Welcome to 104! Our favourite time of year is upon us - the anticipation of coming canoe trips - both big and small.

We, at the Hide-Away Canoe Club, have been very fortunate. For 20 years we have paddled Canada's northern rivers and we continue to do so. This summer will bring Labrador Odyssey 2001, the latest in our series of Onriver.Online interactive canoe trips - and our "biggest" trip to date in many ways.

We will be highlighting LO2001in Outfit 105 but allow me to tell you a bit about it now. Since 1985, we have been the envy of many paddlers, in having our trips sponsored. Such trips usually feature a consortium of companies offering products, discounts and cash. Since 1991, Woods Canada has been our most loyal and supportive sponsor. This year they are taking a giant leap to become the primary sponsor of Labrador Odyssey. It also means we will be able to send pictures, stories and video to our Web Site - which is already awaiting you at www.canoe.ca/labrador2001.

Our route is again historical and a natural follow-up to where our first online trip left off in 1997-at the mouth of the George River on Ungava Bay. It was there, after Mina Hubbard beat Dillon Wallace to the finish in 1905, that the fractious pair left on a boat bound for New York. Shortly after departure, Wallace and his partner, left the boat, awaited the oncoming winter and took the traditional native route to the Labrador coast and back home. This involved travel up the Korok River-just east of the George-and then through the Torngat Mountains down the Palmer River to Nachvak Fiord and then down the coast. We will take the reverse route beginning at Nain, the last settlement along the Labrador coast, taking a boat to Hebron, the abandoned Moravian mission and then north to Nachvak.

The 24-day trip marks a return to the type of trip we usually do. Technology in the Wilderness will become part of the trip's message. We'll kick it off in front of 15,000 Boy Scouts at their Jamboree in PEI on July 9 and plan to arrive in George River Aug 1. We will have full details in our next issue, in the meantime, happy paddling - and planning!

Michael Peake.

This story first appeared in Che-Mun Outfit 104 in 2001.