Sunday, March 6, 2022

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.

*************

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.









22 comments:

  1. What a wonderful memory, thanks sso much for sharing it here...I can imagine dipping into that cold water, and I'm with you in wanting to just sit on the side and ponder a bit!

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  2. How wonderful to share this lovely memory with me today. It sure looks like fun! The "here we go" shot gave me goosebumps! :-)

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  3. Pierre Trudeau would have been proud of you.

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  4. We love the French River. If we can afford the gas, we might go out to a cottage there this summer.
    I love watching Paralympic events. Amazing athletes!

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  5. Beautiful scenery to be travelling through. I spent a lot of time on punts in my youth but my limited knowledge of canoes only stretches to the fact that they are easy to tip over! Great Britain always does rather well in Paralympic sport, which gives me only limited pleasure as it's mostly a reflection of how far behind most countries are with providing sporting opportunities for disabled people - it's bad enough here.

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  6. Those northern lakes and rivers are wonderful places to paddle. It was great to see medals go to Ukraine in the Paralympics.

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  7. I did enjoy this post.
    Lovely memories and photographs you've shared.

    All the best Jan

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  8. The northern half of Saskatchewan shares much of the same scenery with the rock, often scraggly pine/spruce trees, and beautiful water falls. I was never a canoeist, though went out in a boat occasionally. The best trip was a fly in day trip to a hidden lake where we fished for most of the morning, had a shore lunch, fished some more, had a dip in the lake and then flew home late afternoon.

    Your photos evoke those feelings of quiet and serenity of being near the water. Such wonderful memories you have. Thanks for sharing!

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  9. It is magnificent country up there.

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  10. Every picture is beautiful. Love the one of you in the canoe!
    I'm looking forward to doing some paddling in my kayak this summer.

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  11. I don’t know if there is better landscape than you feature here, FG. Yay for the Paralympians!

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  12. those were great trips. I never canoed anyplace but I did lots of boating. I went up the Mackenzie river. If I'd been smart I would have gone down the river.

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  13. I thoroughly enjoyed all the rugged landscape photos. We used to have an canoe. It was old and very heavy and I enjoyed going out in it although I cannot swim and am in fact very afraid of water.

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  14. Those photos are a story to read again and again. Paralympics, we get limited coverage, but to see our own compete has been an eye opener. Hope yours do equally as well.

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  15. What a great time for you. Excellent post. It must take you so long to put it together, but you do a great job.

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  16. The Canadian rivers and streams are gorgeous. Beautiful pictures.

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  17. If I could do it all over again I would try very hard to do what you did with those canoe trips in northern Ontario.

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  18. Beautiful photos, such a pristine area!

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  19. Gorgeous pictures! Have a good week.

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  20. I enjoyed your photos of past canoe trips. Makes me want to try a paddling trip like this someday!

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  21. time to think...and you, pondering life, both great captures. it's so nice to have archives to share, and to relive the experiences ourselves!!

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  22. My son used to lead canoe trip for a camp in Algonquin Park. Never something I'd like to do! He's now a financial planner in Vancouver.

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