3 Days Canoe Camping through the Canadian Rockies

Today's video is sponsored by PetSmart. For the next three days we're going to be paddling down a river that crosses through the Canadian Rockies. We're going to be fishing, finding wild camping spots. I'm going to take you along and show you what type of gear we're using to stay safe and warm out here. It is spring so it's going to drop close to zero degrees overnight but it's going to be a good time. So the first step is we have to cross this lake and then we're going to hug the shoreline once we get across but it's a bit windy today so this is the first time we've been on a wavy lake with this much gear and a dog where you never know which side he's going to go to but he seemed to calm down in the first couple minutes so. Look at how beautiful the different colors of green are. We've almost crossed over to the other side. We made it past the droppier waves. It was a little dicey there for a minute. Kiro kept swaying back and forth. If one wave comes over we're taking on water. Apparently we're supposed to pass a bunch of waterfalls along this side. There's our first one. The water is super blue over here. Kiro is very interested in land. He wants to run all over this place but for now we paddle. Now that we've put in we're probably going to have to paddle for the goal was over 30 kilometers. Are we still aiming for that? 25k is our goal. Okay so we've done one kilometer. Let's go. We've got a lot of work to do. We're coming around the bend here and there's some huge cliffs and a snow-topped mountain still. This is a little shoot off from the lake into a river so we're gonna go check it out and see what we can find. This is so beautiful. It reminds me of something you'd see in Alaska. All that sand. The waterfall is just around this bend and we found this little beach just to get out and stretch our legs. The most important piece of gear we have is our life jackets and this one is from the Arcadia trail line at PetSmart. You look for a couple key features. One is that it has a really bright color so you're going to be able to see him on the water if he falls in. Another one is that it has a good handle. If you have to pull him up into the boat you need a strong harness on the back of there and then it's got double closure so it has a really strong velcro and it's super adjustable. We actually have him in a large because he borders on a medium to large and then he's got the double buckle system and he can run free in it and I think he really likes it. Super comfortable. If there's land to explore he will explore it. I just need to take a moment of appreciation for this moss. We do not get this moss in the desert in the Okanagan of British Columbia. When people think of BC they think of Vancouver and the rainforest but we don't get to experience a lot of that. It's dry, sandy and a lot of the forests are burnt down. Don't get me wrong there's some beautiful areas but it's nice to be able to go a couple hours east and find mossy areas like this. Kiril's just cooling off. We're about to get into the boat and the sun is shining so this is a nice little break so we can cool off. We've been paddling for another couple kilometers and we just found waterfall number three. So the next item that was key to pick up from PetSmart's Arcadia line is this water bottle that we can feed him water on the go. He is a little bit nervous on the water so he's not going to stick his head over but this has a silicone flap and it makes a cute little bowl and here you go Kiril. Click the button and the water comes out and the nice part is, hold on I think he wants some more, you can click the button and tip it and the water will go back into the bottle so you don't have to waste any and when he's done you just flip it back over and the bottom compartment is filled with his treats so you just put him in there and it has a little opening that you can twist like a bubble gum machine and he can get a little energy boost. Close that up and we're set to keep going. A massive eagle nest right there. Right around this bend I think we may find some land that we can pull over, have a break, maybe pitch a tent. Waterfall number five. How you doing? Doing good. 10k in. 10k. Kiril how you doing? He'd like to go back to the waterfall now. We just keep getting closer and closer to the big mountains. We can camp here and it's super sunny in the evening so we think we see our campsite. Might be the perfect beach up ahead. You get the boat I'll get Kiril. Okay. I'm paddling a couple more kilometers today but this is just so beautiful. The best part about this trip is all of the gems that we've never heard of that we just stumbled upon so very excited to see what we can find tomorrow. Kiril come side. Good boy. This pouch holder has been really key while I've been trying to keep Kiril off leash. He doesn't have the best recall but if I have treats nearby it's essential for his recall and for him to be able to roam around freely off leash. This pouch I'll link down below it's from PetSmart's Arcadia trail line. When I fell in the river earlier the treats stay completely dry so it is waterproof and it also holds poop bags so you can have those on the go. I carry this pretty much every day when I walk him. It's just one of those essential pieces for us. All right I took that wet sweater off. It's really important to have a material that's going to be quick drying so cotton is going to take the longest to dry. I recommend not wearing cotton on these types of trips. It's also important to not choose cotton dog collars so they can dry and keep the dog warm. Parker's on fire duty and for dinner tonight we are going to have dehydrated pad thai that I prepped at home. I prepped a bunch of these and I made a video on it. If you want to check it out I'll link it. I'll bring this over to the fire station where we're going to eat it and keep it away from our shelter. For Kiro's dinner I prepackaged each day of food in just a doggy bag. I find that that is the most lightweight to carry his food and I know this is what he needs to eat for a full day. This is our food container. It's going to stay dry on the boat but it's also going to keep bears out and we got to keep it away from our pets. So this is probably my favorite thing that I found at PetSmart. It's super durable and waterproof. It zips up and conceals his food and water dish and it stays nice and neat together and it's perfect for camp. So we're gonna fill one up with filtered water that I'm about to filter in a second and the other one up with his food. Oh yes, dinner time buddy. Okay let me get some water. This is the perfect place for our tent. So of course it's at the bottom of my bag. This is a cooling blanket