 |
|
By Jennifer Jackson
Paul Graner and I met up at Beveridges lock on Wednesday - the lock that protects the canal link to Perth - at about 10 am with the vehicular assistance of my friend Maureen. It was a gorgeous, sunny day and it stayed that way the entire day...We departed about 10:45 am and promptly ran into two fishers who had snagged a large mouth bass. We managed to find the shortcut to Poonamalie lock through the green masses of vegetation. This was certainly the day for locks. We locked through Poonamalie (which is one of the nicest locks - and you'd never know you were SOOO close to Smiths Falls), Detached, Combined, Old Slys, Edmonds and finally ended up at Kilmarnock at 4:15 pm (darn - we just missed that lockmaster!) - where we portaged to the other side for camping. I must note that this was the only portaging that we did on the trip - which greatly added to my personal enjoyment. Today was definitely the "lock day" - as I discovered how much faster and fun it is when you're going downhill the whole time (see #1 & 5 below). New and fun terms for the day included "paddability" - a combination of "is it paddleable?" and "compatible" and "is there a low dock?" - not a paddle dock. There's low docks and high docks on the Rideau Canal and anyone in a kayak looks immediately for the low dock (n'est pas?). Lots of vegetation on Upper Rideau Lake, just a brief foreshadowing of what was to come. The water level looks at their lowest level ever. At the last lock, I promptly discover the folly of forgetting to wear sun block but promptly forgot all about this while devouring Paul's excellent nachos and tacos for dinner. Wildlife for the day included 2 kingfishers, 1 blue heron (the least of any day), loads of ducks (blacks and mallards) and sunfish. I managed to erect my one-person "virgin" tent although the fly attachments remain a bit of a mystery. A quiet night - but earplugs were definitely needed due to the closeness of the road to the lock.
Thursday morning - I discovered at breakfast how very squeamish Paul is about leaving salsa out of the fridge for more than one day. I being myself, volunteer to use up all leftovers - the ultimate human garbage can, indeed. Weedy days continued on a beautiful birding stretch from Kilmarnock to Merrickville. Halfway along, we were treated to an aerial display by a local father (or son) in a biplane doing aerial tricks at great speed. Bird count for the day included six blue herons, one osprey, one kingfish, countless (okay countable but I didn't bother) geese and ducks. We had a delightful lunch (good samosas) at the Canadian Recreational Canoeing Association's (CRCA) gorgeous headquarters in Merrickville (courtesy Paul, again) (where I dripped all over the soon-to-be-named "Hershey Canada" boardroom - just kidding!). I had the ten-cent tour and scammed a book to read on the trip (as payment for a past Kanawa book review) from the extensive library. I secretly envied Paul the view from his office (it just doesn't compare to Elgin Street and the war memorial) and we launched again after much scurrying around to make our lock schedule. From Merrickville, we travelled to what has to be the gosh-darn-prettiest lock ever - Clowes - then through the Upper and Lower Nicholson locks.
Along the way, we even managed to avoid getting swept into the numerous open dams. Lunch of a snack, yoghurt and power bars courtesy Paul at the Lower Nicholson locks. We asked a few of the lockmasters to call ahead to Burritts Rapids and ask for the washrooms to be left open. We were then informed that it had definitely already been done (#2 & #3). Then onwards at an easy stretch to Burritts Rapids with very few cottages and houses. As we were getting close to Burritts, we encountered another kayaker in a bright blue boat - to which Paul said "that looks like Mike" to which I replied "it IS Mike - remember?"...Just another example of how easy it is to lose one's concept of time and space on a longish trip...what day was it? Oh yes, back to Mike. Well, we had a wonderful time admiring Mike Lomas' new Folbot and challenged him to show us how easy and fast it was to take it apart. That didn't last long as Mike got distracted by the jumping fish at the lock. However, although the fish were jumping, they weren't biting. Mike did have better luck devouring the fish and chips at Michael's Restaurant which was a 20 m walk from the lock (#8 & #9). We had cheap but filling food and Mike departed back to town (#7). After dinner, I promptly forgot about her promise not to swear on the trip as I tripped over one of Paul's tent flylines and went down hard on the ground knocking my jaw against Mike's stove (which he had lent to me for the trip). Fortunately, no permanent damage done, however, but Paul IS going to get some fluorescent tape for his tent soon (my gift to you)...We did about one-third of the "Tip to Tip" trail on our way into town and called John Horshorst from the Village corner store. I had conveniently forgotten his number in her tent and from the 3 Honshorsts in Nepean - actually managed to locate him at his mom's house that night (STILL going home to do your laundry, eh?). After letting John know of our coordinates and expected arrival the next day, we walked back to the lock. After trying to pick out the constellations in the clear sky, we finally turned in.
