A detailed trip report and documentary on our 230km journey down the famous Bloodvein River from Artery Lake (Ontario) to the Bloodvein River Bridge (Manitoba) in the Summer of 2023 over almost two weeks.
Tag: ontario
TRIP REPORT: BEAVER RIVER – KIMBERLEY TO CLARKSBURG
The route cuts north in the Beaver Valley, through the Niagara Escarpment en route to the southern edge of Georgian Bay. The upper portion of the route, from Kimberley to Heathcote, is known for its easy, scenic paddling through flooded silver maple forest and farmland, while the bottom portion, from Heathcote to Clarksburg (and beyond to Thornbury), is characterized by thrilling rapids, especially early in the season.
VIDEO TRIP LOG: LOWER MISSINAIBI RIVER
A brief video documenting our 2016 trip down the Lower Missinaibi River:
VIDEO TRIP LOG: MISSISSAGI RIVER PROVINCIAL PARK
A video trip report documenting our 2020 trip through Mississagi River Provincial Park:
VIDEO TRIP LOG: WABAKIMI PROVINCIAL PARK – ALLANWATER – WHITEWATER – CARIBOU
Just finished off a video trip report on our 2021 trip through Wabakimi Provincial Park:
TRIP REPORT: WABAKIMI PROVINCIAL PARK – ALLANWATER – WHITEWATER – CARIBOU
Grey vapours loomed above us as we stood on the edge of Mattice Lake in Armstrong, Ontario. The cool, early morning air held a faint scent of smoke; a manifestation of record-breaking wildfires raging just to our west that would claim some 800,000 hectares of boreal forest by the end of summer, 2021. Under the hazy, overcast sky, a slight breeze tickled the surface of the lake. The water was cold and dark and the forest was dark too. The scene held a magnetic gloominess that stoked my sense of anticipation. We were about to begin an adventure through the heart of Wabakimi Provincial Park – a land of some 10,000 lakes and 2,000 kilometres of canoe routes…
TRIP REPORT: HALIBURTON HIGHLANDS – HERB AND GUN LAKES
I have always loved paddling the Haliburton Highlands Water Trails (HHWT). Here, outside the town of Dorset, on the southwest edge of Algonquin park, lies a diverse, interconnected web of canoe routes over a swath of 28,000 hectares of beautiful wilderness. The mixed forests and exposed Precambrian rock that characterize the area are typical of the southern Shield and support rich habitats for an assortment of wildlife…
TRIP REPORT: MUSKOKA RIVER (SOUTH BRANCH)
Beyond Thompson’s Folly we found ourselves paddling through picturesque Crown forests, with gently sloping, tree studded hills running up from the rocky shoreline on either side of us. By this time of the season, the splendour of the colourful fall foliage had long passed and in its place were barren deciduous trees, beige leaf litter on the forest floor, coating the hills, and long, dry, sun-bleached grasses along the riverside. We were now approaching Cook’s Falls, a scenic, gurgling CII rapids that lay in the shadow of a towering granite cliff – this would be our campsite for the night…
TRIP REPORT: MISSISSAGI RIVER PROVINCIAL PARK
In the summer of 1912, Tom Thomson – one of our country’s most beloved artists – ran the Mississagi from Biscotasing or “Bisco” to Lake Huron over two months. In a subsequent letter to a friend, Thomson remarked that the Mississagi was “the finest canoe trip in the world.” While we can only guess what precisely caused Thomson to write those words, it is clear that the Mississagi still undoubtedly retains the magic that he must have felt as he sat on its rocky shores and sketched the wild panoramas that surrounded him that summer.
As you embark, perhaps, on your own journey down the Mississagi, please remember that in exploring these immense and formidable landscapes, we not only draw ourselves closer to the earth, our home, but we also rekindle the glory of our country’s formative years when the land was younger, before the ceaseless march of the modern world. When we carve through the emerald cathedrals of the Mississagi, we reawaken the ghosts of a still wild kingdom, so that they may sing and chant and paddle once more.
TRIP REPORT: EELS CREEK
Being that the horizon, from our present vantage, was obscured by the ridges that rose above our site, I decided on a whim to dash back out to the east shore of the bay on my snowshoes to catch the setting sun. Though the colours of this sundown were not pervasive across the horizon, the clouds to the west were like floating ghosts of pink and orange, exuding a wonderful ever-changing spectrum of colour, which was diffused off the snow, illuminating even the darkest recesses of the forest.
Witnessing the sun set over a lonely, frozen, snow encrusted lake or river in the chill of winter has long been one of my favourite wilderness experiences. There is something endlessly calming and beguiling about our primary source of heat and light, and life, building up to a great crescendo – the pinnacle of its glory – before suddenly fading beyond the farthest trees and leaving behind a cold and silent world; one that is starkly different, but no less enchanting.
THE TERRA INCOGNITA 