FEATURE STORY:

Ashuapmushuan River: Notice to Paddlers

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But who is this lone guardian angel who waited for us at the end of The Petit-Giroux after we refused his offer to join us? Why is he waiting for us? To see him go into the rapids, it is certain that he is faster than we are and he had started one hour ahead of us this morning. We arrived late at the next campsite but we did not have any choice, as there were no campsites any closer. Surprise…there he is. He said nothing to us but a big, welcoming smile lit up his face. He had already set up his camp far from a large camping space as though he had known that he would not be welcome in our group. For our part, we had enough worries of our own without having to think about him. We had lost food and equipment. It was late. We had lost a stove and the fuel tubing of our other stove was broken. We did not have the equipment to repair it. We decided to make our sauce for dinner on the fire but all of it stuck to the bottom of the pot. Soon after, our guardian angel appeared with a stove in his hand. "It is full of fuel," he said. We finished cooking. It was too bad that he had not arrived before; the sauce had already burned. There were two centimetersof burnt ashes on the bottom of the pot and it was ruined. No one had any steel wool. It is our last big pot…
The next morning, miracle! We checked with our group and no one knew about it. The pot was as good as new. Our guardian angel had cleaned it with something although no one knew what?
The next morning, he was there again to offer his help and then he introduced himself as a member of a local canoe club. He is willing to guide us on the condition that we follow his instruction and do what he tells us on the river. We have nothing to lose. The river is getting bigger and bigger and our experience of the day before suggested that we should follow his directions, no matter what. And yes, we knew now that it would make a difference whether he would be with us or not.

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