The company was established by Lyse Guinn in 1987. Lyse was the wife of fly fishing outfitter, Mike Guinn, of Waterboatman fame. The service was called LGS, which stood for Lyse Guinn Shuttles. LGS was also known as Bow River Shuttles, which described the type of service it provided, as well as the river along which the company operated.
Lyse and Michelle Magotiaux became instant friends after a chance encounter in March 1997. They met in a waiting area at the Houston airport. Michelle and her husband Armand were returning from a canoeing expedition to Costa Rica. Lyse and Mike were returning from their annual Costa Rican holiday. Michelle began work as a shuttle driver for Lyse that spring.
After Lyse's untimely death in early1999, Mike continued the service.
Michelle continued as a driver for two more years. She learned the basics
of the business during those four years, especially the challenge of the
daily logistical planning.
In the spring of 2001, Mike turned the business over to Michelle. Building from a solid history and foundation, she has moved the company to new levels of customer service and productivity.
Our
Company Owner
Michelle
Magotiaux has enjoyed a strong connection to the lakes and rivers of Western
Canada all of her life. She grew up on the shores of Lac La Ronge in the
Precambrian Shield country of northern Saskatchewan. Some of her earliest
memories include the wintertime fetching of household water every day
after school with her sisters, by chopping through the lake ice. Listening
to the reeds brush by on the sides of the canoe as she paddled quiet waters
with her grandfather is another. Her father, Ernie Brown was a respected
fishing guide. For much of his life, he worked out of the remote fly-in
fishing camp of Hatchet Lake Lodge, near the North West Territories border.
She left her lake behind to continue her education, and for many years
she missed the experience of watching the spring break-up of the lake
ice. She has returned many times to the northern lakes during summer holidays
over the years. During these visits, her three daughters grew up fishing
for pike and walleye. "Fillet what you catch" was her rule.
This was before the days of catch and release!
Michelle took up the sport of white water canoeing with her husband Armand in the early '80s. She is now an accomplished tandem stern paddler on Class III rivers, as well as a Class II solo paddler. She has canoed various reaches on most of the rivers in Southern Alberta. She has also run rivers in Saskatchewan, British Columbia, Montana, Idaho, Washington, North Carolina and Costa Rica.
The serendipitous encounter with Lyse Guinn led Michelle down a new career path that now involves working along the beautiful Bow River in southern Alberta.
Planning the daily logistics is the part of the shuttle business that Michelle enjoys most: figuring out the most efficient order in which to move multiple vehicles, all with different put in and take out locations, and with varying departure and finish times.