French – Pickerel River Trip: September 2014

September 12 - 15 2014

Day 4

Monday, Sept 15, En route to Ottawa

We were out of bed by 7am, on the water by 9:20am. The pancake breakfast tradition is firmly in place. I feel it nevertheless needs added fruit. Next year.

We did have enough coffee for two cups this morning. Decadence, I tell you.

A stiff crosswind buffeted us through Ox Bay and toward Wanapitei Bay but was at our backs all the way up Wanapitei Bay to Hartley Bay and the Marina, which we hit just after 11am.

We skipped the post-trip swim (too cold), packed up and rolled home, stopping in Sturgeon Falls for a Mr. Submarine. I’m maybe late to the portage on this but the Laurentian Dairy in Deep River (long considered the de-rigeur stopping point for Ottawa canoeists heading west) is now closed, the building up for sale.

Very sad.

We made it back to Ottawa by 5pm. The new foam blocks worked well, keeping the boat reasonably firmly anchored to the roof. Yay. I have another set, now for sale, that would work well on a van or car that has those funny not-quite-roof-rack-rails.

Photos