July 25, 2005
Hello from the Ottawa River - Learning How
to Whitewater Kayak (and how the river kicked my ass...)
Way back when in February I went to the Outdoor
Adventure Show and I twisted my friend Leslie's
arm to go on a learn-how-to-kayak weekend with me. We booked
2 days including meals, kayaking lessons and camping accommodation
with a company called Equinox Adventures that has a rafting and
kayaking camp located on Calumet Island in the Ottawa River.
So Friday we got ready, I picked Leslie up from work and we headed
off on Highway 401 east of Toronto. We got stuck in rush hour traffic
for a solid hour and half until I decided to go north of the highway
to take a country road. We stopped in for a nice little dinner in
Belleville, and after driving through the beautiful countryside
in Eastern Ontario and after getting lost on the winding roads near
our destination, we finally set up our tent at about 11 pm, illuminated
by the headlights of my car.
Paddling gear, ready for the next outing
The Equinox river camp is very basic, located around an old farmhouse
are 3 different campgrounds (for noisy, semi-noisy and quiet campers..),
an outbuilding with extremely basic men's and women's bathrooms
that have 2 toilet stalls as well as 4 functioning shower stalls
in a co-ed shower and an outdoor eating area covered by tarps that
are draped over metal railings. Luxury accommodation this is definitely
not.
Saturday morning we got started early, we actually got woken up
by the mooing of cows in the farmers field next door at about 6
am. Other campers reported that some of the cows took a walk right
through the camp ground and actually left some sizeable paddies
behind. It was fabulous to be in a tent again after not having gone
camping for about 8 years.... We got a simple breakfast, some pancakes
and pre-packaged muffins (some of them a little furry) and we started
picking our kayak gear and headed off with our knowledgeable guide
Christine and her helper
Krista in a van to the Ottawa River. We got suited up with our
life jackets, helmets and sprayskirs, and then put our kayaks in
the water.
Rafts on the Ottawa River
I had a devil of a time getting my sprayskirt over the kayak's
opening because it was so tight. We started with simple paddling
exercises in the calm waters of the Rocher Fendu dam and first learned
how to do a "wet exit": after you tip the kayak and are
underneath the vessel (panic time for most people) we were taught
to rip the sprayskirt off and swim our way out of the kayak.
Paddling was quite difficult since the angle of the blades of the
paddle is offset, so while your right hand is supposed to stay still,
the left hand is supposed to tilt a little so the left blade of
the paddle goes into the water at the proper angle. I had a bit
of a problem with that since my right arm is way stronger than my
left arm (from playing tennis) and I couldn't get the entry angle
of the left side of the paddle right, so many times I ended up going
in a circle off to the left, having to paddle 3 or 4 times on the
left side just to straighten myself out again. The kayaks are perfectly
flat on the bottom, so there is no hull to help you out with the
tracking on the water.
Paddling got a little more difficult when we went up the Ottawa River and my own personal faulty technique caused me to veer off
to the left all the time, causing me to get caught in the current
of the river, drifting downstream, against the direction of where
we were trying to go. I then realized a few things: that the currents
on a river as big as the Ottawa River are extremely strong and that
my upper body strength was waning pretty quickly. I really developed
some major respect for the river and for the skills involved in
kayaking.
To be honest, I never quite got the hang of it. We were taught
skills like "ferrying", i.e. getting across a current
at an angle, or the "T-rescue", where a second kayak comes
up to you after you have tipped your kayak and are trapped underneath
the boat in the water. You are then supposed to tap on your own
kayak 3 times to make noise to alert other paddlers that you have
capsized. Then you have to reach along the side of the boat to locate
the second kayak, and then you put both hands on the other kayak
and twist yourself out from underneath your own vessel with a flick
of the hips.
I have to admit, I am a pretty athletic person, and I love speedy
sports like downhill skiing and mountain biking, and I am actually
pretty good at them. But some things about whitewater kayaking gave
me the chills, just the idea of getting entrapped upside down underneath
the kayak, possibly snagged by a rock underneath the water, and
not being able to get back up freaked me out.
So I decided that in the future I would try calmer water sports
such as canoeing or sea kayaking on a calm lake, instead of facing
mortal danger on the rapids. To reassure all of you readers though:
all the other kayaking students did fine, they went upriver, and
came down through some mild rapids and had a great time paddling
themselves around on the Ottawa River on Saturday and Sunday. And
Christine, our guide, was very helpful, and there was always another
kayaking student around to help you if you were in trouble, so assistance
to safety was never far away.
Farmland on Calumet Island
Saturday evening we actually watched a safety video for whitewater
kayaking and in the video I realized that advanced whitewater kayaking
is a pretty dangerous sport and the risk of drowning or hurting
yourself by getting entrapped in rocks or "strainers"
(fallen tree branches that stick out of the water) is substantial
and must be avoided at all cost. We also learned that working as
a team and rescuing one's team mates are critical life-saving skills.
By this time I had already decided that I would trade my second
day of kayaking lessons in for some mountain biking on Sunday, combined
with a little photo safari of Calumet Island.
So Sunday morning, after my interview
with Krista, she was kind enough to lend me her mountain bike
and I grabbed my camera and started my discovery of Calumet Island,
a large island in the Ottawa River wedged between Ontario and Quebec.
I cycled through forests, rolling hills, grazing pastures and past
a few extremely well-kept country properties. I spent about an hour
cycling on dirt roads to the edge of the Ottawa River where I started
to experiment with my camera a little bit.
Barn on Calumet Island
My brother-in-law Roger, a consummate graphic designer and visual
artist, had recently taught me how to do close-up shots of plants
and other objects, so I started experimenting taking close-range
shots of plants and flowers right next to the Ottawa River. This
was the first time I experimented with this photo technique and
I have to say I was reasonably pleased with the outcome once I came
home last night and downloaded the images.
On my way back from the river I had an interesting encounter: I
drove by a barn and saw 2 horses grazing in the distance. They looked
up and noticed me, and as if on cue, two other horses came out of
the barn as well. They started approaching me, as I was standing
on the side of the road, behind a wire fence. All four horses came
trotting towards me. About half way from me they stopped in unison,
checked me out, then looked at each other, figured they had seen
all they needed to see, and trotted off in perfect coordination
again. It was a really comical cross-species encounter and I ended
up chuckling to myself when the horses disappeared again into the
barn.
These 4 beauties checked me out...
After my 2 hour mountain biking excursion I spent the rest of Sunday
exploring the island in my car and drove through rolling hills and
farm land. Upon my return to the camp ground I spread out a blanket
under a tree and did some open-air reading. All the other campers
were gone to either river raft or kayak, and the campground was
totally quiet, all you could hear were the crickets and an occasional
moo from a cow. It was serenity at its best. The other rafters and
kayakers came back in the afternoon and they all reported that they
had had a fabulous time at their respective water sports.
At about 4:30 we headed back out on the road and did a nice 5 hour
highly scenic drive through towns like Eganville and Bancroft that
are surrounded by rolling hills, lush green forests and ancient
rock faces, before we headed into the serene lake district of the
Kawartha Highlands. It was a perfect weekend - a combination of
adventure and relaxation under crystal blue skies, and it just taught
me how beautiful the back roads of Ontario can be.
Some samples of my close-up photography attempts
Related Articles:
Feeling
like a kid - attending the Outdoor Adventure show gave me the idea
for kayaking
My friend Leslie goes
and explores Antigua
Interview with Krista Scott:
Australian harvest worker and ESL teacher
Hello from the Ottawa River: Reflections
on city life
Hello from the Ottawa River: Mating
in the wild and other diversions
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