Modem burner now....
The start of the event was marked by this sign, which you weren't likely to spot unless you were already in the right place, so other than the event planner tooting his own horn, there was really no point to it.
The event was $45/person, and for that we got to enjoy these wonderful toques. Right. Hats designed to keep your head warm while being active in temperatures over 20 degrees Celsius. That was wonderfully thought out.
On the up side, you can see my Boker Canoe Kayak knife and Megan's CRKT Neckolas were ready for anything that the river could throw at us!
There were a lot of boats there though:
You can see Megan's orange/yellow boat in between the guy in black and the woman in blue bent over and my pink and white one next to it in the above photo, and my pink one right behind the woman in the purple top in the photo below.
The first part of the adventure was getting boats down the dock.
It doesn't really look like much in photos, but it was much steeper than it looks, especially when taking boats and gear down it. There were no treads or anything on it, and it was kind of slick with mud and sand.
Needless to say, Megan wasn't going to be intimidated by a mere dock and we continued to make our preparations while I sharpened my Battle Paddle.
We were also a bit concerned when the Red Cross safety demonstration ended up with one of the Red Cross volunteers in the water.
They claimed it was planned, but I have my doubts.
Soon we were on our way, with no idea what was coming. All seemed fine at the start.
We turned a corner and ended up facing into a major headwind, which put an almost instant damper on the day. You can see from the below series of photos how choppy the water was from the get go. These were all taken in a few seconds, and if you look closely at the various positions of the boat in the water you can see how unpleasant it was.
There were much worse spots, but that was the only one I felt reasonably safe enough in to try and get photos. There were some very difficult spots, crafted not just by the river, but also by the tides which force water back up into the river.
In between fighting wind and waves we did get to enjoy some scenery- these little caves for example were really neat.
I was fascinated by the various levels of rock striations and erosion. It really was fascinating, although there wasn't really much opportunity to look closely as the river was taking no prisoners.
Still, it was a beautiful place to paddle, and we couldn't stop ourselves from looking around, especially during some of the short breaks in wind and rapids.
The rock faces were different almost every bend we went around. It would be fascinating to be a geologist or archeologist around here I'll bet.
This was a major trade route for the Aboriginal people before the Europeans came, and I'm sure there's of stories in the rocks that predate them as well.
Still, I was not prepared to see a house in the woods with a cannon in the yard. I want a cannon in my yard now....
Further along there was a nice comparison of old and new. The new bridge is a modern highway with the average car flying along at around 70mph. The old bridge beside it fascinated me, as I think of the effort involved with only rudimentary (by modern standards anyway)tools, no power tools etc.
The old bridge supports kind of remind me of a background from Mad Max.
And then some more beautiful rock formations.
After that we started to encounter some major sand bars. Some spots were too shallow for even for boats with three inch drafts, and we ended up having to get out and walk, dragging boats in the soft sand behind us. We were not amused, although in hindsight, the walk felt great after being cooped up in the boats for so many hours.
Luckily, once we passed the last sand bar we were only a couple of hundred yards from the end point, so we made for it as quickly as possible. We then loaded up the boats, which was also very agonizing and headed home. Below are photos of the welt on my back- perhaps the most visible injury of the day, and caused by rubbing up against the seat of my boat. If you are squeamish, I don't suggest you look. It's not that gruesome, but consider yourself warned.
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It's still pretty tender today, but the inflammation and pain has come down enough that I am now able to feel some of the other injuries.
So there you have it- it was a great run, and longer than either of us have ever done before. We also didn't stop the entire time. Five straight hours of paddling into the wind and waves and we lived to tell the tale.
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