by pioneering voyageurs paddling birchbark canoes. This grainy footage and corresponding interviews, played over French Canadian voyageur tunes, comprise Forni’s favorite moment of his film.

Then those same vessels became tools of colonial expansion during the Voyageurs’ fur ... better equipped to tell the canoe’s story than the upgraded Canadian Canoe Museum.

But what happens if you throw an ax-wielding French Canadian into the mix ... Besides, where else can you help steer a 34-foot canoe?

The permits allow visitors to cross the border in certain remote areas — including the Boundary Waters Canoe Area — without reporting to Canadian border officials. A rainbow rises over the ...