Dan Rubinstein – Author of Water Borne: A 1,200-Mile Paddleboarding Pilgrimage

Adventure Audio

In June 2023, writer Dan Rubinstein lashed camping gear to his stand-up paddleboard and embarked on an improbable solo voyage from Ottawa to Montreal, New York City, Toronto, and back to Ottawa along the rivers, lakes, and canals of a landlocked region. A historic and symbolic voyage along the same inland waterways used by Indigenous peoples, settlers, soldiers, and voyageurs for centuries.

Part physical challenge, part historical pilgrimage, and part personal reckoning, Water Borne reflects Dan’s deep curiosity about how water shapes not only our landscapes but also our culture, politics, and personal lives. A former editor at Canadian Geographic and author of Born to Walk, Dan has spent his career exploring the relationship between movement and meaning—on land and now, on water. This episode dives into what he discovered about history, anxiety, midlife, solitude, and what it really means to travel with and through nature's blue and green spaces.