Wilderness Traverse paddle and portage course test with Bob in the Parry Sound area.
Normally we do most of our course testing in the fall and early spring but this year things didn't come together. We discussed the course design last fall, then Bob returned from ARWC in France with a bug that just wouldn't go away. We planned and cancelled course tests while he gradually recovered, and then the snow came. Spring arrived with heavy rains and crazy flooding. Aside from whatever risks or unpleasantness we might encounter, the race course wouldn't resemble anything close to mid-August conditions - so we waited. Then Bob went to Expedition Africa in May so - lucky us - we are testing the course in prime bug season.
We started out with a grey sky that slowly transitioned to light rain later in the day. It rained quite heavily for the last few hours. We encountered lots of bugs, deer and turtles. I was only fast enough to grab a photo of a turtle. She had just laid her eggs.
We didn't see anyone from the time we started paddling until we reached our finish point almost 8 hours later. In between, we enjoyed beautiful Canadian Shield scenery.
We are so lucky to live in Ontario where we have easy access to endless lakes, rivers, rocks and forest. There aren't many places in the world where we could just grab a canoe and set out for 36 km without knowing much about water levels or portage trails along our route. Today we honestly weren't sure whether our route was possible. We'd chatted with locals and looked up some MNR info but really, we just had to go explore it. This is my favourite kind of course testing - lots of paddling and portaging combined with a little bit of mystery. Bob was confident we'd get out in time for dinner but I packed my good headlamp with fresh batteries, just in case.
We paddled lakes, wetlands and rivers.
There was some portaging too - rarely on a trail as nice as this. In fact, this was the wrong trail. Oops.
More portaging. I would have offered to carry the 65 lb canoe but it was more important that I take photos.
"Are we there yet? I can't see from under the canoe."
"Sure - almost there, Bob." (NOT.)
Some of our portages were necessary because we came upon fallen trees or rapids a little bigger than we wanted to paddle.
In the more exploratory portions of our route, we did a lot of canoe-whacking where no portage trails existed. Cool.
We saw some interesting sights along the way.
As the rain pelted down at 7:30 p.m. and we still had a good distance to paddle, we were happy to stumble upon a cabin with a covered porch where we could add layers and put on our rain gear at last. Until this point, it had been warm enough that we hadn't minded being wet but now I was getting chilled. In case you're wondering, yes, Bob is texting while course testing - and no, this isn't permitted in the race itself. :)
Around 8:45 p.m., I wanted to open the dry bag to get out my headlamp but Bob wanted me to wait because he was convinced we could finish in daylight. It was already quite dim because of the rainy skies but when we pulled ashore at 9:13 p.m., we still had a few minutes of daylight left. (Like maybe *5* minutes!) Fun day!! :)
Much of our journey today will be included in Wilderness Traverse but not all. Some of the exploratory sections were very tough going so we've altered our plan to make the paddle less canoe-whacky. Lucky racers!