French River Fun

What a super weekend backcountry camping in French River Provincial Park with my hubby Jeff and a few of my faves - Viv, Kristy and Evan.  I have to admit, I was nervous going in!  My last experience canoe camping was when I was 10-12, for three summers in a row at Camp Pinecrest, forced on a 5 day, 4 night canoe trip where we paddled what felt like hundreds of kms, shoved 5 people into a 4 person tent (one person slept at the feet of the other girls) and were allowed to bring a stuff sack with a sleeping bag and one change of clothes to be used as a pillow.  There was a trowel involved, and dehydration occurred frequently.. there were leeches, and crazed raccoons rattling the walls of our tents at night, and one time we came up unexpectedly on some rapids and nearly went down them in our canoes - picture three screaming 10 year old girls trying to steer a canoe out of that situation.  These memories are burned deeply.. and as such I only started camping again when I was ~23 and since then only car camping where escape was easy and I could always bring a fluffy queen sized air mattress ;)  However.. as a lover of nature.. solitude.. campfires.. relaxing.. canoeing... it seemed that there might be a hole in my life that the rest of the world's been experiencing that I've been studiously ignoring.  I was still wigged out about rapids (fear made worse by being dunked/stuck under raft on Ottawa River last year!).. portaging (blame my crappy back).. sleeping on an airpad barely the width of me.. wearing filthy clothes.. no toilets... but I flung myself out of my comfort zone and down the French River (the very same river of 1993 rapids trauma) this August long weekend.  Luckily I had two very experienced and awesome guides - Kristy and Evan, backcountry campers extraordinaire, instructed to remake some memories for me, and my very strong hubby who is more like a mule or workhorse of some sort.. so I had a feeling all was going to be ok!

Mrs. & Cap'n Camping

My husband, the mule, frequently seen carrying 2 60L backpacks - one on front, one on back!

I just wanted to do a short replay about the weekend and why it was so lovely.  Short because I'm still super tired!  I had trouble falling asleep last night, perhaps missing my 18" wide self-inflating airpad and collapsible camping pillow filled with chunks of foam, or the sleeping bag cover filled with clothing I used as a body pillow :P  So I am still pooped today.. but happy pooped!

We paddled 10 km downstream on the French River out of (roughly) the Walmsley Bay area.  I say roughly because the lodge we booked with totally didn't write down Evan's reservation and therefore no canoes were waiting for us and all canoes were gone for the weekend.  The very German lodge owner in the jean shorts, bald spot/ponytail combo and apologetic smile told us "Harold made a boo boo" and offered us a motorboat instead.  I will never forget Kristy's face when she heard that suggestion - pure disgust!  Luckily Harold fixed the boo boo by setting us up with canoes at a lodge down the road, which was a relief.  He told the other lodge owner on the phone that he was sending down "Evan Uge" - she promptly asked when we arrived: "how do you spell your last name, Evan??"  "It's Hughes...". (amazing)

We portaged around three sets of rapids - each one reminding me of my childhood fear of the feeling of the river pulling me down.  Jeff and Evan braved the second set in their canoes - first canoe down: success!  Second canoe down:

Viv yelled to Evan: "are you alright?" and he yelled "noooooooo!!!" as his sunglasses began to float away from him.  He realized later it was a misleading answer (they were fine minus some scratches) and he luckily managed to snatch his shades out of the water before they were lost forever!

We scored gold with only the second campsite we checked out - on a point of land around a bend in the river, with not another soul on it (even though there was another campsite around the back side!  we basically had a double wide site) and the nicest view in probably the entire world! :)

We set up camp and ate gourmet meals (check out this salmon fanciness below!), read, relaxed and shared drinks and laughs around the campfire.

The weather was super cooperative Saturday, Sunday morning and Monday, with just a snag on Sunday when it rained on and off through the afternoon and evening.  We passed the time under ponchos and our (mostly) trusty tarp, drinking baileys and hot chocolate, and watching 2 beavers feed and rest on the shore near our site.  No bears ate our food, or us.  No one killed themselves playing in the rapids at the back of our site on Sunday (I wimped out from going down.. figured why potentially ruin a good thing! :)).  We all fell in the water while completing benign tasks like washing dishes or our faces, including Muggins who is a dog, at least 1-2 times after it rained and the lichens absorbed the rainwater and made everything quite treacherous.  We swam, skinny dipped, read good (everyone else) and trashy (me.. Dan Brown :)) novels, napped, shared our hatred for mispronounced words like "warsh" instead of "wash" and "malk" instead of "milk". We reminisced over ridiculous memories from our 10+ years of friendship, talked about our theories on life, politics, got super politically incorrect for an irretrievable 20ish minutes that I'm STILL laughing about, and ate a LOT of food. Every time there was a slight relent in feeling full, I'd reach for something else to eat. Nice job on the food Cap'n and Mrs. Camping!!!

The sun blazed out just in time for our departure on Monday morning and we paddled back under perfect skies with puffy clouds.

Overall, backcountry camping has been redeemed!  I perhaps took Evan's suggestion to pack lightly a little too seriously (all my wordly possessions in my field backpack - 30L) and may bring a few more creature comforts along next time.  My bum was definitely sore from sitting on lifejackets, bare granite or a wooden bench that Evan carved to the perfect slope which I promptly sat on and split in half.  He tried to make me feel better by reminding me that the wood was rotten and full of termites and grubs.. I appreciate the effort.  So next time - a seat pad, a hammock.. and possibly an investment in a proper thermarest and maybe ONE extra inflatable pillow.  Other than that, it was essentially outdoor, silent, solitude, gorgeous Canadian Shield and White Pine paradise, with canoeing, swimming, reading, napping and nonstop eating and laughing all thrown in for good measure!

The wildlife was amazing too - a mink swam past our canoe and shot a dirty look back at us, we watched beavers living their beavery life, saw a bald eagle soaring over the treetops, a family of waddling mergansers scurrying off a rock and woke up to the sounds of "oh sweet canada canada canada" from a white-throated sparrow each morning, and ended the day to the flutey call of a thrush at night.

I don't quite know why it took me so long to get back out there.. but I can't wait to do it again!

3 man canoe! Jeff, Kristyn, Viv

Homeward bound - Kristy and Kristyn

Fresh clothes and hot lunch at the lodge that saved the day with spare canoes!