FEATURE STORY
Ashuapmushuan River: Notice to Paddlers
English
French(coming soon)
The next twenty kilometres of flat water were a series of paddling strokes, such as the J, sideslip, pry, backwards-forwards strokes and more. I cannot remember all of the names but it seemed very efficient. I recovered some confidence. For my part, I did not want any more canoeing. He told us that if we wished we could paddle almost all of the rapids. As yet, there were grade II rapids that were more than one kilometre long as well as grade III and IV rapids ahead. He guided us for the rest of the river and we did no more capsizing. He guided us across all of the grade III’s and showed us the easiest routes and the techniques to use. He lent us his stove and gave us helpful tricks: how to approach the waves, use a mosquito net to drain our pasta and many other things. He also showed us the beauty of Chutes Chaudiere, where an ancient riverbed has been carved through the rock, huge kettle holes and many beautiful things hidden to neophytes. He was not around us except on the river. At meals, he was far from us, meditating or in curing the injuries of his soul, who knows? We knew nothing about him except his first name and that he is a member of your club. He was to do this river with a very special person (his eyes sparkled for the short instant that he spoke about her) but she had decided not to join him four days before his departure. In the end, he had decided that it was his destiny to have this experience alone. He had changed his plans to help us and believed that God had told him to wait for us near the end of The Petit-Giroux. When it was time for us to leave him at the end of the trip, he thanked us for allowing him to discover himself through the experiences of life that we shared with him. He disappeared again, leaving only memories of happiness in our sad hearts that it was already the time for us to leave. So, today, I want to say thank you to God for asking this man to wait for us. It does not matter who he is - a sad old hermit who needs solitude for curing the injuries of his soul or a guardian angel whom God sent to us. We really appreciated his intense but very discreet presence. For most of us, he changed this river from a source of fear to one of pleasure and accomplishment. He gave us a taste of something beyond our abilities and the strength not to quit even though it seemed that all hope was gone. Perhaps he should learn by our lesson not to give up even when all seems lost on the river of his life…
Good bye and take care, dear Guardian Angel.
Anonymous (trans./ed.WebWriteSolutions)
Originally printing: Club Canot de Quebec