Canoeing -Tales From The Paddle

Sunday, 20 May 2007

Miscellaneous Photos Of Various River Trips

Miscellaneous Photos Of Various River Trips
(Tales Relating to Photos In Blog Posts)

Yuri: Self Portrait
Mississippi River, Lanark County, Ontario Canada

Right to Left: Yuri, Brian & Two Companions Missinaibi River 1982

Yuri & Brian - Lazing In The Sun
Mississippi River, Lanark County, Ontario Canada

Yuri & Brian
Rain Soaked Day On the Spanish River, Ontario

Dr. Bob F. On Mississagi River
'Essential Wilderness Haircare'

Midnight Camp
Brian On the Spanish River, Ontario

Yuri On the Spanish River, Ontario
'Hiding In the Shadows"

Dr. Brian F. On Mississippi River

Yuri - Dirty, Tired & "In Heaven" On the Kamiscotia River, Ontario

Ditto

Fatigue!
Yuri & Brian - Sparse Camp On Albany River East Bank

Albany River Sunset

Log Drive On The Mattagami River
(Imagine planning a canoe trip for a year then arriving to this sight!)

Spanish River, Ontario - Sunset

Ottawa River Rafting
(for a short slide show click here to redirect to another post)

Aubrey Falls On Lower Mississagi River

Yuri & Brian At Kabinakagami River Jumpoff
Albany River Tributary

How To Wrap A Coleman Royalex Canoe Around A Rock - Mississagi River

Quiet Moments With Colleagues On Mississagi River

Dusk On The Missinaibi River, Ontario

Brian On The Spanish River

Brian On The Kamiscotia River

My Good Friend Guy & Myself On Restoule River

Smokey Camp On The Spanish River
(Brian & Yuri)

Comfy Camp at the 'Monkey House' - Missinaibi River
('Monkey House' as we had to crawl around on all fours to keep from falling off of this campsite!)

View Upstream From 'Monkey House' On Missinaibi River
(Looking back towards Thunderhouse Falls & Conjourer's House)

Grumman Canoe In Evening Light On Mattagami River

Twilight On the Mattagami-Kamiscotia Junction

Tragedy on the Missinaibi River - Canoe Explodes Scattering Contents!
(Acutally, just repacking supplies at Mattice Jump-off Site)

Brian, Contemplating Life at the Graveyard Rapids - Spanish River

Ice Encrusted Shore On Albany River

Building A Spruce & Canvas Canoe
'Wilderness Workshop' -Humber College
(for a short slide show on canoe construction click here)

Paddle Carving Course
Wilderness Workshop - Humber College, Toronto

Yuri At Restoule River Base Camp

Brian & Yuri (Standing) At Mississagi River Camp

Self Portrait (circa 1976) - Solo Camping Trip At Spring Lake ON
(note still frozen lake in background)

Faithful "Canary Yellow" 17' Grumman Aluminum Canoe

* * *

Friday, 20 April 2007

Location Of Rivers

“No man should go through life without once experiencing healthy, even bored solitude in the wilderness, finding himself depending solely on himself and thereby learning his true and Hidden strength.”

Jack Kerouac

"It's not down any map, true places never are"

Herman Melville

Below I've included maps with the approximate locations of rivers mentioned in this blog to help readers unfamiliar with Ontario or perhaps even Canada navigate the tales. Within the body of the blog & sidebar, one can find links to both Ontario road maps as well as topographical map distributors. I have also Included them a the bottom of this post for added convenience. When available, the preferred topographical map scale was 1:50,000 as opposed to the 1:250,000 for they showed much greater detail which assisted in pinpointing our location and in calculating exact distance travelled each day. Remember, these trips were pre GPS etc.

