Women On The Water

There’s no doubt that a paddling trip can be a powerful force for positive personal growth. Lakes and rivers reveal the interconnectedness of all things; paddling into their unpredictable embrace reveals our strongest, most adventurous selves.

As much as outdoor adventuring has an impact on each of us, we also have an impact on the natural environments and communities where we travel—and on the businesses we choose to support when we do. The entrepreneurs and outfitters listed here feel a shared responsibility to leave Northern Ontario’s wilderness in better shape than they found it and to help build vibrant communities along the way. Just like you, these women care deeply about the region’s rich paddling landscape.

Across the country, women share a strong inclination towards independent travel. We now make up 75 percent of those engaging in adventure, cultural, and nature-focused travel experiences. And while female-founded businesses represent only a small fraction of the outdoor adventure industry, throughout the province you’ll find women-owned and co-owned adventure tourism businesses offering exhilarating and affirming outdoor experiences. As you enjoy the paddling expedition of a lifetime, know that you’re also empowering women leaders to break boundaries in a male-dominated industry and use their platforms to advocate for important social and environmental causes. Below are nine outfitters led by women redefining adventure tourism and shaping the future of paddling in Ontario.

MHO Adventures

A leader in guiding canoe trips on Ontario’s wilderness rivers and lakes for 35 years, MHO Adventures continues to provide transformative expedition-based journeys under the direction of owner and lead guide Erin Pehar. Together with a cadre of talented and experienced guides—more than two-thirds of whom are women—Pehar and her team are experts at making wild waters accessible to every day paddlers, families, youth and school groups. MHO Adventures offers 4- to 26-day guided canoe trips on iconic rivers across Ontario, including the Missinaibi, Moose, Spanish, French and Petawawa. The company also runs paddling programs Canada-wide, as well as Ontario-based paddling skills, wilderness first aid, and river guide training.

“When you own and operate an adventure tourism company, you are not simply signing up for a job; you are choosing a lifestyle,” explains Pehar, who runs the business with her partner, Ryan, and two young sons. “A work/life balance looks different in our industry. As a woman, it is extremely difficult to balance the demands of guiding and running a tripping company and being a mom.” But she wouldn’t have it any other way.

“There is nothing else I could imagine doing,” Pehar continues. “As a guide, I’ve had many clients cry tears of happiness in the first 24 hours due to a feeling of being free, living in the moment, connecting with people, building and fostering relationships with friends, family and strangers in the group.”

With women now travelling independently in greater numbers than ever before (a 2024 survey south of the border found 72 percent of American women are taking solo vacations), shared experiences like MHO’s Adventurous Women on the Spanish River provide empowering opportunities for coaching and connection. The company is also committed to instilling environmental and cultural connections on all their journeys—from helping guests learn local natural history to connecting with communities along traditional First Nations waterways like the Missinaibi.

Learn more about MHO Adventures’ guided paddling adventures, skills training, and custom trips.

Voyageur Wilderness Programme

Occupying a five-acre island on Nym Lake—less than a kilometre from the 472,000 pristine wilderness hectares of Quetico Provincial Park—Voyageur Wilderness Programme is a premier guiding service, outfitting business, backcountry lodge and exceptional example of sustainable eco-tourism. Owned and operated by Michelle Savoie and her dedicated family, VWP specializes in helping paddlers create the trip of a lifetime while connecting with the region’s rich Indigenous, Métis and French voyageur culture and history.

Quetico and canoeing have been woven into the fabric of Savoie’s life for longer than she can remember. She took over the business from her parents, Leá and Métis elder Guy Savoie, who settled on Nym Lake in 1986. The family’s lineage reaches back to the early 1800s when her ancestor, Francois Savoie, plied these waters as a voyageur during the fur trade. She raised her own children here and they’re now actively involved in the business. With such deep personal connections, it’s no surprise Savoie and her family take their role as stewards of Quetico’s vast yet fragile wilderness seriously. A guided canoe trip with Voyageur Wilderness provides an intimate glimpse of the values of a holistic attitude toward nature. Five- to nine-day trips are available, including a family canoe trip with both cabin and backcountry accommodations.

“We love what we do,” says Savoie. “These interactions weave communities and families tighter. Connection is what makes the experience in the wilderness so strong. You see an individual that’s hesitant and nervous, and then when you see them come back from a longer trip, you see the growth, the self-confidence. To be a stepping stone for others to have that experience, that’s why I do it.”

To inspire your next trip, watch this clip about Michelle and VWP, from the award-winning short film, The Canoe.

Learn more about VWP’s outfitting packages, guided canoe trips, and Voyageur Island accommodations.