Friday dawned windy...Helpful early morning dogwalkers kept going past the lock and telling us about the expected arrival of Hurricane Kate ("85 km winds you know") as we packed up our gear. We met the infamous lockmaster - who actually was quite cheery and wished us well (#4 below). Most of the morning was spent paddling apart as Paul's back continued to act up now and then and he needed to get out and stretch. I found it easier to keep going - as Paul always seemed to catch up without too much difficulty! Weedy days continue with lots and lots of wind. Fortunately, this was one of the narrowest stretches of the canal so it was actually the best spot to have high winds. At one point, I vouch (not going to swear, Paul having taken upon himself to try to assist me in cleaning up my language this trip) that the waves were at 1.5 feet tall - cut away to a vision of my extremely brief whitewater kayaking career - okay, that remembrance is over. Paul begs to differ on the size of the waves. I actually had lots of fun in the wind (aka stress management) as we were relatively well rested with a mostly shiny sun as we made slow but steady progress against the wind - which was all in our faces (the best place for strong wind, anyway).
One of the funniest things was to keep rounding the corners and running into these seemingly HUGE cows lying right by the river (a note to the local county, there's a definite need to encourage the farming community to keep your livestock out of the Rideau River to improve surface water quality). They seemed as surprised to see us as we were to see them. We made about 15 km before stopping (aka trespassing) at a private trailer with a picnic table (and a outhouse to my great relief as only a woman who has just gotten her period CAN understand). Lunch was excellent bulgur, tomato and tuna pita bread sandwiches prepared by yours truly. From there we had a leisurely 7 km paddle to Baxter Conservation Area with another brief stretch at Pirate's Cove (actually Paul stretched, I always find it easier to stay in the boat and stretch there). We saw at least 12 blue herons that day - a blue heron for every 1/2 km of the canal, we reckon. If the Rideau Canal doesn't have an official bird, we'd be happy to nominate the blue heron. The wind blew us over to Baxter Conservation Area (BCA) (the powers that be there having previously given Paul the go-ahead to camp when camping not normally permitted). BCA was great. We used the changing shelters to dry our gear and pulled the boats up onto the beach. We set up our tents in a sheltered pinery area - which was a great idea - until it started raining during our cooking of the massive pasta dinner when all of the rain drove the mosquitoes out and about. I proved to be the massive attractant to the little pests (again) and we literally ran with the pots and dishes over to the far away picnic shelter to allow ourselves to eat in peace. If it hadn't been so windy, it would have been lovely just to camp on the beach.
