Canoe Stories: A Canoe Expedition on the Moisie River

Canoe Stories

When Stopping Is Not an Option

By Pauline Gispen

What the river teaches you about direction, trust and yourself.

— A Canoe Expedition on the Moisie River

In the summer of 2025, I set out with nine other canoeists into the rugged and untouched wilderness of northeastern Canada, paddling 380 kilometres along the Moisie River: complete wilderness, with no side roads, no way back, and no contact with the outside world.

For sixteen days, we lived to the rhythm of the river: currents, campfires, rain, lakes, rapids, blue skies, cold, mosquitoes, grey clouds, portages, intense silence, beauty, confrontation, and the surprises that only true wilderness can bring.

In this talk, I will take you into the beauty, honesty and rawness of a wilderness expedition. A journey that tests you, opens you up, brings clarity, and leaves you wiser than when you began.

About navigating without certainty.
About group dynamics on the water.
About the unexpected roles that emerge.
And about discovering what really happens when stopping is not an option…
and perhaps never was.

Speaker: Pauline Gispen

The river woman who gets people and organisations moving.