East French River Canoe Trip

Since it's still winter here (though weather is improving rapidly) and since I already used some of the canoe trip pictures below (sorry for the repetition) to illustrate my hiking video post, I thought I would just go ahead and share a few more details about three of the canoe trips I've been on, the ones I have digital photos for - so this is the first one, on the French River east of Hwy. 69, paddling upstream, back in 2010.  This is part of the famous voyageur canoe route four centuries ago during the heyday of the fur trade.

This is typical northern Ontario canoe country on the Canadian shield, granite rocks, pine trees and beautiful blue waters.

There are designated campsites, usually with 'thunder boxes' (outhouses without the house), so that makes it easy to plan ahead.

Lots of beautiful sunrises and sunsets.  This trip was about a week long.

One early morning riser in the group always volunteers to make the breakfasts, including the all-important coffee!

Time to think,

or just appreciate the solitude!

We usually had four or five canoes on these trips, and the most experienced paddlers made sure to organize the paddling pairs each day to have an experienced person in the stern.  I paddle with a group of former canoe trip leaders, so they know what they're doing; I'm the novice.  They also planned a route for each day (this was in the days of paper maps).

Yes, that's me!

One member of the group brought his single-person pack canoe that year (because we had an uneven number), and I got to try it out for a day.  I enjoyed it so much I later bought my own,  These smaller one-person canoes are fitted with a kayak seat and often paddled with a kayak paddle.  They're sometimes described as 'pack canoes' because they are light enough to pack long distances.

When we came to any rapids above the class 1 swifts we always stopped to assess the white water and pick a safe route through.  I learned an enormous amount about running those rapids!

Here we go!

On this trip there were only a few short portages which made it easy.

I think this was just a stop for lunch when I grabbed a picture - five canoes including the smaller one, and 9 people, including me.

Common Merganzers are a (you guessed it!) common sight on northern rivers.

And as long as you're a good experienced swimmer a plunge in the waters below some rapids is fun.

Or a sit on the rocks to ponder life.

And I'll end with these reflections.  I paddled with this wonderful group of friends 10 times over about 20 years.  It was the best thing I ever did for myself.

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Spring is springing here, with above freezing temperatures in the forecast all week.

And the Paralympics are on; Canada already has 6 medals on day one.  Did you notice Mollie Jepsen skiing with only one pole on her way to gold?  Her disability consists of missing fingers on one hand; the event is called the standing downhill.