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ABOUT US
Wild Women Expeditions (WWE) is an all-women outdoor adventure company operating across Canada but based in Northern Ontario. We are now entering our 18th year- almost legally an “adult” and still so much playing around to do! Though initially the vision of one woman (see story below), WWE is "pulled off" through the efforts of about 20 women in our busy summer season to ensure YOU out there, Missy, a wild ride of fun, frivolity, adventure, and friendliness.
We have a fine team of guides, stretching in age from 26 to 50 fabulous years, who are not only skilled outdoorswomen but, equally importantly, excellent facilitators, full of a 'joie de vivre' that is contagious!
Back at basecamp, retreats and getaways are usually hosted by WWE's founder Beth and Betty Ann. Our workshops are led by skilled resource people--women who are experts in their areas. The meals at our basecamp are prepared by wondrous cooks!
We look forward to you joining us in the future! For those of you who are interested, what is below are "Director's Messages" from recent WWE brochures to give you more of a flavour of the Wild Women thang!
Thanks for your interest!
Ally a.k.a Office Goddess
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Ally Lyske,
Steph Park, Katie 'Boomer' Boomgardt, Karen Storie, Kelly
"Boots" Wozniak. |
Kelly
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Katie Hamilton
and Clitty |
Ally, Karen
and Katie |
Laura McLaren,
Karen and Nellie |
Linda Blom |
Copperdog |
Betty Ann McPherson and Beth Mairs
your basecamp hosts
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Director’s
Message 2007: The Beauty
We
see beauty all around us: in Earth’s natural places, in art
and culture, other people, animals and in life’s challenges.
Love and beauty are extricably linked, for what we truly love we
find beautiful and that which is beautiful we find easy to love.
When we most strongly love something is when we feel the impending
loss of it: this deepens our appreciation for what we may have previously
taken for granted in our false sense of timelessness, immortality,
or possessiveness. Many of us now truly wonder about the longevity
of our species and the survival of this planet that sustains us.
No one with a mind can turn a blind eye to the ravages of war, greed,
consumerism. It affects us not just where we live but also our bodies
and souls.
With an heightened awareness of life’s preciousness, we may
feel the need to ravishingly bite into the apple, savoring it rather
than gulping it down. Have bitten the apple, with the knowledge
of good and evil, we want to choose good- we want to chose kindness
and compassion.
Being kind to ourselves is to be kind to others, the animals, this
precious Earth. Unfortunately for most of us, the demands of regular
life prevent us on a day to day to experience our great connection
to the rest of creation. We want nothing more than to fall asleep
to the sounds of lapping water, loons crying. We long to be awakened
by the blaze of a northern sunrise and songbirds. If our days were
filled with wonder, challenge, great equally appreciative company:
could it get better than that?
Please know that at Wild Women Expeditions- Canada’s adventure
company for women- we are a community of like-minded, passionate
women if ever I knew one. We welcome you to adventure with us- whether
that be an wilderness-based experience in this gorgeous land called
Canada, or adventuring more of the soul-type through our variety
of retreats and workshops.
Thousands of women, across the planet...could we be wrong?
Beth Mairs
Director |
Director's
Message 2006: Calling to Wolves in Canada’s North
A
few winters back, I had the extraordinary experience of traveling
and adventuring through Northern Manitoba late February. In the
Pas, my host Clem and his buddy Murray lead me through an variety
of fascinating adventures cultural, historical and physical. My
last night, they decided to take me out for a midnight wolf howl.
We packed off on snowmobiles about 10 p.m. thru the brush for miles
till we parked ourselves on the ice near the north shore of a huge
lake. Clem took off for 30 minutes to another section of the lake
for a better vantage point from which to call to the pack, suspected
to be active in the area.
Murray was an exceptionally kind man about 70 years old, very proud
of his Metis roots. We settled in, trying to make ourselves as comfortable
as possible. I overturned the sleigh as a wind break, we set ourselves
near a coleman lantern for heat. We laid out tarps in sit
on top of the snow and drank hot sweet tea from a thermos. Under
that immense sky, we recited poetry to each other by heart. He to
me, so sweetly the Cremation of Sam McGee:
And that very night, as we lay packed tight
in our robes beneath the snow,
And the dogs were fed, and the stars o'erhead
were dancing heel and toe,
He turned to me, and "Cap," says he,
"I'll cash in this trip, I guess;
And if I do, I'm asking that you won't refuse
my last request."
Me to him, a Valediction Forbidding Mourning:
But we by a love so much refined,
That ourselves know not what it is,
Inter-assurèd of the mind,
Care less, eyes, lips and hands to miss.
We never heard the wolves that night, but when Clem returned to
our happy little makeshift camp, he coached me on how to speak to
wolves, a skill I have used with great success on many occasions
since as I share land with a pack and many other beautiful
wild creatures here at Wild Women’s base in Northern Ontario.
Heading back on our snow machines that night through the forest,
my eyes filled with tears as my heart was so full of happiness for
this extraordinary experience and I feared no one would really understand
how beautiful it was.
Perhaps, even though my companions were male, that last night
in Manitoba captured the spirit of a Wild Women Expedition, for
its wonder, intimacy, joy and surrender found in a true adventure
into the wilds of Canada.
Hope you will join us this year.
Be well,
Beth
Read
past Directors messages |
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