Barron River Canyon trip.
This week, we finally made a trip up the the Barron River in Algonquin Park. The river runs through a high, narrow canyon in the eastern part of the park.
The canyon walls are approx. 100 metres high and are very rugged, with large masses of rock sheared away from them in places. It's no Grand Canyon, of course, but it is a beautiful example of the kind of rock and forest that we have up here in Canadian Shield type country.
The trip took about 5 hours to complete. We paddled upstream at an easy pace for 3 hours and then did the return in 2. There is a 420 metre portage over some rocky up-and-down terrain, but it's easily manageable. We saw the usual river inhabitants such as the Great Blue Herons and Eastern Painted Turtles as well as some very persistent chipmunks that came up to the bow of our canoe while we were pulled up alongside a small rocky island. From their behaviour, I would say that they are accustomed to receiving hand-outs from paddlers. As soon as we pushed off, the chipmunks immediately swam across the little channel to the canyon shoreline. Lots of beaver activity along the edge of the river through the canyon, but no large lodges. I would think that the water volume going through the canyon in the springtime must wash away a lot of their construction each year.
All in all, it was a wonderful trip. Also had a very good trip earlier in the week. It was to a lake about an hour's drive west of us. The place is called Rock Lake, and with good reason. Some very distinctive rock formations (granite and marble) rising up from the water and weathered into the most interesting shapes along the waterline at the base of each massive exposure. While collecting mussel shells (for a biologist friend who studies them) from a muskrat den in one of these tunnels beneath the rock, a rather large and aggressive watersnake came out of the next opening. I didn't stick around to contest its territory as these snakes tend to have a pugnacious attitude which isn't worth tangling with. I've seen them grab at a stick and refuse to release it, so I wasn't in any hurry to see if it might do the same thing to my leg. As it was, the snake followed me back to the canoe and stuck around to watch for a few seconds before swimming off across the lake. We met another like it later in the day. It swam right up beside the canoe with its head held well out of the water, then departed. They are surprisingly curious rather than nervous. One nice things about these snakes is that we don't have to be concerned about any of them being venomous. In this part of Canada, there are only a couple of venomous snakes, and both have extremely small ranges which are far from here.
Was out paddling again yesterday and have 2 or 3 trips planned for the coming week depending on the weather. The strength in my shoulder is coming back quickly, so I'm trying to take advantage of any good weather that we get before winter closes in. |
