Canoeing Adventures!

I've been wondering what sort of adventures to take you on this winter.  As you know, I can't get out much exploring when there's snow, slush and grit on the ground!  But looking back over my past photos I find a number of canoeing adventures I've been on.  And thinking back over my life, I'm thrilled that I got on ten serious canoe trips which were the adventure of my life!  I don't think I've shared these with you recently, so I thought they'd be a good choice for the next few weeks.

They fall into two groups.  I began my big canoe adventures shortly after I turned 40.  Somewhere I read that if you have big things you wanted to do in life you'd better get on with it once you're 40!  So I called up a friend who I knew did some serious canoeing, and asked him if I could go along.  Boy, did I luck out!  

He and four other folks had been canoe trip leaders as volunteers, and had several decades of experience between them.  They knew all about running white water, about packing and cooking food, about portaging, and anything else you might need to know!  They were my age and they had decided to have their own canoe group just for fun!

So they went on a canoe trip of about 10 days to two weeks every year.  And I got to join them!  It was wonderful, the greatest physical adventure I've had!  This painting of a photo, which hangs in our den, shows me paddling out in the delta of the French River, in between the narrow shallow bedrock outcroppings known as the 'Fingerboards', part of the original route of the 'Voyageurs'.

Unfortunately I have very few accessible pictures from those years, so I will have to describe the highlights for you.

But I do have more recent pictures..  We have paddled on several local lakes and rivers here in Grey County, so I thought I would mix these together, describe a recent paddle for you, with pictures, and add a description of one of my whitewater adventures further north.  Does any of this make sense?