{"id":108889,"date":"2026-09-21T14:54:57","date_gmt":"2026-09-21T18:54:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=108889"},"modified":"2026-09-21T14:54:57","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T18:54:57","slug":"banff-student-canoes-nearly-500-kilometres-to-school-in-edmonton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/21\/banff-student-canoes-nearly-500-kilometres-to-school-in-edmonton\/","title":{"rendered":"Banff student canoes nearly 500 kilometres to school in Edmonton"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Leah Pelletier, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Rocky Mountain Outlook BANFF \u2013 Aven McKay took the scenic route to her first day of university. The 19-year-old canoed nearly 500 kilometres along the North Saskatchewan River from her home in Banff to Edmonton, just in time for her first day at the University of Alberta (U of A). \u201cI really wanted to do a canoe trip by myself for quite some time,\u201d said McKay who is enrolled in Native studies. Starting the 12-day paddle just outside of Banff National Park near Saskatchewan River Crossing, McKay was joined by her dad for the first stretch before going solo. \u201cI did that section with my dad mostly because the water was really technical and some of the parts were pretty difficult,\u201d said McKay… <\/p>\n

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By Leah Pelletier, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Rocky Mountain Outlook BANFF \u2013 Aven McKay took the scenic route to her first day of university. The 19-year-old canoed nearly 500 kilometres along the North Saskatchewan River from her home in Banff to Edmonton, just in time for her first day at the University of Alberta (U of A). \u201cI really wanted to do a canoe trip by myself for quite some time,\u201d said McKay who is enrolled in Native studies. Starting the 12-day paddle just outside of Banff National Park near Saskatchewan River Crossing, McKay was joined by her dad for the first stretch before going solo. \u201cI did that section with my dad mostly because the water was really technical and some of the parts were pretty difficult,\u201d said McKay... <\/p>\n

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Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-108889","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-level-8","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"\nBanff student canoes nearly 500 kilometres to school in Edmonton - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/21\/banff-student-canoes-nearly-500-kilometres-to-school-in-edmonton\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Banff student canoes nearly 500 kilometres to school in Edmonton - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Leah Pelletier, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Rocky Mountain Outlook BANFF \u2013 Aven McKay took the scenic route to her first day of university. 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Starting the 12-day paddle just outside of Banff National Park near Saskatchewan River Crossing, McKay was joined by her dad for the first stretch before going solo. \u201cI did that section with my dad mostly because the water was really technical and some of the parts were pretty difficult,\u201d said McKay\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/21\/banff-student-canoes-nearly-500-kilometres-to-school-in-edmonton\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/TurtleIslandNews\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-09-21T18:54:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/facebooklogo.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"725\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"483\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@newsattheturtle\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lynda Powless\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/21\\\/banff-student-canoes-nearly-500-kilometres-to-school-in-edmonton\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/21\\\/banff-student-canoes-nearly-500-kilometres-to-school-in-edmonton\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lynda Powless\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/7b188fd7503577895ef8b306988cd458\"},\"headline\":\"Banff student canoes nearly 500 kilometres to school in Edmonton\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-09-21T18:54:57+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/21\\\/banff-student-canoes-nearly-500-kilometres-to-school-in-edmonton\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":552,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/#organization\"},\"articleSection\":[\"National News\",\"ticker\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-CA\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/21\\\/banff-student-canoes-nearly-500-kilometres-to-school-in-edmonton\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/theturtleislandnews.com\\\/index.php\\\/2026\\\/09\\\/21\\\/banff-student-canoes-nearly-500-kilometres-to-school-in-edmonton\\\/\",\"name\":\"Banff student canoes nearly 500 kilometres to school in Edmonton - 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