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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.