Nothing could be better! We waited for our camping neighbours to leave, and then we started our day with our cruise down Wavy Rapids. Like tango dancers, the canoes hop from one wave to the next. Shouts and laughter are heard over the rumble of the waters as our canoes fight the rapids. A small drizzle was falling, but that didn’t matter as we were totally drenched after the first 200 metres. And it was hot: probably in the 28-30 degree range. We took this opportunity to practice our navigation exercises, namely the “Ferry Technique” which requires you to cross the river from one shore to the other along an imaginary line without going downstream. This was too much for Francis and Michel who capsized following a bold manoeuvre…
Then we loaded the canoes, the rain stopped and we left shortly before 11 a.m. The cloud cover is a welcome change from the heavy sun we’ve been experiencing since we arrived in Northern Ontario. After a good seven kilometres on calm water, we came to Greenhill Rapids, known as the Canoe graveyard… This is a series of Class 1 to 3 rapids, full of rocks that could destroy of frail skiffs if we’re not careful. Again, it’s portage time. And no mean portage at that! From loamy sludge, through swampy low-grounds, full of mosquitoes taking advantage of the fact our hands are busy carrying our baggage, to more mud, upslope, downslope, fallen trees, still more mud, another downslope, we travel over 1.4 kilometres. Ouch! Not to mention the return trips because of the quantity of baggage (including the generator and the petrol tank required by the production of this blog…) Our local guide estimated we’d need some 3.5 to 4 hours to portage everything. We proved him wrong and did it in less than 2.5 hours! Congratulations to all for doing as many trips as their personal condition would allow!
And we continue down river towards Calf Rapids, a 650-metre Class 1 that we navigate without a hitch before coming to St.Peter’s Rapids where we had planned to spend the night. We decided to portage this rather narrow Class 2, as this is a short portage – less than 100 metres – that will lead us to our destination. All in all, we navigated 14 km downstream today, including the dangerous Greenhill portage.
In the evening, we take advantage of the absence of mosquitoes to set up camp and have a leisurely supper, lulled by the sweet sound of the waters, firmly seated in a mixture of sand and warm stones. Indeed, that’s what a day of canoeing should be like.