>>1851585Nah, you could easily. A nice bike can be worth a couple grand and a serviceable used canoe starts at like 300$ on the low end, they're fucking everywhere in Canada, although if you're portaging solo you're going to want something higher quality and light weight so it might be a good idea to add some cash to the deal especially if you're also needing other gear. A quality self inflating life vest is infinitely more comfortable to paddle in than a cheap foam one.
>>1849452I don't know much about east of the rockies but afaik you're probably going to end up roughly following the Trans Canada highway if you want to travel by water, which is probably a good thing since that keeps you near towns. The prairies are going to be extremely long and mostly boring, and the weather can get brutal out of nowhere especially in early spring. I think you'll probably be on the Red Deer river where possible, but there's going to be a lot of walking. Probably, definitely get answers from someone who actually knows shit.
Bears are more of a nuisance than a danger, but they can get dangerous really fast if you don't respect them. Don't sleep with your food, keep some bear spray in reach. Black bears are afraid of you, Grizzlies aren't, you don't want to spook either of them.
Cougars aren't much of a worry if you're an adult male, but it's good to keep an eye out if you're in a likely looking spot. If you can see one you don't need to worry about it, if you do get pounced it'll be from above and behind when you're not expecting it, so even just looking like you might be ready for it makes them think twice if they weren't already.
Meese you want to steer clear of, they don't fuck around, but if you don't get too close they should leave you alone, they won't be in rut that time of year so the bulls are much less aggressive.
You're going to get eaten alive by bugs, just accept it now. DEET only helps so much.
