French River Birthday Weekend Trip

This year I celebrated my 39th birthday camping.  It is not an unusual thing to do, the last 3 years I have been camping, but this trip was a little different. My family stayed home and I was going to camp and canoe with people I didn’t know.

It began back in June when I had received an invite to a Cruising Canoes trip.  I get them a lot, as I’m pretty sure Andrew sends them to everyone on his friend list and then some.  But that’s what you need to do when you run a company like this. Basically the trip information was “The Northern Experience – The French River”, a four day trip covering 60 km with NO portages.  Yes you read that correctly, NO portages! I was very interested.  I had mentioned that we all go together, but taking Hayden on this long of a trip, that much time in a canoe, was probably not the best thing.  So in the end I signed up to go by myself.

I love to share my experiences with other people who may or may not have done the same things I have.  I mentioned this to Jeanette, who is NOT a camper, but she didn’t immediately dismiss the idea of this trip.  She is wanting to try new things, get outside her comfort zone, and this was definitely that trip.  The thing with Cruising Canoes is that you do not have to pack or worry about any gear.  Just bring your clothes.  This is such a huge deal as all the planning, packing, food buying etc can be quite the task.  So with that she also decided to go. At least I would know one person 🙂

As the trip got closer and closer, I was getting really excited.  A few days prior to the trip there was discussion on the actual plans. Would we really paddle that many km? Is there a better way to explore? Is the possibility of setting up a base camp a nicer way to spend the long weekend? All these questions were explored and in the end the trip ended up being a base camp, explore the French River situation.  All this was good for me and it was my birthday and I just wanted to get out there and explore.

Thursday…

We had left late Thursday evening and drove to Grundy Provincial Park for the night so that we had an early start on the French River. This is a first-come-first-serve park meaning you paddle until you find a campsite.  If there are no open campsites, you keep paddling until you eventually find one. We wanted to avoid the latter and get the pick of sites.

Friday…

We drove to Harley Bay Marina where park permits and all the details were sorted out, van unloaded, canoes loaded, and group pictures taken.

This marina is super busy and we had to wait a bit before loading, but once we got to the dock we may have only been 15 minutes getting four canoes, 11 people and a whole lot of gear in canoes and pushed off the dock.

The hard part for me on the trip is not having a map that I can quickly access. Yes I did take a picture of the one they had at the marina, but they were sold out of the good ones, so no paper copy.  This is where having some tracking device is ideal. Good thing we had that! 

After a few hours of paddling, we come up to this huge outcrop cliff section.  I kept telling the ladies that this looks like a campsite. It just has to be one. We send the boys up to investigate and sure enough it was a site.  It was THE site.  It is hard to explain, but it was the perfect location for our base camp. 

There was loads of tent pitching areas, a lot of rock and water access for swimming and fishing, a beautiful area with a fire pit and the most important item… a thunderbox. 

Camp was set up for the trip and we explored the cliffs and went for an afternoon to evening swim.  The rest of the evening was good food, good times and lots of laughs.  

This campfire cooked corn, potatoes and steak.  Top notch birthday food.

Saturday…

The morning was clear and beautiful.  We had a later start to the day as we were all very tired from the lack of sleep Thursday night (not getting into Grundy until AFTER midnight) and the late night on Friday being our first night on the French.

A canoe was used for a table for most of the trip, and breakfast was Eggs Benedict.  Not your typical breakfast, but oh so gooooooood.

Today was used to practice our fishing skills.  I decided to get my fishing license especially for this trip as I knew we would be fishing along the way.  Andrew had brought enough poles for us to try, and even gave us a tutoring session on how to line the pole and tie the hook to the line.  I had no idea how to do this, but now I’m a pro LOL. 

Being all set and ready to go, Kerri cast her line and immediately caught a fish!  We all got so excited, and nothing…. then Kerri caught a second fish! She was hitting the right spot.  We didn’t keep any to cook since they were only smaller fish, but still loads of fun.

After lunch and into the evening we spent sunning ourselves on the rocks and just enjoying the peace and quiet.  We are on a section of the river that doesn’t see a lot of boat traffic and we were A-O-K with that.  As we roll into the evening, the boys set up an axe throwing area.  A few of us had a try to toss the axe onto the dead stump that we were using for firewood. My first few tries were terrible, but in this picture I actual managed to get the axe into the stump! yeah!! Such a powerful thing to feel.

Sunday…

The plans for today was to get up and explore the area more by canoe and do some fishing.  We are hopeful that we can catch some big fish to fry up for supper. It was a dull dewy morning, but nice when you are out on the water.  We tried to fish… one of the boys caught one, again too small, so we had no fish for supper.  We did have a fantastic shore lunch!

Paddling around all the little coves and islands produce some really great photos.  Wish I actually had more, but I was so busy paddling and enjoying the views that I didn’t get many.  Plus I have a phone that is NOT waterproof, which means it stuck in a waterproof bag that floats inside another dry bag with my canoe items.  Not very convenient. Maybe I need a new phone….

As the evening got darker, we were once again given a beautiful sunset.  This one has a cloud the shape of an “S” and I feel it was meant for me. Supper was pizza cooked on the stove and then finished by the fire. 

This evening passed quickly as we stayed up and told stories into the night.  Tomorrow was our day to leave and it was hard to believe that this trip was just about over.  We were expecting a lot of rain in the morning which means we pack up and get out as quickly as possible.

Monday…

Jeanette and I had our gear packed up just after 7 in the morning and took our final day selfie to prove that we made it. We had just enough clear weather to make breakfast and get all gear ready.  Then Murphy’s law kicks in and it starts to pour as we are about to leave the shore and paddle back to the marina.  Along the way we actually needed to pull to the shore and wait for the thunder and lightning to ease up.  The storm was passing right over our heads and we needed to get back.  It wasn’t a pretty paddle, but we got there.  We had taken on lots of water and we were all soaked through.  However, it was so much fun that this last little bit didn’t dampen our spirits.  Back in the comforts of the van, we all warmed up and tried to enjoy the long drive home.

So proud!

I have to say that I am so proud of my friend and that she trusted me enough to come along on this trip.  I know she was very nervous and anxious about the whole thing in the weeks and minutes up to our arrival on the French River.  I know she won’t be buying all the gear anytime soon, but I do hope that she will come along on more adventures in the future.  I saw her flourish, her camp skills grow, and I know that she stepped WAY outside her comfort zone. She has left the French River a different person!!

Thanks!

A huge thanks to Cruising Canoes.  If you have not yet checked out this company, do so. The link is at the top of the page.  I can honestly say that this will not be my only trip with this company.  I have enjoyed not being the main organizer and have learned to let go of those tasks just a little 😛