Black Feather

For over 50 years, Black Feather has been one of the country’s leading wilderness adventure companies, paddling wild rivers, kayaking pristine coastlines and hiking remote landscapes across Canada and beyond. Their mission has always been to offer accessible and environmentally friendly wilderness experiences with a strong focus on sustainability and natural and cultural connections. In 2022, the company’s ownership passed to longtime guides Stef and Ken MacDiarmid, with former owner and director Wendy Grater moving into a supporting role. Today, Black Feather’s Ontario guided adventures include 2- to 7-day Georgian Bay sea kayaking excursions and introductory whitewater canoe clinics and trips on the French, Spanish, Magnetawan, Petawawa and Madawaska rivers.

“We know that experiencing a place can help to connect someone to it, and in turn perhaps inspire them to protect it, or the other special places that are closer to their own homes,” says Stef. “I feel a profound connection with the land and water that I’m on (and) I love getting to facilitate this for others.”

With Grater and now Stef at the helm, it’s no surprise Black Feather is also a leader in women’s paddling journeys. Led by experienced female guides, their 4-day French River canoe trip for women and 3- to 4-day Georgian Bay sea kayak trips for women honour the fact that female participants may be more comfortable and confident learning skills and sharing openly in the company of other like-minded women. “The community that is fostered when people go out on the water on remote trips is incredible,” says MacDiarmid, “sharing a life-changing experience with someone creates a deep and meaningful result.”

Click here to view Black Feather’s comprehensive trip offerings and itineraries.

Karibu Adventures

The founder of eco-conscious adventure travel start-up, karibu adventures, brings her experience on the wilderness waterways of the Canadian Shield to crafting the perfect Temagami canoe trip. Bookended by overnight stays at a backcountry Temagami lodge, karibu’s beginner-friendly 6-day experience begins with a short flight aboard a historic Beaver floatplane, followed by a 50-km, 3-night canoe trip along the beautiful Chiniguchi Waterway Provincial Park. Highlights include swimming beneath a secret falls at Paradise Lagoon and spectacular camping on Wolf Lake, one of Temagami’s most striking lakes with deep blue water ringed by granite and quartzite cliffs and towering old growth red pines.

Helping people make environmentally thoughtful travel choices is at the heart of karibu adventures. Pivoting from a career as a foreign correspondent, business news anchor and corporate strategist, founder Andrea Mandel-Campbell was looking for a way to combine her passion for adventure travel with her growing concerns around biodiversity loss and climate change. Since launching in 2022, she has developed eco-travel offerings in British Columbia, Newfoundland, Italy and the Caribbean. A long-time canoe tripper, she quickly realized that paddling Temagami’s pristine shield lakes was something special, “a uniquely Canadian experience you can’t find anywhere else.”

Plus, the region’s rich environmental back story and the ongoing conservation efforts of organizations like the Friends of Temagami make it a natural fit for karibu’s mission to promote conscientious travel. “My hope is that the more people can experience the backcountry,” says Mandel-Campbell, “the more they will understand why we need to protect it.”

Click here to view a detailed trip itinerary or book your all-inclusive Temagami canoe trip.

Thrive Tours

Located in Sault Ste. Marie, Thrive Tours provides year-round land-based experiences in Baawaating, the place by the rapids, and the surrounding wilderness of Algoma. Founded by Amanda Cora and her partner Brad Robinson, who is a member of the Oneida Nation of the Thames First Nations, Thrive Tours weaves Indigenous practices and philosophies into their guided paddling tours, nature-based learning, cultural workshops and empowering women’s retreats.

“We are passionate about helping others foster deeper connections with the natural world and learning how to be good Indigenous allies through meaningful education and storytelling,” says Cora. Guests on Thrive’s half- and full-day paddling tours discover natural oases on the urban waterfront while learning Indigenous cultural stories and teachings. The company also offers a full-day Paint and Paddle experience that merges canoe or kayak basics with an Indigenous-style painting workshop inspired by nature.

Cora says her family has been pivotal in shaping both the business and her passion for cultural awareness and environmental stewardship. “I founded Thrive Tours in 2020 as a single mother of five children,” she recalls, “with a vision of getting other mothers and families outside and connecting with the land.”

She’s also worked hard to expand the reach of ecotourism and Indigenous cultural experiences to international markets, and hopes her efforts serve to inspire other women to expand their own professional horizons. “One of the challenges I’ve faced as a woman in this industry is breaking through stereotypes and assumptions about who belongs in outdoor adventure leadership,” Cora continues. “It’s been a journey of building credibility and showing others that women have a strong voice and valuable skills in this space.”

Click here to explore Thrive Tours’ Indigenous cultural experiences and book a guided trip or equipment rental.

