Mother Nature would just not give us a break from the wind on this trip. We woke up early on our third morning knowing that the winds would be coming from the North – our direction of travel. It seemed the theme of this trip is early rise, paddle into the winds, then rest for the afternoon.
Thursday Morning
On the flip side of an early morning rise which is always a struggle for me as I do love my sleep, the views that are presented to us are just magical. Our morning travels have been just delightful. The only sounds we hear are the paddles and canoe gliding through the water (if you can ignore Hayden’s non-stop chatter!). It really is worth it to get up that early and travel on the water.
Good Morning Sun 
Calm waters 
Beautiful skies 
As we headed north through the main channel towards Dalles Rapids, we realized that we had made the best decision by stopping for the night where we did. There are very few sites between where we camped and the rapids, and the sites at the rapids were all full on our arrival. On top of that, this area of the bay did not provide nearly as much protection from the previous days winds as we had thought, so we would have had big waves to contest. The rapids became our final portage for this trip and seeing how it was only a small 291 m portage we quickly were up and over it with ease.
At the other side of the portage was this cool old boiler left on the rocks. Hayden quite enjoyed this neat artifact and he made sure that we followed him over to look at it as well.
Canoe carry along the portage 
Old boiler
Thursday Afternoon
Paddling up the main channel seemed like it was taking us a really long time, even though it wasn’t and we landed at our site by 11:30. Our main concern after seeing all the sites filled at the rapids was the possibility of not finding a site close to the marina where we intended to stop for the day. There were many sites in the start of the western channel that were occupied, but luckily when we reached the cluster in Wanapitei Bay on the far western shore we had our choice of 4 sites. We settled on site 611 which was just beautiful with flowing smooth rocks, a huge fire pit, a couple of great tent pads, and lots of trees for hammocks.
After eating lunch we all went for a swim off our beautiful rocks and then each of us found a quiet spot for a few hours to relax and catch a good nap, which was well deserved.
Landed for the day 
She’s just so beautiful 
swimming crazy 
Love these views
Thursday Evening
Throughout this trip we have found small amounts of blueberries around on our sites, and Hayden found enough on this site for us to pick and use in some pancakes. I did not want to have them sit overnight in our barrel, so I made the pancakes for supper. Having a little bite of that blueberry taste in our mouths is like nothing I can explain. Picking berries like this makes me miss being home in Newfoundland where I could go and pick litres of them.
The evening came and sitting on the rocks with my drink really made me yearn for a place like this to live in full time. I love the northern landscape and I want to be back exploring this area more and more each day.
Supper goodies 
Again with the views 
Behind our site we were able to walk over to a boggy section and watch the sun go down (and maybe a moose would show up?) for our final night on the French River.
Friday Morning
On the last day, we had a short paddle, so we were finally able to sleep in and not have the alarm wake us up before sunrise (of course Dan was awake anyway since he never sleeps in). The paddle for our final day was just 6 km back to the marina, and with a small head wind, we didn’t mind taking our time.
The mosquitoes were out in full force that morning, so we sat in our NoBugZone for breakfast and waited to pack up our gear. When finalizing the last pieces of gear, Hayden found an imperial moth caterpillar. I hear people eat these! EWWW.
It was close to 9 am when we headed down the smooth rocks to our canoe, loaded our gear, and pushed off of our final site and started our final paddle back to Hartley Bay Marina. It was a nice leisurely paddle back and when we arrived just in time. Soon after our boat was loaded on the car, there were numerous other canoe groups heading out for the long weekend. The staff were gearing up for a busy day and weekend ahead, but at least they are efficient and know what they are doing.
Just chillin 
Rock star poses 
Good by site 
Hello Hartley Bay Marina
This was an amazing trip and I know we will be coming back to explore more of the French one day. Thanks for reading and we hope you enjoyed this series.
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Very interesting