Interview with Red Lake Outfitters: Woodland Caribou Provincial Park

Description

Joe Robinet and I invite Harlan, the owner of Red Lake Outfitters, to my house for a planning session for a summer canoe/fishing trip we are doing in Woodland Caribou.

http://myselfreliance.com/woodland-caribou-provincial-park/

Red Lake Outfitters

WOODLAND CARIBOU PROVINCIAL PARK’S PREMIER OUTFITTER.

Introduce yourself to 2,000 kilometres of Canadian boreal wilderness, lakes, and rivers in the Woodland Caribou Provincial Park. Relax and enjoy the solitude and serene environment home to many animals like caribou, lake trout, and northern pike. Discover something new each time you visit.

Welcome to Woodland Caribou Provincial Park, home to Canada's iconic boreal forest wildlife, including Woodland Caribou, Moose, Black Bear, Grey Wolves, Lynx, Beaver, Lake Trout, Walleye and Pike.

With over 2,000 kms of canoe routes and 1,500 campsites, yet less than 1,000 visitors each year, solitude is guaranteed.

Photo credit to Goh Iromoto and Mike Monaghan as published on the website of Red Lake Outfitters

Tags: bushcraft,camping,canoe,fishing,self-reliance,survival,paddleon,discoveron,woodland caribou,ontario parks,travelontario,goh iromoto,red lake outfitters,joe robinet,my self reliance,shawn james,boreal forest,canada,ontario,lake

Video Transcription

hey guys John James here with Joe Robinette and new guy Harlan harp an entirely new guy new guy the emcee before do I don't get along hey Harlan Harlan is Harley the owner of Red Lake illustrators up in woodland caribou Provincial Park