Lure of the North

Specializing in traditional winter travel and wilderness living, Lure of the North operates out of an off-grid cabin deep in the boreal backcountry west of Sudbury. If you want to learn winter camping skills and traditional bushcraft, you won’t find a more accomplished and welcoming mentor than Lure of the North’s Kielyn Marrone, who owns and operates the business with her partner, Dave. While most of the company’s offerings focus on deep winter cross-country travel by snowshoe and toboggan, their Icebreakers Canoe Hauling Expedition invites guests to experience canoe tripping as they’ve never imagined. Over the course of 15 days in early spring, participants traverse 100 km of ever-changing ice and open water in Killarney Provincial Park, alternately pulling and paddling their canoes, camping in canvas tents heated by wood stove, and learning safe practices for transitional season travel.

“Canoe hauling and transitional season travel has a rich history in Canada,” Marrone explains, “from a time when the First Nations of this land lived and travelled on these waterways all year round.” Trips like this, she says, make it easy to feel as if you have stepped back in time, to experience what it must have been like to live in an earlier time. They also offer an authentic challenge, build resilience and develop an appreciation for traditional wisdom and techniques.

As a veteran of multi-week winter expeditions across northern Ontario, and a finalist of the History Channel’s hit survival series Alone, Marrone shares a simple formula with her guests: “Good fitness, good preparation and a great attitude are keys to success!”

Learn more about Lure of the North’s guided expeditions and off-grid glamping accommodations. Spring, summer and fall guided canoe trips are offered by request.

Madawaska Kanu Centre

Founded in 1972, Madawaska Kanu Centre was the first whitewater kayak and canoe school in the world. More than 50 years later, MKC continues to be a family-run business now managed by the third generation of the Van Wijk family. Accomplished whitewater paddler and river guide, Stefi Van Wijk, serves as the director of MKC while her sister Katrina takes care of the business’s design needs. Together, the family is committed to continuing MKC’s legacy as Ontario’s premier provider of whitewater paddling instruction.

Growing up on the banks and waters of the Madawaska River, the Van Wijks are also devoted to being leaders in sustainable tourism by continuously advancing MKC’s environmental practices. The two goals go together, explains Van Wijk. “By bringing more people into the river world, we hope to inspire, deepen and build people’s care and love for our environment.”

The diversity of MKC’s programming ensures there’s something for everyone. Book a 1- to 5-day whitewater canoeing, kayaking or pack rafting skills course. Choose from family, youth, seniors’ or women’s specific programs. Combine a passion for paddling with riverside yoga, or merge whitewater paddling with plein-air painting.

Follow Her North

Four years after outdoor-loving teen, Mylène Coulombe-Gratton, decided to pursue her dream of starting her own business, Follow Her North has grown to include guided outdoor adventures and children’s camps throughout the Hearst area. The young entrepreneur offers scenic day paddles and multi-day trips on the Missinaibi and Pivabiska rivers, as well as paddling instruction and custom itineraries on neighbouring waterways. Coulombe-Gratton’s enthusiasm is infectious, and she’s on a mission to inspire and assist everyone she meets—regardless of age, skill level, background or budget—to realize their full outdoor potential. “Get out of your comfort zone,” she urges. “The outdoors creates the perfect environment to build self-confidence, strength and self-awareness!”

Learn more about Follow Her North’s all-season guided adventures. Mylène also owns and operates INN the North, a cozy bed & breakfast for outdoor enthusiasts housed in her great-great-grandfather’s former general store.

Forest the Canoe

From their basecamp in Goulais River, Forest the Canoe provides guided nature tours, camping trips and equipment rentals for everyday outdoor enthusiasts in Northern Ontario. Owned and operated by certified interpretive guides Shana Shipperbottom and Ryan Walker, Forest the Canoe has created meaningful and memorable connections between people, place and the natural world since 2020. As an active member of the Lake Superior Watershed Conservancy and an interpretation officer for Parks Canada, Shipperbottom enriches her guests’ experience with her passion for and knowledge of Algoma’s wild spaces.

Forest the Canoe offers programming throughout the year, with custom paddling excursions available by request. Join their backcountry canoe yoga retreat in Lake Superior Provincial Park for 3 days of carefully curated activities and sessions focusing on self-discovery, outdoor skills, adventure and relaxation. Self-guided adventurers can rent canoes, touring kayaks, standup paddleboards and complete outfitting packages.

Plan Your Life-Changing Paddling Adventure Now

Just like a difficult portage, running an innovative, environmentally responsible and culturally sensitive business—while also balancing the demands of family, community and self-care—takes grit, endurance and heart. The women on this list have all three in abundance. Who better to help you plan your next paddling adventure?

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