Laurel Archer has been a canoe guide and instructor for more than 20 years. She has guided and taught on famous rivers from the Arctic to Honduras, Costa Rica, Belize, Thailand, Malaysia, India, Myanmar, Chile, Argentina, Australia and Hawaii. She has paddled every kind of watercraft known to woman, including marathon racing shells, 400 lb. outrigger hulls, whitewater canoes and kayaks of all shapes and sizes, sea kayaks, dugout canoes and bamboo rafts.

She first wrote Northern Saskatchewan Canoe Trips: A Guide to 15 Wilderness Rivers. It has been followed by the first volume of a guidebook series, Northern British Columbia Canoe Trips (Rocky Mountain Books 2009), which describes eight northern BC paddling routes over eleven rivers. It is designed to provide canoeists with all the information they require to plan a river trip appropriate to their skill level and special interests. According to promotional materials, "Northern British Columbia Canoe Trips: Volume One covers numerous routes never documented in any publication before, including the Taku, Jennings, Omineca and Gataga rivers, among others, as well as more well-known favourites such as Fort Nelson and the Dease." Archer published this book while teaching canoe tripping and whitewater kayaking for the Canadian Outdoor Leadership Training Program (COLT) at Strathcona Park Lodge on Vancouver Island.

The second volume of canoe trips includes seven routes over eleven rivers including the Spatsizl, Upper and Lower Stikine, Tatshenshini/Alsek, Turnagain, Kechika, Toad, Liard, Tuchodi and Muskwa. It describes several routes never documented in any publication before.

She lives in the Comox Valley on Vancouver Island.

BOOKS:

Northern Saskatchewan Canoe Trips: A Guide to 15 Wilderness Rivers.

Northern British Columbia Canoe Trips: Volume One. (Rocky Mountain Books, 2009) 978-1-897522-13-4 : $29.95.

Northern British Columbia Canoe Trips: Volume Two. (Rocky Mountain Books, 2010). 978-1-926855-04-2 : $29.95.

[BCBW 2010]