WILD never having to whitewater kayak before and within three months I'm an instructor," said Brown. "We were able to confidently paddle at the end of the trip in some of the biggest water around."

Not only has he gained the certification to be a guide but, through WILD, he's also gained a lot of confidence.

"Through this past year, I really got to see myself. I put myself through so much this past year and I've just learned a lot more about who I am," he said.

"I've always been a little leery of the water, but taking WILD has really improved that for me. For example, we were doing our swift water rescue training on our exam day and we were supposed to swim across the rapids to a rock. We were in our groups and usually someone else would go first but that day it was I. Therefore, I challenged myself and told myself, 'I have to make this.' I jumped in and swam across and it was actually a gratifying feeling. Three months prior to that I would never have done that," he said.

"Last year was the best ear of my life because during the expedition I met so many of my relatives up in Northern Manitoba and going on the WILD program, with all of the challenges, were phenomenal."

The WILD program ended in late November, bringing Brown back to Kenora and his job as a refrigeration journeyman mechanic. He's now working to complete an adventure naturalist program offered at Algonquin College through correspondence. He hopes to graduate within the next year-and-a-half, and eventually plans to start up his own eco-tourism business in Kenora.

"Kenora has a lot of rich history when it comes to the voyageurs," said Brown. "There's a lot of potential here and people need to come and see it. "