Saturday morning dawned bright and sunny with all of the gear drying quite fast. We discovered that a dry bag had been chewed at in the night by either a porcupine or a raccoon. Too bad, we were too fast asleep to hear a gosh, darned thing. I think the little critter was after chocolate, Paul thinks it was after tuna. Either way, it had good taste and fortunately didn't manage to get a thing with very little damage to the bag. John joined us about 9 am with Tim's coffee all around. Funny, how even Tim's can smell and taste good when you've been away from civilization. Had another late start at about 10:30 am (all that carrying of gear to and fro, you know). We had a pretty uneventful paddle although our lats and arms did some protesting from all of the hard work yesterday. We stopped at Paul's friend, Malcolm Hunter's house for lunch, admired his ancient wooden motorboat and called ahead to the lock to ask to leave the washrooms open. Then onwards to the Manotick Mill and exited our boats at small but free public dock. John went into town to the Manotick Mews to buy a bottle of wine for dinner (#6 below - the last one!). Paul and I toured about the mill - where I took lots of pictures (Parks Canada has a funny way of labelling dam equipment as "useless" dam equipment, vandalism being very much a problem, it appears). Lots of people were fishing off the dam, as the bass were (apparently) biting. From there I raided the garden at the Rideau Valley Conservation Authority head office for herbs for the coming dinner. Back on the canal, we saw lots of nice homes around Manotick and lots of homes that you actually wouldn't WANT to live it. As we paddled, we were serenaded by the hum of lawnmowers, pretty much everywhere we went. Coming into the Manotick lock, Jenn was subjected to the somewhat normal, but still always surprising, harassing comment from a teenage boy (really, he hadn't noticed the fact that I hadn't had a proper wash in days? I laughed so hard upon catching my reflection in the lockstation washroom mirror as I was looking more like Tom Hanks in Castaway at that point in time). Nonetheless, we had a pleasant moose meat dinner (care of John in quasi- boeuf bourginon style) with couscous salad. Lots of red wine and funny politician jokes to cap off a nice day. Early to bed...
...and early to rise on Sunday with John up first (amazing!). Mosquitoes continued to try (and succeeded) in taking huge chunks out of me all the way throughout this trip (I thought the season was supposed to be over!). We were first to lock through at Manotick that morning. Absolutely no wind to aid (or impede) us as we tried to make the 24 km through to the Ottawa locks at the base of the Chateau Laurier. We made steady progress. John's keen eyes spotted a spotted turtle sunning itself on a log, 3 beavers or muskrats and later a bittern at Mooney's Bay. I zoomed back for ah oh-so-rare picture of this shy bird - I hope it turns out! We managed to avoid the dragon boat race in Mooney's Bay and at Hartwell's lock, we stump the lockmaster by inquiring how the lock got its name (Note to Parks Canada - time to ensure your staff has regular orientations at each lock regardless of HOW long they've been working there!). We continued paddling towards the Ottawa locks while Paul took an almost final stretch on Pig Island in the downtown portion of the canal (Mike having told John that the pigs from the Central Exhibition used to be let off there before going to the fair - neato). We make it through the Ottawa locks in time to become photo opportunities for some eager tourists who follow us through all eight locks. Actually Paul nearly didn't make it through the first lock as he had to get back into his boat from a 2.5 foot drop from the side - the staff having forgotten to tell us that they had started to empty the lock - but with John's assistance, he made it. At the bottom of the locks (note please - an absence of low docks), I prolong our trip by suggesting a short side trip to the Rideau Falls which neither Paul and I had ever seen from the water. Munching of tuna couscous salad in the locks must having given me some extra energy as I literally sprinted over to the Falls (24 km in 4.5 hours - gosh, it's nothing when you've had a chance to work up to that pace) leaving Paul and John in my wake. However, after checking out the Falls, this burst of energy doesn't last too long as they both land before me at our chosen destination of Victoria Island. There, we meet Paul's wife, Jazz (the family dog - ya should have brought her along), Gino and John's brother who has kindly offered to provide a lift back. I can't believe that it's been 5 whole days, 100+km. It's gone by WAY too fast. Thanks to all asunder.
"Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breathe away"
With the weather forecast teetering between partly cloudy and possibility of light rain, some brave souls decided to say, bah! to the weather gods and head out to Shirleys Bay for TK2O's First Annual Paddle 'n' Potluck.
Many thanks to those who brought food, judged, paddled and ate. A good time
was had by all. The club would especially thank our club Secretary Mike L
for not only organizing the event, but also promoting it with local media outlets
like the 
.
However, that was not all. Mike managed to get some really great door prizes for the cooks
at the potluck. These included a durable, red codura duffle bag courtesy of Trailhead;
a compact stainless steel vacuum thermos and a handful of various sized drybags
all courtesy of MEC. Thanks Mike!
Rough trip notes. A coherent report is coming, contact John for details.