Knowing that there might be high winds and waves in the afternoon for Wednesday’s paddle we set our alarm to get up for 5 am. That way we would have an early start and hopefully get most of our paddling complete before the weather made travel difficult. Even though we started that early we did have some challenging water to paddle before we stopped for the night. (Click here to catch up on part 1 if you missed it)
Wednesday Morning
Waking up at 5 in the morning was a shock to the system as two of us had very little sleep that night. However we packed up the tent, had oatmeal for breakfast and just before 7 we were on the water heading further down the Western Channel towards Georgian Bay.
Hayden found a friend at breakfast 
Sunrise 
All ready for the day 
Great site
Paddling on this western channel that early in the morning was just beautiful. The sun came out from behind the clouds a few times to light up the trees and rocks providing us with breathtaking views.
It was time to choose the correct channel to paddle as there were many options, all providing different views and obstacles. The channels to the left have multiple rapids that we were not planning on travelling, the channel to the far right brings you to the far west reach of Georgian Bay access, but the one we wanted to go through was the Old Voyageurs Channel. This was the historic channel that the voyageurs would travel to trade fur from the Ottawa River to Georgian Bay.
This channel has a rapid that would require us to portage around, but other than that, it was a portage free paddle. If we had access to a different boat, we might have taken the chance to run the rapid. Our beautiful boat did slide across a couple of rocks that we didn’t see under the water and she also took us down a quick little swift that we could not avoid.
The little swift we went over in the Swift 
Our only portage for the day 
All smiles 
Beautiful Old Voyageurs Channel
Once we exited the western channel we headed East along the Cross Channel where we had one a surprise lift over. On the map I noticed that one channel had one of two possible rapids which we didn’t want to do and the other way looked like a clear passage. Wrong! It was a dead end where we had to complete a small lift over. However, it was not difficult and we were on our way to find the route for getting out into Georgian Bay. When reading about the possible paths to complete – one being the Devil’s Door portage – which is very difficult, we opted for the other portage around Big Jameson Rapids.
On our way to the portage, we saw a big portage sign on the rocks to show that we were going in the correct direction. With all these little island and passages, finding the right one could be very challenging. We were very lucky when we reached this portage – it was not necessary to complete. The water was at the correct level where we paddled through the rocks without having to portage. Win win in our books.
We were now at the mercy of Georgian Bay. For the next 1.5 hours of our paddle we skirted around little islands, fought the wind coming from the bay, and the waves that were growing bigger and bigger. I had used a combination of Google maps on satellite view, our French River map and just sheer terror to navigate around the Finger Boards section on this trip. Our initial plan was to camp for the night on one of the islands, but after seeing the conditions of these campsites we pushed through and kept paddling towards the Main Channel. The final push towards the site that we chose for the night was not my best performance. My nerves were high and I may have sworn a few times to try to deal with what we were paddling in. We had waves that tried to hit us broadside, which we actually managed to maneuver quite well, then had waves ricochet off the shore and back towards us.
Wednesday Afternoon
Arriving at our site for the night was a big sigh of relief. There was some debate over continuing into the Main Channel and searching for a site further along the route, but with the winds and waves getting stronger, and my brain just wanting to stop after the paddle we just completed, we stayed and set up camp on site 719.
This site did not have a privy, so we had to dig out own back in the woods. I had found a lovely branch which made the perfect seat. Once camp was set up we went for a swim in our side channel, soaked up the afternoon sun, cooked a pizza supper on the fire, then had to take up shelter as some thunderstorms and rain passed over. While in our bug shelter we played cards until it was safe to continue with our evening fire.
Our channel with views to the bay 
Bathroom hole 
Taking shelter from the rain. 
Wednesday Evening
Once the rain passed Hayden noticed that there was a rainbow, naturally we took some pictures and Hayden kept saying we should paddle to find the treasures. I was done with paddling for the day so that was a hard NO.
The sky was beautiful that evening so we walked our site to find the view to the west and watched the sun go down. As I reflected on the day, I realized I was nervous while being in a canoe in the waves but happy to know that we successfully handled them well. I know I need to not be as afraid on future trips.
Make sure you come back next week to read Part 3, which is the final post for this series.
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