Ancient and new technologies are converging in Saskatchewan, as two high-tech companies are supplying satellite-based location and communication technologies to track a long-distance canoe race.
Guardian Mobility Corporation and Waypoint Information Technologies Inc. are sponsoring the Saskatchewan Centennial Canoe Quest, which will cover a course of more than 1,000 kilometres through remote regions. It will retrace the main fur trade route of "les hommes du nord" across Northern Saskatchewan.
The race, which runs from June 18 to July 5, is one of the events organized to celebrate the Saskatchewan Centennial.
The sponsorship agreement calls for Guardian to equip each canoe team with a satellite tracking unit that computes the latitude and longitude of each team at regular intervals. Using the Global Positioning System, satellites orbiting 20,000 kilometres above the earth will transmit the teams' new position every 30 minutes to the Guardian network server in Ottawa using the Globalstar satellite communications network.
The positions are then digitally plotted on a topographic map of the route using technology developed by Waypoint, and can be viewed in a browser window by logging onto the race's website (www.saskcanoequest.ca). With the location co-ordinates of each team acquired every 30 minutes, the teams' progress will be shown in near-real time over the two weeks of the race.
The race covers a swath of territory through northern Saskatchewan that, in places, is still remote and subject to highly unpredictable weather.
While all crews are required to carry satellite telephones for emergency notification, the Guardian-Waypoint tracking system provides an added level of security by showing exactly where all the teams are at any time.
"We feel that having the race progress shown in near-real time over a website will be a great attraction to canoe enthusiasts world-wide in addition to friends and family of the crews," race organizer Sharalyn Reitlo said in a statement.
She added that the tracking system is not designed to replace the official time-keeping system for the race.
"Nobody has ever tracked a wilderness canoe race in near-real time on this scale before," Guardian Mobility's Amit Nandi said.
A total of 31 teams from Saskatchewan, Alberta, Manitoba and Scotland will navigate eight-metre voyageur canoes from the western border of Saskatchewan across 1,018 kilometres of lakes, rivers and land portages. The historical route will follow the Churchill and Sturgeon River systems, beginning in Clearwater River Dene Nation on June 20 and finishing in Cumberland House on July 5.
The route has been designed to follow the 1928 journey of George Simpson and a crew of nine Iroquois who paddled upstream along the same route in 12 days, stopping to do business along the way.
