Stills from The New Boy This was the worst day of my life - and it had just begun. My canoe, the John West, had split her stern. We had been paddling into a headwind from the mouth of Winnipeg River to Traverse Bay. After portaging across the highway, we pulled our canoes across a swamp. We were cutting corners. The swamp was hellish. I took off my running shoes to keep from getting them sucked into the muck. My socks were sucked from my feet and I trudged across it barefooted. The traverse after the swamp was through some of the largest swells I've ever canoed in. The phosphorescence of the whitecaps helped guide us through the night. We arrived at the other side at around midnight, exhausted but intact.

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With a split stern and swamped, the John West emerges at Traverse Bay from Lake Winnipeg

Exhausted, cold and wet at Lake Winnipeg