we are planning a 10 day canoe fishing trip up in woodland caribou Park and that's in the northwest corner of Ontario bordering Manitoba so we're here with Harlan to start our route planning this is a early April so we've got a couple months to put this together and get up there and get a wooden in the Board of forests and decent camping obsession and canoeing so just uh want to ask our land a couple of things we started this conversation a few months ago and yeah and you know material is a vast province there's a lot of opportunities but really when I started talking to Harlan and Jo and I started talking about tripping up north further up north there was some options out there and I think Harlan convinced us why a woodland caribou was a great first foray into the boreal forest for King trip so what is it about woodland caribou that was so appealing to to yourself who to chose to live up there and then to us to go up there and do this kind of trip yeah I mean at the end of the day I found woodland caribou to be just the the ultimate paddling destination for myself as a solo father growing up I mean I was always tiling the Algonquin the Killarney halliburton Highlands Water Trail that's where I cut my teeth growing up in southern Ontario and then I discovered this park and it's just set up so well and at the end of day what you have here is 1.2 million acres I believe the third largest parking in Ontario Park System 500 people in you're actually accessing it and yet all the Portage's are there world-class fishing and the solitude I believe in 19 different locations of First Nation pictographs well when you add that that bit of Canadian history to it it was used several parts of the park were used as fur trade routes Hudson Bay posts we're located in and around this park when you look at the history of it when you look at a relic set up for canoe travel and then add the solitude factor the fishing factor and the beauty factor mm-hmm it's a no-brainer it's one of the in my mind I mean we call Killarney the crown jewel of the Ontario parks or for me this is the crown jewel it's a long ways from trial or southern Ontario you know it's 20-plus hours but the investment you make to get out to a place like this is definitely rewarded with the experience that I get just put that five hundred to a thousand dollars of perspective Algonquin Park I think one campground in Algonquin Park holds more than five hundred people but I think it's three million maybe that go through I'll go open in a year I guess it's just staggering yeah I mean what when of often we'll have vehicle wise going through the west gate between 9:00 and 10:00 a.m. on Saturday morning is we get the whole year the entire year that's a 12-month year cycle so at the end of day we're we're far removed from civilization when were based out of Red Lake Ontario which is the end of the road literally as far north as you can drive on a pink Highway and on very well but you know what you get out of it is if you want to get really back to kind of the way things were 200 years ago or as close as you can to going back in time this is it yeah that's cool I mean we're a few fish United States or southern Ontario you just if you would ever get into a good Lake you've caught a number of fish here and you that experience that's different than your typical fishing trip where you catch one or two fishing today and you're happy to do that to get up into this kind of country and you know if you know my story as it is going back to when I was a kid I started fishing like four years old and and that's been my passion a lot of my canoe trips have been because they want to get into the backcountry to do some fishing and I've done that and I found some decent lakes around South in central Ontario but nothing like this so for me this is literally a trip of a lifetime like this is I've dreamt about this I've been to the sports and a show since I was a young boy and collecting all those brochures from all the lodges up there and just dreaming about doing that someday to me this is like a pinnacle this is this is better than any of those trips I even imagined as a kid and to be able to canoe into these areas and chance of seeing woodland caribou and moose and Wolf's and lame and pictographs as Harland says just to me a trip of a lifetime yeah and dying the experience side we're going to put you in on 1956 to Havilland beaver so it's going to be you know a piece of Canada is going with you and you know tell these people what that is in case they don't know yeah so the the iconic Havilland beaver flow plane it's that it's the flow plane that pretty much opened up the North in all of Canada it's I mean it's held in such high regard a short takeoffs and landings is just the workhorse the north so these guys are going to be jumping into a 1956 to have them beaver we're going to tie their canoe right onto the side of the airplane and we're going to push off in the dock at 30 minutes later you guys going to be sixty miles into the middle of nowhere and as soon as we untie and get you guys in your gear oh we're going to turn around we're going to take off and you're going to hear that engine just in a decade it's going to fade and then it's just going to be you guys and you're in there for maybe better part two weeks and just just chilling out and not worrying about a thing you know some of the spent a lot of people following it so following it the following us as we put this trip together some gear sponsors so Ontario tourism is going to be one of our partners on this trip you've got Frost River going to supply some of the gear Northstar canoes going to supply one two canoes and watching what's unique even though it's just Joe and I had two of us going in you know we both like the soul will paddle so I'll be paddling one canoe and you'll be paddling a different one yeah it's very cool it's great for different perspectives we can get footage and photographs of each other canoeing and fishing and just creating a different experience as far as you know a couple of guys going into the park fishing so I think that's going to be exciting really hoping you're going to follow along and as we go from the planning stages into the actual trip itself and just watching us take off and think at the end of the trip we're going to we're going to have two planes right because by law flow plan can only have one canoe attached to it on the outside at one point so we're going to be two playing side-by-side two canoes strapped to the pontoon open each other really awesome it's going to be be incredible and there's there's nothing quite like seeing that perspective of it you know looking out the window of your plane and seeing another plane right next to you with a canoe amazing it's super cool something we should match in the heartland it's one of there's not many Outfitters up in that area in general but can you tell us more about your business and how how you do service the the Perkins oh yeah yeah sure I'd love to

so you know I moved up to the Red Lake area about seven years ago started this business six years ago felt that there was a need to share this with with the world really and we've done that in six years we've outfitted trips for people from you know whether it's Asia or Europe in the UK and Germany us all over the world even Australia actually it's been pretty cool to share this this wilderness area and at the end of the day we put our best foot forward and we just want to create experiences and for us we say it's all about the experience and then we want you to go home with a with an experience that's going to last a lifetime so from the outfitting perspective whether it's our flow plate access to our canoes to our equipment route playing it's all top the line brand-new equipment every year the best of the best we've put our heart and soul into it our team puts their heart and soul into it in the day you're looking for a truly world-class bucket list kind of canoe trip mm-hmm we can do that so even if we had no gear no experience you could set us up here complete opening is what we specialize in again brand new every year top the line stuff you could show up just with the clothing on your back and we will set you up on an incredible trip whether it's from three days to three months yeah that's awesome man we're fully outfitted ourselves for trips down here but going up 24 hours so we're going to rely on Harlan to set us up into trouble and fish in a different region than what we're used to begin with but also to added some gear and other things and knowledge yeah knowledge in the area yeah we really appreciate this or they're excited to do it and look forward to getting up there yeah it's going to be great great

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