for Kiro. So if it's really hot during the day, which it usually is in the summer, this jersey material is going to be cooling on his skin and then it's got a water and dirt resistant backside. So he's actually going to sleep on this inside the tent tonight and we'll also have it out around camp so he can lay on it and stay warm but also cool him in the sun. Wow the tent's really at the bottom. The ground is a little soft so I'm gonna lay out the footprints. I don't always do that. Alright dinner time for the humans. Pad Thai. I collected the dirty water from the creek, filtered it out with my gravity filter. Here we go. So the water just finished boiling the prepped meal in the water. So we let this boil for a couple minutes and then we'll take it off and let it sit in the seasoning powder that we need to put in for about 10 minutes and let the noodles cook. Oh my gosh. Okay so I've got the cooling blanket on my lap. It's keeping Kiro and I protected from the stones. We're out here in the wilderness for three days and I was able to get every piece of safety equipment or just basic need. He's chasing ducks right now. As I was saying I was able to get every single piece of dog gear that you need to go outside and experience the outdoors. If it's a multi-day camping trip or you just want to walk your dog every day and have the proper outdoor gear. I've been really impressed with the Arcadia trail at PetSmart and the durability and quality of all the pieces. Everything from his collar to his leash and the life jacket that his life does depend on it if he falls in. But I think my favorite thing that PetSmart offers is their loyalty rewards program. So just from ordering about $150 worth of stuff I was able to collect enough points. It was about six dollars off my next order for being a loyal customer to PetSmart and they have pretty much everything you would I realized though that I had ordered the wrong size life jacket. So they offer in some locations same day to your door drop off and I placed it around lunchtime and by eight o'clock that night they had partnered with a third party delivery service and dropped it right off at my door and it was just in time because I couldn't get to the downtown to pick it up myself. We still have two more days out here and lots to experience but I am ready for dinner. Our dinner spot taste test it's pretty good. I would say the noodles are a little overcooked but you have to see our view right now. All right what's the verdict? You heard my taste but Parker's not biased. It's just as good as last time. Super creamy. Thank you. Nice you got the outline. Good morning big stretch. Oh good boy. Last night was very cold. Yeah. For breakfast we're having oats so I put just oats in here, chia seeds, flax seeds, brown sugar, cinnamon, and chocolate chips. I'm gonna add some boiling water directly into the stasher bag. I like it not too liquidy. It just looks like a big granola bar. So today is gonna be all about fly fishing, taking Kira out on the boat, seeing if we can catch fish. We rigged the backing, the floating line, the leader, and then I have to put a swivel on and then add tippet to that. So I've got the leader, the swivel here, and I've attached some tippet and now I get to attach the fly. But I've spent hours watching YouTube videos trying to figure out the setup so that I can catch a fish without having a guide. If you missed it, I posted on my Instagram that I caught my first rainbow trout. I actually caught three rainbow trout and a silverfish. So now that I've caught my first fish with a fly line, it's my goal to catch one without a guide. So this summer is going to be dedicated to taking Kira out to rivers and lakes, fly fishing, and learning how to ride my dual sport motorcycle. So hopefully those two can be combined. Kira will follow along the motorbike. That's gonna be my summer. That's my weekend planned every week. This is my fly options right now. Definitely gonna have to go for one of the little guys. Although the shop in my area told me that some leeches might be good. Oh my gosh. Wow. That's where the trout are gonna be. We're off on a mission. We're getting back in the canoe and we're gonna go see if we can get to some deeper water. Alright, we're getting out of this outlet and we're gonna go see what we can find. This entire trip we have not seen another person come to our campsite. There's not a lot of people fishing on the lake. I think there's one other fishing boat in the middle. So that tells me there's not a ton of fish in this lake. Oh the canoe drifted off. I got it. Oh this water is cold. No luck. We are headed seven kilometers back to camp. We are starving and it's cold and the sun is starting to go down behind those mountains right now. Kira is absolutely pooped. He's ready for a big bowl of dinner and his bed. The sunset is starting to look really beautiful though. There's not even any fish top feeding right now which I'm surprised at. It's still May right now so the water is super cold. There is basically no bugs so it's kind of like a needle in a haystack at this point. But that's the fun of fishing. If you caught a fish every time they wouldn't call it fishing. They'd call it catching. We're all hungry right now including Kira so I'm just feeding him some snacks to hold him over. And we've got his blanket that folds up down on the bottom of the boat to give him some insulation because the bottom of the boat is really cold from the water. We're just getting back to camp now. It's taken us a long time. We're cold, we're hungry, and the clouds are dark and stormy. We're almost there. I can see our tent now in the distance. Good morning. Day three. We are packing up to leave after some coffee but we have to dismantle anything that looks like human trace so our fire pit. We gotta put all of Back up paddle. I think you have the harder job here. I think here's the best spot. Come. This life jacket is so handy right now. You could paddle right through that but it's too shallow. None of these rocks were exposed yesterday. Oh he's way steep! Oh he's riding it! Don't take on water! It's so much lower. Oh what a beautiful morning. This is gorgeous. What a way to start your day. This trip is all about exploring and seeing what we can find so we just pulled off into that little cove. I'm gonna go check it out. Okay it is hot out here. Kiro is getting a little hungry. Let's give him some snacks. Thank you again to PetSmart for sponsoring this video and supporting Kiro and I, helping us go on more adventures and setting us up with some cool gear like this glow-in-the-dark leash that's really handy on these adventures and on our day-to-day. Thank you guys so much for watching and we will see you in the next one. Bye!