Day Three: Hydro Field to Deerock Lake

Date: Sunday, April 19, 2015

Weather: Sunny and windy. High of 13 degrees Celsius.

Distance: ~6km

The last day on the water always feels a little bittersweet and so we lingered in camp a bit longer.

We had a frosty start to our last morning and David got the fire going early to warm us up. As with the previous morning, we all emerged from our tents (or hammock) by 6:15am. Just like clockwork. This morning breakfast and coffee came before tearing down camp. We discussed how the shuttles would go, knowing that it was going to be two hours of sitting around for someone. We concluded that Justin, Martin, and I would take Martin’s truck to the put-in, grab Justin’s truck, and then meet Andrei and David in Flinton – another 6km paddle beyond the take-out.

We eventually got ourselves packed up and loaded up, 17 minutes later than scheduled. Ah well, we had paddled further than we had intended to yesterday so we could probably have considered ourselves ahead of schedule. Within five minutes we were back out of the canoes, scouting a rapid that we determined we couldn’t run. Once back in the canoes we ran one more G**D*** S-bend (thank you, Martin) and the remaining moving water flowing into Deerock Lake wasn’t much more than a few swifts.

We hit the lake, extremely pleased that there wasn’t any ice as far as the eye could see but we were paddling into a decent headwind. We stayed within earshot of one another, taking water breaks, when we hit a big mass of ice. Fortunately we could skirt around it and continue on our way. Within two and a bit hours of leaving camp all of our gear was off the water, Andrei and David were on their way to Flinton, and the rest of us were on our way to the put-in.

By the time we reversed the start of the day Friday including a stop in Kaladar for lunch (yes, that’s actually possible), it was 8pm when I arrived home in Toronto.

I know without a doubt we’ll all trip together again.

Things I’m glad I had: my helmet and drysuit, extra layers for camp, earplugs (man, those guys can snore!), and four great paddling companions

Things I’d have done differently: left half my food at home, brought my French press mug.

Thing I’m super stoked about: I love canoeing. Doesn’t matter whether I’m in the bow or stern, just get me out there. It took a long time to get to this point but I’m so happy I did.

For the full trip report, click here.