Justine’s Blog

Doug is sitting happily in the bow of the canoe clutching Kitty the toy cat in one hand and his lego magazine in the other hand. His dad, Scott MacGregor, paddles their red canoe along the Petawawa river, one of the classic canoe journeys in Algonquin Park. Inbetween looking after his toys, eating snacks and casting his fishing rod, four year old Doug will pick up his small wooden paddle and help his dad propel the boat down the river.

It’s a frosty October morning. It was hard to get out of our sleeping bags this morning and once we were up, the cold was biting. My thermometer says minus 7 and there is frost all over the gunwales and seats. Who’s idea was this anyway? Scott was too cold during the night but Doug tells us how he was so warm in his double sleeping bag that he took his hat and socks off. Now he’s happy because he’s toasting a marshmallow over the morning fire.

Over the next 3 days we paddle some challenging rapids, admire some beautiful Fall scenery and enjoy a remote adventure! We don’t see anyone else on the river. Doug is a trouper, surviving – enjoying – the cold temperatures and challenges of living from a canoe. Perhaps that’s because he has his own small barrel full of his favourite toys!

Thanks a lot to Scott MacGregor for organising the trip down the Petawawa and for Paul Britain for paddling with me and providing a Mad River Canoe for us. And of course to Dougy for letting me come along. It was a great fun trip and I’m looking forward to editing the footage and telling the warming story of this father and son paddling down a beautiful river.

Helen Wilson has written an account of the Vulcano symposium that we both attended in Sicily. Read it here.

Becky Mason is known for paddling a heritage red cedar & canvas canoe using traditional strokes and for making the canoe dance on the water. I had the pleasure to film her on the beautiful ‘Lac Vert’, or Green Lake in Quebec, along with her husband Reid. The clear water and white cliffs on the lake made it easy to get some pretty shots, while Becky talked about her love of canoeing, how she has been influenced by her dad Bill Mason and how nature inspires her artwork. The next day she did some painting for me and we went to see her exhibition on ‘portages’, which shows her interpretation of different treescapes that she’s seen while portaging her canoe on trips. 

It was the first time Kevin Callan had been paddling since a man dressed as a bear jumped on him and fractured his ribs! The accident happened while Kevin was filming a programme about bear safety and put the affable canoeist out of action for a month. When I came over to film with him, he was back less than subtly with his red canoe covered in white maple leaves, like a gigantic amalgamation of Canadian flags! The best selling author is a lovely funny chap who likes the canoe as a means to get into wilderness. He believes strongly that people should use it or lose it. We spent almost as much time driving as we did filming, and of course stopped for breakfast at that Canadian institution, Tim Hortons! it was cold enough at 9am to get some moody misty paddling shots on the Matawaska river before driving on to the famous Barons canyon in Algonquin park. We even paddled through some ice!

Kevin was kind enough to give me a copy of his latest book, ‘Wilderness Pleasures’ which I enjoyed reading on the plane ride home. He’ll be featured in my canoeing DVD, out in 2010. Thanks to Kevin for the photo!

SPOT THE CANOE ON CRYSTAL RAPID!

Imagine running a grade 5 rapid without a spraydeck! That’s what the whitewater canoeists that I just filmed effectively do. I spent the last 3 days kayaking down the Independence and Moose rivers in New York state to film a bunch of talented whitewater paddlers with a single blade! I portaged around most of the grade 4 and all of the grade 5 rapids while they executed perfect lines in highly turbulent and fast flowing water. Former world champion Mark Scriver was voluntarily the probe on most of the hardest rapids and the only open boater to run a 45foot slide with a man-eating hole at the bottom. Martin Talbot also showed nerves of steel, picking a line through ‘Sureform’, a shallow grade 5 rapid described by fellow canoeist Andrew Westwood as a cheese grater! My favourite rapid was Crystal on the Moose river, it’s so beautiful and imposing with a series of ledges forming white wedding cake layers. Mark and Martin were the only ones to run the meaty line on that and I was more than happy filming from the safety of a rock!

I did gain in confidence in my own whitewater skills over the 3 days and on the last day I ran a 13 foot waterfall, and ‘double drop’, which is just as it sounds. I would have liked to have a go in one of the small whitewater canoes, but not on that river!! After the 3 days I have lots of great footage, and some exciting carnage and I’m looking forward to putting it together. 

I had loads of help – thanks a lot to Eric for helping me get into position on the river and for carrying my camera in his kayak. Also to Mark Scriver for lending me a liquid logic kayak and a brand new Werner paddle ( sorry about all the scratches!). Thanks to Paul Mason for inviting me along to the weekend, for organising things and forgiving me for not watching his canoe and paddle when he went into rescue mode (he got them both back, fortunately!). Thanks also to Martine Amyot for helping with the filming and to all the other paddlers. Thanks also to Andy and Vanessa for putting me up in Chelsea.