May Daze
FLOATER’S BLOG: Rapid Date, June 1st 2025
Well, I missed my monthly rant. In fact, I’m still recovering.
“Oh no, poor Corliss, what happened,” you ask?
My almost annual wilderness canoe trip with ‘the boys’ happened!
I’m not sure why we always go in May because you can be sure not every year will have pleasant temperatures, and most years will have nasty swarms of mosquitoes and black flies. The one thing you can count on is there won’t be a lot of other people out there with you and 2025 was no exception as we didn’t see anybody else for five days of paddling from past our launch point to our pull-out location.
Another thing about this time of year is there is no chance of an enjoyable hot sunny day beer float. Guess I’ll have to save that for July and August here in the northern climes, although I suppose if we were base camping beside a set of rapids, I would contemplate bringing a rugged float for some white water runs with my wet suit on.
In any case, this year we took on a more challenging route, the white water of the Petawawa River in the north-west sector of Algonquin Park in Ontario. The weather sucked but it could have been worse. We had a lot of drizzle, and it was pretty chilly but in Toronto they had down pours with flood warnings. Nevertheless, with a lot of spring rain the river was running high, turning Class 1 rapids into Class 2, and Class 2 into Class 3, etc. With our experience level, the cold-water temperatures and our fully laden boats we were never going to run anything above a 3 and even avoid those sections that were upstream of even bigger rapids – safety first.
You don’t want your trip to end as it has for others as displayed along the route by the remnants of their no longer seaworthy vessels.
Even sections that would normally be quite calm had strong currents and the ‘swifts’ could turn your canoe around quickly if you weren’t paying attention. All this adds up to a lot of portaging - and geez - these were some rugged portages!
So, between all the toting of packs, barrels and heavy white-water canoes and the strain of using muscles which only seem to be used when attempting paddle strokes while navigating through white water I have an exhausted body and a pectoral strain which only hurts when I breathe.
Even so we did get to paddle a lot of white water which I haven’t had the chance to do for a few years so that was definitely a blast!
I’m also happy to say my paddle partner and I were able to keep our craft upright for the duration although we did have to do some bailing whenever we took on water passing through large standing waves. This is unavoidable when you are carrying 4 nights worth of camping gear.
Some of the less experienced paddlers went for a couple of swims which would require a little more extensive recovery time including some mid-river or rapid-side bailing.
Luckily, we all made it to camp each night, none the worse for wear although assuredly cold and wet. Here, we all work together to rapidly erect a tarp and clothes lines and get a fire started. Going early in the season means there should be plenty of dead-fall wood available via foraging, but multiple days of rain means finding dry wood is not likely. Nonetheless, we would get one going with some Firestarter from our kits and then start piling the wet wood around the outside to start drying it before we put it in otherwise, we would drown out what we worked so hard to get started.
Next is setting up our two-man tents and getting a propane lantern going inside each to dry and warm the interior before laying out our gear. One night we were able to use a Ranger Cabin which had a wood stove and a full load of dry wood. We felt spoiled because we were able to throw up clothes lines across every available span to dry out all our wet gear form the previous days of rainy paddling and river dumps.
So, I mentioned I was recovering. Well, its not just the physical toll of paddling and portaging, these annual forays into the wild include a fair share of campfire recreational activities. At each camp site a large bag of wine is hung up for all to share and cans of beers are produced from the bottom of everybody’s packs and barrels – so that’s why they are so heavy! A couple of years ago I finally stopped toting beer and went to the liquor is quicker technique of easing my aches with a personal supply of Bowmore Scottish whiskey (but don’t tell anyone). And then there is the herbal refreshments – thus the haze.
The last day on the water is planned as just a short paddle to get back to our pull-out site and get on with the logistics of shuttling back to our launch location and then the commute home for each of us which means many hours of driving. It was a little late, but we finally saw some blue sky and the temperature warmed up a bit. Spirits were lifted as in, “Thank f’ing Christ, we finally made it!”
As I ache through this writing and swear, I am getting too old and will never do it again, I know my memory will fail me in about 340 days and I will be back out on the water to enjoy another canoe float.
Paddle on, Corliss
beer float.calm = beerfloat.net not beerfloat.com
