JOURNEY #26 - April 27, 2003

Jock River (Bow Of The Jock >< Richmond): "Early Season Delight"

The weather was unbelievable - again. Almost 20 celcius and plenty of sunshine. This was our first time on the Jock, and thanks to some helpful discussion on the ott.rec.canoe-kayak newsgroup, we decided to try a return trip from Bow Of The Jock Park to Richmond, starting with the upstream leg.

Finding the park was no problem, you just take Steeple Hill Crescent from Fallowfield and you can't miss it on the left. It's a small park with free parking, washrooms, and a play structure. A dock was advertised, but it must have been underwater. No matter, we launched from a grassy depression in the southeast corner of the park.

Minutes after starting the paddle south, we noticed large numbers of turtles sunning themselves on the east bank. After about ten minutes we came across what appears to have at one time been a fence across the river. Most of the fence is gone, but many logs have been caught on the posts with the result that a barrier has formed. Julie crossed over a slightly submerged log right in the middle of the whole mess and it barely rubbed the hull. Keenan in his larger boat and (ahem) heavier frame had to struggle a bit to get over. There are a few more old fences as well as old bridges along the way, but none prevented passage.

The first functioning bridge is at Cambrian Road. The 7km stretch between the park to 1km short of the Eaglseson Road bridge runs right along Steeple Hill Crescent/Richmond Road/Perth Street, but despite the proximity to motorcycle traffic and SUVs, wildlife abounds. We saw a huge adult beaver, which shot out of shoreline and into the water with great velocity, as well as at least two muskrats and possibly one river otter. There is no current to speak of in this area, but today there was a strong northeast wind in our faces, which was just fine, since we were actually feeling pretty warm, despite having stripped down to shorts and t-shirt.

By far the most intersting part of this trip is the all too brief section between Eagleson and King Street. As you pass under the bridge you briefly head west behind the property of the Richmond Nursery. This marshy area is where we saw our first blue heron of the season! As you resume the southward direction, it is like stepping into another river.

Suddenly the shoreline is heavily treed, the bottom is rocky smooth, and there is a slight current. Although we did not see any, this looked a likely area to spot muskrat, beaver, and possibly river otters.

As you get further into town, the shorelines are mostly residential and parkland. The people we met working in their yards were very friendly. We also passed a whitewater kayaker heading downstream who joked about being jealous about the ease with which we were moving upstream. The current was indeed growing strong as we passed under the McBean Street bridge. Here we also passed a solo canoeist in a red Swift and exchanged pleasantries.

There is a lovely park on the west shore from McBean to Fowler Street. This would be a great place to stop for lunch. Unfortunately, we had evening plans and needed to turn around. Of course, there was also a short but rather strong set of rapids at the southern end of the park, which made for an easier decision about when to turn back. We might have been able to paddle up through these, but it also would have been quite easy to beach on the grassy east bank and carry around them.

We were a bit curious to see how much further we could have gone, so we drove up in the van later and tried to see if there were any barriers. We took a few different roads down to the water's edge and although there were plenty of little swifts, it looked like you could get through OK. We also found Joy's Road as mentioned on William Watt's website. It appears some sort of large suburban development is being planned here, which is no doubt a shame for the town and the river. It looks like it might be an interesting paddle to head upstream from this location. We might return and try that.

The return trip downstream was truly a breeze. We rode the current and spotted a muskrat just before the little turn behind the nursery where the heron was hanging out. Not too far north of the Eagleson bridge Julie came across a baby beaver (a "kit" as they are called) on the east bank. Unfortunately the zoom lever had broken off the camera, or we might have had a neat picture. We saw kingfishers, a blue jay, red-winged blackbirds, and possibly a falcon circling above some farmland.

With the wind behind us we made great time the rest of the way. It took us about two hours to go from the park to Richmond, and a little over an hour to get back. The total trip time was 3 hours 15 minutes, and the total distance about 18km.

This was a wonderful afternoon, and we would love to do this trip again, but maybe try to go a bit further upstream. We are aware, however, that this is only possible in the early season, as there is no doubt that the fast-moving shallow areas between Eagleson and the south end of town will probably be impassible in little more than a matter of weeks.