Despite being on call all weekend (I was the only one in my company in town) I decided on Sunday that the weather was far too nice not to go out and get my boat wet. It was a good decision, and luckily this time no poop hit the fan and no one called me about an emergency, so I was happy I could enjoy my day.
The plan was to put my boat in at Lake William, the fourth lake in the Shubie Canal system, a series of lakes and canals that span the entire width of my province. I'd paddle through about 1/3 of the way through Lake William, then a short length of canal to Lake Thomas, cross that then another, longer section of canal to Lake Fletcher, then another length of canal to Grand Lake where I would meet up with my friend Frank who was fishing. From there we'd load up both boats and come home.
Lake William went without a hitch and since the water level was relatively high I only scraped two rocks shooting the rapids into the canal- a new record for me! Of course Lake William ends in some small rapids that I thought I'd shoot without a serious problem, and while I did manage it (never shoot rapids in a sea kayak if you can avoid it), I did also get hung up and one point, where my boat was turned sideways by the current (very dangerous) and I almost rolled, which is extremely hazardous in a place like that where the water is 6-8 inches deep and very rocky. If I tipped there wouldn't be enough water to slow my fall and I'd hit the rocks breaking an arm, wrist, ribs etc- or crack my skull. I did take on some water, but I managed to get myself out of there safely.
The canal into Lake Thomas is pretty short once you pass the rapids- maybe a couple hundred yards at most and I was out into open lake again. Knowing that Frank is at the other end waiting for me I was using my shorter, broad bladed paddles which allow for more aggressive paddling, and while I wasn't going full out, I was digging in pretty hard. That is until
SNAP- one of the blades on my paddle snapped off and I almost lost my balance and went into the drink!
Luckily I had a spare set of paddles with me- now that I have multiple sets I always bring a spare set. I've seen a lot of broken blades floating aimlessly in the weeds over the years and always thought that could be me. Well, this time it was, although I flailed around with a single ended paddle to recover the snapped off blade both so I wouldn't be littering in the lake and also because I wanted to see if I could fix it.
Of course this left me with my longer paddles which are less fatiguing but a lot less efficient and a lot slower. So, I decided since I was going slower I'd pull out my fishing rod and dangle a line in the lake as I go- I still go a bit too fast for fishing, but since I really have no interest in catching anything I thought what the heck!
Well, my fishing rod was the second problem of the day. While I had stopped a little while later to open the Gatorade I'd brought the wind shifted my boat around and my line got tangled in the stern of my boat, unreachable by me on the water. Since it was tangled up, there was really no way to take the rod down either, so I had to paddle for a while with my rod sticking straight up and my line hooked on the back of my own boat.
Finally I got all the way across both halves of Lake Thomas (it's split because a highway runs through the middle of it) and found my way into the next length of canal where I had to portage a few times after bottoming out a few times. Of course I wasn't truly portaging since there was no decent trails on either side of the canals, but instead a number of people's houses, so I did the next best thing- I walked through the rapids using my paddle as a walking stick and holding my boat as the current tries to rip it from my hands. This is the part where I broke my paddle leash, the telephone cord type thing that ties my paddle to the boat so they don't separate. It's designed for very little pressure, since it's usually only for when you drop your paddle, and not trying to hold a boat in the rapids.
After a couple of different portages in water that varied from ankle to hip deep, and one spot where I slipped and sat down, luckily hitting the bottom with mine before my head went under, I was out onto Lake Fletcher. Lake Fletcher is actually about 15-20 feet below Lake Thomas and there's some very nasty rapids to get into it- these rapids are so bad that I worried about the safety of my boat even without me in it since it was hitting the rocks pretty hard. I've shot these rapids in this boat before, but decided that after surviving once, I don't need to prove I can do it again. If I'd had a plastic boat I'd have probably done it just for the heck of it, but when water drops about 20 feet over a period of about 75-100 feet it can get pretty nasty and fiberglass isn't terribly resistive to rocks. The water was actually running so fast that it was very difficult to put my feet down and almost impossible to put the paddle in as the blade is always being swept in some direction or another in the churning water. Interestingly enough, there is now a nice dock just beside where these rapids start and a nice path leading most of the way to the end. However, the path ends about twenty feet short and about 8 feet too high. I didn't relish the thought of trying to drag my boat over an 8 foot cliff just to have to walk through the last 20 feet of rapids when I could just as painfully walk the whole bloody thing.