Locations Of Rivers Mentioned in this Blog
(Partial Satellite View of Ontario Including Great Lakes)
(Click Map To Enlarge)

1) Albany River
2) Kabinakagami & Kenogami Rivers
3) Missinaibi River
4) Mattagami River
5) Abitibi River
6) Kamiskotia River
7) Mississagi River
8) Spanish River
9) French River
10) Restoule River
11) Magnetawan River
12) Ottawa River
13) Mississippi River
14) Saugeen River
15) Maitland River
16) Thames River
17) Grand River
*) Moose River (Combined flow of Missinaibi, Mattagami & Abitibi Rivers)
(Lake Nipissing Just Left of #10 of Map Of Rivers)

Map Of Canada Showing Location Of The Province Of Ontario

Additional Map Sources;
Ontario Road Maps - Ontario Ministry of Transportation
Federal Maps - Topographical Map Source (Toronto)
Canada Map Office - Topographical Maps (Ottawa)

"A Roadmap always tells you everything except how to refold it"

Anonymous

Monday, 16 April 2007

My Whiskey Dog Morning

“a mischievous dog must be tied short”

~Italian Proverb

“A door is what a dog is perpetually on the wrong side of”

~Ogden Nash

The morning light impatiently rushed past me into the ever widening crack beneath my rising garage door. There, in the midst of the usual household clutter stood a soggy mound of canvas piled high with camping gear. The blackened set of cookware, my coleman lantern, a propane stove, axe and my nylon tent, skewered by protruding fibreglass tent poles - all lashed together by a partially unravelled skein of nylon cord. Leaning against the pile were my criss-crossed canoe paddles, which mockingly formed an 'X' to mark the spot of my morning's upcoming labours.

Having returned from yet another canoe trip, I stared at the task before me, knowing that the trip is never complete until my gear is dried, cleaned, sorted, repaired and stored for the following season.

Scratches and snorts at the inside door told me that my dog ‘Whiskey’ was eager to join in the fun and have a sniff at what exotic odours I may have brought back for him, still trapped within that festering heap.

Clipping a rather lengthy leash to his collar, I secured the opposite end to the bumper of my car thereby giving Whiskey full reign of the front yard while I moved items in and out of the garage.

It wasn’t long before unrecognizable sounds of commotion began to drift from the yard. Strolling out of the garage to investigate, I was horrified to see that Whiskey had a large bag of fertilizer grasped firmly between his jaws and with each shake of the head, was flinging the contents wildly about the lawn. A second bag, contents already expended, lay limp at his paws. With my panicked shouts, Whiskey dropped the bag and approached with wagging tail and rather pleased look. Grabbing him by the scruff of the neck, I unhitched Whiskey from the lead and marched him back indoors where, no doubt, my ‘hound from hell’ would find other items to destroy.

Fearful that the grass would be burned beyond repair, I dropped to my knees and attempted to scoop the mounds of pellets back into the bag. Realizing that recovering the thousands of beads that lay scattered across my yard by hand was futile, an idea came to mind. Retreating to the garage I plugged in my upright floor vacuum cleaner and began running it back and forth over the grass still peppered with pellets. Continuous clicks and pings coming from the housing convinced me the technique worked and had me break out in a wide grin.

A few astonished neighbours slowed as they drove by, observing my vacuuming of the front lawn, unsure of what to make of my puzzling behaviour. Still sporting my silly grin, as I pushed the vacuum to and fro, I tried to explain actions by shouting back~

“It’s because of Whiskey!”

That inadequate statement sure gave the neighbourhood something to talk about for the next year!

Cheers!

The Infamous Whiskey Dog

Tuesday, 27 March 2007

Other Paddles

I have never seen a river that I could not love. Moving water . . . has a fascinating vitality. It has power and grace and associations. It has a thousand colors and a thousand shapes, yet it follows laws so definite that the tiniest streamlet is an exact replica of a great river.

-- Roderick Haig-Brown

Going With The Flow

As with the first shake of a stranger’s hand, first encounters with a river may only offer a few shared hours or lead to a lifelong relationship. Undeniably, every river has a personality of it’s own, some more memorable than others. Within this Blog I've recounted stories primarily based on the canoe trips I shared with my friend Brian on Ontario's northern rivers. Having taken a drink from each river's waters I hold the romantic notion that each has somehow physically become a part of me. They no doubt have influenced me mentally having faced the challenges offered and having earned precious memories as an eternal reward. Regretfully, there were a few rivers further removed which life's circumstances did not permit me to explore. Perhaps I'll explore them below, substituting paragraphs for a canoe and words that might propel the reader as would a paddle. But those well have to wait for now....

South Nahanni River, NWT