11 Ways Canoeing Connects Us to Nature
8-minute read
Canoeing has been around for centuries. Canoeing for recreation isn’t nearly as ancient, but it’s one of the best activities we can do to connect with nature.
(Photo: EZE Adventures)
The main reason for that is that we can’t canoe without being in nature. You can’t bring your canoe to the local indoor pool—we need a body of water that’s outside.
And canoeing is simple: a boat and a paddle are all it takes to get going (and a life jacket—we should add that in!).
Here are 11 ways canoeing connects us to nature. Some of these may be unexpected!
1. Canoeing Allows Us to Hear Nature’s Sounds
With no engine, canoes move quietly through the water. Sometimes, the only sounds are your paddle quietly dipping in and coming out. The birds around you. The wind in the trees. Maybe it’s quiet enough to hear the water curl over the bow of your canoe as you paddle ahead.
When you’re away from media, traffic and other noises that surround us every day, you can rediscover the sounds of the natural world. While a motor covers those, paddling a canoe opens them up. It restores our ability to really listen.
2. Moving at the Pace of Nature
Instead of having to keep up with the frantic pace of a busy life, canoeing invites us to slow down and move at the pace of nature. That could mean leisurely paddling on a calm lake or quiet river. Or it could mean paddling hard to fight a headwind and waves.
Sometimes it means accepting changes in the weather and adjusting our expectations for the experience. If you’re on a multi-day trip, it could mean waiting out a storm or choosing a new direction that’s more sheltered.
And other times, canoeing allows us to take our time, enjoy a beautiful day and float on the current.
Loons are seen best from the water (photo: Kate Wright)
3. A Front-Row Seat for Wildlife Viewing
Sometimes you’ll get to spot local wildlife in the water or along the shore that you would’ve never seen if you hadn’t been on the water. This is especially true if you keep your own talking to a minimum and keep your eyes peeled for movement around you.
Maybe a deer will come down to drink. Maybe an otter family will be playing together. Don’t forget to look into the water below you—both fresh and saltwater fish and mammals could happen by.
You’re almost always sure to see a variety of birds around you while you paddle, which makes canoeing a natural fit for birders.
4. Canoeing Allows for Travel in a Variety of Ecosystems
Canoe routes often pass through wild corridors, even in urban areas. Wetlands, river systems, boreal forests, watersheds—what’s in your area that you’d love to discover?
Many canoe trails are located within protected areas managed by local, regional, state, or national parks and reserves. Some are in wilderness areas or along bird or animal migration routes.
It can be fascinating to canoe among these ecosystems and discover what’s there: tree and wildflower varieties, birds and other animals. How are the sights, smells and sounds different from one ecosystem to another? It gives us a new appreciation for the varieties in nature.
Canoes can reach some natural environments that nothing else can (photo: Scott Lynch)
5. Relearning Simple Living by Canoe Camping
A multi-day canoe trip with rustic camping along the way is amazing to strip life down to its essentials. You have to plan ahead, bring everything you’ll need (and maybe carry it all over portages), and filter your water.
You’ll cook over a camp stove or fire, which usually means simplifying your meals. Maybe you’ll gather berries or other edible plants to add to them. Many of your activities will rely on the daylight hours and the weather.
You can only bring so much gear and apparel with you, so you have to learn to do without many of the conveniences of home. It’s a wonderful break from day-to-day life that’s refreshing…but also triggers gratitude for those modern conveniences we tend to take for granted: like flipping a light switch and turning on a tap for running water.
6. Learning to “Read” Nature Instead of Screens
Have you ever learned which clouds help us predict what kind of weather is coming? Or how much daylight is left by measuring the sun on the horizon? Most of us haven’t because it’s so easy to grab our phones and check the weather app or clock.
It’s very satisfying to have to learn what nature is saying about time, weather, river conditions and other natural phenomena, so we don’t have to rely so heavily on our technology.
Canoeing is a fun and instructive way to start paying more attention to all of what’s going on around us in the skies, on the water and in the air.
7. Canoeing Forces a Relationship with the Weather
We keep mentioning the weather here because it’s such a major factor when we canoe. We’re out in it at all times. It’s OK to be a fair-weather canoeist and just enjoy it when it’s pleasantly calm and sunny. But even the most promising summer day can end up with a thunderstorm or a sudden change in the wind.
(Photo: Sarah Faye)
When we canoe, we learn to embrace weather changes. We can choose to be out in weather we normally wouldn’t, like fog or rain. Maybe the wind will pick up or the temperature will rise or fall drastically.
In a canoe, weather isn’t in the background—it’s front and center. It forces us to meet it and develop a relationship with it.
8. Environmental Stewardship Becomes More Important
When we’re on the water, we appreciate the cleanliness of the water and the shoreline. It’s jarring to see a discarded water bottle floating by, or trash stuck to weeds along the bank. It looks ugly and out of place.
Canoeing connects us to nature and allows us to get to know it personally. That, in turn, leads us to want to protect it so we can keep enjoying it for ourselves and others. We become more attuned to stewarding the natural environments we paddle through.
It could be picking up trash out of the water or at a portage. Or taking part in a river cleanup day with a local park or paddling club. It can even mean getting involved with advocacy groups at the political level.
Canoeing connects us with parts of nature we’d never see from the shore (photo: Shawn Lyones)
9. Connecting Us with Thousands of Years of Human-Nature History
Canoeing was first developed in North America by the indigenous peoples who lived here. It was a major form of travel in many areas. Later, canoes opened up the fur trading routes of the Voyageurs, along many of those same trails used by the native peoples.
Canoes are made with different materials these days, and most of us canoe for fun, not survival. But it’s so cool to be on those same waterways and portages that have been used for centuries by those who came before us.
Whether deep in the wilderness or closer to civilization, awareness of this history adds another layer of appreciation for the canoeing tradition.
10. Nature Gives Us Mental Clarity
It’s been well established in several research studies that being in nature is a huge boost to our mental health. Canoeing isn’t just healthy because of the physical activity we engage in (which also boosts mental health), but also because it’s good for our minds and emotions.
Canoeing in nature—especially for many days at a time, like when on an extended trip—is wonderfully clarifying. We can feel our stress level going down, our creativity rising. Even an hour’s paddle can give us an emotional and mental reset.
While canoeing in wilderness areas is especially good for mental clarity, nature’s benefits can happen wherever we are—even on a water trail that winds through a big city. There’s something therapeutic just being on water, then add in the sounds, sights and smells of the natural world around us.
Taking our kids canoeing gives them all of nature’s benefits, too
11. Passing Down Our Nature Connection by Canoeing
Some canoeists do this through mentoring programs, while others do so with children in their families. Passing down all this goodness to the next generation is so important for a couple of reasons:
- In this age of increasing mental and emotional stress, we should take advantage of all the tools we can get to help the children in our lives develop good mental health.
- When we teach canoeing to our kids or mentees, the next generation will canoe, too.
- Canoeing together is wonderful family time. Think of all the discoveries in nature you can experience together. All the memories you can build.
- Canoeing can help create generational relationships with nature, which almost automatically creates generational appreciation of nature.
We hope this has helped you want to get into a canoe even more. We instinctively know that being in nature is good for us in our tech-controlled, hyper-busy lives. Canoeing is—without bias—one of the best ways to get into nature to enjoy all these benefits.
Happy paddling!
What paddling questions can our friendly Customer Service team help you with? Contact us at 715-755-3405 or bbinfo@bendingbranches.com, or choose our online chat option.
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