Jennifro

KAYAK CANADA

How many of you are sick of the lazy sign?

Time to take matters into my own hands.... so...here's another adventurous post from Jennifro's main sqeeze.

10 of us loaded into a van and set out for Canada. But before we left, since some of our wives never let us have time to kayak and we felt unprepared for the big water, my brother Alex and I took some of the gang to Great Falls on the Potomac river. This was a great warm up but was especially fun to take our nephews (Eric and Jamie) down the short but steep run for their first time...

Eric after the first drop

Jamie on the last drop!

Our first day in Canada was the Rouge river which ended with 7 drops called the seven sisters. Above is Alex on the 3rd drop. Below is in between the 2nd and 3rd drop

So with drops 1 -2 and three 3 we decided to go ahead with #4.

Below is me on my way to China!

Luckily it was not a one way trip! I ended up being held up on some rocks underwater for a spell, I ended up swimming out with some bumps and bruises that hindered me for the rest of the trip. But it was a fun river. We scouted drops 5 and 6 and said "no way"but jumped on the 7th.

Our next river was the Ottawa. The pics above was on the first rapid and it only got better... There are 2 sections and we hit them both in one day. Below is a rapid called Dragons Tongue, intimidating to look at but fairly straight forward to paddle - right down the green tongue!

Driving back to our campsite after a day on the Ottawa, the rear axle slid out of the van!! But a nice farmer let us camp out on his property, brought us firewood, turned on hot water in his guest house which was a old converted turn of the century schoolhouse. The next day he invited us for a BBQ and even had a birthday cake for Eric. We were in heaven!! I am on the motorbike we bought in Vermont to run shuttle at the rivers.

No van, no problems. Surely there would be someone to pick up 9 rowdy guys with 9 kayaks and gear. We just had to sit on the road with our thumbs out. I stayed back to fix the axle. That was a story in and of itself. But there is one Mennonite farmer in Canada who may be real Macgyver (sp?). With no parts, we were able to make it work with a hacksaw, grinder and file.
Eric watches as Alex shows the line on the Nielson

Below I am on one of our favorite rivers the Gatineau

It was an adventurous trip, one we will be talking about for years and years to come. Getting lost with TomTom, crashing a red bull party and finding Alex and Eric in sumo suits killing each other at 3am! Trailer tire blues and Eric finding a new Mom to replace my sister. Any one want in next year?

OK Jennifro, you're up!