The 32nd/24th Scouts returned to La Vérendrye for this year's summer canoe trip. We combined circuits 10 and 11 to make up the perfect distance for 5 days of paddling and 4 nights of camping.
Our group was comprised of 11 Scouts and 1 almost-Scout, plus 6 adults. We used 8 canoes in all, so 2 canoes had 3 people, and the rest had 2.
I took no pictures at all, but you can see Scouter Alan's pictures are here, and Dave's are here.
Here's the overall route, with individual days described further below. Note that you can click on the menu icon on the left just below each map's title or on individual tracks to see further details, including distance and timing.
We started on Canada Day, hitting the water around 1:45pm after driving up from Ottawa, registering and a quick lunch of power bars.
The weather was calm initially, but about 10 minutes after launching the winds picked up. We were fighting strong headwinds for most of the rest of the day, with periods of driving rain.
The route for day 1 as recorded by my phone is shown above. Note a bit of zigging and zagging as wayward canoes were chased down over the largest stretch of open water, heading NW from Le Domaine across Lac Jean Péré. None of us were moving much faster than a crawling pace.
The longest portage of the whole trip was also part of this day's 6 hour journey, so all in all it set the stage to make the rest of the days seem relatively easy... We sure brought a resilient group of Scouts with us though - I was amazed at how few complaints we heard.
With the long day of battling winds getting us in to camp pretty late, we were wrapping up our feast of burgers around 10pm.
We woke to gorgeous sunshine, a favourable wind and a feast of bacon and breakfast hash.
Most of the paddling distance for the day involved being blown South along Jean Péré, before 2 portages in quick succession to reach Lac Antostagan. Our site for the night was just beyond the second portage and a final beaver dam with a 1-2 foot drop.
The camp site (11-5) has a gorgeous beach, and is even more incredible a few weeks later in July, when it's full of wild blueberries.
We had a late lunch of hot dogs and an even later dinner of vegetarian currie and couscous, plus the first fish of the trip: a pike courtesy of Scouter Alan.
The fine evening weather also allowed for a little campfire guitar and singing.
Overall, this was the easiest day of the trip, with no portages, gentle wind and sunshine, and a breakfast of bacon and pancakes fuelling us. We crossed two beaver dams, neither of which required getting out of the boats, and had a nice stretch through a marshy area that felt like paddling through a field of tall grass.
We took our lunch of hot dogs and veggie patties on an empty beach site (11-29) before the last 4-5km of easy paddling back to site 11-5. This site was a new one for me, and I was pleased to find that it actually does have a beach, contrary to the indication on the map. For future reference: it has good tent pads, excellent beaver-watching opportunities, a convenient fire pit location (for short barrel hauling)... and lots of bugs.
Best injury of the trip: I got leeched while fishing standing knee-deep in the water just off the shore. This was a good opportunity to demonstrate using fire to encourage a leech to detach itself - and also to show the effect of the anti-coagulant that leeches use to ensure that blood flows for a long time.
The Scouts enjoyed creating leech "sanctuaries" on many of the beaches, but they were most developed on this site.
Dinner was pasta and sauce - a satisfying reduction in the weight of our food barrels!
Unfortunately I accidentally stopped recording the GPS track for the trip at lunch, but it was a pretty straight shot of about 4.5km from there to the position shown at the start of the next day's record. The second track above is a rough hand-drawn approximation, so you won't get any timing information from it.
This was expected to be the longest day of the trip at close to 12km, with 3 portages around rapids, although compared to our battle against the wind on day 1, this was a doddle...
Back in 2008, the first set of rapids caused significant and expensive damage to the older of the Cullum family canoes, in an ill-advised attempt to avoid portaging some of our gear. It's much more sensible to ride these rapids swimming in a life jacket, which all of the Scouts enjoyed immensely.
On Lac Richet (a small lake between the first and second portage), Scouter Alan caught another pike, and we stopped to prepare a lunch of pike and ramen noodles at another empty camp site (11-89).
During lunch, we heard quite a bit of thunder, which seemed to be downwind of us. However, as we got back on the water, the wind appeared to shift, and the clouds got considerably darker overhead. It was less than 1km to the next portage, but it was enough time for a torrential downpour to start.
In a brief gap in the rain, we pressed on a tiny distance to the portage around the next set of rapids. We started to launch for the last leg of the trip, but the next small storm rolled in, so we brought all the boats back in to wait it out.
Once the rain stopped again, we had a very calm and easy paddle out to our final island camp site. 11-118 is a great site, with just enough wind to keep the bugs down and plenty of good tent pads. We did find a shortage of dry wood (or dry anything) but managed to get a fire going eventually.
Dinner was more curry and couscous, plus the rest of the dogs and veggie patties. We managed more campfire songs and skits.
Our group was comprised of 11 Scouts and 1 almost-Scout, plus 6 adults. We used 8 canoes in all, so 2 canoes had 3 people, and the rest had 2.
I took no pictures at all, but you can see Scouter Alan's pictures are here, and Dave's are here.
Here's the overall route, with individual days described further below. Note that you can click on the menu icon on the left just below each map's title or on individual tracks to see further details, including distance and timing.
