HOK #46: Lyn Elliott

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Meet Lyn Elliott.

“I ask myself, what’s the better story when I’m 80? And then I do it.

“I was born in Thunder Bay because that was the closest hospital to Upsala. When my sister’s ambition in life was to be a truck stop waitress my parents decided we should live somewhere slightly bigger, so we moved to Minden. We lived up the road from the Gull River Whitewater Preserve and as a kid I was fascinated by the paddlers. My dad didn’t like how urban and busy it was in Minden, so we moved to Blind River.

“I’ve had a variety of what I would call dream jobs, beginning by working at Quetico Provincial Park in a cabin. Then I moved to the Bruce Peninsula and taught outdoor education for a couple of years. Then I moved to Cape Breton Highlands Park, to Pukaskwa National Park, and right now I work for a park in the Northwest Territories. The park is Náts’ihch’oh National Park. I work for the park, but am able to live in the south and go there when necessary.

“I’m drawn to this park because it is a whitewater playground. It has the most incredible paddling. It’s the headwaters of the South Nahanni River. The headwaters are the most fun, technical whitewater that a paddler can do. The community there is excited to have a National Park, and they are incredible to work with. There are so many stories to be told and rivers to explore, and my job is to do those two things.

“I realized I am really comfortable in places like Náts’ihch’oh and paddling rivers, but I’m less comfortable having urban adventures, so I figured it’s time for an urban adventure and to get comfortable in a city, and what better place than Ottawa in the year of Canada’s 150th celebrations. The place I knew in Ottawa was where all the camping stores were, so I drew a triangle between them on a map and found an apartment building in the middle and moved here a week ago. I am chronicling my year of urban adventure on Twitter with the hashtag #yearofurbanadventure. So each day I will tweet about something brutally honest. My first impression of Kitchissippi a week in, is that I can’t believe how green it all is. I thought I would go through withdrawal symptoms – not having enough trees, and green space and quieter spaces – but everywhere I look there is place just like that.”

Humans of Kitchissippi is a special street photography project designed to introduce readers to some of the people who live, work, and play in Kitchissippi. Each instalment of HOK contains three elements: a photo, a name, and a quote from the subject that reveals a little bit about who they are. View our collection of humans right here.

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