Our Story

and team

“The world isn’t just the way it is. It is how we understand it, no? And in understanding something, we bring something to it, no? Doesn’t that make life a story?”

— Yann Martel, Life of Pi

The Patenaude family became stewards of this land just outside of Kootenay National Park in 1992. We opened up for our first guests from Australia in 1996. Our cabins are the original Cathedral Mountain Lodge cabins, built in 1930 in Yoho National Park, and now connect us with the history of Canada’s Rocky Mountain parks. We rescued and moved the cabins here in the early 1990s, refurbished them, but retained their original heritage charm. This instigated the story of Cross River, which at its core is about off-the-grid retreat and self-sustainability, and cultural and historical responsibility.
In the late 1990s, we started to reconnect more deeply with our own family’s heritage from the Georgian Bay Métis Community. We became affiliated with the Ghost River Rediscovery Society, and started our longterm heart-work with Indigenous youth and communities from all around Western Canada, northwestern United States, and parts of South America. We collaborated with Indigenous elders and community leaders to develop and facilitate unique intercultural sharing programs for guests from all around the world, while never forgetting that we live and work in ancestral Blackfoot and Ktunaxa lands also overlapped by traditional Tsuut’ina, Îyârhe Nakoda, and Métis territories.
In 2011, we also became affiliated with Outward Bound Canada, helping to design and lead new youth, young adult, and Indigenous programs with them, while also working with various other schools, teachers, and universities on unique land-based programming for their students. We continue to expand on this work to address current conversations around decolonization, and truth, justice, and reconciliation with other tourism organizations, guides, artists, and businesses throughout the Canadian Rocky Mountains and region today. This work also continues to enrich the ecotourism experiences guests can have when they join us for a peaceful weekend cabin getaway, or an engaging guided walk or trek to one of the many breathtaking and storied places nearby.

Difference is a testament to life. We honour the edges between, and fluidity within, skin colours, genders, knowledges, cultures, and ecosystems. Social and ecological diversity is the foundation of the life and world we stand for.

Dr. Troy Patenaude, PhD (he/him)

Georgian Bay Métis scholar, educator, curator, and ACMG hiking guide who has spent his life exploring the intersection between nature, arts, culture, and social change.

Rob Patenaude (he/him)

Georgian Bay Métis guide, builder, innovator, and entrepreneur whose sense of adventure, strong work ethic, and enduring relationship with Marilyn, laid the foundation for Cross River.

Marilyn Patenaude (she/her)

Settler Canadian (British/Scottish), artist, educator, homemaker, and supporter with a knack for making people feel at home around her, which is also part of the fabric of Cross River.

Erica Olmstead, MMEd (she/her)

Settler Canadian (Welsh/French), free-choice learning educator with interests in cross-curricular, aesthetic, affective, participatory, and dialogic learning models.

Melaina Patenaude, MA (she/her)

Georgian Bay Métis plant specialist, wildcrafter, and medicine maker with a reverence for the traditional knowledge about plants, food systems, and ecology that was passed down to her.

Rocky Courtoreille (he/him)

Cree/Iroquois/French member of Driftpile First Nation and skilled social worker who values the opportunity to connect through humour, and make a difference in lives of youth he meets.

Delmar Williams (he/him)

Squamish/Lil’wat skills practitioner, hunter, archer, fisher, harvester, and ACMG hiking guide who trains youth, adults, and teachers in ancestral skills, knowledges, and resourcefulness.

Teresa Fritz (she/her)

Settler Canadian cook, hospitality artisan, mother, and nature lover whose mission is to create community and connectedness through thoughtful and shared meals and experiences.


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