Day 1: Le Domaine to site 10-49
We started on Canada Day, hitting the water around 1:45pm after driving up from Ottawa, registering and a quick lunch of power bars.
The weather was calm initially, but about 10 minutes after launching the winds picked up. We were fighting strong headwinds for most of the rest of the day, with periods of driving rain.
The route for day 1 as recorded by my phone is shown above. Note a bit of zigging and zagging as wayward canoes were chased down over the largest stretch of open water, heading NW from Le Domaine across Lac Jean Péré. None of us were moving much faster than a crawling pace.
The longest portage of the whole trip was also part of this day's 6 hour journey, so all in all it set the stage to make the rest of the days seem relatively easy... We sure brought a resilient group of Scouts with us though - I was amazed at how few complaints we heard.
With the long day of battling winds getting us in to camp pretty late, we were wrapping up our feast of burgers around 10pm.
Day 2: 10-49 to 11-5
We woke to gorgeous sunshine, a favourable wind and a feast of bacon and breakfast hash.
Most of the paddling distance for the day involved being blown South along Jean Péré, before 2 portages in quick succession to reach Lac Antostagan. Our site for the night was just beyond the second portage and a final beaver dam with a 1-2 foot drop.
The camp site (11-5) has a gorgeous beach, and is even more incredible a few weeks later in July, when it's full of wild blueberries.
We had a late lunch of hot dogs and an even later dinner of vegetarian currie and couscous, plus the first fish of the trip: a pike courtesy of Scouter Alan.
The fine evening weather also allowed for a little campfire guitar and singing.
Day 3: 11-5 to 11-55
Overall, this was the easiest day of the trip, with no portages, gentle wind and sunshine, and a breakfast of bacon and pancakes fuelling us. We crossed two beaver dams, neither of which required getting out of the boats, and had a nice stretch through a marshy area that felt like paddling through a field of tall grass.
We took our lunch of hot dogs and veggie patties on an empty beach site (11-29) before the last 4-5km of easy paddling back to site 11-5. This site was a new one for me, and I was pleased to find that it actually does have a beach, contrary to the indication on the map. For future reference: it has good tent pads, excellent beaver-watching opportunities, a convenient fire pit location (for short barrel hauling)... and lots of bugs.
Best injury of the trip: I got leeched while fishing standing knee-deep in the water just off the shore. This was a good opportunity to demonstrate using fire to encourage a leech to detach itself - and also to show the effect of the anti-coagulant that leeches use to ensure that blood flows for a long time.
The Scouts enjoyed creating leech "sanctuaries" on many of the beaches, but they were most developed on this site.
Dinner was pasta and sauce - a satisfying reduction in the weight of our food barrels!
Unfortunately I accidentally stopped recording the GPS track for the trip at lunch, but it was a pretty straight shot of about 4.5km from there to the position shown at the start of the next day's record. The second track above is a rough hand-drawn approximation, so you won't get any timing information from it.
Day 4: 11-55 to 11-118 (back to Jean Péré)
This was expected to be the longest day of the trip at close to 12km, with 3 portages around rapids, although compared to our battle against the wind on day 1, this was a doddle...
Back in 2008, the first set of rapids caused significant and expensive damage to the older of the Cullum family canoes, in an ill-advised attempt to avoid portaging some of our gear. It's much more sensible to ride these rapids swimming in a life jacket, which all of the Scouts enjoyed immensely.
On Lac Richet (a small lake between the first and second portage), Scouter Alan caught another pike, and we stopped to prepare a lunch of pike and ramen noodles at another empty camp site (11-89).
During lunch, we heard quite a bit of thunder, which seemed to be downwind of us. However, as we got back on the water, the wind appeared to shift, and the clouds got considerably darker overhead. It was less than 1km to the next portage, but it was enough time for a torrential downpour to start.
In a brief gap in the rain, we pressed on a tiny distance to the portage around the next set of rapids. We started to launch for the last leg of the trip, but the next small storm rolled in, so we brought all the boats back in to wait it out.
Once the rain stopped again, we had a very calm and easy paddle out to our final island camp site. 11-118 is a great site, with just enough wind to keep the bugs down and plenty of good tent pads. We did find a shortage of dry wood (or dry anything) but managed to get a fire going eventually.
Dinner was more curry and couscous, plus the rest of the dogs and veggie patties. We managed more campfire songs and skits.
Day 5: 11-118 back to Le Domaine
After another feast of pancakes, we had a Scouts Own to reflect upon our experiences and our own nature.
After tidying up, we had an easy paddle of about an hour back to Le Domaine, in calm water and gentle wind.
After tidying up, we had an easy paddle of about an hour back to Le Domaine, in calm water and gentle wind.
Back on shore, we loaded the vehicles before a lunch of pita, cheese, salami and peanut butter, then we hit the road back to Ottawa.
Are you getting the impression that we never stopped eating? It sure felt like that... In an effort to keep up our days-old tradition, we stopped at a casse-croute in Gracefield for french fries, and the proprietor gave us free freezies too!
Time to start planning next year's trips!
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