Let your week be filled with your favourite things - whether that be yoga on the dock, blueberry picking, or enjoying the sauna followed by a refreshing cold plunge in the lake. Pat and Val look forward to taking you hiking, canoeing and exploring the area or give you time to sit back and relax with a book on the deck or enjoy card and board games. There is something for everyone in this magical place and we look forward to sharing it with you. Open to adventurers young* and young at heart. 

*Families with children 8 years and older are welcome. Those under 18 must be accompanied by a parent or guardian. For questions, please contact mantariosummerprogram@naturemanitoba.ca.

Trip Leaders 

Val Jowett is an avid gardener and birder who loves exploring the outdoors in any season. She also loves to cook! She has skied, hiked and paddled out to Mantario many times over the past 6 years. 

Pat Nowicki grew up exploring the Whiteshell and hasn’t stopped! He is an experienced paddler, snowshoer and a true outdoorsman who has been leading trips to Mantario for the last 10 years.

Enjoy some of the darkest nighttime skies in southern Manitoba during the week of the Perseid meteor shower.  We'll learn to navigate the stars, be amazed at the majesty of the Milky Way, view the wonders of the Universe through a telescope, and possibly enjoy some Northern Lights.  During the day we'll explore as far and wide or as close to home as participants desire. Possibilities include hiking, paddling, orienteering, swimming, fishing, and day trips to nearby lakes.

Trip Leaders

Heather Matheson is a former astrophysicist who would much rather be outdoors than in front of a computer. She has been exploring the Mantario area in all seasons for 15 years and looks forward to sharing one of the loveliest places in the world with you.

Gilles Ferrand does research in astrophysics and is excited to explore the Mantario wilderness.

Bathe in Mantario's forests to enjoy photogenic delights of the understory, learn how myriad fungi and plants coexist in diverse ecosystems and their many functions and uses.  Donna Kurt and co-leader Ron Greening offer options of activities such as canoeing skills, foraging, forest and aquatic ecology, qigong, and hiking.  

For more information about this trip read here 

Trip Leaders

Donna Kurt practices “ethnomycobotany” while canoeing the wilds of North America, Australia, beyond. Since 1988 she has led Mantario and Nature Manitoba trips and shares a glimpse of the experience in her Mantario Thanksgiving Canoe YouTube videos.  Donna has been studying how we use plants and fungi since the 1980s and in retirement is studying ecology and biology at the UW.

Ron Greening has had a strong interest in ecology and field biology since childhood, and studied fisheries and wildlife management, and conservation education. Ron has hiked, skied and paddled into Mantario since the 1970s, and spent two summers in the 1980’s as a guide for the Mantario summer program.