Howling Wolf Tours, which held its official opening and ribbon-cutting at McCreedy Park May 17, is a way for owner Geoff Greenfield to share his love of the wilderness and hopefully make Thompson more attractive to tourists.
“I’ve been up and down this river so many times,” says Greenfield, who’s lived in Thompson since 20003. “I fell in love with this town. I fell in love with the wilderness here. Manasan Falls to me is just gorgeous. Winter, spring, summer and fall, I find a way to get there every year. Sometimes I’m doing fishing above the falls further up towards Ospwagan and other times I’m just sitting in the falls watching them because they’re a beautiful sight to see.”
Greenfield’s company will offer tours on the Burntwood River to the falls between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m Monday to Saturday and from 1:30 p.m. to 8 p.m. on Sundays, with chartered tours and custom tours also available.
“This year I’m focusing to Manasan Falls and back,” Greenfield says. “It can take upwards of two hours. It’s not about getting there fast. It’s about enjoying the scenery, maybe seeing a river otter, maybe seeing a beaver if we’re lucky. Chances are you won’t see a wolf during the day, but a sunset cruise, a sunrise cruise, the fall colours. It’s about a nice, quiet, peaceful ride to Manasan Falls and then it’s a little turbulent. I’ll be honest. It’s heavy water. It’s a little rough. We’re one third the volume of Niagara Falls at peak flow. We could be upwards of 30,000 cubic metres a second coming across Manasan Falls which is pretty impressive and it’s a bit of a thrill ride.”
Howling Wolf Tours will limit the number of passengers on any cruise to a minimum of three and a maximum of six passengers to ensure a more personal experience.
“If I have eight, 10, 12 people on the boat it’s not very personal,” says Greenfield. “I don’t want this to be about mass producing people through somewhere. I want people to be, ‘Hey, I had a great time, went out there, got to see the forest, got to see the river, I got to see an animal and I had a nice, quiet, relaxing time with my friends,’ or even, ‘I met two strangers.’”
Mayor Colleen Smook, who cut the ribbon for the official opening of Howling Wolf Tours, said it’s small enterprises like this that make a community.
“People don’t realize all the small businesses add up to make the quality of life in Thompson what it is,” she said, adding that she would see about overcoming here aversion to water to take part in a tour.
“We’re all looking forward to this. It’s going to be really cool. Even though I hate water, I may take a boat ride.”
Greenfield credits his friend and mentor Tim Gibson for giving him the courage to finally launch his business after letting the idea percolate for a few years and trying it out on a smaller scale.
“Without him, I wouldn’t have taken the effort to change my life and maybe make this step,” Greenfield said. “I did a soft open last year to get the feel, to see if there was a need for my supply. I had a big success. A lot of people said, ‘You gotta do it, follow through with it.’ This year, I said, ‘OK, this is it. I’m going to do it. I’m going to take all my eggs throw them in a basket and roll the dice.’ Without the confidence from my family, my wife, my kids, Tim, some of my friends, I would never have done it.”
