The Meanest Link
Experienced Paddlers and Ironman Triathletes Conquer Algonquin Park’s ‘The Meanest Link’
Chris is an outdoor & adventure filmmaker who loves to tell a great story. She’s passionate about backcountry canoe paddling, downhill skiing, scrambling up mountains, cycling and is a 2x Ironman Triathlon finisher. Her award-winning work has been screened in front of audiences and enjoyed by a growing number of outdoor enthusiasts around the world on YouTube.
Chris and her partner Julia, who’s also an experienced backcountry paddler and an Ironman triathlete, recently took on one of the most challenging backcountry canoe routes ever conceived in Algonquin Park; The Meanest Link, which is a 420km paddling and portaging adventure filled with several arduous challenges that test even the most experienced paddlers. The route requires months of planning and preparation before taking paddlers on an epic journey far off the grid, fighting upriver against rapids and strong currents for marathon-like distances, across 68km of portages, down winding rivers into mazes of tangled alders, through big open lakes and into gorgeous vistas through the remote Canadian wilderness. While it’s not a race, and there are many different ways of experiencing the Meanest Link, Chris and Julia set the unsupported “expedition style” record on the route (without support crews, meal drops or help on route) in just under 6.5 days, while filming a documentary about their experience.
Their SPOT messenger gave them not only the confidence of knowing help was always just the push of a button away, but it also gave their audience a fun way to follow the adventure online in real-time through the tracker.