The “Paddling Bryans”, Bryan Adams (left) and Bryan Wallwork are shown in a handout photo. THE CANADIAN PRESS/HO, Travel+Escape

BOULDER CITY, Nev. - It's hard to know what makes a hit TV show these days. Networks can spend millions trying to mount a big Broadway "Smash" every week or float a nuclear submarine drama like "Last Resort," and what is everyone talking about? "Honey Boo Boo."

It seems low-budget reality shows such as "Breaking Amish" or "Hillbilly Hand Fishing" have just as much of a shot as dramas about mob doctors or comedies about new girls.

So don't dismiss a show about two guys from Quebec in a canoe.

The "Paddling Bryans" return Monday, October 1st on Travel+Escape for a second season of, well, canoeing and paddling. Former schoolmates, Bryan Adams and Bryan Wallwork, just love jumping into their canoe, named "Sakakawea," and heading out on months-long canoe trips.

"It's named after a native American goddess," says Wallwork. "It's bad luck to get into a boat without a name," says Adams.

Both have day jobs — one as bartender, the other working in family-run potash mine — but canoeing has been their calling for most of their 29 years.

Last year they took on an epic outdoor adventure: paddling 5,555 kilometres from Milk River, Alta., to New Orleans, La. The journey took six months.

When their buddy Wilder Weir heard what they were up to, he had two thoughts: "You're going to die," he told them, "and we have to film it."

Weir, who'd had experience in television, went out and bought the most expensive camera he could afford. He handed it off to the Bryans with instructions to "shoot everything."

Without any kind of a TV deal, Weir than cut the hours and hours of digital material into an eight-minute "sizzle reel," basically zeroing in on a knee injury to one of the Bryans which threatened to capsize the entire project.

"That first trip was really a learning experience between paddling together and learning to use cameras," admits Adams, no relation to that other Bryan Adams — although he will sing "Summer of 69" when asked nicely.

Wallwork — the more gonzo of the pair — said they managed to record their adventures only because the cameras were waterproof, "and there was only one button on them."

Weir took the footage, teamed up with executive producer Claude Barnes and cut it into a series. Fans were able to follow along on TravelandEscape.ca.

Season Two, consisting of 13 episodes and a noticeable upgrade in camera work and other production values, will follow the paddling pair down the Colorado River on a 2,330 journey past the Grand Canyon straight down to the U.S./Mexican border.

Well, maybe not straight down. The two Bryans learned that you need a permit to navigate through the Grand Canyon and that can take years to obtain. Plus Hoover Dam is pretty tough to portage.

Nevertheless, the duo seemed pumped about their journey when interviewed on a hot June day right in Lake Mead. The man-made body of water, created by swelling up the Colorado with the Hoover Dam, is just outside Las Vegas.

They already had stories of surviving some pretty daunting rapids earlier in their trip along the Colorado. They were told to wear helmets, but as Wallwork says, "why put plastic over cement?"

The duo tends to travel light and both confess to enjoying the odd beverage en route. An enterprising plan to plaster alcohol decals on their canoe was scrapped when a brewer had second thoughts about associating their product with water activities.

There is definitely a bit of Bob and Doug McKenzie in this paddling twosome.

Should they make it all the way to Mexico, Wallwork will have to show his Canadian passport and good luck with that. The thing stays in his shorts throughout his river run and is a mess, sopping wet with pages all stuck together.

Still, as Adams says, "there's no one I would trust steering the boat more than Bryan." Wallwork demonstrates his nifty little "J" stroke, one he calls a "cheater" because he leans the paddle on the side of the boat and gives it an efficient little click.

There are other pointers on the series but Wallwork wouldn’t call them professional tips.

"They're more ways to get by, to do it easy," he says.

Both say they want to keep right on paddling, up the Nile, to Alaska, even the Antarctic.

"We'll both still do it even if they cancel the show," says Wallwork. "There’s always somewhere else to go."

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Bill Brioux is a freelance TV columnist. While in Nevada, he was a guest of Travel+Escape.

News from © The Canadian Press, 2012