Frontenac Fly-By
Frontenac Fly-By Sept 7, 2022I took this picture while paddling furiously downstream trying to maximize distance travelled before the tide turned to flood.The Hotel Frontenac and the Citadel are two of Canada’s most iconic structures. Here is where the history of North America abruptly changed...
Pinned by Wind
Pinned by Wind Sept 5, 2022It has blown hard from the Northeast for two days straight. Sadly, I need to go Northeast. Sadder still is that the bridge spanning the St Lawrence at Quebec City is in clearly visible from where I took this...
Now You See Them - Now You Don’t
Now You See Them - Now You Don’t Sept 3, 2022 I am behind in writing about the trek. I am so tired at the end of each day it has become a struggle to make a meal. My mind...
The Bat Cave
The Bat Cave Aug 25th, 2022With Kai Nani squirrelled away at a marina in Hull, I needed a place to wait out the all-day rain forecast for the next 24 hours. My plan was to pitch a tent in a small park adjacent to...
A Capital Sprint
A Capital Sprint Aug 24, 2022The beginnings of Ottawa’s skyline dominate the far distance. Beneath the highrises, the beginnings of the Deschenes rapids turn the river to whitewater. Before it all, Kai Nani. I have sprinted here, hoping to take advantage of the weather, my...
Bains
Bains Aug 23, 2022 In the distance, dead-center is the dam at Portage du Fort. Just a few miles above this dam is another at Bryce. Dams, and the attendant portages around them, have been the bain of my existence since paddling up the Okanagan River some 5000...
Stand-up! Hook-up! Check Your Equipment! Winds, Zero! Green Light!
Stand-up! Hook-up! Check Your Equipment! Winds, Zero! Green Light! Aug 22 , 2022The start of my day at Rapides des Joachims. I hoped to make Petawawa, where, in a previous life, adventure consisted mostly of jumping out of...
Beauty
Beauty Aug 21, 2022It is too easy to imagine early Europeans pushing westward, ever westward, deep and deeper onto an uncharted wilderness in search of fame and glory no matter the risks to life and limb. It is an incomplete, convenient history.There is a beauty beyond...
Downhill 2
Downhill 2 Aug 20 2022 Beneath the bridge in the distance is Ottawa River. It is downhill from here, at the confluence of the Mattawa and Ottawa Rivers to the Atlantic Ocean. Technically, that’s been the case ever since getting on the Assiniboine in what seems a...
The Jump to Light Speed
The Jump to Light Speed Aug 16, 2022My arrival in Thunder Bay on August 16th was a full month behind my planned must-arrive-in-Thunder-Bay drop dead date. I was seriously late and the next stage of the trek, paddling Lake Superior, is not...