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French River Canoe Trip

We met in downtown Toronto at the Holiday Inn. Not your typical launch spot for a canoe trip, but this was no typical trip. The concierge gave us sideways glances as hiking boots tromped across marble floors and the elevators filled with barrels, packs, dry bags and paddles. Had I been on my own, I would have felt severely out of place. But I didn’t. It was the first time (of many) that weekend that I would be thankful to be surrounded by ‘people like me’.

Photo: Jen Hanson

Last Thursday, CIM hosted it’s first Trail Mix and Mingle night, an evening for CIM’ers to come together in the city, and, on this particular evening, get prepped for 20 Type 1’s to head off on a weekend canoe trip on the French River.
Our small meeting room overflowed with positive energy and nervous excitement as familiar faces reconnected and new introductions were made.  Tom Baxter joined us from Kingston, ON to speak about his experiences as a Type 1 cycling across the continent of Africa as well as down the West Coast of the USA and Mexico. He spoke about completin g a medical placement in Rwanda, hiking Kilimanjaro and more. We laughed, learned and asked numerous questions about adventure travel with diabetes. From adventure travel we moved on to adventures in diabetes technology with an Intro to Continuous Glucose Monitoring hosted by Cristin from

Medtronic. Twelve canoe trippers were set up to wear Medtronic sensors for the weekend.
The session was a great chance to learn sensor

‘ins and outs’ as well as tips and tricks from the pros (nurses and other sensor users) before hitting the trail.  After a quick pre-trip meeting the troops headed to their rooms to take advantage of last luxuries – feather pillows and warm showers.

Photo: Hank Devos

The van rolled out early the next morning, packed to the roof with people, packs and food to fuel 20 active Type 1’s for a weekend adventure. Many of us noted unexplained ‘highs’ on ourBayer USB meters and sensors – must have been the excitement! By lunch time, we had arrived, picked up our canoes, loaded the boats and were paddling on the French River, a world away from the Holiday Inn.

After all of the preperations, predictions and premonitions that go into planning a mutli-day trip, the moment you push off shore is pure bliss. From there on in, you are out with the people you are with and the gear that you laura san giacomo pokies have Pokies with the sole purpose of enjoying the experience.

Enjoy we did. We paddled, swam, played in rapids, hung out around our campsite home, cooked up incredibly elaborate meals over the fire, sunned ourselves on warm rocks, laughed until our sides hurt, changed dozens of pump sites, and bonded over rediculous sayings and stories that only Type 1’s would find humour in.

Photo: Chris Scully

At night, pump alarms reverberated out across the lake as we indulged in carb-laden treats and made up for energy expended throughout the day. Happy to be amongst fellow Type 1’s, and safe from the diabetes food police on our Type 1 island, we let loose a little, because, “yes we caneat that”. (Okay, we were all feeling just a little gluttonous and did go for a team swim after dinner to burn off some sugar!! But we can!)

It was comforting and refreshing to be enveloped in a community of people who didn’t judge, or ask questions like ‘can you really eat that?’ (as you stuffed  s’mores in your mouth) and didn’t do double-takes at the pump sites that peeked out from under bathing suits, shorts and tanks tops or wince at the red marks, rashes and scars across your stomach (and other places!) caused by years of injections and pumping. It was refreshing to be surrounded with people like me.

The weekend was a chance to relax, explore, try new things and push ourselves in different ways. For some that was in relation to diabetes, for others it refered to outdoor adventure. More experienced paddlers and outdoorenthusiasts shared their knowledge with those who were new to canoe tripping. And those who were new to canoe tripping reminded the old pros howexhilerating and awe-inspiring it is to spend time outside, as we watched them experience things we now take for granted, for the first time.

Photo: Chris Scully

A HUGE THANK YOU to Jen Hanson, Amy Burrows and Jenn Randall for all of their hard work prepping, planning and during the trip itself. Another MASSIVE THANK YOU to Medtronic of Cananda and Bayer Diabetes for their support of our Summer Expeditions and Programs. Bayer was our ‘Meter and Strip of the Trip’ -All canoe trippers received a Bayer USB meter, strips and AIC Now test in addition to the opportunity to try sensor technology for the weekend. Many thanks!

Photo credits: Hank Devos, Chris Scully, Jen Hanson and Chloe Steepe. Thanks for the pics guys!

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