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SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE
Stephen Knowlton has been paddling across Canada's waterways in a variety of boats, by himself, for years.

Adventurer Stephen Knowlton designed and built the rowboat he plans to take around Great Slave Lake this summer. He says it's the only one he knows of that has rolle-blake wheels in the seat to allow him to use his legs as well as his upper body to power the boat. - Sarah Ladik/NNSL photo

This year, he decided to make the 485-kilometre trip up the exposed western shore of Great Slave Lake from Hay River to Yellowknife. He drove 1,800 km from his home in Shuswap Lake, B.C., parked his truck at the Hay River airport and then took to the water in his rowboat for nine days.

He plans his trip in 20-km increments sectioned out on maps he fashioned into waterproof nine-by-eleven cards. The same map is on his GPS, which he tries to go without as much as possible so one set of batteries lasts him the summer. The rowboat is also equipped with a rear-view mirror, a compass and a SPOT satellite GPS which allows him to call for help if an emergency arises.

He stayed in Old Town for two days over the weekend, where Yellowknifer was able to catch up with him.

Born in Belleville, Ont., Knowlton was taking canoe trips during his summer breaks during high school. He became a journeyman carpenter after graduation and would work all winter to save money for his summer trips.

Now retired, Knowlton said he skis in the winter and enjoys sewing and creating all of his camping gear. He spends weeks preparing for his summer trips that normally last a month or two.

Each year, he goes alone, but he has gone with partners before.

"Anytime I've tried to do this with my partner at the time, by the time the trip's over I don't have a partner anymore," he laughed.

Being alone also gives him time to reflect.

"You're looking behind you all the time, but everything's so small it doesn't seem like you're getting there," he said. "In retrospect, I spend a lot of time looking back in my past to see where I've been in order to plan where I'm going - it all sounds very poetic."

He said it also gives him a more refined sense of independence.

"There's an amazing kind of self-reliance that you get when you spend a couple of weeks or months doing something like this on your own," he said.

"You have to rely on yourself and, in a way, it makes you appreciate people more - but also you're not quite so dependent on them which

is a good thing."

When he pushed off the Old Town dock on Saturday, he said it would be the last contact he had with anyone for weeks.

"I've still got a month planned and I'm not in a hurry," he said. "I'm going to go up to McLeod Bay where the fishing is supposed to be fantastic."

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