AL PACE
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Studio Potter - Canoe North Guide
Al Pace is an experienced canoeing guide specializing in wilderness travel in the Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut. His passion for canoeing remote northern waterways spans twenty-five years and thousands of miles of river travel. Detailed logistics is a hallmark of Al's adventure planning and lays the foundation for every successful trip. He has an intuitive understanding of groups, helping trippers to continually read situations and to make effective decisions as the expedition unfolds. Al has planned and guided trips for adults, kids and camp expeditions including Hurontario and Kilcoo Camps and, most notably, The Duke and Duchess of York in 1987 on the Thelon River. Al is a dedicated studio potter whose designs and glazes successfully capture the essence of the Canadian Arctic.

Al was born in London, Ontario where his parents, Bill and Betty Pace still live. His family owns a rustic cottage on Kawagama Lake near Dorset and much of his early life was spent paddling canoes around the lake or going on canoe trips with his dad. His love of the wilderness was begun on this pristine lake in the heart of Ontario's cottage country.

Al left London to attend Lakefield College School just north of Peterborough. He choose this school because of its dedication to outdoor education which includes a major commitment to paddling both canoes and kayaks. He spent his time at the school perfecting his wave surfing below the dam in Lakefield under the watchful eye of Dave Hodgetts or hunched over his pottery wheel producing clay vessels of all shapes and sizes with expert guidance from Richard Hayman. In 1977, in his final year at the school, he embarked on his first far north expedition on the Coppermine River. The school sent four students (Hilary Abbott, Donald Grant & John Greenwood), two teachers (Terry Guest and Dave Thompson), Prince Andrew and his RCMP support on this northern voyage.

Al was determined to travel north again. He had set up a pottery studio near Erin, Ontario with fellow classmate, Bill Reddick. He found time away from his wheel to travel on several more barrenland trips including the Thelon and the Kazan Rivers. Friend, Donald Grant enticed him to also visit the Yukon climbing the Chilkoot Trail several times and paddling such rivers as the Wolf, Nisutlin and Big Salmon. Although he loved the tundra vistas and broad open lands of Nunavut, he also discovered the immense beauty of the mountainous landscapes of the Yukon and western arctic.

Al married Lin Ward in 1981. They both lived in the Caledon area and spent the first four years of marriage living in the Forks of the Credit before moving and settling in the Hockley Valley just outside Orangeville, Ontario. Lin had not been a paddler but in the early 80s, he took Lin on some small trips in Ontario. She loved the trips so much that finally the first northern trip was planned. Stories of their trips north interested both friends and customers in their pottery studio and soon after their business Canoe North Adventures was established. They have run this business for the last ten years taking paddlers north every summer.