Boreal Canoe Trip 2025 Recap

Last weekend’s Boreal trip brought the heat with blissful sunshine, warm waters, and unforgettable connections. ☀️🔥

• 🎥 Video by Graham
• 📷 Participant Shared Album – Add your own!
• 📓 A Weekend Diary By Erin Boynton
• 💬 Thank You Messages from Justin (trip organizer)

🎥 Video by Graham

🎥 Group Photo Album

A Weekend Diary By Erin Boynton

🏕🛶🎶 Boreal Canoe Trip Festival Part 1:
I made it to Toronto at Keele station at exactly 11:00 a.m. when we were supposed to meet, checked in and took a risk parking my car in a 24 hour lot that wouldn’t let me pay all the way until Sunday. I tried not to stress about it too much, then got on the bus and met some new people I would be spending the weekend with on Moon River. We made it to the drop off point I think around 4:00, grabbed all of our stuff off the truck and picked parters for paddling across the lake and up the river to our destination! The canoes were packed with 3 people each and all of our stuff. Larger gear for setting up the music and kitchen tent was shuttled over on a motor boat. We all helped each other unload canoes, carry gear and find our campsites. I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to camp with the organizers of the festival (Justin and Angela) who also run Harvest Festival. They are truly wonderful people and were so welcoming! Once I was all set up I started wandering around and mingling and taking in the scenery which was absolutely amazing! We had a late evening dinner, some music by the river, some swimming and bon fires for the first night!

🏕🛶🎶 Day 2 of Boreal Canoe Trip Festival:
Day 2 was sooo amazing! We had a late morning breakfast and then I went for a swim and a hike up the river to see the waterfall. One thing about this area is that there were a lot of ticks! Luckily just ticks that don’t carry lyme disease but I was letting people use my tick remover all weekend! I found two on myself! I’m glad I carried it around in my First Aid Kit the whole time and I also helped people out with some minor injuries requiring bandaids.

Once I made it to the waterfall I couldn’t leave! The area at the waterfall was absolutely magical! I stayed all afternoon and kept swimming and floating on an inner tube and swam with it in the waterfall letting it push me down the river about 10 times. It was so fun! More and more people kept showing up and swimming while the DJ area was being set up right above us for an afternoon set. I left around 4:00 because my crew task was helping with dinner. I couldn’t believe how smoothly we managed to put together a meal of Coconut Curry for over 250 people! The set up with the giant pots and stoves was impressive and worked out well. Everyone on kitchen crew was so nice. After serving dinner and eating, I needed a nap in my tent before getting ready for the big night. When I arrived back at the waterfall everything was getting started, the lights were going, the music was pumping, the people all came and we danced and danced and danced until 4:00 a.m. It was a magical night! I’ll let the pictures and videos do the rest!

😅 Sunday morning there was a short afternoon set after brunch then we packed it all up and slowly started paddling out into strong headwinds which made it a bit of a sketchy canoe ride. The small tuck shop back at the boat launch had food and cold Corona’s for us before we loaded the bus and headed back! I was lucky to find my car without a parking ticket! Hurray!

Cool side story: The mixer for the DJ’s apparently overheated and stopped working during the day. It was really hot weather all weekend! The organizers called another DJ friend in Toronto who rushed up three hours to drop off another mixer for them at the boat launch then they left and headed back to Toronto. Thanks to this kind person who couldn’t even stay, the night was saved and they were a hero for us all! It was an absolutely beautiful community of people and I would 100% go again!

Thank You Messages from Justin (trip organizer)

Before I go unpack all the gear and my thoughts on Boreal 2025, I want to acknowledge the true hero of the weekend, DJ Tyler Hill.

Tyler has never been to Boreal, and that remains true to this day. However, what you don’t know is that the heat of Saturday afternoon cooked our DJ mixer. Behind the scenes, it was a shot-in-the-dark call to Tyler Hill, with a crazy ask: to drive a replacement mixer up to the dock — departing at that very moment. And he said YES.

Tyler rushed out the door, grabbed a new mixer, raced it up to the dock, then turned around and raced back home to Toronto to fulfill his Saturday night plans in the city.

Tyler Hill literally saved the night musically, and I am grateful to him.
Thank you, Tyler Hill. We can’t wait to have you play in Crystal Six at the Harvest Festival.

Thank you message to all campers

Boreal Canoe Trip (with a twist) campers,

Thank you, for contributing and making this dream weekend a reality. Every year is amazing with this being the hottest on record. Our good vibes kept us safe and dry. Did you hear about the tornado warning!

Thank you, campers who also played music, including:

• Alex (AM3) Kalinins
• Ali Black
• Ben Cormier
• Christina Barroness
• Congadogg
• Derek (MTM) Bristol
• Gabor “SpazzMonk”
• Kevin McMorran
• Lexifer
• Nuni
• Red Lion

We hope to get some recordings shared asap, stand by.

Thank you, to our crew who help Angela and I get through the weekend feeling good and with enough energy to enjoy:

• Alex
• Andre
• Cameron
• Derek
• Diana
• Darlyne
• Jason
• John The Medic
• Kevin
• Roman
• Speltza
• Toby

We appreciate you and everyone for doing a good job with their tasks.

See you at the next Boreal if not sooner 🙂