So, out onto Lake Fletcher I go after barely surviving the
walk down the rapids. Fletcher is a nice little lake with really no access to it unless you either own a house on it or you come down the rapids like I did. Because of that there's rarely any boat traffic on it, so it was a nice, peaceful paddle- at least until the third casualty, this time my finger. I don't remember what I was doing but I ended up slicing my fingertip open on the jagged fiberglass of my split paddle. Its not a bad cut, but it's the type that rips off several layers of skin all the way around the cut, exposing the billions of nerve endings in a fingertip. Even a day and a half later it hurts like hell and I'm glad I don't type properly because I'd probably be using it a lot more than I do, and I'm already stopping writing this every now and then to wince after hitting a key wrong!
Luckily Fletcher isn't that big and I was soon on the other end of it, facing another section of canal. This is a beautiful, calm section of canal, but is unfortunately quite shallow in a few spots and I found myself portaging (walking) again a couple of times. There's a couple of amusing parts in this canal where the bottom is like a sine wave- it comes up to just a couple of inches below the surface of the water then sinks back down until it's knee or even hip deep before coming back up again to ankle deep. In 30C weather with the sun beating down on you though you really don't mind being wet!
I shot what I thought were some minor rapids in this section, and things were going well at first. Then I bottomed out on a rock where the current was pretty strong. Before I could free myself I was sideways again and the alarm bells were going off in my head as the current was much stronger here than earlier. I managed to get myself off that rock only to start moving sideways until my bow caught another rock. Luckily I didn't flip, but my stern kept shifting until I was facing upstream and finished the rapids backwards. I really don't know which part of that was the most dangerous- shooting rapids in a fiberglass sea kayak, catching the first rock and almost flipping, getting of the rock and doing rapids sideways, catching another rock and almost flipping again, or going the rest of the way backwards, where you can't see any hazards coming up. Another stupid move....
Fortunately there was only one more rough patch before getting into Grand Lake and close to the end of the line, and I had the good sense to walk my boat through there, although truth be told I really didn't have the choice- I would have bottomed out repeatedly and couldn't have made it through.
After having sat down in the river earlier I had taken my shirt and pfd off, and both were slowly drying in the sun on the bow of my boat. Being prudent I made sure to spray a generous amount of sunblock all over my back, shoulders arms, legs and neck, especially on the spots that got wet and it would have washed off. I usually get pretty bad sunburns in the summer because I often don't think about sunblock- I know, another stupid move, but this time I was more careful and I sprayed myself several times to make sure I got all of me because the sun was very hot that day!
As I got out onto Grand Lake the wind started to pick up and before I knew it I was dealing with some decent whitecaps. Nothing I can't handle, and I've been in much worse, but I'm not dumb enough to take my chances with them- they were almost swamping my boat, and while my boat is designed for waves, that's no reason to get complacent, so I quickly put my pfd back on. I continued paddling, knowing Frank wasn't likely to be too far off, but the wind and waves were also picking up and threatening to smash lil old me and my boat into the rocks near the shoreline. Finally I located Frank, and I have to say, I don't think I've ever been as happy to see him as I was then!
He was headed back towards the parking lot as he felt the water was getting a bit too rough for his pontoon boat! His little motor was put putting him towards me, so I circled around him and we headed for the shore where he was parked, back the way I'd just come!
As we were packing the boats up I noticed my shoulder starting to get a bit tight, but it wasn't until I got home that I realized that my attempts to spray sunblock all over me weren't entirely successful and not I have a nasty red patch around my right shoulder blade that seems to be getting more painful as time goes by!
I know it's been a bit of a long story but it was a great day and I had an excellent time. I just wish I'd taken more time to take photos to share with you all. In the end I'd broken a paddle and paddle leash, cut open my finger, burned my back, portaged (walked) four or five times, shot several rapids, survived a few dumb mistakes (fortunately I have lots of experience in surviving my dumb mistakes!) and covered 16kms across four lakes and three canals, all in about three hours.
Mike Horn may not feel threatened by my adventures, but I sure had a great time!
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