ELORA – George Caesar has been embarking on canoe trips for 75 years.
His father took him and his brother on a trip when he eight, and he’s been hooked ever since.
To date he’s paddled over 20,000km, across Canada –and he’s still going strong.
Since 1994 Caesar has been working on a cross-country trek that’s taken him as far east as Newfoundland and west to Alaska.
He undertakes one major trip every summer and departed this year on June 7 from Manitoulin Island on Lake Huron to St. Ignace, Michigan. He hopes to arrive on June 19.
On top of this, he hopes to expand on his Newfoundland route this summer as well.
The length of Caesar’s trips vary from about three days to as long as 49 days, and can range anywhere from 50km to more than 1,500km.
“I am getting older, so I tend to avoid trips with long portages, which are the toughest part, so they aren’t as long now as they used to be,” Caesar said.
Though he’s still able to paddle up to 10 hours a day, he will often use a sail in his canoe, especially on larger bodies of water.
He has encountered breathtaking landscapes as he’s made his way across the country, navigating iconic water bodies including the Great Lakes, the Athabasca River, the Yukon River, the St. Lawrence River, and the Arctic Ocean to name a few.
Since 1973, Caesar has had a string of five west highland terriers that have accompanied him on his travels. His most recent Westie, Kate, has been his first mate since 2016.
“We met a mother black bear with a cub on one trip. We were just passing by in the canoe, but she didn’t like us that close, so she started swimming after us. And bears are surprisingly fast swimmers,” Caesar explained.
“As she got close, the dog just barked once, and the bear turned around and headed back to shore.”
Caesar has come across just about every type of wildlife Canada has to offer, including beluga whales, humpbacks, bowhead whales and dolphins.
“When I went out east, we saw lots of whales as well, including some that wound up right underneath the canoe,” he said.
“There’s all kinds of [literature] telling you to keep away from the whales, but the whales don’t read very well, so they sometimes will come visit you.”
His journeys have not been without their share of challenges. Battling strong currents, treacherous winds, and fatigue, Caesar has relied on his unwavering determination and the support of his wife Joan, who has driven great distances to meet him after his trips.
Through perseverance and a passion for the outdoors, he has overcome many obstacles in pursuit of his goals.
Topographic maps are key for the trips, but Caesar learned basic navigation at a young age from his father, who was a sailor.
He also had the privilege of learning from Bill Mason, who was a Canadian naturalist, author, artist, filmmaker, and conservationist, noted primarily for his popular canoeing books, films, and documentaries on wolves.
“The fellow who really got me going on the solo trips was Bill Mason, who was kind of Canada’s canoe guru,” said Caesar.
“I was at a kid’s camp with him where we were both counsellors. He taught me quite a bit.”
Caesar does his best to tie into the routes he’s done previously, while exploring parts of the country he hasn’t seen. This is becoming more of a challenge given his extensive travels.
“Just getting to some of these places is tough. My goal was to get to the Arctic Ocean and just arriving there gave me a huge sense of relief because I was nervous thinking of how big the waves would be and so on.”
Paddling in a loop to end up back at his launch point and vehicle is something Caesar has never done.
Logistics are the trickiest part of the trips and he’s used every conceivable method to get back to his car, including hitchhiking and travelling by plane, ship and train.
“I’ve had some amazing experiences getting back. I was out along the shore of Newfoundland, and I came upon an icebreaker that was headed across the country, carrying people who were experts in various fields in the Arctic,” Caesar recalled.
“They took me aboard and fed me, which was great, and then I went on my way to St. Anthony, which is the big town in northern Newfoundland.
“As I was trying to figure out how to get back, I landed the canoe, and this guy walks up to me, and said, ‘George!’ He turned out to be one of the guys from the icebreaker and took me back to the car.”
In preparation for every trip, Caesar takes his time, carefully considering how long he’ll be able to paddle each day, where he will make camp, and how much food to pack. He brings only freeze-dried food, with one exception.
“The heaviest thing I take is dog food, so it’s a good thing I have a dog that’s not too big,” Caesar quipped. “You have to pace your trips, depending on where they are. You can go further on a trip out west normally than you can out east, simply because the weather’s better.”
His advice to anyone thinking of solo canoeing is to start small.
“I wouldn’t go too far and would probably stick to the rivers and streams. Most of my trips lately have been on big lakes, or on the ocean, but I wouldn’t start with anything like that.
“Unless you’re skilled in white water, you should make sure to pick rivers that don’t have too many rapids.”
Caesar believes the best hobbies are the kind that last.
As a testament to this, when he’s not canoeing, he spends most of his free time creating detailed replica ships from various metals.
He’s been making the tiny model ships for more than 65 years and has amassed around 400 pieces.
“I’ve always made ships and I just decided to see how small I could make on,” he said.
“I started adding pieces, and now I’ve got to the stage where I can build ships with moving parts – gantry cranes that slide back and forth, turrets that turn, that sort of thing.
“One of the first ships I made was from a single piece of metal, filed out of a nail actually.”
Since building a one-inch replica of a British warship which was exactly 700 feet long, all the ships are made 700ft to the inch in scale. They range from about 1/16th of an inch to two and half inches long.
“It used to take about six months to make one, but I’m a lot faster now, so they’ll usually take a few weeks,” Caesar said.
“You have to get the plans first, and I can get those now from Google. I used to have to go to the library and borrow ship books. It used to be quite difficult to get plans, particularly for merchant ships, but it’s much easier today.”
Among his collection are notable ships from over 50 countries, including the USS Enterprise, a decommissioned nuclear U.S. Navy aircraft carrier; the Queen Elizabeth II; the Seawise Giant; the Titanic; the Trieste deep-diving research vessel; and Noah’s ark.
“When the Queen Elizabeth II was being built, my brother got on board of her in England, and found a piece of aluminum that was on the deck as they were building her. He brought it home and I made the ship from that.”
The pieces are made from mild steel – silver, aluminum, bronze, brass and copper. The Titanic is made from copper and has oxidized to the point that it’s almost black, so he’s learned not to use it often.
“It took a while to learn how to how to do this. I made a little British aircraft carrier in 1959, and I added the plane on the deck 50 years later. I could never have done it at that time. [Back then] it was too far beyond me.”
Caesar hopes to one day have the collection on display and has considered donating it to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax.
Do you know a remarkable senior residing in Wellington County? If so, email czimmerman@wellingtonadvertiser.com to share their story.
