Plans begin for ‘Voyageurs’ trips way up North

by Dennis Dalman

news@thenewsleaders.com

Seven crews of young people are training to prepare for outdoor adventure trips that will take them this summer to the Canadian wilderness area – in one case a girls’ crew traveling all the way to Hudson Bay.

There are still a few spots open for young adventurers to join the Sartell-based “Les Voyageurs,” a non-profit travel-adventure group. Its French title means “The Travelers” in English. It is named for the French-Canadian fur trappers and traders of long ago who plied the woods and waters of northern Minnesota and Canada. The group was founded in 1971 by Sartell resident Fred Rupp, an avid outdoorsman and Cathedral High School teacher.

The current Les Voyageurs director is St. Cloud resident Jack Grabinski who happens to be the Sartell High School boys’ diving coach and also a coach for the St. Cloud Tech High School girls’ diving team. In addition, Grabinksi is a school-bus driver for the St. Cloud Area School District #742. He earned degrees in environmental studies and biology from St. John’s University.

In a recent interview with the Newsleaders, Grabinski spoke about the organization and what it does.

Each summer, groups of high-school students take month-long camping/canoeing trips to the Canadian wilderness, usually areas of the provinces of Ontario and Manitoba. Each expedition group numbers about 10 high-school students (grades 10 and above), accompanied by highly trained and experienced tour guides – often college students.

This summer’s seven groups total, all told, about 70 students who attended in the past school year grades 10-12. There will be three boys’ crews and four girls’ crews – 80 percent of them from the greater St. Cloud area, including the cities of Sartell and St. Joseph. Since the program began, more than 3,000 students with true grit have participated in Les Voyageurs’ adventures.

The first trips north, Session 1, will leave June 14 and return home July 11. Session 2 crews will leave July 9 and return Aug. 5.

But first, in the weeks before setting out on their adventures, the teams will prepare, train and practice at Les Voyageurs base camp in north Sartell along the river, at 3724 Pine Point Road.

These modern-day “voyageurs” camp outdoors for nearly a month. Participants are brought to their destinations by buses. They sleep in tents; they take hikes; they fish; they canoe and portage through wild and pristine wilderness areas. Many highly trained and experience tour guides – Grabinski, to name just one – help the travelers, instruct them and keep them safe.

A trip costs $2,900 per participant, and scholarships are available. The cost includes everything needed, including food and all the camping and canoeing gear. Anyone interested in becoming a member of Les Voyageurs should call Grabinski at 320-292-0082 or contact him at jack@lesvoyageurs.org.

When Grabinski was a student at Sauk Rapids-Rice High School, he took his first Voyageurs trip in 2018 and has participated in many trips since after becoming a guide and then program director. The summer before last, he accompanied a team all the way to the Arctic Ocean in northern Canada.

Voyageurs’ trips to the wilderness are not a vacation; they are rather hard work that results in so many personal strengths, including tight teamwork, developing communication skills under adverse and sometimes extreme conditions, the building of confidence, problem-solving skills, how to overcome obstacles and leadership and, last but not least, having lots of social togetherness and fun times. All of those qualities and skills are vital for lifelong success.

As a long-time Voyageurs tour guide, Grabinski said, he still meets people who took the trips years ago who tell him how those trips have changed their lives, literally, for the better, making them more successful in their careers and in personal relationships.

“I’ve met Les Voyageurs crew members who did the trips as far back as 20 to 30 years ago, and they all rave about those trips.”