Alumette Island

We made it to Stonecliffe and Driftwood provincial park after paddling much of the day. The Ottawa River is a much wider river than the others. We met a father and son canoeing from Montreal since 2003....doing a part each year....hoping to get to the Sault in the next 2 years. They gave us good advice for the 2.5 km portage tomorrow in Des Joachim. It's the longest they said but not the toughest.

Chenal de la Culbute

We left our comfortable abode at the Kelly's in Deep River and have set
up camp on a beach in the Chenal de la Culbute. It's a beautiful spot
surrounded by cottages and historic isolated farms on Quebec's
Allumette Island. We safely negotiated the initial rapids...mainly through
portage and line drifting the canoe. We ran into some help along the way
near Chalk River from Dan and company and had them sign the paddle...
See photo...

The Ottawa River

We paddled from Stonecliffe to Deep River, stopping at Swisha for the long portage around the dam. We did the 2.5-3km walk along a gravel road then down the paved "rue principale" of Des Joachim (the official name of the place before it was anglised by the seemingly English speaking majority of this tiny Quebec border town of, I'm estimating, 200 people. After carrying our bags and equipment then stopping for lunch to eat lots and lighten our load, we walked back to pick up the canoe. We had covered about 300m of the trek when a kind......very kind ..."semaritan" with a pick up, drove us the rest of the way, saving us a lot of trouble and surely anger towards the canoe at the end of it all. Once loaded, we paddled a short distance to fill our empty (for portage reasons) water bottles next to a nice alluvial beach. We continued the day, passing nice cottages/homes on the Ontario side of the river, in contrast to the vast green wilderness that existed above the dam. The Quebec side of the river is still undeveloped without a road. Since we didn't see any islands or areas on the Ontario bank, we set our sites for beach area on the eastern side. The beach was beautiful and being used by residents of Deep River from the opposite shore. The water was as flat as glass with an incredible reflection from the late day sun and there were people who took interest in our trip which to this point has been limited due to the remotness of the route and the amount of time we spent on the water. The family using the site as a waterskiing base invited us to stay with them and after consulting, we happily accepted. The picture is of one of the Swisha dams...it may not be too visible since this is the dam, we were told, to stay away from. This grey, windy morning background is in contrast to the sunny, calm afternoon...someone must have been thinking "flat water" for us.. :-)

Don't forget that there are more photos at this site..
http://s186.photobucket.com/albums/x219/soo2ottawa/

We're in Mattawa!!!! Yeah.....Just had breakfast at the local souvenir store/

restaurant overlooking the Ottawa River and train bridge. We had a long 16 hour (only officially 14 hours of daylight) paddle and portaging day yesterday and ended up camping on the lawn of a kind woman when we arrived after dark. We're going to try to see if we can supplement our maps with more detailed Ottawa River information before we head out later this morning.

People we meet....

Special thanks goes out to Gary Davison of world record muskie fame (he's the brother and was driving the boat) http://www.driftertackle.com/news/11_06.php who drove us with our equipment from the Marina to the Voyageur Inn. As well, thanks to Natalie who offered backup portage assistance. Thanks Dave Burns and Ivan Ryman for helping with the NB Portage.

Day 14

We just finished the steep Jean Talon Portage on the Mattawa River. We were told by a couple of hikers that the cliff was the scene for a Molson Canadian commercial. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQr_e8AaHME&mode=related&search The weather's supposed to be 30c tomorrow....nice....

The 425 Mile Diet

Horse Food and Dog food and an occasional meal in the civilised world, thats what we would like to call it. Basically, our diet consists of prepackaged rice / pasta meals and then we add a bit of essentials to it - cheese, tuna, vegetables or pepperets. Otherwise we survive on nuts, power bars, peanut butter and banana sandwiches for Ross and cheese and brushetta sandwiches pour moi. Lot of water - We've noticed that we tend to drink a lot more water if the drinks aren't juices. I guess juices keep us less thirsty for longer. 10 to 12 hour minimum days in the sun have taken a toll on our skin though.......Lot of weight lost between the both of us and I guess even though it takes a lot of muscle to paddle, in the end the journey is similar to an endurance sport. I think I can comfortably say I've lost 10 to 15 lbs, but I would eventually like to put it back on.

Campsite 301

September 5 - We awoke at 3:56am to a pterodactyl http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pterodactyl making a menacing noise and coming straight for us and the tent - we survived and left that strange campsite early (Campsite 301) ... Please advise others about Campsite 301. As we were leaving we saw a bear 15 metres from us. We also heard very strange sounds throughout the night. The same day we pushed for North Bay and got there at 8:18 p.m. after paddling for a 14 hour stretch....we were totally pooched. Ahh, North Bay with a bed and flush toilets. It's strange living in a civilised world....We got help from my buddies in North Bay to portage 5 miles through city. We plan to leave at 5 p.m. for Camp Island then head for Trout Lake - Mattawa river and the Ottawa River. ETA in Ottawa...the 15th....of September!

Sault This Week

Hey...we're in the news... :-)

http://www.saultthisweek.com/webapp/sitepages/search/results.asp?contentid=671546&catname=Sault%20News&type=search&search1=ship

North Bay

Day 12.....We made it to North Bay after the 600m portage from the Lower French and the calm crossing of Nippising. We woke up early at dawn and after loading the canoe and setting off we saw a cute and cuddly black bear 20m across the river from our campsite. Ben took a few photos while we negotiated the current of craddle rapids ensuring not to get to close to the wildlife....
Soon afterwards Ben saw a river otter swim under the canoe. We saw eagles and were entertained by a group of loons on the upper part of the French River. Once arrived in North Bay, we rented a slip at the marina for our yacht and took up residence in our first bed in a long time at the Voyageur Inn. Yes, Voyageur Inn.

"Rapidly" Approaching North Bay

We paddled hard today and took a break for a late lunch along the river. There's lots of river traffic including aluminum boats with outboard motors and people fishing for walleye. We pulled the canoe up 5 rapids to avoid the portages. Tomorrow there's another small rapid before a 600m portage around the dam that controls the level of Lake Nippissing. A day and a half more and were in North Bay.

September 2/07

We're finally back in Rogers range for e-mailing. The wind is at our backs as we're paddling up the French River nearing hwy 69. Here's a pic of Ben sussing out the rapid we need to climb.

We're doing fine. It's a nice, sunny day. We went swimming to get clean and did some laundry. Our clothes needed maintenace after a few day of raininess and little sunlight hours in which to dry. Ben bought potato wedges and chicken for lunch from the grocery store and it lasted for dinner at the random camping island along the way where this photo was taken.

August 31/07

Successfully crossed Lake Huron and are in Killarney. We'll be heading for the mouth of the French River tomorrow but probably won't make it there until Sunday. Ben has succeeded in finding french fries for dinner.

Day 6 and 7

There's nothing much to report, except that we're covering fair distance whenever we have great weather.

Day 6 - Today we started at 6 a.m. and paddled all the way to an Island 10 kms from Benjamin island. We paddled for about 12 hours in total.

Day 7 - It's a little after 2pm and we're sitting in an internet cafe in Little Current. We hope to head to Killarney or an island close to Killarney today.

Eating to live....

Ross trying to swallow meatballs from my gourmet cooking, except that the meatballs weren't even meat so to speak....more like Macdonalds processed meat...if you know what I mean...