Who We Are
We focus on providing our clients with a fun, comfortable and memorable experience while living and traveling safely in the wilderness.
MHO Adventures has been a leader in Ontario’s guiding industry for 30 years. We have guided flat water and whitewater canoe trips throughout Ontario as well as Northern Quebec and the Arctic. MHO Adventures has broadened into an Expedition Food Service provider while continuing the tradition of being an excellent outdoor education company. With our group of talented and experienced staff team we are now offering guide training as well.
We aim to provide innovative and unique Expedition Based opportunities for a wide range of clients, including adults, youth, school groups and other custom groups. Our programs are a unique and special opportunity to instill and support environmental and cultural connections throughout our journey.
At MHO Adventures, we believe there are 3 things that can make or break a wilderness expedition; guides, equipment, and food. A challenging day on trail can be transformed into a fond memory when your guide safely directs you to the best campsite on the lake, your dinner is delicious and you crawl into a warm sleeping bag in a dry tent. To achieve our mission mentioned above, we are dedicated to providing our clients with the highest quality in 3 core areas of wilderness travel; professional guides, exceptional equipment, and gourmet food.
Our highly trained, experienced and personable guides bring an abundance of knowledge and skill to every trip. With a delicious menu, top of the line equipment, beautiful scenery and great company we are sure you will have the time of your life. Join us for a truly memorable wilderness experience.
History
Established in 1990 by Dave and Julie Morin, Missinaibi Headwaters Outfitters quickly grew into Northern Ontario’s foremost river guiding and adventure logistics service company based in Chapleau, ON. With Dave being ranked by Field & Stream magazine as the top guide in North America.
In 2008 Dave and Julie were ready for a change and were able to pass the MHO legacy into younger hands, filled with drive and enthusiasm. For the next 9 seasons Matt and Erin dedicated themselves to the growth and betterment of MHO Adventures.
As the business continued to grow a ‘re-brand’ including a change in our operating name took place in 2015. Now officially operating as ‘MHO Adventures’, this keeps our history (as MHO stands for Missinaibi Headwaters Outfitters), but also takes the location out of our name as we operate programs Canada wide!
When you own and operate an adventure tourism company you are not simply signing up for a job, you are choosing a lifestyle. We were always committed to having the business change and evolve in order to fit well with our lives, while continuing to focus on quality over quantity.
2016 brought more change in ownership when Erin Pehar along with her partner Ryan and young son Miles purchased 100% of the company. In 2019 little Emerson joined the family and the business! We love that the business has, in a way, gone full circle – 30 years later is now a small business run by a young and growing family once again.
MHO Adventures has broadened into an Experiential Education provider while continuing the tradition of being an excellent guiding company. Expedition Food Service has become a sizable piece of our operation over the last 8 years.
2020 - the year we will never forget, brought COVID-19 and many challenging times. It also provided us a once in a life-time opportunity - we had the time to bring a long time dream to reality with the creation AND launch of our River Roots Program! A 42-Day guide training and leadership development program.
MHO Adventures is run out of 'the Barn' on the same property as our home in Huntsville, ON.
Our Philosophy
Environmental
Our environmental philosophy is quite simply to live as an equal party within the environments in which we are travelling. We recognize that as humans, we are a part of the ecosystems we are visiting and will have an impact. Our goal is to make it a positive impact rather than a negative one. We also recognize that as a race we have developed a tendency to manipulate, devastate and destroy species and ecosystems upon our arrival. We will be responsible in how we travel through the wilderness and conscientious of our actions and their impact. Our goal is to live as ‘one’ with the environment. Our environment is of utmost importance to us and we do everything in our power to make sure that we do not compromise its integrity.
Cultural
Many of our excursions travel through traditional and current First Nations lands and travel routes. Our goal is to provide you with a greater understanding, and hopefully respect for, our First Nations population and their cultural history while having a positive effect on the communities that we visit. Rivers such as the Missinaibi hold great significance as both a traditional First Nations waterway with multiple spiritual sites, and as a historic route for Europeans entering Canada. As a waterway that connects the Great Lakes with James Bay the Missinaibi River and many of its tributaries are steeped in history. We are committed to not only respecting, but working with, and learning from our friends in the First Nations communities that we visit.
Safety and Risk Management
All wilderness travel contains elements of risk. It is our intent to use our training and experience to calculate and minimize the risks that you are exposed to while in the wilderness with us. Though all of our guides are trained and certified in first-aid and swift water rescue, as detailed below, our preference and goal is to avoid any incidents by mitigating risks using our professional judgement and making good decisions.
Every MHO Adventures guide is certified in Wilderness Medical training. Lead guides at the Wilderness First-Responder level, assistant guides at the Wilderness Advanced First Aid level, or higher. As well, all of our guides for water trips are trained and certified in swift water rescue.
Each and every MHO Adventures trip is equipped with a first-aid kit, all necessary rescue gear, a satellite phone and a SPOT GPS device as well as an emergency action plan.
Meals and Menus
MHO Adventures prides ourselves on serving top quality food to our guests. We are committed to providing you with a healthy, hearty and tasty menu. We put careful consideration into our menu planning to ensure proper nutrition each and every day of the trip. We make every attempt to use local produce for our menus and do much of our own dehydrating and vacuum packaging.
We are well versed in menu planning and are glad to accommodate any dietary concerns or allergies. Please inform us of your needs when registering for a trip.