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Pastimes : Canoes, Hiking, the Great Outdoors -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Dayuhan who wrote (213)	8/20/2001 10:56:15 AM
From: Crocodile	Respond to of 325

Hi steve, We've been having the oddest weather here this summer. Weeks of high temperatures in the 90s and virtually no rain until yesterday. The damage to the creeks and rivers has been extraordinary in places. I'm hoping that the various wildlife habitats will be able to recover once we get some precipitation. I've been photographing the scene for my own records to see what happens in the next year or two. I often think about the turtles and how lucky ours have been to be overlooked as a human food source... at least, thus far. By far, the biggest threat to the turtles up here are the roads and traffic. As more and more development takes place, the marshes are being divided by road systems and the turtles get killed, literally by the dozens in some places, as they try to cross to get to their nesting areas. I just about always try to stop to move turtles across the road when I see one out on the pavement. Unfortunately, a lot of them have already been damaged or killed by the time I happen along. Lately, I've noticed that other people are making a point of stopping to move the turtles too, so that's good to see. We were just out scouting for new put-ins on the weekend and have found a couple of long, narrow lakes with a lot of high granite islands scattered along the length. These are often forested with spruce, cedar, or pine. Very typical rugged landscape in our part of Ontario. I think you'll know what I mean as the terrain is similar to some of lakes in the Adirondacks. I'm hoping to spend a lot of time out on the water this autumn. Quite a few friends have asked to come along for daytrips, so I think I'll be able to get out quite a bit. Would really enjoy hearing any reports from your own paddling trips over the next while. Always sounds like such a wonderful place for paddling...but then, all rivers and coasts seem that way to me... different, but always fascinating in their own way.

To: Dayuhan who wrote (213)	8/26/2001 8:44:49 AM
From: Crocodile	Respond to of 325

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.